Chapter 1
You are LAPIS LAZULI
The thin pieces of hay merely bend under your weight as you move. Comfort may have been an alien feeling to you, but this seemed better than the eons spent trapped in various ways. The rustling that had interrupted your rest was coming from above you. The timid silence filled the wide barn for a brief time, before a flashlight unceremoniously fell.
Touching down noiselessly on the wooden beams, you scan for any signs of Peridot. Well, everything reeks of her presence, but the gem herself is not visible. The wall of computer screens is on screensaver, just triangles bouncing around. Movement behind the aged couch, and you softly make your way over there. You lean over.
“Hey-”
“AAH!”
That didn't work. You sit down on the couch, bits of hay falling out of your hair. Peridot eases out of being in the fetal position, and stands up with newfound confidence. She walks past you, and stands facing the computer screens. You close your eyes, thinking back to being on the ship. Peridot was different now, her movements less robotic. You open your eyes, finding Peridot looking at you, standing only a foot or two away from your knees. You stare through her, remembering the energy field that kept you prisoner during the months of flight back to this horrid planet. Well, maybe some things had changed with you too.
You meet her eyes, and raise your eyebrows. She probably has something to say, like always.
“Ahem, yes, right…” Peridot stammers, breaking her stance to pace slowly in front of you. “Uh...sorry for waking you”
“It’s fine,” you say. Your eyes wander back to the computers, most of them salvaged from the ship’s wreckage. Messily wired to some of the earth tech that had been lying around, they hummed with the small generator that Peridot had gotten to work.
Peridot follows your gaze to the screens. “I’ve been working on some plans, using materials we have here.”
“Plans for what?”
“Just...things.” She moved the mid 2000’s ball mouse and deactivated the screensaver. A terrifying array of weapons showed themselves on the screens, with other objects strewn in the mess of files. “ I want us to be safe, and we aren’t strong enough on our own”
You pick your legs up and lie down on the couch, and Peridot closes all the files. Revealed behind them is a panoramic image of the fields just outside, under a clear blue sky. As the system shuts down, Peridot walks over to you. She sits near your legs.
“This is normally where I rest!”
You close your eyes as a response. Peridot mumbled for a second, and then laid beside you.