Lion, a magical animal able to manipulate dimensions and teleport using his growl, was one of the most iconic characters of the series and a reliable comrade of Steven and Connie.
But now, this magical being was using her body as a pillow.
Peridot felt curious about his peculiar biology, but her mind was so exhausted that she feared something big would happen to her unstable mind if she tried to analyze Lion. She contained her curiosity with fear, promising herself to study Lion's body someday.
'Come back to your senses!' thought Peridot, trying to organize her mind.
Lion's presence gave her many insights into the original storyline.
Steven hadn't met Lion yet. This meant she was born at some point after the death of Rose Quartz and the beginning of the series.
'It's a shame I wasn't born after the events of the series. The Crystal Gems at the start of the show had a hostile attitude towards unknown gems. If my identity is discovered, maybe I will be retaliated against by the Crystal Gems and trapped in a bubble.'
'Fortunately, Lion is just a passive animal with basic intelligence and a stoic personality.' she thought, relieved.
'Compared to getting involved with humanoid characters, I was lucky to just find Lion. The butterfly effect should be bearable for now.'
Despite these thoughts, her gem energy was becoming unstable due to her anxiety. She didn't want to get involved with the original storyline. After suffering so much, she just wanted a simple life.
"I need a disguise."
Peridot wanted to live among humans even after being reincarnated as a gem. But her skin was green, and she had a gem embedded in her forehead. How could she make it possible?
She remembered that gems had the power to change their bodies but not the tone of their skin or gems.
Peridot tried to imagine energy enveloping her body to make her taller using only her gem's powers, but she felt her gem becoming unstable and stopped.
"What's happening?" She tried again and again, but her gem kept showing unstable energy.
Peridot had bad feelings about this. She knew her powers were weak, but at least they existed. Now she couldn't condense her natural energy like before. All the energy around her body was in a delicate state of stability. Even minor emotions could influence her energy balance.
'This is worse than I thought.'
Somehow Peridot managed to stop her pain, but her body was constantly at its limit. It felt like she was always in emergency mode, with all basic functions released to support heavy tasks.
'No, maybe I can replace natural transformation with transmutation!'
Peridot tried to move a dark substance around her finger and change its shape.
'It works!' Her index finger had become bigger than the other fingers. Seconds later, her finger returned to normal without her intention.
'Why?' She tried to condense again and more focused, but the moment the energy weakened, the finger reverted to its original state.
'This is an active process...' she thought.
Until now, Peridot had used her transmutation ability only on objects. She just needed to use energy for an instant, and the results would remain. However, her body was entirely made of energy, merely a simulation of a physical state created with dark energy.
To create the perfect disguise, she would need to provide a constant amount of energy, just as she did with appraisal. However, this required an even higher level of precision.
'I need to find a way to automate it.'
Peridot started to analyze her gem again. The gem was like a brain, holding all the information about her body, powers, and memory. However, it was very different from a human brain.
'There is no other way; I need to keep trying again and again.'
Peridot was tired. She felt she only needed to change her perspective, but moments after her success, she faced an even more troublesome challenge.
When she noticed the Pink Lion sleeping peacefully, she felt envious.
✦
Peridot repeated the same routine day after day. She would practice appraisal in the morning, transmutation in the afternoon, and practice walking at night.
Before, she could see just shapes for long periods, but now she was able to see silhouettes. Even without colors, it was a significant improvement compared to before.
Regarding transmutation, Peridot noticed it wasn't efficient to change her height or extend her body, so she focused on three basic things: changing her skin tone, and hair, and hiding her gem.
The physical body was just an illusion, but the gem had restrictions on how much it could be altered. Thanks to transmutation, she was able to overcome these limits, but it required an even more complex process than just using her transformation.
She needed to think about each aspect of her body and standardize the process in her brain to keep it transmuted while providing just a small amount of energy.
Little cracks appeared in her gem as Peridot separated her deliberate mind into small pieces to simulate an automatic process. If a gem had seen this, they would have been astonished by the insanity of harming herself.
Peridot had developed an artificial parallel thinking. She only needed to understand how the process was done, delegate this job to a part of her mind, and finally provide the necessary amount of energy.
Despite all the unfortunate events she had gone through, Peridot had good control of dark substance and energy, making the process easier. However, this process was restricted to simple or immutable changes.
Her skin now had a light tone, her gem simulated a texture similar to skin, and a strange light distorted the perception of her gem. She appeared as a perfect human with dark hair and white skin. The only anomaly was her green eyes, similar to a jewel.
Her eyes were in a strange, cracked state that she couldn't fully understand yet. Even though she had studied her gem, it was just a part of the neuronal system; her body was still full of mysteries.
'Gems naturally walk without worrying about common sense. Am I just being excessively neurotic? Well, there's nothing wrong with taking precautions.' she thought.
Peridot could blink her eyes, but she couldn't walk like before.
'Humans are amazing to be able to walk so easily' Peridot remembered how much computer scientists struggled to make an AI learn to walk in her past life.
The reason was clear: she had so many things to think about. It wasn't a simple process to stand up; she needed to find a perfect balance for her body and do it with each step she took.
Her mind was already overloaded with parallel thinking. If her primitive mind was still working, she would have had interminable headaches.
Simulating something as complex as walking and automating it seemed harder than creating a super injector to destroy Earth. However, Peridot was satisfied with the results she had achieved; at least no one would recognize her as a gem at first sight.
She used Lion as a walking stick every night. She would fall to the floor seconds after standing up, and Lion would diligently bite her neck and put her in the right posture again.
Peridot was touched by the pink and lazy Lion who stayed by her side during the boring process of getting used to walking. But she couldn't understand why he suddenly started putting her on his back.
Lion stoically bit her neck and placed her on his back. Seconds later, Lion ran into the night desert.
She didn't even want to remember how scared and overwhelmed she was by the fast-changing view as Lion moved.
'Why are you doing this so suddenly?' Lion not only walked but also jumped so high that she couldn't sense the ground even after using her simplified appraisal over a huge range.
Her heart didn't pulse, but her mind was genuinely scared, with her gem emitting a light every time Lion jumped high.
'I thought having PTSD from the Warp Pads was enough, but now I'm developing a new trauma with vast spaces...' she thought, remorseful about the pink Lion.
Days in the desert followed the same boring routine, except for the nights with Lion's walking.
'I need a hobby.'
In her past life, Peridot would play games until midnight with her friends on weekends and watch some series after work. But now, her life was in danger. She missed those stimulating activities.
Peridot started to draw human figures on the ground. She couldn't perfectly reproduce them because it was like drawing with a mouse, but at least she could have a little fun in her unlucky life.
Her drawings became more accurate day by day until one day Lion opened a portal from nowhere and bit her neck.
The sudden action of the Lion scared poor Peridot in the middle of her hobby.
'Wait, what are you doing?'
Unaware of her thoughts, Lion threw her into the portal without hesitation.
This was how her boring life in the desert came to an abrupt end.