Earth's primitive ideas of science, however limited, offered certain illuminating perspectives that Peridot would have otherwise overlooked.
In her first week as an official member of the Crystal Gems, The Pearl had offered her a few battered textbooks on various Earth phenomena.
You'll find the information trails millenia behind the data packets back on Homeworld," Pearl explained loftily, "But the creative approaches they take can be rather impressive."
Peridot, wary of jumping to conclusions after the harrowing events of the week prior, said nothing but lifted a dusty tome from the pile and began to read.
Homeworld, above all things, valued consistency. There were ways in which things could be discovered, outlined neatly and printed in triplicate on every form or sign. Dissension from the norm could never be tolerated. And so reading about a madman and his cat push the conventions of academia left Peridot awed and uneasy.
There was something about this creative pursuit of knowledge that left Peridot yearning, yet lacking. Something that brought her to read the book over and over again, to memorize and savor the words within.
"According to the Copenhagen interpretation," the yellowing first page always began, "Physical systems do not have definite properties prior to being measured. Instead, they have a set of probably properties, that once observed reduce to only one of the possible values immediately after the measurement. This phenomenon is referred to as wave-function collapse."
Peridot would pause here, and wonder idly if this was anything like Garnet's supposed future vision. A set of possibilities, collapsing into one or another.
A chance that I would have betrayed them, rather than defending them as I did.
She would then shake her head, dispelling this unpleasant thought from her mind. She was, after all, a logician. The art of speculation might always elude her.
"What up Peri? Still Reading? Bo-oring!"
The purple form of her first (and possibly only) friend danced lazily along her periphery. She shut the book with a soft 'whap' and turned to face her.
"Earth has a fascinating history with performing unethical experiments on living beings. I'm unsure whether to be disturbed or relieved."
Amethyst tipped her head, thoughtfully. "Relieved?" She reached a hand towards Peridot, who grabbed it thoughtlessly, without deliberation. They slowly ambled out of the temple, making their way across the beach.
"Yes. Whether I should be disturbed by the loss of life, now that I've come to appreciate the cost, or whether I should be glad that we aren't the only species to do so." Peridot lifted the rope that divided the beach from the road, letting Amethyst duck under first before following.
"That's pretty dark, P."
Peridot had no reply for this; it was an accurate assessment. She let the silence hang comfortably between them as the road into down forked ahead of them.
Wave-function collapse. An action to decide the set of probabilities, a set of probabilities set to collapse to determine a result. Fate? Or something even more pure than that?
They went left.
Peridot felt Amethyst grab her hand, and something inside her shifted.
"Statistics." she said, A-pros-pros of nothing.
"Hm," said her companion. "I'm listening."
She stopped, suddenly. Amethyst stopped beside her, finally turning to look at her in concern. She felt horribly out of her depth. There was something she couldn't understand; there was an well of information just beyond her reach, yet she lacked the creativity to reach it. She squeezed Amethysts hand and turned to her.
"I want to understand. Garnet said that fusion is a state unto itself; that she is Percy-and-Pierre, not Percy and Pierre. Garnet, not Ruby and Sapphire. That she is more whole as herself than as her disparate parts. That Ruby and Sapphire are more whole. But how can that be? How can I understand that which I have no precedent for?"
Peridot watched as Amethyst's mouth quirked into a soft smile; her eyes shone with an un-quantifiable mix of emotions and Peridot tried to map the trajectory of light as it gleamed in her eyes. "Peri, do you feel whole?"
Peridot frowned at that. "I don't know. What are the parameters of being whole?" She frowned deeper at the soft chuckle that left her dear friends lips. "Amethyst, I'm at a loss. But I know that when we're together, my statistics matter less, but mean more. Could it be that you make me more whole?"
Amethysts eyes gleamed further, with a liquid Steven had explained was called 'tears'. She now wished she had read the chemistry book Pearl left for her.
"Aw, P. I think the question is, 'Do we make each other more whole?'" She smiled then, and tears tracked predetermined pathways down her cheeks. "And shucks, I don't know. But I think we do. I think we could."
"How do you know?" Peridot asked, reviewing her data internally.
"I just know. It's intuition, P-dot. Imagination. Can you imagine us together? I think we'd be great. Bigger, somehow. If that makes sense."
Imagination, noun. the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses.
Creativity.
"Fuse with me." Amethyst looked up, inhaling sharply.
"Are you sure? I don't want to be just one of your experiments."
"You're not," said Peridot, suddenly desperate for this to happen. "You're the solution. I want this. I want you. Together we can understand."
Amethyst beamed, and Peridot had never seen anything more radiant.
"Come on then," she said in her tear-soaked voice. "Dance with me."
"Here? In the middle of the road? Amethyst, we have no music."
"Then we'll make some." She hummed something that Peridot was sure she had never heard before, yet it sounded intimate and familiar. Safe in Amethyst's arms, she opened herself up to the un-quantifiable, and a soft light enveloped them both.
--
"GARNET!"
Garnet smiled, an uncharacteristic gesture as she turned to greet the friend she'd been hoping to meet for a while.
"Fluorite." The tall gem (Taller still than Garnet,) was beaming, tears streaming down her face. She looked exultant, euphoric. "Well? How do you feel?"
"She was so wrong, Garnet. Peridot was so wrong. And she's so sorry for all of her initial presumptions and I am so WHOLE. I'm so right."
Garnet felt hope rising in her chest. "Fate is a funny, fickle thing. It's a wonder when you get it right, though."
She couldn't tell if Fluorite was sobbing or laughing; probably both. She was still smiling, rubbing at her arms and face and stomach. "The data was incomplete. What irony! It couldn't be complete without me, I AM the data. Life is so weird."
"Do you think you'll stay fused?"
"Garnet" she heaved through little happy sobs, "Of course. Of COURSE. What else would I do? My results have been determined."
Garnet wasn't quite sure what that meant, but as her new friend danced her way into the temple to find Steven, she knew it had to be great.