Chapter 2
You are PERIDOT
“Goodbye, Steven!”
“See ya later, Peridot! Don’t do anything fun without me!”
He waved his right arm while walking at a medium pace out of the barn’s entrance, which was 57% open, headed N 12° E towards the gem headquarters. Hopping on lion, he ripped himself temporarily from existence. That part made you uncomfortable.
You walk over to a stack of nondescript wooden crates, and push the top one off the pile. It fell, accelerating at 9.8 meters per second per second. That had taken some getting used to. Homeworld had been huge and dense, favoring much stronger geological forces. Acceleration due to gravity was, on average, around 15 m/s2. Oh, nostalgia…the crate hit the hardwood floor with a muffled thud.
Opening the crate that had been underneath, you reveal Lapis. She covered her face with her arms, but you could still see the tears. You look away, always unsure how to deal with emotions, whether they be yours or anyone else's. She wipes the tears away, the droplets smearing on her hydrophilic surface.
“Are you-”
“I’ll be fine.”
Steven always showed up unexpectedly, and Lapis had ‘gone to find somewhere to live’ a few days ago. You didn't know why she was embarrassed to stay with you, and you weren't the type of gem to ask. Plus, the companionship was welcome. You had your rants, of course, and an audience was a great thing to have. But also, there was something about the way sharing space with another living being felt...correct. Lapis had her enigmatic reasons as well, probably. At least she never argued with you.
You offered a hand to help her step out of the crate. She ignored it, jumping out gracefully. She was staring out the door of the barn. Her gem was glistening in the light, sparkling like the ocean. These moments happened often with her, she would become distant for long stretches of time. She was probably thinking about something. There is no point in letting time pass when you’re immortal, so why idle?
The sun was setting, but there would still be a few hours of daylight. A gust of wind blew through the gaping hole in the side of the barn, interrupting both your and Lapis’ trains of thought.
“Oh yeah, I...need to fix that,” you say, absentmindedly.
You look towards her face, looking for some kind of recognition, but she returned to staring, just facing the other way. You walk further back in the barn, to the neatly organized tool storage area. The Greg human had taken most of the clutter required to sustain Steven while you all worked on the drill, as well as some other things that he wanted to save. Now the barn was more open, and you had been spending the past few weeks to clean it.
You pick tools from the wall, placing them in a duffel bag. The circular saw, power drill, hammer, crowbar, magnet tray, and gloves. The first thing you have to do is remove all the shattered wood that remained after you broke through. The others had helped you erect support struts to prevent the roof from caving in a while ago, so you are pretty much free to do whatever. But you liked consistency and continuity, so you planned on just replacing the wood. This would be a different type of construction than you were used to, with a different set of tools, but it couldn’t be that difficult. Pearl had explained the new tools, so you were able to do this.
Turning around, you find that Lapis is gone. That's not unusual. She does that sometimes. She was definitely feeling trapped in the crate earlier, so she was probably out in space somewhere. You envied her freedom, and realized the irony in how trapped she felt.
You pick up the ladder from where it was leaning against the wall, and make your way to the hole. Greg had helped you clear the area, and even started filling in the roof. But the wall was still missing, and the loft was destroyed on the entire right side of the barn. For now, you set your supplies on the ground, and begin removing the wall planks.
There is a rhythm to building, something that you had not noticed for centuries until Steven explained what music is. The outer planks were attached with nails, the inner support beams with screws. Dig with the hammer’s claw end. Lift the nail a few millimeters. Switch to the crowbar. Set it under the head of the nail. Pull the nail out. Put the nail on the magnet tray. Switch to the hammer. Dig, pull, switch, [rest]. Set, pull, plink, switch.
You got lost in the work, you didn’t go set up the lights until after you had to turn on your gem light to find them. The vertically arranged planks were the easy part. Now you were on the roof, clearing the asphalt roofing shingles away from the surface. There was some water damage on the neglected wood, you would have to replace more than you initially expected. You are just tossing the shingles off, onto the pile where you had collected them from the initial wreckage. The darkness is fuller now, the waning crescent moon high in the sky. You take off your gloves, and lie down for a moment.