A light descended from the sky, revealing a small green figure in the desolate desert.
The figure, covered in drool, sweat, and dirt, struggled to open her eyes, which glimmered like crystals. Her gem was cracked, and she writhed in agony.
"A- Ah! Aaahh!" Peridot cried out, unable to articulate any other words. Her nails dug into her emaciated body, leaving marks everywhere, but the pain persisted.
Her suffering was not physical but mental. The overwhelming use of her appraisal skill bombarded her with information all at once, leaving her disoriented.
Peridot couldn't recognize her surroundings or her state; the overload left her in a haze.
"Ah- Ah- Aah-!" She sounded like a broken machine, only able to utter a few sounds.
Eventually, she stopped screaming. Her mind drifted; she couldn't tell if she was present or in another realm.
Days passed in a monotonous cycle; her only solace was a fluffy sensation that occasionally enveloped her.
Whenever her mind cleared, she attempted to touch her gem and analyze it, only to be met with more intense pain that blanked her mind again.
Her once vibrant gem had dulled to a pale shade. Peridot felt weak, barely able to maintain her form.
Despite her dire state, she repeatedly tried to analyze her gem until her mind went blank.
When the pain became unbearable, she clung tightly to the source of the fluffy sensation. The pain remained, but her mind found a modicum of comfort.
Days blurred together. She considered that death might be less painful than living, but she couldn't bring herself to end it.
When her mind drifted to a strange place, she felt wetness on her cheeks, a glimmer of hope.
It reminded her of the warmth she felt with her grandmother. She missed it dearly.
Peridot felt as if an angel were protecting her, even amid her suffering. She didn't follow any religion, but she believed this must be what having an angel felt like.
With an angel by her side, she couldn't give up yet.
Her exhausted spirit kept striving. After days without progress, a green light finally emerged.
Peridot identified the source of her pain and knew she needed to change it to find relief.
She moved her trembling hands to her gem, using all her remaining energy to sever the pain channel.
She tried, but her body couldn't sustain the effort for long. She needed to be more efficient.
Initially, she moved her energy recklessly, but now she directed it cautiously, using just the right amount for each process. It was a delicate and arduous task.
The cracked gem slowly realigned, forming a clean and straight line.
Little by little, until it finally reached the point she needed.
The pain subsided, taking with it the heat from her skin, the sound of the wind, and the precious fluffy sensation.
The world turned black. She was alive but almost in a vegetative state.
Peridot lost all involuntary functions. This was the only way to stop the data overload. She divided her mind into two parts.
Her primitive, involuntary mind analyzed the data, using energy and leaving her body weak, but keeping her alive.
The remaining part was her slow, voluntary mind.
She tried to move her finger but didn't know how.
Which muscles to move? How much energy to use? In which direction?
She needed to answer all these questions to move her finger.
Peridot felt tremendous sadness. Not because she had lost her physical sensations or sight, but because she could never feel the warm sensation again.
Her gem emitted light unknowingly; her body was deformed from her emotional state.
As her mind slipped away, she tried to calm herself.
Peridot thought about her grandmother, the clumsy cookies she would make, her kind, flushed face after praise, and the sad expression while watching Steven Universe together.
This warmed her heart.
The light in her gem faded to a pale shade.
'At least I'm still alive,' she thought, trying to ease her worries.
She didn't know how long she could maintain this mindset. It felt like the world was constantly testing her.
She was so tired of everything.
'Maybe this isn't the Steven Universe world, but my special cell in hell?' She suppressed these thoughts.
She needed something else to think about.
Peridot set a goal: 'I will move a finger.'
✦
Days passed. She focused on moving her fingers with little progress.
In moments of analyzing her hands, the dark world briefly gained an image. This gave her an idea.
'Can't I replace my vision by analyzing the environment?'
Peridot decided to try. She extended her energy and scanned the data around her.
Her mind blanked again.
She had never tried to analyze something without using her hands for more than a brief moment or over a wide area.
When her mind cleared, she tried to understand what had happened.
The analysis had no end. When she tried to access the information, all the area's data filled her mind.
Instinctively, Peridot never did more than she could handle. Even now, her gem constantly analyzed the information she had delegated.
She analyzed many points of her gem but couldn't access the source of her powers. She knew they existed, but her gem didn't have the data.
So, where did her powers come from? She had never seen a similar case in the series.
'Maybe it's because I'm different?' Peridot wasn't talking about being a protagonist but about her intrinsic existence.
She was a reincarnation.
'How is the gem processing my soul? Maybe that's why no one was in the kindergarten.'
She remembered Amethyst, who woke up 500 years later than others.
'What if I'm a late awakening too?' She didn't know. Her body seemed fine, but she couldn't be sure.
Until now, she had no one to compare her height with. Judging by the cracked holes in the walls, she must be small, but she didn't know how small.
However, it was a plausible hypothesis.
'Maybe I spent a hundred years in that hole, and that's why no one was in the kindergarten.' One mystery about her existence was being resolved.
But knowing this seemed futile now. How could she control appraisal data if she couldn't analyze it?
'The only way is to try again and again...'
Peridot thought if she could control the data in the future, she could stop or reduce the overload and regain her senses.
For now, she wanted just one thing.
'I want to see.' The time without sight was terrible. She felt vulnerable and fragile.
Like in the kindergarten, she had to push herself hard again.
'I want a rest,' she thought hopelessly.
Peridot tried to analyze the area around her again and fainted.
✦
'I did it.'
Peridot sensed geometric forms in a small radius around her. The shapes had no colors or sensations.
The good part was she could stay in this state for hours. Appraisal didn't stop as long as she kept her mind working and provided energy.
Peridot's mental power and energy control had increased significantly due to her previous actions.
It was easier to feel a low radius than to analyze the entire space.
She fainted several times analyzing the ground, only to discover she was in a desert. Appraisal tried to analyze each grain of sand.
The most shocking revelation was the identity of her fluffy angel.
She was lying in the circular, soft belly of a huge pink beast.
'Why is Steven's Lion here?'