alienwear | (no subject)

(no subject)

The whole point of a bond is to benefit both witch and monster. It's supposed to minimize the monster's feral impulses, make them easier to resist.

This is the first full moon she and Lapis have shared since they became bonded, and Peridot is not sure she's feeling any of those benefits yet. She feels just as agitated as ever, just as on edge. She's lurking up in her room, a victorian bedroom turned out of control greenhouse, pacing back and forth in front of the bedroom window as she keeps a mindful eye on her hoard of plants. She'd contacted Lapis by Watch, asked her to come up to keep her company. Which is frankly an embarrassing request to have to make, but for some reason it's the only thing that she can think that would make her feel any better right now.

Her eyes keep flicking to the door, ears pricked up for the sound of footsteps. It's totally dark in the room except for the moonlight filtering in through the bay window.

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"But..."

Peridot trails off and looks away, anxiously wringing her claws. There's a lingering anxiety there, even with Lapis's most sincere reassurances. It's not clear what the precise source is until Peridot finally speaks up:

"Look, logically I know that it is highly unlikely that something will happen to these plants, but. Logic doesn't matter in this case! There's a part of me now that I have NO control over, which insists that I HAVE to stay here," she explains. "And the harder I try to push back against that instinct, the harder IT pushes back against ME. If I resist too hard it could make me go feral!"

"C'mon, Peridot, you won't go feral. Besides, that's not how it works out anyway. It'll be just like in CPH, where everyone finds out that Pierre is a werewolf, and he's afraid of hurting people but Percy inevitably calms him down and together they conquer his fears and win the scavenger hunt. Except it's less of a scavenger hunt and more of a "Just Be In The Next Room" kind of thing."

She keeps her hand outstretched to Peridot. "We like, can even take, like, baby steps." Lapis says, using her very impressive rendition of Percy's voice.

Peridot tries to interrupt to insist that no, she really might go feral, that she is NOT being paranoid, and that this is an actual possibility that is a well documented result of fighting too hard against one's monstrous instincts. She's not sure how she can convey that, how she can make Lapis understand.

But... She also wants to believe that life can be like an episode of Camp Pining Hearts. That any problem is surmountable just with a strong will and good friends to help you out. And she never could stay frustrated whenever Lapis put on her Percy voice.

She groans dubiously, clearly still thinking that this is a bad idea, but reaches out and takes her hand anyway.

See? It's not so bad. Lapis' hand closes on Peridot's, and she gently tugs her backwards. One step at a time.

"See? It's not so bad. And it's not like we have to do it fast or anything, we can just go slow and wait for things to calm down, just like they did." She's trying to be very, very reassuring here, because it's definitely what Peridot needs, and she has 100% trust in her best friend not attempting to shatter her.

Friendship is ~~magic~~ powerful, and Steven himself has demonstrated this on many occasions. Surely this is also a spot where friendship will win over everything else.

Peridot flashes a brief, weak smile as she follows along, but remains uncharacteristically quiet. She still looks anxious, kept in check only by the feedback of Lapis's constant reassurance.

Things get dicier the closer they get to the door, though. Peridot's ears twist and flatten, her ruff twitches with alertness, and her lips twist into an apprehensive grimace. She whines uneasily, eyes flicking back towards her plants.

Lapis stops, because she's being an attentive friend. Also this is clearly stressful to Peridot. And maybe if she just waits a minute, Peridot will see that nothing bad is happening. The plants are still within eyesight, and they haven't even left.

She'll even give her hand an encouraging squeeze.

Her tail flicks back and forth, the barbs scraping along the floor lightly. She squeezes Lapis's hand as well, exhaling with a huff. Then she charges forward with determined strides, pulling Lapis along, and wrenches the door open herself.

Being yanked along by someone stronger than her? Not really a new thing, honestly. Being yanked along by Peridot? Absolutely a new thing, and she almost trips a little bit due to their differences in height but manages to catch her footing before falling flat.

And helpfully finishes the job Peridot started, pushing her past the boundaries of the door frame and into the hallway, and gives her an expectant look.

"See? Nothing exploded."

Peridot and exhales, conceding with a subdued nod. "I mean I didn't think they were going to explode," she says huffily, crossing her arms.

All the same, she really wants to go back to her room.

"And no one has stolen them either." She tacks on in response to Peridot's huffy tone. "Just like I said."

"I feel like you're willfully disregarding what I explained earlier about something happening to the plants being a symptom of a much bigger problem," Peridot sniffs, though without much bite.

"Absolutely." There it is, Peridot. Your confirmation.

Mostly because she can deal with this problem step by step rather than the Entire Problem of a Gem Dragon. Which is still cool, but obviously Peridot has reservations about it.

Peridot looks back up and blinks at her with surprise, another dubious frown twisting her features. She's... She's not really sure what to say to that.

"Right. Well. Regardless, thank you for your help, but I think that's more than enough infant stepping for me for one day," she laughs nervously, reaching for the doorknob again.

"But you only just got outside the door frame." Which is entirely infant steps. Not even baby at this point! "At least wait a minute before going back in..."

"What, like... Just stand here?" Peridot says, flattening her ears a little. "For how long?"

"I mean, we don't have to just stand here. It'd probably be hard to ignore your dragon-y side if we just did that." Look at her, trying to be considerate even though she's the one foisting this on Peridot to begin with.

Actually, she's kind of wishing she maybe had a tambourine or something. At least it'd take more attention off of said thing.

"Hmmmm," Peridot rumbles, ears flattening a little further. "Well, if you're serious about keeping me out here, you're going to have to suggest something, because all I want to do right now is go back in there and lurk."

"Look, it's pretty hard to come up with things to do now that I can't do anything that I used to be able to do." She's trying very hard. "We could make some morps?"

"Eeehhhh..." Lukewarm reaction. Peridot isn't feeling particularly inspired at the moment. She's not even sure she could fake it.

"I wish we had a TV here," she moans, sagging her wings. "Then we could just watch some Camp Pining Hearts. That would be PLENTY distracting."

"We could make our own fanfiction of it. That might be fun. And it's even something we've done before!" And it's something they both like too, so that might work? "Or maybe we could try and turn it into a book here? Then we don't need the TV."

Peridot blinks, and then taps her chin thoughtfully with one claw. "That is an intriguing proposition that I think I would like to explore further when the moons are not a full," she muses. "This entire world has no idea what it's missing."

"You're making this real difficult, you know. C'mon, Peridot! You've gotta have something to help me out here." Please, you're cracking her. She's not really an ideas sort of Gem to begin with!

"Uh, you're the one that's supposedly trying to distract me," Peridot says dryly, looking rather unsympathetic. She folds her arms at her chest, frowning sulkily. "I just wanted to spend time with you in my lair..."

"I wouldn't exactly call it a "lair"." Besides, that's so cliche and supervillian-y. "And wow, I'm flattered that you want to keep me in an enclosed space for the entire night."

Which, for the record, she doesn't sound entirely upset about that last bit.

"I'm part dragon now. You call the place where a dragon keeps it's hoard a lair, it's just proper terminology!" she protests. "You're lucky I even let you in there, most people wouldn't even be allowed within five feet of the door on a night like this."