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osrasaskblog · 4 years

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Well, guys.

I really hoped that I wasn't going to make this post, but I'm afraid it needs to be done.

I started writing Opal, Sapphire, Ruby, and STEVEN! in 2016, when I was in high school. I loved the characters of Opal and Ruby and Sapphire and I wanted to see more of them than what was in the show. I was curious, what would it be like if they had swapped places with Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl? How would those different personalities work together? How different would things be if they were the characters that we followed? I would have loved to read a fic of it.

And then I figured, well, hey, why don’t I write a fic of it?

So I took to my little writing tablet and started up my new story. And I had so much fun doing it. I loved writing Ruby, who was a spitfire but also had a gentle heart. I loved writing Sapphire, who was cool and composed but always warmed up to her friends, especially Steven. I loved writing Opal, who was just so many things at once—a calm leader, but also a goofball, a wise war hero but also a cool aunt-like figure. Most of all I loved to write Steven, who was just so funny, a goofy and adorable kid who was also shouldering the responsibility of a world on his shoulders.

It was so relaxing to write these little episodic chapters, especially as the quiet kid in class who could never stay too far from her works-in-progress. I knew back then that I was going to be a writer someday, because I had this deep, passionate need to create stories and characters. But without an original idea of my own yet, I loved writing fanfiction. I think why I love to write fanfiction so much is because even though there’s something already there, I’m taking it and reforming it. I guess it’s kind of like those “finish this picture” pages in coloring books. There’s something already there, but you finish it—you decide what it will be. Is this pretentious? Maybe. I’m not always great with words, ironically.

So I wrote all these short chapters with this new set of characters, and I thought, I’m going to change things up. I didn’t just want it to be different characters saying and doing the exact same thing as the original story—I didn’t want to copy-paste the episodes scripts and use the “replace” tool to change the names. I came up with new backstories for the Crystal Gems. I looked at the original episodes and thought of how I could tweak them, mix them up a little bit.

The chapters started to get longer and longer because of this, and my own writing style developing a lot. Instead of just no-beta keyboard smashing between my classes, I actually sat down and wrote things out, put in more descriptions, more dialogue, etc. And for a really long time I thought that the same-but-different format of the story was a good thing. I thought it was fun to write new characters in new situations, while also having that familiarity—many reviewers would comment things like “I can’t wait to see how they’ll react to X!” or “I can’t wait until we get to [insert episode here]!” That was originally the whole point of the story—different situations, same characters.

I enjoy reading through my work sometimes. Though, I’ve said to several people that I avoid the first chapters of OSRAS because I just think my work was so subpar back then. And again, I liked the same-but-different story I had written. It was fun, it was simple.

Then things started to get different. When? Well, I can’t really pinpoint it, but if I had to guess:

I recall, though, as I was writing “The Ocean” (which was posted around the same time as the “Bismuth” episode) that something was off. Even though I enjoyed writing the fic, this chapter was my first curveball—because in the show, “Mirror Gem/Ocean Gem” is a gamechanger. It changes everything that had been established already, introduced a new character, and set a different tone from the series so far. And in writing this arc for OSRAS, I realized that I…didn’t really have much to offer.

The episodes were very Steven-and-Lapis centric. The Crystal Gems weren’t involved very much. So…what was really the point of writing it? Because the readers already know what’s going to happen. Even back then I looked at the chapters I wrote and thought, this doesn’t have that same-but-different appeal. It’s just the same. What about Steven talking to Lapis in the whirlpool was different from him talking to her atop the pillar of water?

Afterwards, the show started getting into its “everything is changing” point in Season 3. Soon after “Bismuth” came “Back to the Moon,” where we find out Rose shattered Pink Diamond. This was a big “oh crap” moment. Finding out that there was a Pink Diamond was a big “oh crap” moment, because this was when the fandom was at its peak of theorizing.

And even though I kept writing the fic, I was trying to figure out how I was going to tackle this. Because there was no way to get that shock into the fic. It would just be Steven reacting to something the readers already knew. No shock. No drama. Just marking stuff off the checklist. It happened in the show, so it would happen in the fic.

The same-but-different appeal didn’t seem like that anymore. It seemed more like a problem than anything. Like I said, reviewers often said stuff like “I can’t wait for this episode!” But one or two did say that they just didn’t feel the same way—that they couldn’t really see a point in writing a fic that was basically just the original series with a few minor tweaks. I don’t like brushing off criticism, in fact I love criticism, but to this I originally just shrugged and said, “Well, that’s what the fic is. Don’t like, don’t read, I guess.”

Now the problem was that I didn’t like it. I found some reprieve when I wrote chapters like “The Common Soldier,” which delved into the entirely-different backstory of Ruby, but then there was “The Test,” “The Invasion,” and “The Jailbreak.” And “The Jailbreak” was like…the point of the whole fic. The big thing that the chapters were leading up to, where Opal would be “revealed” as a fusion and Pearl and Amethyst would make their debut. And again, same-but-different. The readers were seeing what it would be like if they were the fusion instead of Ruby and Sapphire, and it’s fun, right? They’re not expecting to be shocked, they were reading for the “what if”, right? The biggest curveball I threw in that chapter was having Peridot fuse with Lapis instead of Jasper…which I decided to do when I began writing the chapter, so I scurried to figure out where I was going to go with it.

I decided that in the next fic (Twists & Turns) I would decide to amp up the differences. But I stumbled. “The Shock”, ironically, was not a shock. Opal and Steven find the Cluster just like how he and Garnet did. Then “The Mistake”, where even though the reason for Opal and Ruby’s fight was different, there was always going to be a fight. I struggled to find this balance between the familiarity and the need for something different. I figured, yeah, there’s still the desire to see new characters react to the same situations, but what else? That was it.

To try and remedy this problem, I started planning my chapters ahead instead of writing by the seat of my pants like I was. I started getting more and more into making things different. I tried to figure out how to make Chrysocolla different than Malachite, and came up with a “peaceful” resolution as opposed to the action-packed one. I would hit the same story beats, but I thought, the pull will be the different context and motivations.

But…the original series kept going, and we all know how it went. Rose turned out to be Pink Diamond. The Crystal Gems go to Homeworld to confront White Diamond. Steven finally changes her mind. And more than that, all the character arcs are wrapped up. Garnet embraces herself as a fusion, Amethyst finds her self-worth, Pearl decides to fight for herself rather than anyone else, etc, etc. A lot of stuff that just would not carry over to OSRAS. Like, how would I even try to recreate Change Your Mind??? How on earth would I find a way to write the Rose-is-Pink reveal without the readers going yeah, yeah, we know?

So I started to come up with a whole new thing. Or at least, I tried. This is where Star came from. Something completely new, completely original, to set the fic apart from the original series. I knew that I needed to create an ending for the story—and more than that, the characters. Opal, Sapphire, and Ruby all have their own individual stories that would need to be wrapped up.

But all the ideas that I had for the finale of the fic were vague and blurry. Which was really bad, because writing a story when you don’t know how it’s going to end is…very stressful. I realized eventually that I had made a very hellish situation for myself.

I wanted to write a new, original story. But the first ~36 chapters were just an adaptation of the original series.

I feel so awful right now because I feel like I lied to so many of my followers so many times. Some asked if Spinel was going to appear, and I said I think I found a way for her to fit in just fine…and then I dropped that whole idea, and thus lost a place for Spinel. Sometimes I said “I have a plan for how this will work out” when what I meant was “I plan to have a plan for how this will work out.”

So, to summarize:

1. The original series started to become so lore-heavy that a “same story, different characters” fic was just not going to work.

2. Even so, that was what the fic had been for a very large time. To write a new and original story, I would still have to work with what I had already done. Like the “finish the picture” page in the coloring book was like 99% done and I had very little space to make something creative.

3. Because I no longer wanted to do a same-but-different story, I had to let go of the show’s original storyline and come up with my own…while I was already writing the story. Again, I had no ending for the story even though I was posting chapters for it as often as I could.

And I kept doing this for…years. Because I refused to let this fic go. I felt such an attachment to Opal, Ruby, and Sapphire and their stories that I had come up for them. The first fic was 259,004 words long. And Twists & Turns? 305,428. I couldn’t just throw that much work away, I had to salvage it. And more than anything, I still had so many follows, favorites, and bookmarks, readers leaving me reviews, people sending me asks into my inbox. When I went through rough times in my life and was slow on updates, so many readers comforted me, telling me it was okay. And I had people tell me that this fic was…important to them. That it made them happy when they were in rough times.

But the truth was…I just didn’t like this fic anymore.

Sometimes I found myself enjoying it still. Writing Jasper’s redemption arc was truly fun for me, one of my favorite things I’ve ever written. I love writing the comedy style of Steven Universe. I loved writing these characters and their interactions. And yeah, sometimes I would still re-read some of the earlier chapters and enjoy doing so.

But…

Every time I post up a new chapter, I just wish it was something else. Even if I loved Jasper’s redemption arc, Lapis and Peridot’s unique relationship, the fight between Steven and the Crystal Gems, it was like watching good scenes from a bad movie for me. Like yeah, this is nice, and I like it, but when I looked at the bigger picture, I was just disappointed. It felt like the original vision, a very simple and straightforward SU but Opal, Ruby, and Sapphire instead, had just…chained it down. I wanted to be creative, make a story that was original, but each chapter I’ve been posting lately just feels like that 99%-done picture.

And all those ideas for the finale just—never came together. Some became pretty clear. There were things that I came up with that I thought, Oh, that’d be so COOL! But because of what the fic already was, it would have never worked. It would’ve broken the rules of the setting, or it would have come out of nowhere with no buildup. I had a whole lot of puzzle pieces that wouldn’t fit together. The time that I put aside to try and figure this out were just hellish. I have spent hours staring up at the ceiling, trying to figure out how to end this story, and each and every time I’ve walked away with no progress and more stress than I can handle.

I can’t recall what all detail I’ve gone into, but I know I’ve told readers before that life has been stressful for me as of late. Not just with work and school, which are taking huge bites out of my time, but health issues and family issues, too. And it feels so stupid, to say that writing a fic for a children’s TV show was another problem, but the truth was that it was. I already had/have so many things weighing me down and causing me anxiety, and on top of all of them I’ve been putting time aside almost every day to worry about this story.

I’m writing this now after three hours trying to find a way to wrap up this fic and coming up with nothing. The only solution that I can find now, to just stick with the original storyline set up by the show, doesn’t feel like a solution at all. It would still have that huge, glaring problem: I have already seen this, so why should I read it? And probably a large part of that has to do with Steven being the protagonist, and already establishing that he’s going through an arc dealing with trauma and identity issues…just like the show did. Not adding anything new.

On top of the lack of a proper solution, though, the idea of writing three more seasons’ worth of OSRAS fills me with dread. This story, which has no set ending or resolution to its plot (let alone its character arcs), could take me years to finish in that absolutely unsatisfying manner I mentioned. That’s years of writing a story that I only find occasional joy in. Years of dedication to something that I just regret at this point.

So, I guess you figure by now that this is a bit of a farewell. And just writing that makes me feel so shitty. I feel like I’m about to cry now, because even though I’m committing to this decision, and even though I’m feeling relief already, I am wracked with guilt. I feel as though I’m letting so many people down. After months and months of “Sorry for the wait, promise more chapters are coming!” and months and months of “I promise we’re getting to X soon!” now I’m taking that all back. And again, I’ve had people tell me how much this fic means to them. I imagine that some people are going to be reading this, and they’re going to be hurt and angry and betrayed, and I honestly can’t blame them. Not just because I know firsthand how frustrating it is to have a story I really love be discontinued, but because I feel as though I’ve lied to my readers.

Unfortunately, as I said, I’m committing to this. This is just the only solution that I can find to this problem that’s been weighing down on me for years now. OSRAS is always going to mean something to me, because like I said, I did find joy in the characters and the interactions, the dialogue that I came up with. I wrote this story for five years. But the little joys weren’t enough to outweigh the stress. Ideally I want to say something like But maybe one day I’ll figure out a proper ending, but I can’t promise something like that.

WITH ALL THAT BEING SAID...

I’m attempting to work on a revamp at the moment. I still very much like the idea of a swapfic, but I’m going to need to make it from the ground-up. Maybe I’ll make Connie the same character; maybe I’ll put it in a different setting. I still have ideas for Ruby’s story as the last of her kind, and Opal’s unique situation of a fusion by necessity. Like I said, I did have some thoughts for how these could have been resolved, but with the current state of the fic, they wouldn’t be possible.

I’m going to leave the fics up, promise I won’t be deleting them. If anyone wants to ask questions, my inbox is open, but I can’t promise immediate answers. And if anyone wants to message me about plans I did have for the fic, feel free to do so, but I won’t be posting them publicly on the blog. I may revisit them if I ever go for a revamp. And some things I’m going to keep to myself, because they’re ideas that have a stronger chance of being revisited and I’d rather keep them secret.

So this is coming to be about 3,000 words now. And maybe 3,000 words is way too much for a “I’m discontinuing the fic” post, and maybe this is 3,000 words of pure overdramatic whining, but I wanted to give a full explanation here for why I’ve made this decision.

The second-to-last thing I wanted to say is that I’m sincerely sorry to anyone who feels hurt by this. Like I said, maybe one day I’ll try this again after all, but as-is, the state of OSRAS feels like a mess that I can’t fix. Plus I’m going to be a little selfish and do what’s going to relieve me of this stress. All I can say is that I am positive that if I decided to continue this fic, it would have been obvious in the writing that I’d lost my passion for it.

The last thing I wanted to say is a giant THANK YOU to all my readers and followers over the years. Even if OSRAS is over, I want each and every one of you to know that all your reviews, favorites, and bookmarks always made my day a little better. I only hope that if/when I get around to the revamp, it will be so much better than OSRAS was.

So, this is goodbye to OSRAS for now. Again, my sincerest apologies, and my sincerest thanks.

Sincerely, myself, Opal, Sapphire, Ruby, and Steven

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shinneth · 4 years

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Spill the tea on Stevinel (just because I saw one for conniverse) And yes, I'm not on Anonymous. Because I'm a proud stevinel shipper and no one's going to stop me from loving it, also your blog is cool

And you know what? That’s the right attitude to have! People should be free to express what they ship without shielding themselves with anonymity. I don’t blame the people that do these days - antis are fucking dangerous people - but goddamn, people. It’s fiction.

So I commend you for shipping Stevinel openly and proudly! Hard to believe it’s actually considered a bold and brave move just to be open and honest about harmless preferences these days.

That said, I’m sorry it took so long to get to this. I felt you deserved an epic, given how unexpectedly successful my tirade on why Connverse is a shit ship with an undeserved golden reputation was...

But the truth is, even though I’m very much a Stevinel shipper, it’s definitely not my OTP.

And it’s very tricky for me to figure out how to spill the tea on Stevinel in a way that’s distinct from me doing the same with Stevidot.

Because, well, let’s face it: these two ships, beyond being very similar in nature, have also endured identical hardships from the fandom.

All the death threats Stevinel fans get from the raging antis for daring to ship something so “problematic/immoral/wrong/not Connverse”?

Stevidot fans have been treated that exact same way for years. And still are. For the exact same reasons.

Both Stevinel and Stevidot shippers are valid, but the fandom constantly turns a blind eye to Rebecca Sugar’s husband who also worked on the show outright saying gem x human ships are FAIR GAME.

And also turn a blind eye to the recent interview where Sugar herself stated that the gems are more like AI - a conclusion I and many others deduced ages ago just by how gems are portrayed in the show.

But by god, they’ll hang on Matt Burnett’s word that “grown gems” are a thing even though canon itself explicitly states that GEMS DON’T GROW.

Just like how despite Maya Petersen outright admitting that Aroace!Peridot is just her headcanon, people treat it like the fucking gospel now.

(no offense to anyone who’s committed to that particular headcanon - I just don’t really see it with Peridot in particular and it’s really fucking stupid to claim it’s 100% canon when the source herself explicitly said it wasn’t)

Well, it’s canon that Spinel kissed Steven and he didn’t turn into dust. And Steven was already well on his way down the path of self-destruction at this point in time; he would’ve gone monster whether this happened or not.

Also, how often does a character get the “heart eyes” expression for just a platonic love?

If there was ever a scene where Connie or Steven had heart eyes, no doubt most of the pricks would scream “YES!!!! UNDENIABLE PROOF THAT THEY’RE IN LOVE!!!”

But when it’s Spinel, suddenly it doesn’t count? Really?

How convenient.

There’s also the stupid idiots who saw the conceptual development of Spinel in that movie artbook and saw some vague color keys during a conceptual stage and claimed that Spinel was “family” to Steven - which of course must mean “related” and therefore must make Stevinel an incestuous relationship!

Which is bull. Also shit. It’s already common knowledge that gems don’t work that way. She was the designated playmate for Steven’s mother. Nothing more.

Of course, most gems who come in Steven’s orbit end up being sort of a family to him.

But everyone seems to have this impression that a gem being part of Steven’s family means they become additional surrogate mom figures.

And yeah no, that’s dumb and wrong. Garnet and Pearl are really the only ones I’d consider actual “mom figures”. Amethyst’s more of a big sister. Everyone else can vary depending on perspective, but I’ve never seen any of the other gems as anything close to a motherly figure for Steven. Any time I see shit about Lapis or Peridot being regarded as “gem moms” to Steven, I laugh my ass off. They are so not moms or any kind of authoritative figure for Steven. Bismuth at best is more of the fun-loving aunt.

There are more roles in a family than just a paternal/maternal substitute. In fact, I believe Steven has considered Connie to be part of his family well before they hooked up in canon.

(as a side-note, I love how people who are allegedly SO squicked out by age gap ships totally pardon Connverse - you guys realize Connie was 14 in Future, right? Possibly 15 depending on the time scale? There’s gonna be a point in the relative near future where Steven is 18 and Connie isn’t - why don’t I hear you assholes angst about that “atrocity”, huh?)

I honestly do consider the CG B-Team as part of Steven’s family, but more in a loose sense. But by that same token, I consider Connie as part of the family in a similar manner.

Especially since Spinel was shoved off to live with the Diamonds after the movie - and the Diamonds themselves have a very fucked-up relationship among themselves to the point where I honestly hesitate to put a familial label on it at all - it’s extra stupid to try and paint Stevinel as something with incestuous overtones when it clearly doesn’t.

Spinel does happen to be a perfect representative of how full of shit antis are about age gaps, though.

While Peridot’s age has always been left vague, we know she can’t be 5K or older due to being an Era 2 gem. Due to her utter lack of knowledge of Era 1 events (or being completely sold on the Diamonds’ propaganda) and her general inexperience with her own equipment - as well as her ability to quickly adapt to Earth - I always headcanoned Peridot as being especially young. Like, younger-than-Steven young.

Mostly because Peri’s attitude reeks of Gen Z - also because it’d be nice for a change to have a gem who isn’t thousands of years old like literally every other noteworthy gem in the show. We need a representative of gemkind who hasn’t been around for ages.

Of course, Spinel’s backstory proves that even if they went the boring route and made Peridot thousands of years old just like everybody else, it wouldn’t really mean much of anything. She’d be no less of a valid romantic option for Steven regardless of age.

Spinel is several thousands of years old, and the movie explicitly shows us what exactly that amounts to for a gem.

As I mentioned earlier, Sugar sees the gems more like AI. Spinel remaining in one spot for several millennnia, not moving an inch, not speaking to anyone, not seeing anything other than a gradually-deteriorating garden... yeah, and somehow, despite all that, Spinel’s still very childlike per her design. She had literally no room to mature or accrue life experience: Pink Diamond basically hit the pause button on her entire life.

Even though she’s several thousands of years old, through no fault of her own, Spinel’s mindset remained unchanged. It wasn’t until Steven inadvertently came into her life that she became twisted - understandably so after finally realizing she’d been abandoned by Pink.

But she still didn’t completely lose her true self. Spinel realized on her own that Steven didn’t deserve to suffer just because his mom was a negligent asshole. She also came to understand on her own that unlike Pink, Steven truly cared for her no matter what shit she threw his way.

Steven could give Spinel the care and attention she always deserved; something Pink totally denied her while deceiving her into wasting away with her abandoned playground. He could be the one to give Spinel the love she always deserved but was either denied or manipulated into believing she got.

Honestly, this is more than enough to warrant building something more between these two.

The age gap is irrelevant. The two have chemistry. They aren’t related.

(and honestly, this is fiction - these details are largely irrelevant in fiction anyway. I’m only bringing it up because it doesn’t take much research to find that every label the antis put on Stevinel is complete inaccurate Diamond propaganda bullshit)

Stevinel is FINE. Let people ship it if they want to!

Um... is that good enough?

Honestly, I’m not gonna lie: Stevinel’s pretty goddamned popular; so much that I’m a bit jealous of it. I enjoy the ship a lot, but I’ve been keeping it at arms-length all this time. I’m looking forward to when I can write my own brand of Stevinel interaction when I get to introduce her in my series, but that’s still a while to go.

Also, there’s almost zero Peridot/Spinel material, let alone my Peridot/Steven/Spinel OT3. And Stevidot material is still hard to come by; I’m noticing Stevinel’s still quite a bit easier to find by comparison.

So in a way, I feel many other unpopular ships deserve some tea-spilling sooner than Stevinel because Stevinel at least still has a sizable fanbase. Same can’t really be said for a lot of similar ships here...

A lot of this can apply to other Steven x gem ships, honestly.

But I guess I haven’t been showing Stevinel much proper love due to my devotion to my superior SU-AU. I can only hope I can soon reach a point where I can have GA Spinel react to Steven, since their dynamic will be significantly different.

(and then one day I’ll finally make the Peridot/Steven/Spinel OT3 fic!!)

Until then, I can only hope I did Stevinel some justice here!

#answered asks #ryan-spinel #stevinel #stevidot #steven universe #spinel #su spinel #shipping #spill the tea #peridot #su peridot

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which-witchhazel · 5 years

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I...

I... don't like Steven Universe: The Movie.

I like the music, I like seeing my characters changing, I like Little Homeworld,

I didn't like Drift Away. It didn't make sense. It ruined the whole movie.

At first I was trying to rationalize Pink's decision to leave Spinel in the garden.

She's fleeing an abusive situation (which she was)

She knew Spinel wouldn't survive war or be able to handle it.

She knew Spinel would say something.

She figured she could come back after the war had been won and get her, but then they lost and smashed the Homeworld warps.

After all, Pink isn't EVIL. She knows what it's like to be left alone for long periods of time. She knows each gem is unique and special and deserves to shine. She wouldn't do this. She must have thought that someone would find her.

But why didn't anyone find her?

Why didn't Blue, who made sure Pink's zoo was maintained, not make sure her garden was too? Did she honestly never come to the garden to mourn, at least? Blue mourned over everything that was Pink's. In 6000 years, NO ONE came to the garden? No one thought "Hey, whatever happened to that garden?" or even "Didn't Pink have a Spinel? I haven't seen her in a while."

Or what about the transmission with Steven announcing peace? Why is it that's the first message transmitted to every screen? Why wasn't there an announcement that Pink Diamond was dead over those screens? Why was the first message Spinel ever got was just Steven doing maintenance and letting people know everything was fine in the world?

Why did no one find Spinel? Why did Spinel never get another transmission?

BECAUSE THIS BACKSTORY WASN'T THOUGHT OUT.

This was a backstory created solely for the movie that disrupts the rest of Pink's narrative. It's completely destroyed her image. It's not even in character for her! Steven jokes that it is, but no, Steven, your mom did bad things and was irresponsible but she wasn't that evil.

Fact of the matter is that this is a plot point that will never be touched upon again, as all plots in specials and movies for kids shows do. Spinel is a character that was created solely for the movie. Characters created solely for specials and movies are never mentioned again. We'll be lucky if we get her in the series finale. Bismuth was created to be part of a special. She was set up like a character that wasn't going to be brought back until the very VERY end. I'm glad that wasn't the case. I can't say that for Spinel. They made sure to come up with an ending that had Spinel out of the way so plot could continue.

This plot wasn't thought out in Pink's giant plan. It was made up for the sole purpose of giving Spinel a tragic backstory. Nothing else.

So if you feel sorry that a beloved odd character is cancelled, don't be. This is never going to be brought up again.

#steven universe #su #steven universe the movie #spinel #su spolier #su spoilers #steven universe spoilers #pink diamond #rose quartz #drift away #unpopular opinion

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psychosistr · 5 years

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FOWL Facets- Chapter 8

Summary: Despite all the warnings, both from Gandra and from his own instincts, Steelbeak goes to check on Domino after they return to the ship. It goes about as well as he expects..

Notes: Time for a delicious double-decker chapter sandwich of angst, backstory, fluff, and more angst. Enjoy the suffering!

-First Chapter-

Steelbeak walks through the halls of his ship, a determined look on his face as he heads for one particular room..

Along the way, he sees Loony sitting near her shelf of “treasures”, the spinel currently huddled against it with many of the softer toys and trinkets pulled down to cover her in a make-shift cocoon until only her beak and eyes are visible through a small hole in the front.

“Steely..” Loony slowly stretches her head out of the soft fortress so that she can meet the melanite’s eyes properly as she speaks. She has a troubled frown on her face, looking more nervous that he can ever remember seeing her. “He’s not okay, Steely…I..I-I keep feeling lots and lots and LOTS of bad things from him, even all the way over here..” She looks up at him, her eyes almost pleading. “Dommy hasn’t felt this bad before…I know I’m supposed to cheer him up and make him all better, but..but I don’t know what to do…he..h-he won’t even talk to me..” Steelbeak sees the spinel’s eyes misting over-

Nope. Can’t have that at all.

“ ‘ey, c’mon, Loons- this is Domino we’re talkin’ ‘bout here, right?” The rooster asks while patting her on the head, giving Loony an encouraging and confident smile. “Snowflake’s tough as they come, he’s just gotta blow off some steam for a bit and he’ll be good t’ go in no time.”

Loony looks up at him with a concerned frown. “You sure?”

“ ‘ey, would I lie to ya?” Before she can answer, he starts digging in his pockets for something. “Tell ya what, if it makes ya feel any better, I’ll go have a little chit-chat with ‘im right now and make sure he’s okay.” He finds what he’s looking for and pulls out a small box with a red ribbon on it. “While I do that, why don’tcha play with your new present?”

The sight of the small box instantly brightens the stretchy gem’s mood and her arms extend out of the cocoon to grab the offered gift, not minding the few items that got knocked over in the process. “You remembered!” She says with an excited smile while taking the ribbon off and opening the box. “Wowie-wow-wow!” She exclaims excitedly, her eyes practically shining as she pulls out what looks like a shiny metallic cube made of many smaller, different colored cubes. “It’s so colorful! What is it??”

“It’s some Earth-creature game.” Steelbeak explains, pointing to the different colored cubes. “Ya turn an’ twist it ‘til ya get each side the same color.”

Loony curiously starts twisting and turning the rows of the cube, looking bewildered by the way the smaller cubes move. “Ooooooh!” She manages to look away from the moving, shimmering, brightly-colored toy and gives Steelbeak a hug, her long arms wrapping around him several times over. “Thanks, Steely! I love it!”

It’s times like these that Steelbeak’s glad he’s not an organic and lacks a skeletal structure- otherwise, he’s pretty sure Loony would’ve broken his back and arms more than a few times by now. “Anytime, doll.” He takes a moment to fix his bowtie and straighten his jacket before continuing his trek down the hall. “I’ll check back in ten- don’t break it.” He calls with a wave over his shoulder, receiving an affirmative response as the other gem is already engrossed in trying to solve the small and colorful puzzle.

Well, at least she’s back to normal. One down, one to g-

The door to the cockpit opens when he’s about to walk past it, Gandra stepping out and holding her hand up parallel to his face so he doesn’t have a reason to say he didn’t see her. “Hold it.”

Steelbeak stops, but he definitely doesn’t look happy about it. Crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently, he looks down at the star-sapphire with an impatient and annoyed scowl. “Is this gonna take long? I gotta go talk t’ Deedee.”

“I would wait on that, if I were you.” Gandra warns him, crossing her own arms to match his annoyed stance. “Going in there right now could be dangerous. You should wait until he’s calmed down.”

Steelbeak actually laughs at her for that one. “You seriously think he’s gonna calm down if I sit around an’ wait? You don’t know ‘im that well, do ya, stardust?” He tries to walk around her, but is blocked by the arm she extends in front of him. “Gandra.” He says her name in a warning, threatening tone of voice- showing that he’s slowly moving past “annoyed” with her interference and into more dangerous territory.

“I did a reading before they went down to rescue you.” She doesn’t budge from her stance, but she also doesn’t raise her head to meet his eyes, either. “The future I saw…ends with Domino shooting you..and you getting shattered…” Her words are heavy, weighed down by the seriousness and gravity she’s trying to express with her tone of voice alone.

“Ya done?” Steelbeak doesn’t look even slightly bothered by the star-sapphire’s news. When he doesn’t receive a response right away, he lifts her arm out of the way so he can move past her. “I’m real’ moved by your concern, toots- I’m so touched, I might start cryin’- but I know how t’ handle old short fuse when he’s moody.”

Gandra finally looks up at the other bird, catching his wrist before he can get too far away. “Don’t you get it?!” She turns to face him fully, keeping a firm grip so he can’t just brush her off like he normally would. “This is different- he might actually kill you if you go in there right now. I know you don’t want to hear it, but you need to know that there’s a 99.9998% chance that you’ll DIE. So just listen for once and-”

“No, YOU listen t’ ME.” Steelbeak snatches his hand out of her grasp but, instead of walking away, he uses that same hand to grab Gandra’s arm in return. He easily picks her up so the two of them are now startled-blue-eye-to-glaring-black-eye. “First: This ain’t the first- or last- time I’ve walked in there knowin’ I’d get my head bit or blown off. I know what I’m walkin’ int’, alright?” He holds up his other hand, counting off his points as he lists them. “Two: You ain’t got no say in when I go see my partner- I wanna talk to ‘im, I’m GONNA talk to ‘im. And three:” He drops her so she lands roughly on the floor, turning to continue his walk. “If Dom was THAT predictable, we wouldn’t still be partners after this long.” He doesn’t wait to hear her response as he walks away.

Gandra watches him walk away, her annoyed scowl losing its edge as he heads further down the hall. “…..” She looks down at the floor bitterly, saying her words so quietly that no one could possibly hear them but her. “You’ve still got a 0.0002% chance of surviving..hope your luck’s good enough to beat those odds..”

Steelbeak eventually reaches his destination. He looks at the door emblazoned with the image of a step-cut black and white snowflake obsidian and, for a second, he hesitates to go in. With a quick shake of his head, though, the hesitation is gone and he walks right in.

“Knock, knock.” He calls as he walks into the other gem’s room, not bothering to knock for real before or after entering. He spots Domino seated at the table on the left side of the room in the seat further from the door, the loon hunched over whatever he’s working on (though Steelbeak already has a pretty good idea what it is) and apparently unaware of the rooster’s entrance. Not one to beat around the bush, Steelbeak walks right up to the table and takes his place in the seat beside Domino, opting to sit backwards so that he’s leaning back casually against the table in the backless chair as opposed to his partner’s properly seated position facing it. “How’s it goin’, snowflake?”

Now that he’s closer, Steelbeak has a better view of what Domino’s working on and is, for once, disappointed to find out he was right:

The obsidian is hard at work breaking off pieces of the “mini-cluster”. The forcefully fused mass of shards is held tightly within his right hand while his left employs different methods for breaking off the other shards. On the table in front of him are an assortment of tools ranging from high grade pliers to a 155 micro-inch laser cutter (the one from Steelbeak’s tool box, he mentally notes) and even a pointed white gem destabilizer.

Red eyes narrowed as he focuses on the task at hand, Domino doesn’t seem to register Steelbeak’s entrance when the taller gem first walks in, having been too busy trying to break off a sharp jade fragment using his barrier-glove reinforced left hand. He does, however, notice when the melanite brazenly takes a seat next to him. Not looking away from the shards in his hand as he attempts to break off the jade fragment, one harshly spoken (practically growled out) word leaves the loon’s beak. “OUT.”

Steelbeak doesn’t budge, literally or figuratively. “The pliers’d be better for that one.” He suggests, trying to hand the tool over to the struggling gem.

“I said..get…OUT.” Domino ignores the suggestion and the offered pliers, still trying to break off the green shard by hand. It does eventually break..unfortunately only the tip of it breaks off, further frustrating him. “Darn it!” He throws the splintered-off shard against the wall by the table in frustration.

Steelbeak shrugs calmly at the aggravated display. “Hate t’ say I told ya so, but I did warn ya…” When he sees Domino trying the same approach on another shard, he starts to reach over with the hand closest to the loon. “Here, lemme-”

Before he can get anywhere near the cluster of shards, Domino’s barrier-gloved hand shoots out and grabs the melanite by the wrist, slamming and pinning the other gem’s hand to the table harshly. “I told you to GET OUT!” He looks his partner in the eye for the first time since he entered the room; sadly, it’s a look filled with frustration that’s quickly boiling into full-blown rage.

Steelbeak winces slightly at first when his hand is pressed to the table, but he recovers quickly enough and meets the snowflake obsidian’s eyes calmly. “I was just tryin’ t’ help, Deedee.”

“Help?” Domino releases the rooster’s wrist and shoves his arm away. “I don’t want help, I want answers!” He grips the mass of shards tightly in his hand and holds it close to his chest, paying no mind to the way the sharp bits of broken stone dig painfully into his body. “I want to know how one of my partner’s shards ended up on the other side of the universe THOUSANDS of years after his death! I want to know what happened to the rest of him!” He grabs Steelbeak’s collar with his barrier-gloved hand and pulls him closer to properly meet his enraged red-eyed glare. “And I want you to tell me what YOU know about all of this!”

To his credit, Steelbeak doesn’t flinch or back away at all- he just meets the shorter gem’s menacing glare head on with a firm, unwavering look of his own. “I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout this, Dom.”

“That’s a load of concrete, and you know it!” Domino snaps at him, getting to his feet so he can look down on the rooster while keeping a firm grip on his collar. “You’re the chief agent of F.O.W.L.- you know all of their plans!”

“And you’re my partner.” Steelbeak counters, looking up into the other gem’s eyes unflinchingly. “If this was F.O.W.L.’s doin’, you’d know as much ‘bout it as me- that’s part of bein’ partners, remember? We’re equals.”

“Not in White Diamond’s court.” The obsidian’s grip tightens. “Liquidator said this whole thing was the Diamonds’ project. As one of her elite garnets, you have to know something!”

“Oh, please…” Steelbeak rolls his eyes, prying the other gem’s hand off of his shirt but being careful to only touch the gloved sections. “I’m ‘bout as loyal t’ White as YOU are. Even she knows that- that’s why she don’t tell me nothin’ ‘less it’s got somethin’ t’ do with takin’ over a planet.” He looks back up into the other gem’s eyes, still holding onto his hand. “If I knew anythin’ ‘bout this, I’d’ve told ya YEARS ago.”

Domino snatches his hand away, the barrier disappearing as one of his guns appears in it instead. “And I’m just supposed to trust your word?” He points his pistol right at Steelbeak’s chest, his normally analytical mind clouded by his racing thoughts and warring emotions- fury, confusion, betrayal, sorrow, rage; it was overwhelming. “How do I know you weren’t sent to spy on me? To make sure I didn’t turn around and rebel? You were assigned to me right after I lost Checkers- did they do that so I wouldn’t have time to dwell on it? So I wouldn’t have time to mourn and ask questions?” His eyes are starting to burn, but he will not let a single tear fall, not until he receives the answers he wants- no, needs to hear. “How am I supposed to trust your word when you won’t even tell me anything?!” His hand, normally so steady and calm whether he was aiming his weapon at a random organic creature or a fellow gem, is now shaking so badly that he can’t even aim straight. He starts to readjust his grip without lowering the gun-

A feathered hand comes up to rest on top of his pistol in a surprisingly gentle motion. Steelbeak guides the deadly weapon until the mouth of the barrel is pressed right against his gem. Once it’s in place, he looks up into Domino’s eyes once more. This time, though, he doesn’t look calm, he just looks…sad. “Dominic, I didn’t know.”

Domino is about to say something else, to accuse the shifty rooster of lying to him yet again while tightening his grip on his weapon to keep it steady..

But then the name registers in his mind.

Dominic.

Not Domino, or Dom, or Deedee. Dominic.

Steelbeak doesn’t call him by his name- his real name- lightly…

The trio of dark gems stood together on the walkway of F.O.W.L.’s spaceship hangar. They watched as a vehicle below engaged a tractor beam to drag away the twisted and distorted mass of golden metal that was once the “Lucky Star”.

Loony turned to look up at Steelbeak with a frown. “Steely, I’m really, really, reeeaaaaaalllyyyyy sorry…”

“……” Steelbeak took in a deep breath and sighed, turning away from the sight of his once prized ship to give Loony an understanding smile and a pat on the head. “Eh, don’t worry ‘bout it, Loons- part of flyin’ ships is survivin’ the crashes.”

She only frowned more at his words. “But it was my fault we hit the mountain!”

Steelbeak shrugged off her worries. “It’s just a ship, doll. They come, they go, we live another day an’ move on without ‘em.”

“But you LIVED there!” Loony stretched her body so she was eye-level with the melanite. “What are you going to do now?”

“She does have a point.” Domino commented, having been leaning against the railing and calmly observing the whole exchange. “Have you thought about where you’ll be staying?”

He was truly surprised by how calm his partner was over the whole ordeal. Loony was right about the ship being Steelbeak’s unofficial home: While the melanite could have easily requested a palace of his own due to his rank in White Diamond’s court, the thought of it often bothered him because it was too “ritzy” for his liking and because it wasn’t practical as he spent most of his time off of homeworld either conquering planets for White Diamond or running missions for F.O.W.L.. The sensible thing was for him to live in the same place he worked- the Lucky Star. He’d spent thousands upon thousands of years maintaining that ship and designing his own personal live-in room to his exact tastes. He’d even set up a small living space in the main room of the ship for any guests or “temporary” partners he had to bring with him with the bare-minimum furniture of a few chairs and a bench. Overall, the Lucky Star had been a small vessel, but it had been a home for Steelbeak for nearly 18,000 years.

And, in all honesty, Domino and Loony had begun to think of the gaudy golden ship fondly after spending so many years in its main room.

“Snowflake,” Steelbeak looked over his shoulder at the obsidian with a smirk. “Do you REALLY think I’d be this calm if I didn’t already have somethin’ lined up?” He gestured for the other gems to follow him down the catwalk. “C’mon, I got somethin’ you’re both gonna like.”

“??” Confused but curious, Loony looked to Domino with a questioning tilt of her head.

Domino replied with a silent shrug before the two of them followed the taller gem’s lead. He had as little of an idea about what was going on as Loony in this situation.

Steelbeak led them to a separate area of the hangar, going down the catwalk’s stairs at one point so they could walk among the countless ships. “Dom, Loons-” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black device that looked like a black crystal that was flat on the bottom with four prominent facets on the top. Steelbeak pushed one of the crystal’s facets and it lit up with a soft white light. Right after he pressed it, one of the nearby ships opened its hatch and the power came on inside of it, illuminating its dark features. “-say hello t’ the ‘Black Iron Comet’.”

Domino and Loony stared at the large ship, taking in its sleek black form.

Neither of them were surprised when Loony was the first to approach the gleaming new ship. “Wooooooooow!” She stretched and swung her way around the ship, swinging around each of the wings before landing on the top by the striking red windshield so she could peer inside. “This is amazing, Steely! It’s huuuuuuge!”

Steelbeak chuckled at the spinel’s enthusiasm as he walked towards the opened hatch and its extended ramp. “If ya like that, wait ‘til ya see what’s inside.”

While Loony cheered and swung back around the side of the ship to beat them to the opened hatch, Domino walked alongside his partner up the ramp. It was nice being able to actually walk into the new ship- the Lucky Star’s high-up entrance had left him with no way to get inside without relying on Steelbeak lifting him up to it on one of his platforms or Loony stretching an arm down to him, both of which were annoyingly inconvenient for him. “You must have pulled quite a few strings to have this ready on such short notice.”

Steelbeak shrugged at his partner’s assumption. “I’ve had this beauty waitin’ in the wings for a while now. Not exactly how I thought I’d be introducin’ ya to ‘im, but the timin’ worked out great.”

“The timing-?” Domino started to ask, but was unintentionally interrupted by Loony’s excited exclamations as she explored the ship’s interior with as much enthusiasm as she did its exterior.

“This is sooooooo much bigger than the last ship! And look at all the new furniture!” The stretchy gem brings attention to the elegant but tasteful set of chairs and benches in the main room when she jumps and lands on her back on one of the black and white cushioned benches. “This is gonna be a lot softer to sit on when we’re traveling!”

Steelbeak grinned as he watched the spinel try out each of the chairs and benches. “I bet there’s a room down that hallway you’d like even better for that, doll.” He pointed down the hall in question and chuckled when the other gem immediately began to run down the hallway to see what he meant.

Domino, on the other hand, took his time looking over the new ship and its décor as he made his way down the same hallway. While the Lucky Star was nice, the gilded furniture and glittering colors were a bit gaudy for his taste- this one was much more to his liking. “I’m impressed, Steelbeak- your sense of style has improved quite a bit.” He looked up at the other gem, his tone light and teasing. “I can’t believe you’d actually own a ship this tasteful.”

To his surprise, Domino actually saw Steelbeak look away and- wait, was that red he saw under the taller bird’s cheek feathers? Was he…BLUSHING? While it certainly wasn’t the first time he’d made the rooster’s face heat up, it was interesting to see it happen when he wasn’t even trying to flirt with him.

“It ain’t just my ship..” The melanite’s voice was uncharacteristically quiet.

Before he had a chance to clarify what he meant- or perhaps as a cosmically timed way to do so- Loony’s excited voice called to them from the end of the hall. “DOMMYYYYYYY!!” She stretched her upper body to meet him halfway, her lower half standing in front of one of the doors. “We get our own rooms!”

Domino blinked, his eyes widening slightly in surprise at his friend’s words. “We do?” He looked to Steelbeak for clarification, but the rooster was still avoiding eye contact with that little bit of red visible under his feathers.

“Come on, come on! Look!” Loony’s upper body rapidly retracted back in place so she could point at the door beside her. “This one’s got my gem on it!”

Domino caught up to her soon enough just by walking down the hallway and, when he arrived, he saw that she was correct. There were a series of rooms at the end of the hall. The first door on the right was blank (as was the one in the middle of the hall between the two sides), but the one next to it had a black heart-shaped spinel emblem right in the middle of it. Looking to the left, he saw that the first door had a black ball-cut melanite and the one directly next to it had a black and white step-cut snowflake obsidian.

Steelbeak reached around the pair and pressed a small panel beside the door with Loony’s gemstone on it. “Why don’t’cha take a peek inside, stretch?”

The door opened to reveal a room that was surprisingly sparse on furniture, but very fitting for Loony, nonetheless: The floor had a black and white striped pattern that matched Loony’s arms and legs- the stripes stretching and twisting up along the walls to create decorative swirls. The lines all culminated at the top of the room to form a black border around the room’s see-through ceiling which would likely offer some amazing views once they were somewhere other than the hangar. There were also gleaming silver shelves built into the walls that housed a collection of colorful trinkets and toys from all over the galaxy, each shelf lined up so that it sat in the middle of one of the swirls on the walls. What little other furniture that existed in the room- primarily a large silver bench with cushions in a rainbow of colors- was built into the wall, as well, rather than sitting on the floor.

The moment Loony stepped into the room, Domino instantly realized the reason for the lack of floor-resting furniture.

“Wowie!” Loony’s smile looked like it couldn’t get any bigger as the spinel stepped inside to look around her new room properly. “This is so pretty! I’ll be able to see the stars through-” When she stepped on the floor, she stopped and looked down, feeling the surface give slightly under her weight. “Huh?” Bringing her other foot beside the first, her eyes widened with a gasp as her body rocked up and down for a second. “Ah!” With a smile that practically split her beak and stars gleaming in her eyes, she began to jump and tumble all over the room- the floor recoiling before propelling her upwards relative to her momentum. “THE FLOOR IS BOUNCYYYYY!” She laughed in pure delight, enjoying herself immensely for a while before leaping back out of the room so that she crashed right into Steelbeak in a fierce hug. “I love it, Steely! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!”

After regaining his balance (and his bearings), Steelbeak grinned and gave the excited gem a pat on the head. “Eh, don’t mention it, doll. Now, go have some fun.” Giving him one last excited squeeze, Loony thanked him again and ran off into her new room to do as suggested. Once she was behind the door, Steelbeak exhaled a heavy breath and rubbed at his side. “That gal’s gonna poof me one o’ these days..”

Domino shook his head with a quiet laugh. “Perhaps..but, honestly, what did you expect would happen?” The loon turned to look at the door to his own room, as well as the one next to it as he walked to the other side of the hall. “Any particular reason our rooms are next to each other?” He glanced over his shoulder, giving his partner a smirk that never failed to fluster the taller bird.

As usual, the flirtatious tone in Domino’s voice and the look sent his way had Steelbeak averting his eyes and brushing his fingers over his red comb, the color in his cheeks a bit more noticeable now. “That depends- ya want the smart reason or the stupid one?”

“Both.” Domino watched as the melanite crossed the hall to stand next to him again. “Start with the stupid one.”

“Always gotta make it difficult for me, don’t’cha?” Steelbeak crossed his arms and shrugged his shoulders, still not able to meet the shorter bird’s charming red eyes. “If ya REALLY wanna know, it might be ‘cause I actually kinda LIKE your company for some stupid reason.”

That was the exact answer Domino knew he’d get. “And the smart one?”

A slow smirk spread over Steelbeak’s metallic beak as he leaned down and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. “This way, neither of us gotta room next t’ Loony. She’s a sweet gal, love ‘er t’ pieces, but-” His sentence was punctuated by another cosmically timed event courtesy of a loud crash from the room behind them and a call of “I’m okay!”. “-well, ya get the idea..”

Domino agreed wholeheartedly, another quiet laugh making his shoulders shake. “Hmh, that IS smart.” His eyes drifted over to the unmarked door next to his own. “Who are the other rooms for?”

“Dunno yet.” Steelbeak’s answer involved another, more casual shrug. “Could be nobody, could be somebody- depends on what happens.”

Domino regarded the taller gem with a curiously raised brow, repeating his words back to him. “ ‘On what happens’ with what, exactly?”

“With what ya say next.” The melanite reached over to the panel by Domino’s door and pressed it, opening the room up for the other’s inspection.

Curiosity only heightened by the other’s words, Domino stepped into the room to have a proper look and was not disappointed at all by what he found: The walls of the room were as smooth as the black-stone exterior of the ship, but with white snowflakes scattered randomly across their surface to simulate falling snow. The white floor was pleasantly soft under his feet, the plush carpeting made to look like fallen snow. Looking up, Domino saw that the lighting for the room was provided by several tiny crystals embedded in the ceiling that were made to look like beams of sunlight poking through the grey cloud pattern painted above him. Bringing his gaze downward once again, he was pleased to see the furniture was as much to his taste as the seating in the main room- a small two-person table built into the wall on his left with matching backless chairs, a large book/datapad case that was also built into the wall a couple feet away from the table, a window (with blinders built in) on the far wall between a pair of black-framed armchairs with red cushions, and-…wait, was that curtain covering up?

Domino walked to the right side of the room where a sheer black curtain was draped over something built into the wall. He would’ve simply thought it was another window, but that wouldn’t make sense given that there should just be another room in that direction.

“What’s this?” He asked as he inspected the slip of fabric. Looking back to his partner for an answer only prompted the other bird to wave his hand in a “go on” gesture. Heeding the other gem’s unspoken advice, Domino tugged on the material until it slipped from its barely-held anchors and fell to the floor. “!!” His breath hitched at the sight of four shelves that, like the book/datapad case, were built into the wall. These shelves, however, were lined with holo-disks featuring images of Domino and the different gems he’d come to care for over the years:

The top shelf had four different images of him and Loony- three of them being pictures the spinel took herself by stretching her arms out far enough to fit both of them in the picture while making silly faces at the camera. The first three pictures didn’t have much in the way of background because they were just big enough to get the two of them in the frame together, but he could clearly remember when each one of them was taken and it served as a way to see how the two of them had grown and changed over the years. The last one, however, was one of his favorites and featured him and Loony lying on one of his exceptionally large cushioned-barriers with the other gem pointing up at the stars above with a bright smile on her face while Domino looked at them with a contented smile of his own.

The third shelf held four pictures of him with Steelbeak. One which they’d been forced to reluctantly take after their first successful mission together with the two not even looking at one another. An interesting one of them that had somehow been taken in the heat of combat with the two agents standing not-quite-back-to-back on one of Steelbeak’s platforms as they shot at enemies outside of the hologram’s range. A candid picture that Loony had taken of them a couple years ago while they’d been seated next to each other on one of the benches in the Lucky Star with him laughing over a story that Steelbeak had been telling him. The last picture was one that Domino had never seen before of him reading something aloud from a datapad while Steelbeak watched him with an uncharacteristically gentle smile on his gleaming beak and an adoring look in his eyes that he was usually so careful to divert or cover up whenever he knew Domino was looking at him.

The bottom shelf was more diverse, showing a few gems that he’d met within the past few centuries but had become very good friends with. One was of Domino seated at a table with a heavyset female pigeon bearing a square-cut black tourmaline gemstone on her right hand, the two having a pleasant conversation despite another black tourmaline (one with a trapeze-cut stone under her right eye and a skinnier, though much dirtier body than her fellow tourmaline) inserting herself into the picture’s background just to stick her tongue out at the camera. Another was of him leaning against a wall and pinching the bridge of his beak with an annoyed look on his face while standing next to a female fox who was rubbing her temples with an equally annoyed look as they discussed something, light gleaming off of the ocean blue drop-cut kyanite gemstone that was positioned just right to look like a belt buckle on the fox’s waist. The last two were of him with a rather charming and handsome penguin who had a slightly cracked beak and blue eyes that matched the round celestite stone on his right shoulder- one of Domino sitting on a counter and smirking down at the celestite with a finger under the apparently annoyed (and slightly flustered) gem’s cracked beak, while the other picture featured the two of them standing outside of a building while looking at each other fondly as snow fell around them.

Every picture was neatly placed and aligned (a ruler most definitely would have been needed to get everything that meticulously spaced and centered), with the only oddity being that the second shelf was nearly empty. The nearly part was from the fact that a lone item rested on the shelf- a small four-faceted crystal which matched the one that Steelbeak had used to unlock the ship earlier, except its facets were alternating black and white instead of pure black like the melanite’s.

Once Domino had picked up the crystal, Steelbeak moved closer to join him at the shelf of pictures. “I meant what I said earlier, Dee. It ain’t just my ship this time:” He held out his own crystal next to Domino’s, the pair of stones sparkling in the light. “It’s ours.”

And, just like that, everything about the Black Iron Comet’s design made sense: The sleek black body made to look like obsidian with a windshield the same shade of red as the accents on Domino’s outfit and white spots on the bottom resembling the quartz spots in his own stone. The ramp for easy access into the ship without the need to fly or stretch or rely on someone else for assistance. The choices for the main room’s décor that were far closer to Domino’s own taste than Steelbeak’s usual flashy style. The pre-designed rooms that catered to both his and Loony’s own tastes and comforts. Even the perfectly aligned shelves of holo-disks…

All of it- every single part of the ship- was crafted that way for Domino.

Looking away from the matching stones in their hands, the snowflake obsidian stared up at his partner. “How long have you been planning this?” This was all too well done- too expertly executed- to have been started within the past month on their way back to homeworld.

“Started thinkin’ ‘bout it last century.” Steelbeak didn’t hesitate or look away like he normally would when called out for engaging in, as he would often put it in his own words, “sappy nonsense”. Instead, he met the shorter gem’s eyes confidently while keeping his tone of voice softer than usual to show that, for once, he was completely serious. “Caught myself thinkin’ ‘Wow, this ship’s kinda cramped for three gems, we should get a new one’ and it scared the sediment right outta me ‘cause, in all the years I owned the old girl, the Lucky Star NEVER felt cramped or crowded and I NEVER thought of gettin’ a new one t’ make someone else feel better……but, I didn’t ‘ave YOU before, neither..” The corners of his beak lifted in a small smile as he regarded the snowflake obsidian fondly. “I ain’t never ‘ad a partner like you before, snowflake..never ‘ad anyone that I actually WANTED t’ keep around..got me thinkin’ ‘bout alotta things..” As he spoke, he grabbed something else out of his pockets- four more holo-disks that he carefully arranged into their proper places on the previously vacant second shelf. “Got me thinkin’ ‘bout how I wouldn’t mind seein’ your grouchy face and scary eyes everyday..or how I’d like bein’ there when ya do embarassin’ stuff like get so int’ readin’ one o’ your stories that ya start makin’ faces without realizin’ it..or how I wouldn’t have t’ worry ‘bout goin’ int’ war zones ‘cause, even if I got damaged, I’d be fine ‘cause you’d have my back….or how, after a long day, I could sit right down next t’ ya and just…BE there without havin’ t’ talk ‘bout nothin’, ya know..?” He finished setting the disks up and looked down at Domino again. “Maybe I’m readin’ too much int’ it. Maybe, for gems like YOU, a thousand years ain’t worth that much..” Had it really been that long already? A brief glance at the date on his watch confirmed for Domino that, yes, it had not only been one thousand years since they’d first met- it had been one thousand years to the day. “But, for me, that’s a pretty big deal. Ya told me you weren’t goin’ nowhere..and, for some reason I’m still tryin’ t’ figure out, I actually believed ya.” He shrugged, his earlier smile growing into a full-blown grin. “So, I figured, if you ain’t goin’ nowhere, and I ain’t goin’ nowhere, and we’re already stuck t’gether all the time anyway..why not just bite the bullet an’ say it already?” Steelbeak looked back to the new holo-disks that he’d set out on the shelf. “This place was already gonna be my home..but..if ya still feel like stickin’ around..” He reached over and, one at a time, began turning them on to display the pictures they held. “It can be your home, too.”

“!!!” As the new images lit up before his eyes, Domino actually had to place a hand to his beak because, though he didn’t want to admit it, he wasn’t sure what sounds might leave him at the sights that greeted him.

Tears started to gather in the corners of his eyes as he saw that each of the four images contained himself…and his former partner, Checkers. The first picture was of them right after they’d graduated from the F.O.W.L. academy, officially earned their agent status, and been told they were assigned as partners for the foreseeable future- Checkers had insisted on taking a commemorative picture to celebrate and dragged a very unprepared & surprised Domino in front of the camera by putting an arm around his shoulders and taking the picture before the loon was ready (he’d reflexively elbowed the fire opal in the side right after the picture was taken, causing the dog to double over in pain and apologize for forgetting the other’s “do not touch” rule). The second picture had apparently been taken from some security camera footage within their former base- it was a simple but wholesome image of the two walking together down an empty hallway and holding hands while tenderly gazing at one another, each with a faint blush on their cheeks and an adoring smile on their face as it was the first time Domino had reached out and grabbed the fire opal’s hand without putting one of his barrier-gloves around it like he usually would. The third was taken shortly after he and Checkers had been gifted Loony- the spinel had stretched her arm out to hold the camera and get all of them in the picture with her other arm stretched over to Domino’s head so she could do her favorite trick of giving him fake mammalian-style ears, Checkers was in the middle with one arm around Loony’s shoulders doing a similar gesture and the other resting comfortably on Domino’s side, all while Domino himself had his arms folded across his chest and had attempted to roll his eyes but the action was meaningless with the lovingly fond smile on his beak at the other gems’ antics. The final picture was another one that had apparently been taken from a security camera- this one was outside of their former base, with the two gems standing in the snow at the building’s perimeter and sharing a loving kiss; it had been a few hundred years since they’d started dating, and that was the first time they’d kissed, making it one of Domino’s happiest memories.

“I know I ain’t like ‘im,” Steelbeak said softly as he looked at the pictures. “And I ain’t gonna try t’ be.” He turned so that he was fully facing his partner. “But..I already said I ain’t goin’ nowhere…that means I’ll always be ‘round ‘ere somewhere if ya need someone.” The melanite brought up one of his hands, holding it out in invitation. “So, whattaya say, snowflake? Feel like puttin’ up with me for another thousand years?”

Domino turned away from the holograms that continued to stir up wounds and emotions that were still fairly fresh in his memory. The love he had for Checkers and the pain from losing him wouldn’t go away anytime soon. It might not ever go away completely.

But, as he looked at the other man and his extended hand, he knew that it wasn’t a bad thing. Steelbeak knew about Checkers before things really even started between them. He knew that Domino was still hurting and had never once tried to take advantage of that fact- never tried to use his pain as a way into his metaphorical heart. Steelbeak, who’d been praised by both F.O.W.L. High Command and White Diamond herself for his ability to deceive, manipulate, and infiltrate organizations thanks to his keen intellect and skills in knowing how and when to take advantage of others, had only ever offered his partner quiet support and understanding in the rare moments when he found the other man vulnerable while wracked with grief. He never once pitied him, or falsely sympathized with him by lying to him about knowing the same pain, or tried to tell him he should move on and find happiness elsewhere.

All he’d ever done was the same as what he’d done in that moment: He showed Domino that he accepted his past feelings, the ones he still held in the present, and the ones he would continue to have in the future without putting forth any pressure for the snowflake obsidian to change whatsoever. He showed that he accepted every part of Domino and would take whatever the darker bird was willing to give him.

Knowing that made a smile spread easily over the loon’s beak. “As if you needed to ask..besides, you already cheated by showing Loony her room first- if I try to make her leave now, I’ll never hear the end of it...” Domino brought one sleeve up to his eyes and wiped away the tears that had been threatening to spill over, Steelbeak glancing away as he often did in the exceedingly rare moments he actually saw his partner cry so they could both pretend he didn’t see it (it was one of the only things the taller gem didn’t tease him for). With his dignity preserved, the snowflake obsidian looked back up at his partner and reached towards the offered hand. “But, even with that aside, another thousand years sounds more than doable.”

As usual, a white barrier appeared around his hand like a glove so he could grasp the melanite’s hand, though this one was much thinner than what he would normally use. Most of the time if he had to shake someone’s hand, the barrier would be so thick and rigid that he wouldn’t feel the other person at all; those were more like wearing heavily padded winter gloves. This one, however, was so thin that it was almost translucent and had a bit of elasticity to it, allowing him to actually feel the warmth and pressure of Steelbeak’s hand in his own.

“I’mma hold ya to that, Domino.” Steelbeak smiled softly for a moment, accepting the contact and knowing what the change in the darker bird’s barrier meant without either of them having to say a word on the matter.

“Dominic.”

The word caught Steelbeak off guard, making him look down at the other bird in confusion. “Huh?”

“It’s the name I chose for myself.” Domino explained calmly. “If we’re going to be together for another thousand years, then I believe I can trust you with it.”

“!!” The look of surprise on Steelbeak’s face was truly priceless. He clearly hadn’t been prepared to hear something so important and quickly tried to cover it up with his usual sarcasm and bravado. “ ‘Dominic’? Really? Outta all the names in the universe, ya go an’ pick one that’s only two letters off from your given name?”

Domino shrugged, easily seeing through the other bird’s attempt to hide how touched he was by the shorter gem’s show of trust. “I liked the way it sounded.”

“Feh, ‘course ya did..” Steelbeak was quiet for a minute, avoiding eye contact as the conflict of what he was about to say was easy to see between his shifting eyes and tensed muscles. “……Mine’s Pauly..” The slightly uncomfortable look on his face made it glaringly obvious that he’d never shared that information with anyone before.

Domino raised one eyebrow while looking up at the melanite’s still-averted eyes. “ ‘Pauly’? Really? And you’re making fun of MY name?”

“..‘s better than ‘Dominic’..” The embarrassed melanite was growing increasingly flustered, even attempting to subtly pull his hand out of the other’s grasp.

“Not really.” Domino chuckled at his partner’s expression- it was always fun when he could find something to tease the normally self-confident chief officer over, but, this time, he decided to be merciful. “But,” He adjusted his grip on the lighter hand so that their fingers were now laced together rather than cupped as they had been before. “It suits you, Pauly.”

Steelbeak had been preparing what was likely a snappy comeback, but, when he heard the snowflake obsidian’s words, he stopped and looked down at their joined hands. “……” After a moment, he huffed out a quieter version of his usual nasally laugh. “Guess yours ain’t that bad either, Dominic.” He smiled adoringly at his partner, looking at him in that special way that he reserved when it was just the two of them- his eyes open and unguarded with none of his usual walls of sarcasm and cockiness there to hide what he was thinking.

Domino smiled back at Steelbeak in a similar manner, knowing that, while they likely had a long road ahead of them, they were both taking a huge step forward that day.

“Pauly..” Domino’s earlier anger begins to fade away. What was he doing? They’ve had their differences and disagreements before. They both have their issues. But Steelbeak has never lied to him. Avoided the truth as a form of self-preservation because he wasn’t ready to admit to something? Sure, plenty of times. But he’d never lied to Domino even once over the course of their entire partnership. “Pauly, I-” Looking back down at the seated gem, Domino is hit with a sudden wave of déjà vu.

The stance he’s in…

The way his hand is clutching the cluster of shards protectively against his chest…

The sad, sympathetic look on Steelbeak’s face…

The way his gun is pressed against the melanite’s shiny black gemstone and his finger is trembling on the trigger, about to pull back when the simulated muscles of his hand clench-

With a gasp, Domino realizes: He KNOWS this scene.

He KNOWS how it ends.

<-Previous Chapter Next Chapter->

End Notes: Oof..lot to unpack in this chapter. For any of you who have never read my work before, you will soon find out that I am physically incapable of writing any characters I ship in a story without putting them through the emotional hell that is angst.

For anyone who doesn’t know who the ones in bottom row of pictures were, here’s the breakdown: The first one is Domino with Ammonia Pine (and Ample Grime photo bombing them). The second one is him with @sandyferal ‘s OC Susanne Gnamie. The third and forth one are both @lesbian-duck-lord ‘s OC Marty and both were based off of pictures drawn by @thefriendlyfour .

Also, the whole thing with the given name versus the chosen name is an element of the main story that I’ll be introducing down the line: Gems are given a name when they’re created so they don’t have to keep going by their gemstone ID, but it’s kind of an unspoken rule of their society that, down the line, you end up picking a name for yourself, as well. It’s something very personal that you only share with those closest to you, hence Steelbeak getting all flustered when Domino shared his x3

On a side note, thought I’d mention that making Steelbeak’s real name Pauly came from a conversation I had with a friend about how he’s one of the few bad guys that never gets their actual name mentioned anywhere. We were talking and I was like “His name can’t just be STEELBEAK- he had to have been called something BEFORE he joined F.O.W.L., right?” and I thought about how Quackerjack, similar to Steelbeak, was never given an official name, but everyone in the fandom unanimously decided that his first name is some form of Jack/Jacky and his last name is Bell like his voice actor. I decided to play on that for Steelbeak’s name and said “Well he doesn’t look like a Rob, so how about something involving the last name?” and I eventually got “Pauly” out of “Rob Paulsen” and have now unofficially decided that that is his secret real name!

#darkwing duck #ducktales #dt17 #FOWL Facets #Steelbeak #Dominic Domino #gandra dee #Loony Toony #steeldomino #not my oc #100 follower giveaway!

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eb-the-gamer · 5 years

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STEVEN UNIVERSE THE MOVIE REVIEW (SPOILINGS)

Lets see here....

I wont lie Steven Universe has become something of a guilty pleasure for me since it premiered. E;R's video (as well as the Fanbases bad kind of fans) kind of jaded solidified it as not as good as everyone praises it to be. The video:

(Warning, he does not sugarcoat his opinions, and his fake antisemitism reviewer persona can be a bit much sometimes, which yeas he has confirmed to be not actually like that)

https://youtu.be/0RCL3ERdhhA

Lily Orchard goes more in depth. https://youtu.be/flLEr_sYC-k

- but I still love the style, music, story and all the twists and turns. It has a ton of real problems with its contents dragging, but warts and all I love it. So when a movie was announced, you could bet that I was low key excited. Even though the story was over, I was wondering what could happen for something like this. Is it good or bad?-

STORY: After Steven tames the Nazi Homeworld Diamonds (yes) and brings peace to Earth two years after the series ended, a new, cartoonish gem comes around and begins poisoning the planet with a giant Injector. She and the crystal gems have their memories wiped after a pretty one sided battle/jazzy villain song and Steven has to figure out how to get their memories back in order to stop Earth from being destroyed.

- MY THOUGHTS: the movie's not so much about Steven as it is Spinel's story arc surrounded by a Steven Universe episode where he's a teen. He is STILL being selfish and not learned his lessons from the series (he even mentions how the movie scenerio is the series plot all over again at one point too), the worlds ending and he complains about how he wont get his happily ever after... The memory loss plot was handled well, with how the gems regaining their memories not being as cut and dry as it would seem, but the Gems themselves are not really too much of a factor, why arent Peridot, Lapis, Bismuth and all the saved Gems not in anything aside from reforming Garnet? Why dont the gems - with finality - accept that in the end Rosie Pink was not a good person? Why do the diamonds only show up at the start and end? Why does Steven fuse with his father?!? Spinel's plot is great, but I think she could have served a better purpose in the series itself, rather than have a whole arc crammed into this, and its not really consistent with the series. Wouldve been better than filler .... 8/10

CHARACTERS - Spinel and Steven are the main characters, There are also The Diamonds, Connie, Lion, The Crystal Gems, and Beach Cities' citizens.

MY THOUGHTS: No surprise that the Manic, self hating cartoon clown that is Spinel is the best girl, and as much as I dislike how they handled her happy ending, its genuine when I feel happy for her and sad for her, and upset when shes so broken that she cannot accept that someone wants the best for her. Steven and the Crystal Gems are the same as before really, which is kinda dumb considering how much he supposedly learned...but I suppose thats the point... The Gems are more plot device than characters due to memory loss, everyone else is a background character honestly, even the rescued gems... Spinel - 9/10 Everyone Else - 7/10

MUSIC AND SOUND - the same synth background stuff like in the series. Its a musical movie too, so there are quite a few vocal songs ranging from female barbershop to a rock song.

MY THOUGHTS: Again Spinel wins out in pretty much all her songs. "Other Friends" is a great Electro-jazz villain song, "Drifting Away" is a somber, suitably depressing look at her backstory, Her Duet with Steven immediately after is suitably heartwarming, and the "Let Us Adore You Reprise", while part of a scene I do not like, is a charming barbershop tune. In comparison most of the other songs are not that memorable...except "Its The Truth" a soft supportive song about changing and moving past negativity...set to a fight scene. Honestly I dont think it needed so many, if it was mostly Spinel's songs and like two or three others, this wouldve been higher for not feeling so bloated. 7/10

ART AND ANIMATION: Steven Universe, but far more grand/nice looking on a movie budget. There is a lot of disney movie reference.

MY THOUGHTS - Its not much different at a glance, but the consistency of the characters between shots and the added details like the haunted look of Spinels eyes during her flashback and callbacks to previous episodes makes it so much of a labor of love. AGAIN Spinel is a standout, especially in "Other Friends" where her manic energy is at its peak. Spinel in general is a wonderful homage to classic animated movies and shorts along with the opening and ending sequences but thats dissappointingly as far as it goes, funnily enough an app game featured a story about a being bound by a book trapping others in her world! Imagine if they incorporated that hand had Spinel, running with that classic animated movie vibe? Oi.... Also props to the grisly looking purple and red Ruins of Beach City. SPINEL - 9/10, IN GENERAL - 8/10.

CONCLUSION: Its a pretty good movie all around, the reason to watch it is for Spinel, its her movie more than Stevens, which is a little bit of a problem, but whats good here is REALLY good. - 8.5/10

#Steven Universe #Steven #Universe #review #movie #the movie #steven universe the movie #Spinel #crystal gems #gem #gems #cartoon #classic cartoon

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psychosistr · 5 years

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FOWL Facets- Chapter 5

Summary: While their hostage is a bit more cooperative now, his mouth still lands him in trouble with Domino and Loony. At least the two of them can have a good laugh about it and fondly remember how they nearly gave the real Steelbeak the same treatment!

Notes: Time for some backstory that DOESN’T involve Liquidator xD

-First Chapter-

Their prisoner had apparently learned his lesson about mouthing off to the F.O.W.L. agents. He was more direct with his instructions and gave them less attitude in hopes they wouldn’t shock him again.

They still shocked him again. Repeatedly.

Domino, Loony, and Gandra got into a fairly easy routine when it came to dealing with the captive melanite: Loony would tie him up with one of her arms (or her leg at one point because she was bored and wanted to mix things up). Gandra would give him a mild jolt with her hand to re-stabilize his body and allow him to wake up. Domino would ask for their next heading. Then, at the end, Gandra would shock him again to destabilize him once more. They continued taking turns guarding him, just like before, keeping two people in the room at all times while the third gem went to the control room to make sure they were still on course.

By the time they’ve almost reached their destination, it’s Loony and Domino’s turn to guard him while Gandra steers the ship. The melanite told them that the next set of instructions were shorter, so they’d need him awake. To make things easier on all of them, Domino keeps a communication line open with Gandra to relay the directions while Loony keeps their prisoner firmly tied up.

“Just passed the three islands.” Gandra says through the speakers in Domino’s watch. “What’s next?”

Domino looks to their captive expectantly. “Give us the next direction…and it had better be the last one.”

“Relax, bright eyes.” The melanite rolls his eyes a little, but keeps his tone from getting too snarky. “Hang a left and head west- you’ll know when you’re in the right place.”

“For your sake, you had better hope we find it sooner rather than later.” Domino gives their prisoner a warning glare before relaying the information to Gandra. “Turn left and head west. Keep an eye out for anything that looks remotely suspicious in the water.” After hearing the star-sapphire’s confirmation, he returns his attention to the rooster. “Did your ‘acquaintance’ leave you with any instructions for the exchange?”

“Just two.” The melanite meets the loon’s red-eyed gaze unflinchingly, despite knowing that the threat of shattering him at any moment was still a very real possibility. “First: You gotta bring me out in one piece.”

“Only one piece? That’s doable.” Domino smirks when he sees the brief look of nervousness cross the melanite’s dark eyes before being covered up.

“Second: He mostly just wants t’ talk to YOU.” The melanite manages to keep his voice calm and level, even with the snowflake obsidian’s expression promising pain in his very near future. “Ya gotta leave the star-sapphire on the ship, but he said you can take your spine-” He doesn’t get the chance to finish his sentence, as he’s suddenly struck across the face in one direction by a white-barrier-gloved fist, and then immediately struck back the other way by a gray-gloved fist from his other side. “?!”

He’s about to ask what he did to deserve such harsh treatment, when the gray-gloved hand stretches around and grabs him by the back of his head. He’s forced to face Loony’s decidedly UNhappy face directly in front of his own. “I’m not ANYONE’S spinel, thank-you-very-much!” The arm binding the melanite begins to constrict and coil around his body even tighter, squeezing it like a boa constrictor. “I’m my own gem. Nobody gets to own me.” She continues squeezing the wide-eyed melanite’s body until it disappears with a poof, leaving his gemstone behind on the seat. Looking at the stone, her earlier anger fades away and she gives Domino an apologetic frown. “Whoopsie-doodles. Sorry, Dommy- I got a little carried away…”

“It’s fine, Loony.” He holds his hand out above the black stone and a white translucent bubble appears around it, allowing him to pick up the gem while keeping it contained. “I was about to shoot him, anyway.”

“Oh, goodie!” The other loon’s words are enough to restore the spinel’s cheer, making her giggle. “Hey, remember the first time Steely called me that and you nearly shot HIM for it?”

“Vividly.” He answers with a quiet chuckle. After all, how could he forget the first time he met the loud-mouthed melanite and everything they went through over the course of their first few missions?

It had taken Domino and Loony a week to reach the rendezvous point. They’d had to “borrow” a ship, fly through three asteroid belts and the debris of a broken planet, and been forced to walk for two days after crashing their ship too far from the appointed coordinates. All of this just to make sure they arrived promptly to meet Domino’s new partner.

The least the clod could do was show up on time.

With a glare that was becoming more irritated by the second, Domino pulled back his sleeve and checked his watch for what must have been the twentieth time since they’d arrived.

EIGHT HOURS. Domino and Loony had been waiting EIGHT HOURS for his new partner to show up.

To be fair, to most gems eight hours was a pretty insignificant amount of time. However, with the day (day/week/month/year/CENTURY) that Domino had been having, he was hardly in the mood to be kept waiting. What made matters worse was the fact that he had nothing to distract himself from the passage of time, so all he had to do was check his watch and look up at the sky. Loony had at least found her own entertainment in chasing around the small, colorful organic creatures that popped up from holes in the ground nearby, but that was hardly the sort of thing Domino could find enjoyment in. Seriously, he didn’t even have any data pads to read or a communicator to call F.O.W.L. for a status update on his new partner’s whereabouts, or ask what kind of gem it was, or-

He noticed something shiny break through the clouds, descending rapidly towards their location like a shooting star. He nearly mistook the object for one, too, until it slowed down enough to let him see the pronounced but rounded point on the front and the sharp, angular protrusions on the back were all actually just part of a gleaming golden ship that managed to shine and sparkle even in the low light of the planet with nothing but the stars and two moons available for illumination.

The flashy (and honestly a bit gaudy) ship landed less than ten feet away from them, causing a strong rush of air that nearly blew Domino’s hat off of his head. Keeping one hand on his hat to save himself the hassle of retrieving it later and the other in front of his eyes to shield them from the wind, Domino squinted at the mass of gold as it landed on the ground.

The air settled after a few seconds and a hatch on the side opened up a minute later. A tall silhouette stood in the lit opening, the lights making it hard to get a good look at what kind of gem it was. “Hey, you’re with F.O.W.L., right?”

“Depends on who’s asking.” The loon squinted up at the figure, trying to discern any details about the new comer.

“Oh, a wise guy, huh?” The person on the ship asked sarcastically. “Come on, snowflake, we got work t’ do.”

Domino scowled at the nickname. He’d been called so many names because of his gemstone- people loved to joke about how fragile obsidians were- and, while he’d gotten used to it and proved the hecklers wrong many times (usually by shooting one of them in the face) he still didn’t enjoy the teasing. Whoever this gem was, he was making a horrible first impression-

“What-?!” Domino was startled by a black, diamond shaped platform suddenly appearing under his feet and lifting him up towards the ship’s entrance. He barely managed to keep his balance, his look of surprise turning into an offended glare when he was brought up eye-level with the ship’s owner. “……”

Finally getting a good look at the other gem, Domino took in his new partner’s appearance properly: A black ball-cut melanite that looked like a rooster in a tailored suit with a large red comb, green tail feathers, and a metallic beak.

Oh, great- a GARNET. Every garnet that he’d been forced to interact with in the past had been stuck-up, spoiled, upper-crust elites that looked down on “lower-class” gems as if they were all mere pebbles by comparison. They pretty much always had a superiority complex and treated gems like Domino and Loony as if they were either cannon fodder or servants. Domino was already mentally cringing at the thought of having to work with the other gem.

“Quit with the starin’, red eyes.” The melanite told him with a roll of his own dark eyes as the platform roughly deposited Domino in the ship. “I already told ya, we got work t’ do and we’re runnin’ behind, so move it.”

“My name is Domino.” He continued to glare at the obnoxious garnet. “And maybe if YOU weren’t EIGHT HOURS LATE, we wouldn’t have to rush.”

The rooster wasn’t even remotely bothered by the loon’s hateful look. He merely rolled his eyes. “Oh, I’m SO sorry, I must’ve lost a few hours goin’ across the galaxy line.” That was possibly the most sarcastic, least apologetic apology that Domino had heard in his entire life. “Now, if you’re done snappin’, short fuse, we gotta go.” He pushed a button by the hatch and the door started to close.

“Wait.” Domino raised his hand, making a white barrier shaped like a rectangle appear and block the door’s movement. Before the melanite could ask him what he was doing, he cupped a hand by his beak to help with the volume of his voice. “Loony! Time to go!”

“Comin’, Dommy!” The spinel called back before her hands suddenly stretched up to the doorway and she pulled herself inside, Domino allowing the door to close once she was fully in the ship. She saw the melanite and gave him a bright, excited smile as she took one of his hands into both of her own, shaking it vigorously. “Hiya! My name’s Loony Toony, but my friends call me Loony! What’s your name?”

“..Steelbeak…” The taller gem answered after a moment of confusion, staring at the stretchy, smiling gem. “Didn’t know there’d be two of ya…”

“We’re a packaged deal.” Domino explained to the confused rooster. “Where I go, Loony goes.”

“Oh..” Steelbeak finally managed to free his hand from the prolonged and overly enthusiastic handshake, taking a moment to flex his fingers. “High command didn’t say nothin’ ‘bout it, but I can deal with it. So, she your servant or-?” He ducked, barely avoiding a gunshot aimed right at his face. “Hey, what’s the big idea?!” He glared at the snowflake obsidian and the pistol in his hand. A gray-gloved hand punched him in the back of his head before he got an answer. “Yeow!” He rubbed at the sore spot, shifting his glare over to the spinel this time.

“That’s rude!” Loony told him, putting her hands on her hips while she was stretched up to be slightly taller than him. “I’m Dommy’s FRIEND, not his servant!”

Steelbeak was about to say something else, but a white barrier forming a small bubble around his beak stopped him. “Let’s set a few things straight, right here, right now.” Domino grabbed the melanite by his bowtie using a white barrier-gloved hand and roughly yanked him down so that he could look him in the eyes properly and more easily press his gun to the side of the rooster’s head. “Loony is her own gem. She doesn’t take orders from me, and she certainly won’t be taking any orders from you. And that goes for me, as well: I am here on High Command’s orders as your PARTNER. I’m not some disposable amethyst for you to throw to the front lines and sacrifice. I’m not a pearl you get to boss around. If you even try talking down to me or Loony, you will disappear before you have time to blink. Are we clear?” The barrier dissolved with a snap of his fingers, his gun disappearing momentarily to allow the action.

“Wow, touch-y.” Steelbeak’s sarcastic tone was back the moment his beak was free. “Can’t a gem ask a question without gettin’ his head blown off?” He stood back to his full height, fixing his bowtie once the shorter gem let it go. “If you’re done bein’ all sensitive and offended over everythin’, we gotta go.” He began to walk off, presumably towards the cockpit, not sparing them a glance as he spoke. “And for the record, snowflake, I don’t really care what the deal with you and stretch is- I was just askin’ ‘cause I felt like it.”

Domino understood in that moment that working with Steelbeak was going to be one of the most mentally frustrating and exhausting things he would ever do in his life- a fact that the rude melanite would go on to prove time and time again as they spent the next few decades together on a series of missions assigned to them by High Command.

To the rooster’s credit, though, he was very strong and extremely competent in the field. The two of them made a surprisingly good team in battle with Steelbeak using his ability to quickly lift and maneuver them to better vantage points while Domino’s barriers protected them from enemy fire, leaving them both free to gun down the enemy from a secured and steady location. He was still generally rude and unpleasant to be around, but Domino managed to ignore that part about him as long as he could avoid being around him anymore than what was necessary for work.

Unfortunately, the fact that they often took Steelbeak’s ship on missions meant that certain interactions were unavoidable. One particular case-in-point happened a little less than a year into their partnership when the “Lucky Star” (which he still felt was a pretentious name for a spaceship) suffered some damage after a narrow escape on their last mission. While they’d managed to shake off their pursuers fairly easily thanks to the melanite’s piloting skills (yet another thing he had to give the taller man credit for- his flying maneuvers and intuition behind the controls were both top-notch), the damage to the power crystals meant that they had to stop off on a moon a few billion lightyears from homeworld for much needed repairs.

This led to Steelbeak lying on his back with the upper half of his body under the ship’s power converters. “Uggh, would ya look at this mess?” He complained, though it was mostly to himself. “The stabilizer’s trashed…gonna need a new one..” He ripped something out of the machinery and slid out from underneath the large converter. Looking around to the only other two gems on the ship, his eyes landed on Loony. “Hey, doll,” He tossed the metallic object he’d pulled out of the machinery towards the spinel. “Grab me another one o’ those from the supply closet- top shelf, on the right.”

Loony caught the object with ease, but she gave Steelbeak a confused look over the nickname. “My name’s not ‘doll’- it’s Loony, remember?”

“And we’ve been over this before-” Domino said while looking down on the melanite with a warning glare. “-she is not a servant. You’re not allowed to give her orders.”

Steelbeak rolled his eyes, the snowflake obsidian’s glares working about as well as they usually did on him (which was not at all). “Not this again…” He didn’t bother getting up from his spot on the floor, but he did counter the glare with one of his own. “Look, short fuse, I know ya got hang ups over your whole ‘we don’t take orders from you’ shtick, but you’re forgettin’ one thing: This is MY ship-” He gestured around them with one hand to the ship as a whole. “-and I ain’t a friggin’ chauffeur! You two wanna keep gettin’ free rides outta me, then ya gotta pull your weight around here.” He held up one finger when he saw the darker bird’s beak begin to open, already predicting what his protest would be. “And before ya say anythin’, it ain’t got nothin’ t’ do with ‘rank’ or ‘class’, or whatever ‘cause I DON’T CARE ‘BOUT THAT JUNK. I’d be tellin’ ya the same thing if you were sapphires or garnets- shoot, I’d even tell White Diamond t’ get off her lazy butt and do some work for a change if she was here!” He got back down under the power converter, waving his right hand in the general direction of the tool box located right next to Domino. “Now, ya can either spend a few years tryin’ t’ hitch a ride back t’ homeworld on a comet, or take five seconds t’ hand me a 155 micro-inch laser cutter so we can get there in a few days- your call, red eyes.”

Domino seriously contemplated shooting him in that moment (not that it was the first time he’d considered doing so), but he had to, reluctantly, admit that the loud-mouthed melanite had a decent point.

“Fine.” The requested tool (though he wasn’t entirely sure if it was the right one or not) was tossed so that it landed on Steelbeak’s stomach rather than placed neatly in his outstretched hand. “Though it wouldn’t kill you to say ‘please’ once in a while.”

Even with his face hidden under the machinery, Domino could practically HEAR the smirk in the other gem’s voice as he grabbed the laser cutter. “I dunno, snowflake- it might.” The nickname earned him another glare that likely would have had the same effect even if it was actually seen by the other gem.

“It’s Domino.” He stated for what had to have been at least the hundredth time, as he always did when that nickname came up.

Once they actually got back to homeworld and started interacting with other gems again, Domino learned that Steelbeak’s words held quite a bit of truth to them. He really didn’t care about a gem’s rank or purpose. From the lower class warrior rubies and quartz soldiers, to the servant-grade pearls and peridots, all the way up the chain to the commanding elite emeralds and his fellow garnets, he ultimately treated all of them the exact same way. Granted, the way he treated everyone was RUDE (High Command being the only obvious exception to his attitude), but it was at least a little reassuring for Domino to know that the melanite really didn’t view him or Loony any lower than he did any other gems in the universe.

While that fact helped ease his tension a little bit, there was still one thing that continued to rub him the wrong way- something that became increasingly harder to ignore until it finally reached a boiling point.

They had been sent out on another mission to a far off planet. It was a standard “wipe out the inhabitants and claim the planet as a base for F.O.W.L.” assignment. Everything had been going well until one of the creatures had revealed his race’s ultimate, last-resort weapon- a series of explosives buried deep within the planet. The bombs had gone off before they had time to get away. The pair ended up falling into a crevice that quickly filled over with rocks and debris, unintentionally leaving Loony up top before she could stretch down to reach them.

Reflexes guiding both of them, Steelbeak summoned one of his black diamond shaped panels below them to slow their descent into the bowels of the planet while Domino formed a white dome-shaped barrier above them to keep the quickly growing pile of rubble from crushing them. Their combined efforts worked in keeping them in place and alive, but it also left them stuck in place, forcing them to either wait and see if an opening presented itself or if someone was able to dig them out since the rubble above was too heavy to be pushed back up out of the hole and there were no tunnels visible nearby to offer them a way out.

“Well, ain’t that just SWELL.” Steelbeak said sarcastically while waving his hands in indication of their surroundings.

“You just HAD to take your time tormenting those last few survivors, didn’t you?” Domino’s voice was equally sarcastic, though his tone was laced with more annoyance than his partner’s.

“Oh, gimme a break...” Steelbeak rolled his eyes, leaning back against the white barrier behind him with his arms crossed. “How was I supposed t’ know they rigged this rock with a buncha crazy suicide bombs? I mean, who DOES that, am I right, snowflake?”

That was it. That was the last straw.

The rooster let out a startled yelp when he was suddenly grabbed by his collar and yanked down harshly to be eye-level with a pair of VERY angry red eyes. “My..name..is..DOMINO!” He snapped at the taller gem, years of pent up frustration finally surfacing. “Not red eyes, or short fuse, or stripes, or wise guy- and definitely not snowflake!” He tossed the larger gem to the ground (well, to the black panel below them) with ease, allowing him to look down on the melanite properly. “It’s been 100 years now and I’ve told you thousands of times! ‘Dom-i-no’, it’s not that hard to remember! Honestly, at this point it’s almost like you’re doing it on-!” He stopped, blinking twice as the anger in his eyes suddenly changed to realization. Oh stars. It all made sense now. “You are doing it on purpose..” He said slowly, crouching down so he was next to the other gem as he began to sit up. “You’re actually trying not to remember my name.”

“……” Steelbeak didn’t say anything to the accusation at first, but the way he avoided eye contact with the shorter gem was answer enough. “Not much point rememberin’ your name if you ain’t gonna stay.”

Now there was a statement that certainly got Domino’s attention. “Why wouldn’t I stay?” He shifted from his crouching position so that he was now sitting in front of the melanite. It wasn’t like they had anything else to do while they were waiting for a way out- he might as well get comfortable.

“I don’t do well with ‘partners’. I’m more of a solo-act, ya know?” Steelbeak shrugged with a heavy sigh, sounding like he’d had this conversation before a hundred times (maybe he had). “But every few hundred years, High Command insists on stickin’ me with some new gem, sayin’ ‘try and make this one work’, but it never does. They either do somethin’ stupid and go gettin’ themselves broke, get on my nerves enough that I throw ‘em out the airlock, or I get on their nerves enough that they transfer somewhere else first chance they get.”

Domino cocked a brow, his curiosity piqued. “How many partners have you had?” The thought of going through enough partners that you’d become used to essentially working solo was foreign to Domino. As an obsidian, he was originally intended to be part of the general labor force and work in large groups of his own kind. Then, as a F.O.W.L. agent, he’d only ever had one partner before, and they’d been together for nearly ten thousand years- not to mention the seven thousand years he’d had Loony around.

“I dunno…five…six hundred, somethin’ like that..” He answered so casually despite the loon staring at him in pure shock. Five or six hundred? How was that even possible?! “They all go away eventually, so learnin’ their names just wastes time. It’s like….” Steelbeak drummed his fingers on the panel below him, trying to find the right words. “Ya ever had a pet?”

Domino almost said no, as he himself had never actually “owned” one. But, after giving the question some thought, he supposed that assisting in the day-to-day caretaking of the various small creatures that both Loony and his previous partner brought home with them over the years somewhat counted. “Kind of.”

That seemed to be enough for Steelbeak to continue with his analogy. “Well, if ya got an animal livin’ with ya, at first it’s just some stupid little thing runnin’ around your place needin’ ya t’ do stuff t’ keep it alive. Then, suddenly, ya go an’ give it a name and everything changes- it ain’t just some random animal no more, it actually means somethin’ to ya. Ya get attached to it.” He began to look frustrated the more he spoke, moving his hands in a way that Domino had begun to realize was somewhat of a nervous tic for the larger bird. “Then BOOM! Next thing ya know it runs away or gets itself killed or tells ya you’re nothin’ but a worthless bucket of slurry and no one’s ever gonna like you anyway, so why bother-?!” He caught himself, realizing that he’d gotten out of the simile somewhere, so he lowered his hands back down to his lap and tried to cover his slip with one of his usual sneers. “So…yeah..it’s easier if ya just don’t bother namin’ ‘em…that way you don’t go gettin’ attached…it just make sense…”

Domino…really didn’t know what to say to that for a while. While he didn’t like that he was essentially the pet in that comparison, he could understand where the other gem’s attitude stemmed from a little better now. The idea of going through that many partners in a relatively short amount of time was still hard to imagine (seriously, in the time that he’d been with just one partner, Steelbeak must have gone through at least two or three hundred), but he could see the impact it left now: He could see the guarded posture, the distant look in his eyes as he even now tried to avoid the loon’s gaze, and the walls he was trying to cover up with snide comments and sarcastic quips. He could see it all now.

“Well, I’m not one to crack under pressure.” His simple statement was enough to make Steelbeak glance back over to him, if only just a little. “I can handle myself in a fight just fine, so unless it’s an enemy that can destroy an entire planet, then I won’t be taken down that easily.” The corner of his beak lifted slightly when the taller gem turned his head to look at Domino properly. “I also doubt you’d be able to throw me out of the airlock- I’d just put a barrier over it.” He saw the corner of the other bird’s beak shift a little as well, looking close to a smile before he could stop himself. “And I’m certainly not the type to run from a challenge.” He smirked, trying to come off as challenging but the usual aggravation he would have in his eyes was replaced with something closer to understanding.

Steelbeak seemed to be at a loss for words for the first time since- well, since Domino had known the normally talkative gem. After a few seconds, though, a few simple words left his beak. “A hundred and ninety-nine years.” At a curious tilt of the loon’s head, a silent prompting for more, Steelbeak elaborated on his statement. “That’s the longest I’ve ever had a partner stick with me. You beat that record, and I’ll think about rememberin’ your name. Deal?” He extended his hand towards the other gem, giving one of his usual cocky smirks but with something a bit more sincere showing in his eyes and the way he carried himself.

A small white barrier appeared around Domino’s hand like a glove before he shook the offered hand. “Deal.” He narrowed his eyes warningly, not letting go of the other bird’s hand quite yet. “But you have to stop calling me snowflake. I’ll tolerate the other nicknames until you remember to call me Domino, but if you continue using that one I cannot guarantee your safety.”

Steelbeak blinked in surprise as the other bird finally let go of his hand. “What’s wrong with snowflake?”

“Oh, don’t play dumb.” Domino waved him off, the white barrier dissolving to expose his hand again. “I know you’re only doing it to make fun of me and I won’t tolerate it.”

“Huh?” Steelbeak only looked further surprised, and now confused, by the obsidian’s words. “I call ya snowflake ‘cause you’re a snowflake obsidian-”

“Yes, yes, and I’m ‘fragile’, I get it! I’ve heard all the jokes a thousand times already: ‘Obsidians are so delicate!’ ‘Obsidians are just dark glass!’ ‘Obsidians are so disposable- they’re practically made to be broken!’ ” Domino scowled, holding his head as he closed his eyes for a moment. He seriously hated all of those stupid, juvenile jokes. If he heard one more, he would-

“People actually say that?” The genuine confusion in the melanite’s voice startled Domino right out of his thoughts.

“Huh?” He lowered his hand so he could look at the other gem’s face properly. He was surprised to see that the confusion written across Steelbeak’s face matched his tone perfectly. “The elites say it all the time.”

Steelbeak’s confused expression turned to a scowl that could have rivaled Domino’s a moment ago. “Ugh, do NOT get me started on those good for nothin’ snobs! I can’t stand those jerks!”

Those words surprise Domino yet again. “But..you’re technically an elite, aren’t you? You’re a rare, high-ranking garnet in White Diamond’s court.”

Steelbeak rolled his eyes, making a gagging sound as if the very idea disgusted him. “Not by choice- I try t’ limit my time around those over-polished rocks t’ almost nothin’. Those buckets of slurry got everythin’ handed to ‘em the second they popped outta the ground- they didn’t earn any of it and wouldn’t know a decent gem from a mud ball! They take one look at your gem and think they know EVERYTHIN’ about ya.” He jerked his thumb upwards in the direction of the planet’s surface high above them. “That spinel ya got with ya-”

“Loony.” Domino corrected automatically, though it didn’t stop the other bird’s speech.

“-she’s supposed t’ be a ‘playmate’, far as those elitist jerks are concerned, but she’s got a punch that’d put any amethyst or topaz down with one shot! And you-” He gestured now to Domino- specifically to his gemstone. “You’re an obsidian! You came out of a friggin’ volcano! Just to be alive, ya had to climb out of something that would’ve melted down most of those ‘elite’ gems and be smart enough to get out of there without fallin’ in another lava pit. Obsidians ain’t fragile, they’re sharp- both ways.” He pointed to one of the white spots in Domino’s gem. “Plus you’re a snowflake obsidian, on top of that! Those white spots ain’t just for lookin’ good, they’re made of quartz- so that means you got the sharpness of a regular obsidian PLUS the strength of a quartz soldier.” He lowered his hand, feeling that he’d more than made his point. “If anyone calls YOU fragile, then they deserve whatever ya shoot ‘em in the face with.”

To say that Domino was taken aback by the other man’s words would have been a gross understatement. Never, in his entire life, had he heard anyone describe his gem type in such a positive manner- least of all someone who, by all rights, would be considered an elite according to the diamond’s hierarchy.

What made the other’s words all the more meaningful was how ACCURATE they were. He could still remember the day he was forged: How he’d come out of the volcano and just barely avoided stumbling out into the lava below. How he’d had to climb out of the steep terrain while a couple of the weaker or more careless gems fell to their doom. How those gems screamed in agony and how some tried to grab onto him for support, or climb over him to save themselves, or even attempted to forcefully drag him down with them. How he’d fought for his right to live and climbed all the way to the top so he could see the sky for the first time. And how he’d navigated his way through the streams of lava down the side of the mountain to find the gem base set up miles away, only to instantly be put to work with no regard for what he’d endured to get there.

He hadn’t thought about it before because it was how all obsidians came to life, but Steelbeak was right in his assessment. Domino survived because he was strong enough to live. He continued to survive because he was intelligent enough to keep himself alive. Thinking about it that way, being a snowflake obsidian sounded like something to be proud of-

“Wait..” Once again realization dawned on him. “When you call me snowflake..is that your attempt at a compliment?”

Steelbeak looked away from the shorter gem’s inquisitive gaze once again, absentmindedly scratching at the feathers on his cheek with one finger. “I mean..if ya wanna take it that way, sure…whatever keeps ya from shootin’ me…”

Huh…

This man continued to surprise Domino in new and intriguing ways. Perhaps being partners with him wouldn’t be as bad as he thought.

They’d eventually been dug out by Loony, who’d had the idea to use even more explosives to blast away the rubble long enough that Steelbeak could raise their platform out of the hole while Domino’s barrier took on a more pointed shape to help push the debris away when it came back down. Their job was essentially completed after that and they returned to Steelbeak’s ship as usual, neither of them bringing up what they’d discussed beneath the planet’s surface but both certainly feeling a shift in their dynamic.

Things had begun to change between them gradually after that day. While Steelbeak was still rude and sarcastic, his attitude was more joking than insulting as it had been before. Also, now that he knew why the other gem resorted to nicknames, Domino felt less offended over hearing them constantly, which ultimately led to fewer fights between them. Around 150 years into their partnership, he noticed the nicknames “Dee” and “Dom” making their way into the lineup (Loony also got “Loons” added alongside the usual “stretch”, “doll”, and “super stripes”), a sign that Steelbeak was starting to remember his name even if he wasn’t saying it out loud yet.

Then one day, after they’d returned to homeworld following a decade-long mission on the other side of the galaxy, the two had stayed with the ship while Loony went off to go see a friend and the dynamic between them shifted yet again.

Steelbeak had been doing some minor repairs to the Lucky Star, mostly just buffing out some dents and welding together some minor tears in the hull. While he was welding a particularly deep gash on one of the wings, he blindly waved in the direction he’d left the toolbox a few feet away. “Hand me that laser cutter, would ya?”

Domino kneeled down to better reach the item in question. “The 155 or the 240?” He’d gotten more familiar with the various tools and methods of repairing the ship over the years- he’d even gotten better at flying on the odd occasion Steelbeak felt like letting someone else touch his precious vessel’s controls. It had been an interesting learning experience for the loon, seeing as his previous position was more focused on maintaining one of F.O.W.L.’s northern planetary bases and coordinating missions from there rather than flying all over the galaxy for different assignments like his current job.

“The 155 oughta do it.” Steelbeak said, holding his hand out expectantly. Once the correct tool was placed in his hand, he turned it on and got to work. “Thanks, Domino.”

A standard, generic reply had almost left the snowflake obsidians beak…until his mind registered the second word that had been said.

Domino.

Steelbeak had just called him Domino.

Not snowflake, or stripes, or red eyes, or wise guy, or short fuse.

Not even Dom or Dee.

He’d called him Domino.

With anyone else, he would’ve assumed it was a slip of the tongue. Steelbeak, however, was not one for letting his words come out so carelessly, despite what some gems might think. He’d said the loon’s name on purpose.

Pulling back his sleeve to check his watch, he took note of the date and couldn’t stop the smile that effortlessly formed on his beak if he’d tried: It was 200 years to the DAY.

Craning his head to get a better view of the taller gem’s face from his spot beside the wing, Domino saw the smile on Steelbeak’s face. How long had he been waiting for a chance to say the other’s name? Knowing him, he’d probably been looking for the right moment all day.

Leaning against the ship’s wing, Domino gave the only reply that seemed fitting in that moment. “Anytime.”

Steelbeak glanced away from his work, their eyes meeting, each with a knowing smile on their beaks. They both understood the meaning behind that single, simple word:

Anytime Steelbeak needed something, Domino would be there, and Steelbeak would do the same in return. They were partners now, and neither of them were planning on going anywhere anytime soon.

“Hey, Domino, think I found what we’re looking for.” Gandra’s voice says through the speakers on Domino’s watch, bringing him back to the present.

“Right, we’ll be there in a moment.” He replies before nodding towards the door while looking at Loony. “Shall we?”

“Yep! Let’s go save Steely!” Loony says with a smile, already jumping over to the door.

Domino follows behind her, glancing down at the bubbled gem in his hand. They were going to get Steelbeak back. They would not fail. They couldn’t.

After all, he’d promised to be there anytime his partner needed him..and he would not break that promise, now or ever.

<-Previous Chapter Next Chapter->

End Notes: This was another chapter that I had a lot of fun writing :) Getting to show the progression of characters’ relationships is something I always enjoy!

My favorite moment was definitely the one where they were essentially caved in together and Domino got the chance to see that, despite his cockiness and own personal insecurities, there was something worthwhile inside of Steelbeak that just needed some patience and understanding to be brought out.

#darkwing duck #ducktales #dt17 #FOWL Facets #Steelbeak #Dominic Domino #gandra dee #Loony Toony #steeldomino #not my oc #100 follower giveaway!

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