#I know I’m forgetting real gems but it’s been awhile for me | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tiny-smallest · 4 years ago

Text

in little ways

Rating: G Characters: Steven, Greg Warnings: none Description: The world changing is inevitable, but there’s one thing that will never change in Steven’s life.

Also on AO3!

—

Holy mother of god did I finish something? Slap a hammer in my hand and call me jesus because I’m making miracles.

—

Steven Universe is five years old. He wakes up in the little guest room of Miss Vidalia's house that he lives in every winter when Daddy says she goes to visit her family and crawls out of bed, gulping back tears as he pads his way down the hall to the living room where he shakes his father's sleeping form on the couch.

"Da-daddy?" His tremulous little voice sounds way too loud in the quiet house.

His father is awake in less than a few seconds, sitting upright with a soft gasp and rubbing at his eyes and Steven bites his lip, reaching up for his father's arms. Daddy reaches down and scoops him up and Steven nestles right under his chin with a sniffle, rubbing his nose on his pajama sleeve. "What's wrong, Schtu-ball?" he soothes, fingers stroking through his curls, eyes worried in the light from the street outside.

"Ba-bad dream!" he sobs in a wail, tilting his head back as it comes bursting out of him. "The-there was- there was a bi-big- a big robot! A-an' and it gobbled you all u-up and then it cha-chased me an'-"

"Shhhhhh sh sh shhhh." Daddy's hand is big and warm on his back, rubbing circles into it. "Deep breaths. A bad guy came and ate me?"

"Mmhmm." Big, wet eyes peek pitifully up at him from his chest. "A-an'- an' I was all 'lone."

His father presses a kiss to his forehead, his voice warmer than any blanket. "I'm sorry. That must have been so scary. But I'm right here, kiddo. It didn't happen and it won't ever, okay?"

"Mmmnnn."

"... How about this; why don't we make a plan in case it ever does? That way, you'll know just what to do."

He sniffs. "O-okay..."

"Okay." He smiles, and it is soft and gentle and nothing will ever hurt them ever, so long as Daddy is here. Steven lays his head against his chest. "So here's what we do..."

The rest of the world melts quietly away.

—

Steven Universe is seven and sitting in the van, plucking quietly at his ukulele. His tongue sticks out of his mouth, tiny fingers carefully working to coax the right notes from the strings.

Despite his hard work, the intense concentration, a string snaps. It avoids catching his fingers and the sound isn't even especially loud, but the suddenness of it pulls a sound that is part squeak, part yelp from him.

"How's it going, Schtu-ball?"

He looks up to find Daddy putting a knee onto the edge of the van floor, leaning over to pull a water bottle from the package they'd stopped to buy on their way here. His eyes stray from aiding him in freeing the bottle from the plastic to looking over at Steven with a smile.

The smile fades, a frown of concern taking its place. "Steven?"

Steven looks down at the broken ukulele string with a sniffle.

"Oh," comes the response, further softened. "Here, let Daddy fix that for you?"

He holds his hands out. Steven lifts the ukulele up and over his head, Daddy accepting the instrument and pulling out a repair kit from where it sat behind the box of water bottles.

Steven watches in silence as Daddy pulls out a string and sets about restringing the instrument. He watches as he slides the string through the hole in the back of the piece of wood--the bridge, Daddy had called it--and tied it in place, then pulls it a few inches past the tuning peg he was going to tie it to. He snips off the excess and feeds it through the tuning peg.

"You know," his father says as he worked, "you've been snapping strings more often than usual. Is something wrong? Are you stuck on something?"

Steven shakes his head without really thinking about it. "Jus' not payin' attention as much as I should."

"Oh, well- that happens sometimes." He looks up at him and smiles kindly at him, eyes crinkling at the edges. "It can be hard to focus if you're thinking about something else. Maybe that's a sign you need a break?" He lowers his head to resume his work, but keeps talking. "Remember that talk we had about burnout?"

Steven nods without really thinking about it. There is something really nice about watching him work. He watches Daddy's hands, rough with callouses, carefully work with the tiny pieces of the instrument to restring the ukulele, turning the tuning peg afterwards to tune it.

He wants to be able to do that someday. Maybe he should ask.

What would be the point if you can't play and your song's awful?

"What if they don't like it?" he mumbles.

Steven doesn't realize he'd said that out loud until his father's head jerks up with a look of surprise. "Huh?"

"Nothing," he says quickly, kneading his too-large shirt in embarrassed fistfuls.

Daddy reaches over to draw his fingers through his hair. "Kiddo, is this about the song you wrote for them?"

Steven hunches his shoulders with a wince, but the gentle touch coaxes his head up. His father is still smiling, eyes kind with understanding.

"It's scary," he soothes, "putting your work out there. I know."

He returns to the ukulele for a moment and finishes tuning it, handing it back to Steven before sweeping the small boy onto his lap. He cuddles him close, Steven laying his head back against Daddy's stomach.

"Sometimes you realize how what you made has your heart and soul in it, and it's really scary, exposing that heart to other people. But the gems love you, kiddo. And they'll be so proud that you wrote something for them- much less that you can play it for them!" Steven closes his eyes, listening to the smile in Daddy's voice. "They'll love it because it's your heart and soul. And honestly, also because it's really good."

Steven makes a little noise and his father gives him a light poke.

"I mean it, mister. You've got real talent!"

Steven blinks and looked up at him. "Really?"

"Mmhm." Another poke, to his side. That tickles! He giggles. "With your cute lyrics-"

Another poke. Steven squirms, giggling louder.

"And your nice harmonies-"

"Daddyyyyyyyy!" He tries to shove at the hands both poking him now half-heartedly, overcome with squirming laughter.

"And can't forget that nice angelic voice-"

"Eeeee noooooooo stoooooop!" Steven begins poking his father's belly, making his daddy laugh too. His father lifts the ukulele over his head and begins to tickle under his arms, making Steven shriek with laughter, but he stops after a second and Steven mimics him, prompting his father's own snorts and shouts.

It ends with his father lying on the floor on his back and Steven on his chest, smiling into his face.

His daddy smiles back, laying a hand on his head.

"You do your old man proud already." His eyes shine. "I can't wait to watch you grow up, kiddo. I love you."

Steven wraps his little arms around his father as best he can. "I love you too."

—

Steven Universe is ten, and the autumn breeze is cool on his back as he sits on the bench and swings his legs, ukulele on his lap, fidgeting with the strings. He is bored, frightfully bored, the feeling nails scraping along the inside of his brain, but he just has to try to be patient just a bit longer.

The wind blows a ballroom of fall leaves past him, dancing and twirling on the updraft. He could write a song to that, right? Yeah, he could!

little leaves fall from the trees come twirl up a dance for me! play on the breeze on your way towards the sea come twirl up a dance for me!

He's getting better at the ukulele, he thinks. Dad ran out of stuff to teach him ages ago; said he'd covered all the bases and now there was nothing to do but play. Hone his craft, Dad said. But don't overdo it. Burnout was an awful monster.

So he's careful to follow that advice. But it's hard to, sometimes. He loves to play and write music. He loves snatching new songs from thin air and breathing life into them. He doesn't think he could live if he couldn't create it, play it, learn it, listen to it.

It's like breathing. If he can't do it, he'll suffocate.

He assumed for awhile that everyone was like that. It was jarring when he learned the other children in town didn't experience the same thing.

It's still confusing, even now. Maybe he could understand if there was something they needed the way he and his dad need music, but one of them just... doesn't seem to have that.

It was when he realized that that he also realized this same boy was usually alone. And he always seemed so sad.

Steven swings his legs again, plucking a few idle notes. That song needs work, but he's not feeling it right now. Doesn't mean he can't try coaxing other music from his instrument, though.

How long does it take a bus to get from Ocean Town to Beach City, anyway? Drive faster bus man! I'm dying!

A honk startles him and his mouth falls open as the bright yellow bus pulls up. "I SUMMONED IT!" he crows as the children file off the bus. They all look at him, but he's only looking back for one boy-

And there he is!

"LARS!" He leaps up and waves, and the other boy flinches back, staring at him first in confusion and then... frowns?

The other kids are staring too. Weird.

"St-steven- what- what are you doing here!" He recovers fast, hands on his hips. Steven smiles despite the scowl.

"I waited for you! I thought we could go to the arcade-"

"No." He glares around. Steven isn't sure who he's glaring at. The other kids are gone.

Lars's face relaxes a bit when he realizes this, and without another word, he turns to walk away.

"W-wait!" Steven jumps up off the bench. "I- I thought-"

Lars doesn't stop.

"O-okay! M-maybe tomorrow then!" Still nothing. "Uh- Saturday! Saturday's fine!"

Lars turns the corner. Steven droops.

"They've got a Saturday special?" he pleads to no one.

The leaves whirl again. Steven watches them before sighing and grabbing his ukulele.

It's a quiet walk to the car wash. He finds his dad just inside the building with the big brushes, hosing it down, and can't find the will to wave when Dad waves first. The bright smile droops, and Dad turns the hose off as he draws near.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked, setting it aside.

"Lars didn't wanna go to the arcade," Steven mumbles, folding his arms across his chest. His father pats his shoulder.

"Maybe he's just busy?"

"Maybe..." He looks away. Dad crouches onto one knee.

"Maybe he's just grumpy. Maybe he had a bad day and he needs space." He hesitates. "Maybe he's just- not a very nice kid."

Steven balks. "Oh no! He's not a bad kid! He's just sad."

"Those things aren't exclusive, buddy."

His dad's voice is gentle, but Steven isn't having it. "But he just looks sad! Maybe he's scared of anyone knowing."

He fidgets.

"Or maybe I'm just not doing it right," he adds in a sad little whisper.

"Oh- Steven, no..." Dad cups his face with both hands. "... One of the hardest lessons you'll ever learn is... sometimes you can be the nicest you you can be, and it still won't be enough."

He tucks a particularly unruly curl behind his ear, something in his eyes heavy. "Sometimes people just aren't compatible. And sometimes they're just mean. That's not your fault, son."

"... But he seems so... lonely. Won't he feel better if he just has a friend? Doesn't he just need a friend...?"

His father's smile was sad. "... He probably would feel better if he had a friend. But you don't need to be that friend."

"But I wanna be."

Dad kisses the top of his head.

"You're a sweet kid," he murmurs. "But you don't need to be everybody's friend."

"I wanna be his. He's nice. I like him."

His father let out a soft sigh, cupping his face. "Maybe he really is just grumpy today, or sad, and needs space. But there's no shame in leaving something be."

Steven's insides squirms. "I... I wanna keep trying. But... he doesn't wanna today. And I don't wanna go alone."

Dad straightens up and looked around the car wash, a hand still on his head. "... You know what? It's been a really slow day here, stchu-ball. Let me finish up here and I'll close up early, and we can go."

He brightens, feeling the stars return to his step as he starts bouncing. "Really!?"

Dad never closes up early, though!

He smiles at him. "As long as you don't mind hanging out with your old man."

"Never! Never ever! Oh my god c'mon dad let's go let's hurry up what do you need help with-"

His father's laughter echoes around the building as Steven grabs the hose and charges deeper inside.

—

Steven Universe is fourteen, turned fourteen three days ago, actually, and is standing side-by-side with his father at his bathroom sink, razor held in nervous, twitchy fingers. "Like this, right?"

"Yup, just like that. Now you want to put it against your face like this-" Dad demonstrated with a razor of his own, the protective plastic casing over the blade to avoid actually maiming his beard. "And then slowly, carefully draw it down. No need to rush."

Steven draws the razor down his face in a slow but shaky motion, letting out a soft gasp of pain. "Ah!"

Dad winces in sympathy. "Well- close, yeah. You okay? How good did it get you-" He leans over his son to check without waiting for an answer. Steven let him look at the cut on his chin for a moment before reaching for the box of bandaids, his hand touching his father's hand instead of the box. They look at one another and laugh.

"Sorry," Dad apologizes as he withdrew his hand to let Steven take the box, smile sheepish. "Guess you can uh- patch up your own cuts, huh?"

"Well I mean..." He looks at the weeping cut and winces. "... Yeah, but still. Thanks."

He blinks as Steven opens the box and fishes out a bandaid. "For what?"

"For taking time out to help me," he answers as he peeled off the paper and aligned the cotton part with the cut. "I guess I was a little eager and a little too nervous at the same time?" He laughs, a little shakily. Like his hands. "I always mess up worse when I'm like that. Too excited to do the thing and too nervous to really stop and think and steady myself so I can do it right."

His father's warm hand comes to rest on his back, and when Steven looks up and over at him, it was to kind eyes gazing down at him with a fondness beyond measure. "Everyone's a little nervous about new things. Even good things. Especially big, new things, like milestones."

Steven thinks about the way Connie smiled at him, and cuddled into his chest, and how the wind had tugged at her curls in the summer sunset. Like growing up and falling in love? he wants to ask.

"Like shaving?" he asks instead.

"Like shaving," Dad ruffles his hair. "And sometimes you make mistakes, but that's learning any skill. Your old man will always be here to help you master them, however long it takes."

Steven looks back into the mirror, at the only facial hair he'd grown and yet still somehow managed to miss.

Connie declaring she liked him even if he didn't grow at the same pace as her, would always care about him, something that felt so, so obvious in hindsight by how she panicked when she thought he'd melted into a microscopic thing.

"Even if it takes awhile?"

"Always."

He stares at their reflections, side-by-side, the hand on his back, and picks up the razor again with a smile.

"Thanks."

—

Steven Universe is sixteen and sitting across from his father at breakfast, resisting the urge to swing his feet like a child because the buzz in his brain and the core of his being won't go away.

He meant it when he told Dad he thought he could pull off the new look, he really did. Dad is Dad and will always be Dad, no matter what his hair looked like.

And it is because of that fact that his gut still aches. As his father makes small talk about the weather and Little Homeschool and some of the new Beach City gem residents, Steven finds himself staring at the short hair, especially when Dad turns to address their waitress, removing the threat of him noticing Steven staring for about a minute.

He sees the look she gives them, too. Not many people know the Universes that well, but everyone knows of them. Dad is less invisible to the fellow humans of Beach City than he is to the gems that inhabited the town to work and learn and play. While they remain oblivious to the fact that something awful must have happened, the human townies sure aren't. Their waitress's look is one of nosy worry.

Steven prays she won't act on that worry.

He likes to think that all these years together means he can read Dad like a book. Every gesture, every crease and line in his face, every widening of the eyes. Steven prides himself on reading people in general, and he knows his Dad better than he knows just about anyone else. Better than just about anyone else knows Dad, actually.

And what he reads right now are glaring signs of upset. It shows in the slight shake of his hands when he goes to cut his waffles, the lines around his eyes, the slightly-too-wide look he throws the way of the door when it suddenly opens with too much force because quartzes never know their own strength ever.

It reminds him of when they escaped the Zoo. The tremors, the fake smiles, the frightened eyes that sometimes glazed over. The realization he'd failed in his promise to make sure gem stuff never touched his dad again was something that had hit him earlier, but it doesn't make the resurfacing of that realization suck any less. His gut feels like lead, filled with so much guilt he could be sick with it.

His dad trembles a little all over as the quartzes step inside, crowing about... something he has no context for.

He desperately doesn't want anyone to call attention to it. Dad's already not having a good time. Please don't make it worse.

Thankfully their waitress does not. She sticks around for a second as Dad cuts into his breakfast, left frozen for a moment by the sudden loud entrance of the quartzes, before smiling at them and going to see what the gems might want.

His father laughs, a little too forcefully, and shakes his head. "You'd think they'd learn how light wooden doors are sometime!"

"You'd think," Steven manages to chuckle, shoveling a bite of pancakes into his mouth. It tastes like sawdust. Maybe the cook's new.

Something must have shown on his face, because Dad pauses before lowering his fork and reaching across the table. "Hey," he says softly. "Are you okay?"

He asked that question not even an hour ago and somehow it's harder to answer this time.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He forces a smile. It must not have worked, because Dad's frown only deepens and the knot in his forehead only gets more pronounced. "Really," Steven adds.

"... I know what happened this morning was- scary." Dad's grip tightens on his shoulder before letting go. He doesn't return to his food so much as push it around on his plate a little. "I know you said you were okay earlier but- really- if you need to talk-"

"No, I'm fine," Steven promises. The words fall out so easily and naturally he barely hears himself say them, doesn't have to think about it. "Really."

Dad puts his fork down and looks at him with a gaze so strongly empathetic that Steven for a moment fears his father is actually staring into his soul. "... I believe you," he said after a moment. "But if it ever suddenly becomes... not fine, come tell me, okay? I won't be bothered by it."

Steven nods, still smiling. Dad said the same thing when he kept asking after the Zoo, kept getting the same answer, but really, how wouldn't it be a bother? Dad had his own worries then, and he does now.

Dad believed him after the umpteenth time of being promised he was fine, his gentle offer always present each time but especially stressed the last time before he dropped the questioning entirely, and this time is no different.

If only he had believed Dad's promise in return.

—

Steven Universe is seventeen and curled around his phone, under his comforter, trying to ignore the sunlight against his bed.

He should get up. He should go take a shower and brush his teeth. He should get something to eat. He should go sit outside. If absolutely nothing else, he should do just that really short list.

But he can't move. He should get up. He should get up. Why can't he move? He notices a pink glow against his phone and lets out a noise somewhere between a whine and a growl.

"Schtu-ball?"

He jolts, brain taking a minute to catch up to reality. Steven pushes his comforter aside a little to peek out, his father's worried face looking back.

At the sight of him, Dad's concern melts into a smile. "Hey," he says in hushed tones. "How're you feeling?"

Like I can't even talk. He gives his father a grimace. A knot of concerned sympathy set itself in Dad's forehead.

"Want food?"

Does he? He thinks he does. He should eat something anyway. So he nods. Dad smiled at him and straightened, leaving the room.

Steven isn't sure how much time passed in a foggy haze, but it's disturbed when Dad returns. The smell of pancakes make him blink, pushing his comforter aside to sit up.

"You didn't have to-" he starts, voice cracking as his father passes him the plate. His creaky protests are immediately smothered with a very careful hug.

"I did," Dad soothes. "And I wanted to."

"But-"

"Shhh. No buts." He draws back, smoothing back Steven's hair as he sits on the edge of the bed. "Is it a talking day? Or a quiet sharing space day?"

Steven hesitates before holding up two fingers.

"You got it." The large hand begins to rub his back in circles as Steven rubs tears from his eyes. Stupid! Why is he crying!?

He's nibbling at the meal when his father adds, very quietly, "It's a lot. Sometimes things overflow. It's okay to cry. It's okay to talk. It's okay to not talk. Whatever you need, I'm here."

He turns to look at his father's face, at his dark brown eyes filled with so much love, before he rubs his eyes and begins to eat, really eat- slowly, but surely.

He leans into Dad's side.

Dad pats his back.

—

Steven Universe is eighteen. The world snaps into focus with jarring, sickening suddenness, like he just fell from one plane of existence to another. In a way, he did.

He lays there, gasping in the silence that thunders in his ears, in the thick heat settling over the room. He shudders, feeling tears track down the sides of his face, head full of cotton and fog. Where is he? What day is it? What time is it? It's dark.

He doesn't like that it's dark.

He tries to get out bed. Falls. The thud shakes the house and Steven whimpers as he tries to kick away the sheets twined around his leg, the feeling of being pinned making his stomach turn. He succeeds, flailing to his feet, opening the door to the balcony.

He hesitates, slams it shut, runs downstairs, and flees out the front door instead, taking the stairs two at a time and nearly falling his way down them.

The sea spray is a nearly welcome bite against his skin at first, but despite doing better to draw him into reality, it doesn't make the sick pit in his stomach go away. He is now wide awake, painfully wide awake, and yet every fiber of his body still shrieks sirens. His pulse is near painful.

He slows to a stop along the beachfront, doubling over, hands on his knees, breath coming in gulps and gasps.

What now?

He could go find the gems. He has full access to the temple, welcome whenever he wants.

He doesn't want to find the gems. They can't help him here.

Steven takes a moment to contemplate the trembling of his body before he admits what it is he actually needs to do, and he straightens, turning to jog back around to the boardwalk. Reaching where the wood meets the sand of the beach and the grass of the hill, he runs up the block towards the car wash, feeling his gut churn. He doesn't realize until he stops running that he'd even started, chest heaving.

He hesitates at the sight of the van before he pushes back the faint this is dumb this is dumb this is duuuuumb you're too old for this sort of shit echoing in scolding bursts from the back of his head and stands on his tiptoes to peer through the diamond window in the back of the van.

There's Dad, asleep, bundled comfortably in what was probably a more orderly setup at some point and during the night devolved into more of a nest than anything else.

Overpowering relief sweeps in like the tide he had just been running adjacent to a few minutes ago. His knees turn to jelly and a powerful burn creeps into his eyes, Steven covering his mouth and putting his back to the van, sliding to the ground and stifling as a sob. The van is icy against his back even through the random yellow shirt he'd decided to designate a pajama shirt. His hand finds his hair, grasping fingers twisting themselves into his curls, his other hand still over his mouth.

It's unusually chilly for a summer night. In two weeks he leaves for his road trip. These are random facts that have nothing especially to do with the situation and yet they're dredged to the forefront of his mind. Why?

Steven takes a moment to sit with the thought. The former is probably just because it's miserable. He's miserable. He doesn't want to be here, in this moment, right now, and the chilly night air is compounding his inner turmoil. The second...

Can he really say he's ready for this venture when just a single nightmare is enough to rip him apart like this?

It's a thought so upsetting he yanks himself away from it like touching a hot stove. His therapist would be disappointed in him for not engaging with the thought. He really doesn't have the energy to do much but hate his cowardice for a brief moment and then try to move on.

Dad. Dad is fine. Dad is safe. You can go home now.

... But he doesn't want to.

The thought makes his stomach squirm. What is he supposed to do? Wake Dad up? Bother him with the figment of his imagination? Hey Dad, I know it's like three in the morning, but funny thing- I had a dream about Eyeball and Aquamarine using that knife to do exactly what they were planning! So, how about the weather, huh?

No, he really doesn't think he had to bring that up again.

... He could wake him up without telling him details, though. Should he wake him up? Would that be selfish?

He could hear his therapist. "Steven, people love you. Let them love you. It's not a crime to accept the different ways they love you even when it inconveniences them; relationships are give and take."

Well, guess Dad's getting his money's worth, he thinks, slowly, shakily rising to his feet.

It still feels wrong. It's the reminder that Greg would be even sadder if he didn't wake him--even if Steven knows that's not the proper motivation--that makes him swallow and knock on the window, finally.

Greg jerks, sitting upright so quickly Steven can hear his back crack. This was a mistake.

But it's too late now. Greg's head turns towards where the sound came from, blearily blinking sleep from his eyes, and freezes as awareness hits. He scrambles up to his knees and Steven can hear him fumbling to crawl over to the doors, throwing them open as Steven makes his way around to the back. "Steven? Steven what-?"

"Hi Dad," he whispers around the thick lump in his throat, feeling supremely stupid, standing there shivering the way he is.

Dad makes a soft hushing noise, ushering him inside with sweeping gestures of his arms, and Steven is too weak to resist, especially since he did just wake the man up. He crawls inside, Greg immediately bundling him in one of the blankets he'd been using for sleeping before hugging him tight. Steven watches as he unsuccessfully tries to close the door without letting go of him by hooking his foot on the inside handles, but he manages it before Steven can apologize and move to do it himself.

"You're freezing!" he laments, letting go of him just enough so as to lean back and get a look at him. "What happened!?"

Feeling his father's warmth retreat even just a little leaves a yawning yearning somewhere in his center. Without giving himself time to think much more on it Steven moves forward to follow his father's movement and buries his face into the crook of his neck. "Nightmare," he croaked, willing his voice to hold and disappointed it doesn't do anything of the sort. "I just- I just had to make sure you were okay."

The tenseness in his father's form melted a little with the promise of no imminent threat, Dad reaching up with one hand to softly stroke his fingers carefully through his hair. "Oh Steven..." He felt his father's face press against his head for a moment and only half swallowed the whine that slipped out. "I'm here. Everything's okay. You need to talk about it?"

"No no nO NO DON'T PLEASE STEVEN HELP-"

He couldn't shake his head, buried against him like this, but he untangled his hands from the blanket enough to fist them in his father's shirt. You can feel his pulse like this. This is him. He's okay. He's alive. They didn't hurt him. You didn't let them. He found a way out, and you made sure they didn't go into the house after him, and then the gems squashed them outside.

"... I can't," he pleads. His father's arms squeeze him tighter.

"Writing?" comes the soft suggestion.

"Not this time. Not-"

Would he be ready to share this anytime soon?

... No, he can't promise that. He can't say 'later' when he didn't know when that would be. It would be too much like lying.

"Not yet. Dunno if soon."

"Okay," Dad soothes. He begins rubbing circles into his back. "Do you want to stay the night?"

"... Do you mind?" His voice sounds pathetic even to him.

"Never," he promises.

Steven swallows back a sob with a gulp and nuzzles his face into Dad's shoulder. His father's chest begins to vibrate as Greg starts to hum; a low, soft, gentle white noise he's heard a million times.

And will a million more, Steven realizes.

And will a million more.

Steven lets the heavy tension begin to leave, feels the coiled bands in his muscles loosen.

He lets his heavy lids finally close.

The rest of the world melts quietly away.

#steven universe #steven quartz universe #su steven #greg universe #su greg #greg su #steven universe su #my writing #man i have no idea what the popular tags are for these character sljfdf

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tornrose24 · 4 years ago

Text

How I really met your dad (Red Diamond AAU Drabble)

Original gem au belongs to angerydj

Alexandra belongs to me.

After uncovering a huge secret, many questions ran through Alexandra’s mind. One of which was bouncing in her head as she and her mother watched a movie together while they sat on the couch and ate popcorn.

It was one of those black and white films that was a hidden gem from a long ago past. Her mom had a guilty pleasure in old school romance stories like the one on the movie, and she couldn’t help but wear a melancholic smile.

“Hey mom?” Alexandra finally asked. “Did you know that dad was also Red Diamond?”

Edith turned her head in confusion and Alexandra had to clarify. “I mean, did you know that dad had two personalities and Red Quartz wasn’t his original identity?”

A long silence fell.

Edith stopped the movie and thought for a while.

“You weren’t supposed to know until you were older.” She finally admitted. “So you did know?” Alexandra moved closer to her mom. On one hand it was a relief to know that her mom knew, but she couldn’t believe that she too kept it a secret from her.

“Well I didn’t know that he was also Red Diamond, but I knew about the spilt personality.”

“George and Harold said that Red Diamond was my actual dad and the one who married you. Something about ‘he helped her conceive you–not Quartz.’ Whatever that means.” Alexandra added and was confused by the blush in her mother’s face. “When did you know?”

“Well.” Edith thought. “He didn’t call himself by that name back then. And it was sometime after I met Quartz and the boys.”

*****Many years ago****

Edith was in her last fall semester of collage. Red Quartz had offered to help her study for a big test, even though he fumbled with most of the hard to pronounce words.

She had only known him personally for a few weeks after he and the other two helped saved her from what they referred to as a ‘corrupted gem.’ He was very strange but sweet and funny at the same time and she found herself enjoying his company.

However it was due to rain and he escorted her home after she wanted to head back. Along the way, he chatted about one of his past adventures as he walked alongside her and as the clouds began to form over them.

“Then just when it was about to swallow me whole, I–!” Without warning, he suddenly flashed in a white light. Edith stared in confusion and waited until it faded. For some reason he now wore clothing and he had a black toupee that barely covered his head.

“What the–?!” His voice sounded the same but it had a gruffer tone as he looked around in confusion. He noticed Edith and stared at her for a few seconds before he began to panic. He snapped his fingers and he turned white again.

“Sorry, what was I saying?” Quartz asked in his usual smooth tones when it faded and he was dressed in what minimal clothing he normally wore.

“Uh–” Edith had no clue what to say when suddenly he turned white again and changed back into wearing more clothing and a toupee.

“Are you kidding me?!” He snapped his fingers again and changed once more.

“Oh yes, it was about to swallow me!” Quartz grinned as Edith felt the rain hit her face. “Then I–!” A split second later his appearance changed once again and more rain began to fall. He tried to snap his fingers again, but nothing happened.

“OH COME ON!” He yelled at the sky. “Uh, is everything alright Quartz?” He flinched and looked at Edith. “Why are you changing back and forth?”

He opened his mouth, but then thought. “Wait–no.” He shook his head. He stuck a finger in the air and growled. “Ugh! Why wasn’t he told to stay out fo the rain?!”

******

They sat together in the apartment and he had a blanket thrown over his soaking wet body. After getting an idea of how much Edith knew about himself and the gems, he then had no choice but to give her a heavily edited version about himself.

“So Red Quartz is actually a split personality?” Edith understood now. She heard about this in fiction and psychology but she hadn’t seen an actual case until now.

“I needed him for a time, but then things happened and anyone who can erase him isn’t around. I’m stuck switching between him and me unless I can find someone to fix this, and so far I’ve had no luck.” He sighed and held his head in his hands. Sometimes it was a blessing to have Red Quartz take over, but often it was a hassle.

“Then if you aren’t Quartz, who do I call you?” Edith asked. “I’m already friends with him, but I’d to be friends with you too, now that I know and everything.”

He glanced at her. He spent a few moments thinking it over, but then he stared into her beautiful blue eyes and her lovely face. Something about her made him feel relaxed and calm.

“It’s Benjamin.” He gave her the human name he decided for himself. The one he chose after spending years without a name to replace the one he had forsaken.

“Well Benjamin, my name is Edith.” She smiled and he felt something inside him skip a beat. She looked out to see the rain falling down. “I suppose you’l be stuck here for awhile.” “That’s fine.” He truly was fine with that.

Time would pass and he’d soon find himself looking forward to seeing her more often. He didn’t let Red Quartz come out as often any more as he wanted to spend more time with Edith. He felt like he could be himself around her and for the first time in a long time, it felt like he was able to completely forget about the past.

A certain Zircon and Sapphire noticed the changes, but they didn’t dare comment on it. They weren’t sure what to do in this situation, but they wanted to see how things would go.

****Present day****

Edith had pulled out some photos she had hidden and Alexandra finally what her dad looked like as her mother had seen him, and there was nothing to say that he was anyone else in them.

He still somewhat looked like Red Diamond, except he had adjusted his physical appearance to be ten to twelve years younger (much like how George and Harold did to make themselves look older on a few rare occasions). He still had the same exact toupee, though it was completely black. However he had Red Quartz’s light pink skin tone and he looked far happier than in Alexandra’s dream or in the memory that was shown to her. He was shown hugging Edith and he had nothing but complete adoration in his eyes towards his future wife.

“So that photo you gave me was actually him this whole time?” Alexandra thought about the picture in her bedroom. “That was actually dad as Benjamin?” She understood why he preferred using that name instead of ‘Red Diamond’ after all it carried for him. It sounded a lot more pleasant and humble.

“It was.” Edith smiled.

Alexandra frowned. Even with the different skin color, she could still tell it was Benjamin and not Red Quartz. “But dad looks the same both ways–how did everyone miss that? I mean, yeah he has a wig and pink coloring, but he had a red coloring when I saw him as Red Diamond. And he was wearing a similar wig too.” Were the Homeworld gems really that stupid?

Edith couldn’t help but chuckle. “Well that’s because he didn’t have any hair when he was first created, or so he told me. You’ve seen George and Harold switch into different forms, right? Ever noticed how the color of their skin and hair might change? It was the same for him, but I suppose no one noticed if they hadn’t seen what color his hair was supposed to be.” Alexandra couldn’t help but chuckle back as she tried to imagine Red Diamond with pink hair and Red Quartz with red hair. “I didn’t mind–I thought he was handsome either way.”

Alexandra sighed and lifted her shirt up to see the gem that was actually a diamond and not a quartz. “So did dad actually love you when he was Red Quartz?” “He did.” Edith reassured her. “He ended up loving me because your father loved me. He was a part of Benjamin, so I loved him too. But it was Benjamin that I was the closest to and the one that I married. He was the one who helped create you, the one who created the diamonds for me to sell off for your future, and the one who was there when–” She stopped, but her daughter knew.

Benjamin was the one to sacrifice both his gem and his life when she was born with frail health. She was the real reason that Red Diamond had died.

“So if Red Quartz wasn’t the one to give up the gem... then he wasn’t really there when I was born. He didn’t know he was going to die.” Alexandra spoke out something that had haunted Edith for awhile. “Did he even know you were pregnant with me?”

“Eventually he found out–you can’t really keep a pregnancy a secret.” Edith admitted. “George and Harold were going to tell him, but then you were born and... well, the last time any of us saw him was a week before your birth. He never had the chance to see you and I don’t think your father wanted to lose what precious time he had with you when his mind was still his own. He never was comfortable with sharing me with Red Quartz and he was worried as to what would happen if you were left alone with Quartz.”

Alexandra touched the gem.

Every time she thought she had her father figured out, she’d learn something new that would make her unsure. She was relieved that her mother hadn’t been lied to, but she felt sorry for the gem known as Red Quartz. In the end, he had also been lied to by everyone and his life ended without him knowing it.

“Sweetie?” Edith knelt down and placed a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. ��Both Benjamin and Red Quartz wanted to see you–they loved you and they both would have given their life for you.” “I know, but I just wish that Red Quartz was able to make a choice too. I wish he knew the truth too. If he was also my dad, then he deserved a chance to see me too. And I wish dad–” She sighed. “I wish dad trusted me enough to let me know the real him like he did for you too.” Edith didn’t know what to say but instead she hugged her daughter. Alexandra hugged her mother back. Despite their frustrations, they both wished that things hadn’t been so complicated with the one who had played an important part in their lives.

#captain underpants #cu gem au #red diamond aau

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princeof-gore · 6 years ago

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Thoughts on Steven Universe - Change Your Mind

I thought I’d get this out there while I’m up in some MAJOR feelings right now about this topic (I write better this way, so let’s get with it.)

I quit interacting with the fandom sometime ago. The fandom drama became a nuisance to the point where any interaction with fandom content made it difficult to appreciate. The sad truth is, I think for some of us that left awhile back, we let petty fandom strife get in the way of something beautiful and the message Steven Universe brings to its audience. So, why comeback? More specifically, why comeback to this specific point in the show’s story where the resolution begins to take its course. (And why it’s now officially my favourite episode.)

No story is perfect technically. Steven Universe is not a perfect story in its technical aspects. You can say what will you about the shows flaw of character models being inconsistent, the timing and pacing of the show being too stiff, or too childish, or anything else that’s too much or too little. That’s fine, understandable even. Acknowledging it’s weaknesses as an audience, it is what it is. However, don’t let that get in the way of how Steven Universe handles the themes of literal growth, change, and development, themes that are very much prevalent and can be applied to anyone’s life. Lest we forget, how we analyze how the show treats its villains, not just as antagonists with a warped sense of morality and they forever remain stagnant characters, but as characters who can have their own moments of redemption and change. However, their redemption comes at a price and they must be willing to put in the effort towards their redemption and growth. If they recognize their flaws, if they are willing to seek out and take the offered helping hand of others, to change their minds and hearts to become, not perfect, but better. Not everyone is willing to forgive, not everyone is willing to let go of the hurt of their past, not everyone, but in time if they proceed with small steps and determined hearts, they can learn to heal.

Tonight’s episode, Change Your Mind, is a beautiful testimony to changing the heart of a hardened mind, whilst also acknowledging the person we are is the person we are, and the person we will become to love, no matter the environment, no matter our past, or what created us. A message I think is so very important that is being exposed as a children’s medium.

Steven has feared throughout the series if he was his mother, if he was the result of love, or a selfish act of rebelliousness. If he was a fusion or not. The scene where Pink Steven and Steven hug are the manifestation of his mental and physical aspects of himself. Steven has always been Steven! He has always been himself and never not his mother, Pink Diamond, or Rose Quartz. The flashes of his gem morphing between Pink Diamond, to Rose Quartz, to finally, just Steven. It spoke volumes to him that he was always himself. Steven can finally be content with this thought and his dissociation of body and mind can be at peace with this answer. The main message being seen here is, “loving yourself”, quite literally! (Also, the animation where Steven reunites with himself had my heart in a headlock.)

However, White Diamond is confused. She is upset, angry even at the gall of this playful, little act that has Pink’s name written all over it! She doesn’t understand this.

White Diamond cries out in frustration her fears to Steven.

“I’m suppose to be flawless! If I am not perfect, then who am I? If you’re not Pink, then...who are you? Who is anyone?”

Her questions hit us like bricks. How could she love herself if she is not the impossible standard of perfectionism she’s set for herself. Her purity facade falters, her passive aggressiveness and ruthlessness crumbles. She is utterly embarrassed of herself and her flaws! What of it? Why should we care? She used her powers to manipulate and control other gems, she locked away Pink Diamond and Steven in a tower for days. She created a restricted regime and system of tyranny, of discrimination, of abuse that stifled love, happiness, and growth. The list goes on. How can we forgive that? And yet Steven knows this, Steven understands this. A child (what’s your excuse?). How is Steven still able to look at White Diamond and still want to help?

He knows she isn’t perfect, even if she hides it underneath her bright, dazzling aura. (All things eventually are seen underneath the light.) White Diamond is a representation of a heart scared of change and was afraid of listening to others in fear of tampering with her own rigid mindset.

“But I’m not suppose to be like this. I’m suppose to know better. I’m suppose to be better. I’m suppose to make everything better!”

And Steven’s reply to all of that makes you laugh while crying.

“You can, but first, you’re gonna have to leave your own head.”

(Wow, they really went for that metaphorical and literal rhetoric. Gonna go cry an ocean real quick.)

And being the character in the series who is willing to see the best and worst in others, and is willing to help with both aspects, acknowledges this too. White Diamond has the authority and power to make things better. She begins with her words of being, wanting, to be perfect, to then plead that she should be better. She steps outside of her mindset and tentatively begins to see the world through others, instead of puppeteering them to her will.

Steven Universe’s fundamental concept of love is with oneself and love with others. In the case of this episode, things begin to tie together. Love, change, growth. It all wouldn’t be possible without pain, without strife, without struggle. Questioning authority, forgiving even the worst of people and their actions, accepting change, not just accepting what your flaws are, but what steps can you take to proactively better yourself. Even Steven’s song towards the end made my heart leap.

I don’t need you to respect me, I respect me.

I don’t need you to love me, I love me.

But I want you to know

you could know me

If you change your mind.

“I don’t need the validation of others, I need the validation of love from myself. But if you wanted to know me, without judgement, without bias, change your mind. Grow, learn.”

You already understand the message. You know what to do with this. It is so raw, it is genuine, it is real. Our love comes from within and it is beautiful, and so is the love of others that we are willing to accept. I have no other words, the episode does itself a certain kind of justice. I’m sure there are plenty more analysis’ of this, but this is just my quick review overall .

#steven universe #su spoilers #hush prince #i loved this episode so much #and to think i had missed so much of this fandom ):

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prismaticquartz · 5 years ago

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So, new decade huh!

TIME TO GIVE SOME SHOUTOUTS TOO AAAAALL MY BITCHES THIS YEAAR YEEEEAA BABY!!!

(they’re under the cut since theres a lotta folks-)

@sol4r-eclips3

YES HELLO khkjlfshakljhLKJ- ok but fr suns I love you so goddamn much!!! When I first met you I really wanted to get to know you and be friends. You were and still are the funniest and rowdiest fuckin person I’ve met in a loong time!! And yet you’re so understanding and patient and honestly, there aren’t many people in the world like you, which makes me so happy that I found you. Tough, fiery, strong, funny and caring I love you more than words can describe!

@nebulanudibranch

MY GOD you are such a sweetheart nebs you really are. Smart, sweet and so wonderful in so many ways. We have so much in common and that makes me feel a lot less alone in the world. When you joined the shit squad I never really knew what to make of you (PFFT I thought you were 17 for some reason and thought you were a compleTELY different person from quirky watercolors JHLKJDF), but meeting you again in shmeeps and in hell and other personal servers I really wanted to make a good impression!! And I really wanted to become closer! AND HOOLY SHIT DID THOSE DESIRES BECOME A REALITY AND I AM SO HAPPY THEY DID HDSFGKAJ!!!! I love you man I do!!! you make me so happy you sweetie!!! I hope for the best of things for you in the future!!

@jackie-from-the-seafloor

*GRABS YOU* JHKJH ok but we have such a long history together nauti and I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world. You’re such a vibrant and funny personality, you radiate such a vibrant and colorful prescience wherever you are and it lifts the mood of any conversation!! your art and stories are a majesty to behold and a testament to your colorful personality!! You’ve always been honest and dependable and there for me whenever I need you most.. and I can’t thank you enough for that. I love you my gay fish fillet!!!

@glitch-betch

dani devitoooooo you are a fantastic person to hang out with!!! Your stories and art have been getting better and better and better every time I lay my eyes on em!! You were there for me at a period of uncertainty.. I cut ties with my old friends and was unsure about the future.. but you, tony and simon helped me so much more than all 3 of you could ever even know. You’re funny and smart and just- a treasure to hang out with!!! I hope I can bring you the amount of joy that you brought me chick.. I love you!!!

@jsab-fujii

hello :thot: you’d better not be surprised to see yourself here JHKLJF BUT ANYWAYS YEAH DUDE YOU’RE SICK AS FUCK!! You’ve always got my back and I promise I’ll always have yours!! You bring such a calming atmosphere everywhere you are and are a trustworthy and intelligent friend!! I can also confide in you to talk to about anything and you’ll listen and understand!! Thats something I really value!! You’re so chill and hjdhkajhdkj!!! you’re fuckin epic bro gosh bless,,,

@mother-of-thots-returns

EHE hi- I know we haven’t spoken all that much until recently, but honestly bro, you are a gem!!! An actual gem!! Your writing is superb, you’re one of the sweetest people on the face of the planet earth, you’re talented, charming, *COUGH* gorgeous, and you bring such a warm prescience and are overall just fantastic to talk to!!! From the moment we started chattin, I’ve been wanting to know more and more about you and become closer!! And I hope that we can in the new decade!! Love you mot, gosh bless,,

@hexaforce678

YEAH YOU’RE ON HERE TOO LITTLE HEXAGON COME HERE- Since we met in shmeeps I’ve been interested in gettin to know you bro!! And I’m SO HAPPY I COULD YO!!! You’re a rabid feral knucklehead and I couldn’t be happier to have you around!!! And honestly bro, I’m super proud of your work with Out Of This World. I’m not much into jsab anymore, but you’ve done something not alot of people have done yet, took an idea, made a story and made it real!! Alot of peoples passion projects have been worked on for years and only some have really been released, but you? You’re crushin the game!!!! And thats a rare, sight!! And I’m so proud of you!!!! I hope for more attention to OOTW in the coming years bro!! (if ya start sellin merch tho you gotta give me 20% off cuz we’re friends :thot:

@natto-axolotl

HAHAAAH YOOOOU!!!! Before we added you to the group chat all we could talk about was how much of a delight you are!!! You’re talented, kind, funny and creative and we HAD to throw you in there!!! I know we’ve not known each other for long but I can tell that we’re only gonna become even better pals into the future!!!! Whenever you pop in everyone is always so happy to see you!! And why wouldn’t we be?? You’re amazing!!! And I hope that life will be even more amazing for you in the next decade!!! godspeed you funky axolotl,, godspeed,,

@myserbale

*SCREAMS AT YOU* I STILL CAN’T GET OVER THE FACT THAT I WAS ABLE TO MEET YOU IN THE FLESH!!!!!! Mys I still have those drawings you made hung up on my door and so long as I HAVE a door they will STAY hanging there,, because getting to know you was a fuckeeen trIP!!! I see this breathtaking artist with an interesting jsab blog on my dash, give them a follow then I get a message from nipp saying they’re freaking out because they know about me too??? DUDE I WAS SCREAMING!!!! And even through some rough ass drama related shit you were always there to have mine and our friends back through it all!! All leading up to that magic day where I could give you a bear hug and wander around the museum with you!! Me and my dad couldn’t stop talking about that experience!! He said it was almost like we’ve known each other since kindergarten!!! I really hope to meet you again.. gosh bless Mys.. you funky man,,

@charmed-wonder

Ahh yes the 8th wonder,,, You’ve done nothing but bring comfort and joy you funky mongoose. You’re super funny (and horrifyingly cryptic at times-) and sUUPER talented!! I’d absolutely adore hearing about your original stories n shit bro!!! And I’d love to be able to get to know you better and talk more!! And I hope we will in the new year!! You’re epic as fuck bro!!!!

@krys-lil-corner

Ah yes, the serotonin woman, right here right oon time. That my friend is my thought process everytime you enter a room!! Seeing how supportive you are of so many people?? Honestly I have no fucking clue how you do it?? Either way, I’m so happy to have been able to talk with you!!! I’ve seen you around for a long time, but actually talking with you was a delight!!! I hope that one day you’ll be given as much support for your original series and other creative projects as you’ve given me and so many others. You really deserve it!!

@4n4kin

YOUNG MAN- It’s been pretty tough, I recognize that, but I’m glad that I was able to get in contact with you!! I’ve actually known about you for some time!! But like with many people, I was nervous,, and really intimidated. But after getting to know you it’s been confirmed in my mind that you are actually a mASSIVE DORK!!! It makes me really happy to get a message checkin in on me every once and awhile!! It always reminds me that you do genuinely care!! I thank you so much for our conversations and I hope that we’ll have many more on the road ahead!! bless you!!

@oddlyoglingowl @suna-bara

HEY MOM!! HEY DAD!! JHKJHSK- No but fr you two are actually such parent friends gosh bless- Hanging out in the server with you \two has been such a great time!! The minecraft shenanigans, the voice chat shenanigans and more have always been such memorable things to me and I thank you both so much!! Rose!! I’ve been so intimidated by you for the longest time and when we spoke my brain just lit on fire djhkjAHK- I was stoked to be friends with such a sweet and awesome creator!!! Playing minecraft with you that day was such a wonderful time!! I hope we can do it again sometime!! And yOU Lecter!! Your voice acting is sooo goood!!!! I’d really like to do something like a comic dub of some kind together!! That’d be fuckin epic!! You are such a lighthearted a goofy guy and I hope for more shenanigans to ensue!!!!

HOOLY FUCK THAT TOOK ME LIKE AN HOUR TO TYPE I NEED TO STOP JDFHLKAHFLKJASHFLKJ

There are a lot of people I missed here, but if I were to include everyone I’d be typing for another TWO hours hjfdslkjf- To everyone, friend, foe, or mutual.. thank you all so much for making this year what it’s been. From last November to present day I can say that I’ve been living in a golden age!! I’ve experienced things that I could have never DREAMED of experiencing before. All of this feels like life has rewarded me for pushing past the strife I’ve faced, the ignorance and ineptitude I held, and the knowledge and wisdom I’ve gained. Thank you so much to you all, these past months I will never EVER forget.. And thats a promise. To everyone, even those I don’t talk to as much, thank you for everything you’ve taught me, and for the memories you’ve gifted me. I love you all, each and every one of you.

#GAHAGHGAHGAHG #HAPPY NEW YEAR #WOOO

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hotshithaxxorbitch · 5 years ago

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Dirk&Roxy==> Get Engaged

Dirk

Just because you're the new Champion doesn't mean you stop camping with your Pokemon, so it was no surprise Roxy was in the room with the Switch, and that's exactly what Dirk was planning. So it was right on queue when he kicked down the wall from the other side, revealing the secret passage he had been constructing and finished with this dramatic entrance. Clapping dust out of his hands and shaking debris out of his hair, he nodded to them. "Rox, come check this out. I made a passage to the top of the mountain."

Roxy

Roxy was stooped over the switch, eagerly shaking a little feather wand in the face of her sylveon, Peppa. Her trance was interrupted when suddenly a nearby wall literally burst open in front of her. Startled, she let out a shriek, the switch falling into the couch cushions as she moved. Standing in the hole the wall left was Dirk, dusting himself off and asking her to follow him through a mysterious tunnel. Just a day in the life, tbh. "Is this what you've been doin' for the past month? But sure, let's go, give me a minute to throw on clothes, I'm sure it's cold in there." Roxy waved an arm around before ducking into her room. She knew Dirk, and he'd been particularly weird lately, and he was definitely up to something. She was also pretty sure it was about to pay off, whatever the fuck it was, so she wanted to pull herself together. Once she was dressed and presentable and like, wearing shoes, she returned to the common room. "Aye aye, cap'n, let's go."

Dirk

He held out his hand, letting them take hold before he led her up the large tunnel. It was very roughly hewn, an obvious rush job, but very clearly structurally sound and safe. He wasn't nervous, not really. He had planned it out very carefully and had already processed his emotions about the whole thing some time ago. He was confident. "You ever go to the top of the mountain? It'd be even easier for you than me, since you could just phase through and I have to go outside or use one of the other tunnels I made. I go up there sometimes." Well, a lot more real recently, but it was true, sometimes he climbed to the top just to breathe for a bit. It was why he knew around now would be a good time. The lighting was perfect.

Roxy

She followed along beside him, letting him slip his hand into hers as she started up the tunnel. "A few times, yeah, but not in awhile. I don't think I've been up since we really got settled in here."

Dirk

"I like it. It's weird, even though my planet of Sburb was just tall ass buildings, I liked it. Something about being up high calms me down." It was eerie, how easy this stuff rolled out of him. He normally had trouble pushing aside his metaphorical shades. Maybe Roxy has been more of an influence on him than he realized. "You know, this whole mountain thing started out as a massive joke, and also a way to ensure a large and secure base of operations, I keep finding myself decorating it like a home too. You seen the carpet I added to the southern hallways? Shit makes you forget there's nothing but pure hard stones it's so soft."

Roxy

"Well, you did spend your formative years in a big ol' skyscraper above the floods, so I 'spose that makes sense." Roxy smiles up at Dirk, leaning over and popping her hip into his. "Of course it's a home, dummy, we live here. We may be freaky clone babies, and you may like to pretend to be a lifeform that's evolved beyond the need for basic emotions, but we're still regular old pack bond happy humans." She laughed quietly, nodding. "Yeah, that shit is plush."

Dirk

His lips tilted upwards slightly, in what some scientists could possibly argue was technically a smile as he yanked them up a little faster, picking up the pace. "You remember that question you asked a while ago, and I told you we would talk about it later? You know, about marriage and whatever?"

Roxy

Roxy sped up slightly as Dirk tugged on her arm. He was smiling, or at least what passed for smiling for Dirk. "Ah yes, my very eloquently composed response followed by you sayin' "We'll talk later bye" and digitally running out of the room?" She smirked at him playfully, quirking an eyebrow. "Yes, I remember."

Dirk

They finally reached the top, coming out through an admittedly small door. The sun was setting at just the right angle, and the clouds were the right shape to reflect the golds and reds and pinks of the slightly darkening sky. There was a large statue of two people, very obviously Dirk and Roxy but a good nine feet tall. The Dirk figure was looking out at the sky, his face set in Dirk's default (and arguably only) facial expression: stone faced stoicism, which worked quite well in stone. The Roxy figure had a hand on his shoulder and was looking back and down at them, their other hand reaching down as if to invite whoever was looking to join them. Some real sappy and legendary shit, honestly. There was a small box in the palm of the stone Roxy's hand. "My answer's in that." said Dirk, gesturing to said box.

Roxy

Dirk pulled them both up out of the tunnel and up to the mountain's peak, any questions Roxy had about what he'd been up to lately. He'd been carving the top of the mountain into a statue. Of them. Well, that was certainly very Dirk, wasn't it? Sitting in the statue's palm was a small box, which Dirk was gesturing to as he spoke. Logic very clearly dictated what was in that box based on context. Roxy came to a halt, her hands drifting up to hover over her mouth. She was frozen in place, her eyes struck wide. "Dirk..." she stammered quietly "Is this...? Are you...?"

Dirk

Dirk shrugged, gesturing to the box again, his hand on the small of her back. "What, like it would change anything between us? I fully plan on spending the rest of my eternal life with you in it. And if that means doing things like making a big fucking fuss about how we'll always be on our own side, then this party's going to be weird as shit." He pushed her forward, gently. "Just take the box."

Roxy

Roxy stepped forward, glancing back at Dirk, equal parts nervous and curious as she tried to glean literally anything off of his face. Carefully, she picked the box out of the giant stone version of her hand and pulled the lid open.

Dirk

The ring glinted in the burning sunset, the intricate patterns all across the outside resembling electrical circuitry. The gem glowed softly, a deep pink with some sort of light in its center that flickered like a living thing. Handmade every step of the way by the man himself. Dirk had taken off his shades. He took a deep breath, his arms held out to the side lightly as he stood behind her. "Let's get human married, you weirdo."

Roxy

A sound escaped from Roxy, somewhere between a manic giggle and a sob, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. She nodded, not quite trusting herself to formulate english, or any other languages, in that exact moment. Her eyes flicked from the ring, pink and glowing softly from within, up to Dirk, who had pushed his shades up into his hair to let her see his eyes. Roxy nodded again, her head bobbling rapidly as she did. She held the open ring box towards Dirk. "Put it on for me?" she asked quietly, smiling with watery eyes.

Dirk

He rolled his eyes, but they were smiling more than his lips as he took the ring out of the box, batted said box aside and gently took her hand. He slid it on, like how he'd slipped it on hundreds of times to the exact replica he had made. He'd made sure it would fit perfectly.

Roxy

Roxy grasped Dirk's hands as he made to pull back after slipping the ring on her finger, pulling him back closer to her. She took a moment to look down at their clasped hands, and the pink stone glittering on her ring finger. With her other free hand, she reached up and cupped the side of Dirk's face and grinned at him. "Yeah, let's get human married."

Dirk

There was a rumble in his throat that was in the philosophical range of a laugh or chuckle. He bent forward ever so slightly and pressed his lips to hers.

Roxy

Roxy leaned up, returning Dirk's kiss and burrowing him into him before looking up at him, beaming. "Hey. I love you. Weirdo."

NEW MESSAGES

Dirk

"I know. Me too." He didn't even break the hug, he just lifted her up and started the descent down the mountain again. "It's getting cold, and I have rubble to clean out of the game room."

#plot #closed #we did it kids

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nelvana · 5 years ago

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In which the trouble with evolution is discovered

First [ARC 1]: In which the human is transformed First [ARC 2]: In which a present is prepared Next: In which partners reconcile Previous: In which bad deeds are fixed

“Alright, recite all of the names of our A Squadron back to me,” Nelvana instructed.

“Okay, uh… ˙ıɥɐǝ⋊ 'ǝǝqǝǝƆ 'ɹɐɓpƎ 'ıʞns⊥ 'xǝl∀ 'ɐuɐʌlǝN” Keahi responded, “did I get that right?”

Nelvana’s eyes lit up, “yes, you did!” she exclaimed, bubbling with excitement.

“Oh, really?” Keahi responded, beaming back at zir partner. “Finally! I was having so trouble with pronouncing Edgar’s name,” zie laughed, “glad to see some progress though!”

Nelvana and Keahi were currently alone at their home. Nelvana sat cross-legged across from Keahi, who had tried settling into a comfy seated position but kept having to jump up again with boundless energy. Ceebee and Gardevoir were training their psychic abilities, Damien was still helping out around town, Edgar and Tsuki had taken some more missions, and… Alex had just said he was going for a walk, and no one had seen him since, but no one had sensed anything bad about it, so they left that be for now.

The two partners were practicing the human language, both in part as a slight review for Nelvana, but also just to teach Keahi. After establishing that Nelvana, Alex, Ceebee, and Damien all could speak and understand human speech, and Gardevoir could understand but not speak it, Keahi had become more determined than ever to be able to speak it for zirself. Hopefully, they would be able to teach Tsuki and Edgar later as well, and then the team would have a “secret” language to use if they ever ran into a tough situation.

After that meeting at Pokemon Square, Damien had become busy most days, but he explained to the team that he actually was enjoying it a bit. He didn’t like manual labor much, but it certainly gave him something to do, and the effects of his work were already beginning to show. There was definitely less glaring just from him wandering around town, which made him more comfortable at being around there in general.

The second day of this, Team Galaxy sent out the message for the rest of their team to meet up together to hang out, and this time got much better results. There were plenty more games to play, stories to tell, and laughs to be had. Tsuki made some food all on her own for everyone, and while it wasn’t perfect, everyone could agree that it was a tasty meal. Before leaving, Rayden announced that they wanted to be a boy, a he, and in return, Keahi explained that zie felt like being non binary again.

“Should I try learning the B Squadron’s names next?” Keahi asked, shuffling closer to zir friend.

“Only if you want, but that’s less important for now. The chances of you needing to say their names are slimmer than the chances of you saying one of our names,” Nelvana responded, ruffling the torchic’s feathers as zie got within arm’s reach. “I’m thinking next it would be good for you to learn certain directional words and basic phrases. Those will probably be used often; for instructing the team without the enemy hearing,” she continued.

“That sounds good too! Where should we start with that then?” Keahi hummed, peering up at the cubone with bright brown eyes.

Nelvana paused to think this over, “hm… actually, I might have to bring this up with Alex and maybe Ceebee, see what they think some of the common words and phrases are,” she decided, “so, we can take a break from this for now.”

“Oh, alright! What shall we do now then?” Keahi replied, leaning up against zir partner and settling down there instead. “We could go for a walk; the leaves haven’t all changed color by now but it’s still nice,” zie suggested.

“You know, that does sound really nice,” Nelvana murmured, cuddling closer to her partner as well. “If we’re going to do that, we should get up now before we get too comfy,” she added.

“Mm, you’re right,” Keahi agreed, but made no movement to get up zirself.

They lingered there for a few more quiet moments, enjoying the silence of the house and just taking in each other’s presences. Keahi never liked being away from Nelvana for too long, so zie always wanted to soak up every moment zie had with her, and zie could tell that she felt the same. It was alright if they rested here for awhile, even took a nap. Keahi always believed Nelvana could use some more sleep, and they could take that walk in the evening or even the next day if they had to, there was no rush.

At least, not until the door burst open, destroying the comfortable atmosphere to let in some disruption. It was Alex, who made his way straight over to the living room where the pair was relaxing together, forgetting to close the door behind himself.

“Nel!” Alex called out, “Keahi!” he added as he noted that the torchic was there as well. “Are you two busy right now?” he asked.

Nelvana sat up, “not really…? I just finished helping Keahi fix up their pronunciation for our names,” she told him, “what’s going on?”

“I… Okay, you know how it’s weird that no one has evolved, even though we destroyed the meteor and the word’s balance has been fixed?” Alex began.

“Er, yeah?” Keahi responded, blinking up at him.

“Did you find out something about it?” Nelvana asked.

“Yes, I think so! It isn’t just some weird coincidence or chance; I think there’s something still wrong,” Alex continued, “here, come with me, I’ll show you what made me finally realize this.”

“Should we get the others?” Keahi asked, slowly standing up.

“It’ll take too long to get all of them; we’ll just recap later. Come on,” Alex said, turning back to exit through the still open door.

Hurrying to her feet, Nelvana quickly followed after her other partner, only pausing to make sure Keahi wasn’t far behind and that zie had actually closed the door behind zim.

Alex hastily led them into Pokemon Square, where Lombre, Snubbull, and Bellsprout were already gathered around and chatting amongst themselves. They stopped and turned their attention over to the other trio as they arrived, Lombre immediately showing them a blue gem he was holding in one hand.

“Took you long enough!” Lombre chastised.

“Oh please, we came as fast as we could,” Alex hissed, “I didn’t even get to properly explain what’s going on to them, so how about you do it, if you’re in such a hurry?”

“Fine! Look at what I have here! It’s a water stone,” Lombre responded, turning to Nelvana and Keahi to show off his item. “It’s supposed to be able to evolve me into a ludicolo; but here I stand unchanged!”

“Is it fake?” Nelvana questioned, peering closely at the strange rock.

“Of course not!” Lombre snapped, but then calmed himself. “I mean, that’s what I thought too, but I just got this from the kecleons. They would never sell false wares!”

“They’d probably be furious if they heard we had even suggested such a thing,” Bellsprout added.

“Yeah, looks pretty real to me,” Keahi murmured, “may I hold it for a moment?”

“Go ahead,” Lombre huffed, passing the water stone over to the torchic, who carefully held it on zir wings.

It was a heavy, light blue crystal that practically looked like it was just solid water. Bubbles were hidden under the tough surface, giving it the appearance of there being water with air bubbles trapped inside. As Keahi held it, it felt cool and mildly damp, and even after holding it for a few moments, it remained feeling the same way.

“Feels real too,” Keahi commented, lifting zir wings up and down to test its weight.

Alex nodded, “that’s the thing; there’s no reason it shouldn’t be evolving him, unless…”

“…unless evolution still isn’t possible,” Nelvana quietly finished, “but why not…?”

“That’s the question, and what we’re going to have to find out,” Alex sighed, “the world’s balance should’ve fixed itself by now; it’s been nearly a month now. There must be something going on.”

“So, can you fix it then?” Snubbull asked impatiently, and Lombre nodded in agreement.

“Not right now, but we’ll definitely get to work on it,” Alex told them, “thanks for bringing it to our attention.”

“May I hold it?” Nelvana softly as Keahi, “I want to look at it a bit closer.”

“Sure!” Keahi replied, passing the object over.

Nelvana gingerly accepted the water stone, flipping it over in her hands as she examined it closely. Then suddenly, her breath hitched, and she stopped moving altogether. It wasn’t as if she was frozen in place, the movement of her chest from her breathing was still visible, but she didn’t seem to move much otherwise, as if she had zoned out of what was happening completely.

Keahi paused, concern flitting over zir expression as zie noticed this chance, “Nel? Is something wrong?”

Previously still distracted in discussing the situation with the other trio, Alex turned his attention back to his friend’s at hearing the worry in Keahi’s voice. He stiffened and his eyes widened at the sight, but otherwise did his best to remain calm. Crouching down beside his partner so that he was at eye level with her, Alex observed that there was a white ring that swirled around each of Nelvana’s pupils.

“Alex?” Keahi’s voice broke. “Is she okay?”

“…I’ve seen it before, she’s fine, nothing to worry about,” Alex responded.

He stood back up again and wrapped one of his arms around his partner, pulling her to his side. Nelvana offered no resistance to this movement and practically slumped against the grovyle, though, she did not fall completely limp and continued to mostly support herself despite this. Otherwise, she still didn’t say anything.

Lombre eyed the situation hesitantly, “look man, are you sure-“

“Human thing,” Alex blurted out instead, stopping any further argument.

An awkward silence followed after that, Lombre and his friends unable to leave yet with Nelvana still holding onto the water stone, but there not being much more to say than what had already been said. Keahi shifted anxiously from one foot to the next, trying not to seem too stressed and just trusting Alex’s judgement on what was going on with their friend.

Finally, Nelvana stirred again. She took in a sharp breath, pulling herself up from where she was leaning on the grovyle. Alex peeked over at her widened eyes, which were now back to being their normal blues. He kept his arm around her though, and she slowly leaned back towards him again, breathing shakily.

“I’m alright,” Nelvana said, picking up on the stares that she was getting. “Sorry, here, you can have your water stone back,” she continued, swallowing another breath and handing the item back over to Lombre, who gingerly accepted it.

“You sure?” Snubbull asked, “that was really weird, you sorta zoned out for awhile there.”

“Yeah, yeah… sorry if I scared you,” Nelvana murmured, still somewhat sounding out of it, and her eyes looked past the trio and over the land around them all instead. “…how long was I out?”

“Just a minute or so,” Alex assured her, “probably felt longer to us, no worries,” he added, softly moving his hand to make circling motions on Nelvana’s back to hopefully soothe her. “Anyway, we’ll look into the evolution thing, I’m afraid you’ll have to hold on until then,” he told everyone else.

“Alright… Thank you for your time,” Bellsprout replied, ushering his friends away back towards the eastern end of town instead, likely to discuss this over themselves as they usually did.

The remaining trio held themselves together until the other group was out of sight. Once they were gone, however, Keahi immediately turned to question what had happened and possibly comfort zir partner, but Nelvana had already let out a strained whine and slunk down onto the ground, sitting down there and putting her head in her hands.

“Nel?” Keahi crouched down beside Nelvana worriedly, brushing feathers against fur. “Are you actually okay? We can go back home if you need to,” zie offered.

“No, no, no…” Nelvana muttered quietly in repetition, shaking her head slightly and making Keahi realize that this wasn’t really in response to what zie had said.

“Nel? Nel, please, look at me,” Keahi pleaded, and after a moment, Nelvana complied. “What… What just happened? Are you okay to talk about it?”

Nelvana opened her mouth, but at first all that she seemed to manage was a small gurgling noise. She swallowed again, finding herself with teary eyes and a dry throat, but tried again.

“I… Alex, please?” she briefly requested instead, looking to her other partner to explain while she composed herself.

Alex sighed and nodded, “it’s an… ability she has called the dimensional scream. It’s a human exclusive ability, and incredibly rare, like a hidden ability. She’s the only one I’ve met who has it; though, Ceebee has said that there have been others before.”

“What does it do?” Keahi asked, turning zir gaze up to the grovyle but shuffling closer to the cubone and offering her zir warmth.

“It gives her visions of the past or future to help her current situation sometimes after touching items relating to that situation,” Alex told zim, “however, it only works under two conditions. She has to be around a trusted pokemon partner, and…” He swallowed, the real danger of what this meant sinking in. “…and if time is out of balance.”

“Time out of balance?” Keahi repeated, “but… what does that mean for us? Time should be okay, right?”

“Apparently not,” Nelvana whimpered, slowly lifting her head again. “I thought I had lost this when turning into a pokemon, but it’s back! And this means there’s something wrong here now! There’s… There’s something still wrong with the world’s balance.”

Keahi paused, “okay… let’s just take this one step at a time,” zie decided, “we’ll have to check in with Ceebee and Tsuki about this; maybe they already know something and didn’t want to worry us, hoping it would pass over. If the dimensional scream has only activated now, it probably is a sign that we will have to do something… but we don’t know what that is yet, so we should start with that without getting too overwhelmed, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, okay… that sounds good,” Nelvana murmured tiredly, leaning back against Keahi again. “Thank you. For… just keeping things a bit calmer. Here. So, we, uh, don’t stress over everything as much,” she told zim.

Keahi nuzzled zir partner, “no problem! And hey, it’ll be alright. We handled this once, and we can figure things out again, right?”

“Right…” Alex responded, turning back to the other two after having stared out in the distance for a few moments. “I feel I should ask though, what did the dimension scream show you?” he asked Nelvana.

Nelvana gulped, but nodded, and spoke up again, “it… back by Whiscash Pond, behind the waterfall, there’s a cave. There’s something important in there, but it didn’t show me any more than that,” she told him quietly.

“A cave behind the waterfall?” Keahi repeated in disbelief, “wouldn’t Whiscash have mentioned something like that if there was one?” zie questioned, thought zir expression softened after gauging Nelvana’s.

Alex shrugged, “could not have been accessed in a long time. People forget those sorts of things all the time,” he said, “but if you were shown it, it must be important. We should go check it out. If you want, Keahi, we can ask Whiscash about it too.”

The other two seemed to agree to Alex’s suggestion, and pulled themselves up from off the ground. Glancing around, Nelvana allowed herself to relax more seeing that no one else from around Pokemon Square had really been paying attention to all that. The Kecleon Shop was the closest stand to where they were, and the two brothers appeared engaged in some sort of business conversation. It granted her, and evidently Alex as well by how he scanned the area as well, some relief to see that no one probably overheard that conversation.

Together, the three of them wandered up north to visit the Whiscash Pond. It was oddly quiet, with none of the usual town kids playing about at the moment. The only sound that broke through the quiet air was the sound of the small waterfall by the pond as the water flowed down into the pool. Whiscash himself was floating in the pool, though currently his light snoring made it clear he was taking a nice nap. As they approached, however, he stirred to consciousness and smiled at the trio.

“Ahh… hello there!” Whiscash hummed drowsily, blinking away the sleep from his eyes. “How are you all doing?” he asked politely, yawning briefly afterwards.

“We’re… doing alright,” Keahi responded, glancing at zir friends for a moment. “We wanted to ask you something though. Do you know about any cave behind your waterfall here?”

Whiscash let out a long hum as he thought over the question. He went silent and closed his eyes for a few moments, and just when one of them was about to check if he had just fallen asleep again, the older pokemon blinked awake on his own and continued.

“I don’t believe so! I’ve been living in this very pond since I was a wee little barboach, and I can’t seem to recall any waterfall cave,” he finally answered, “ohohoho, though, I must admit, my memory seems to get a little worse every year! And my eyesight too; can still see the nice flowers Butterfree planted from here though!”

The flowers he was speaking of were a small garden a few feet away from the pond. It wasn’t anything spectacular, in fact some of them seemed a bit wilted with the cooler air coming in from autumn, but it was still a nice garden.

“Right… that’s nice,” Alex murmured, turning back to face Whiscash after having his gaze drawn to the plants. “Look, would you mind if we look around a bit, just in case? We think there might be something important out here.”

“Ohohoho! You’re very welcome to, though I’m not sure you’ll find much! There isn’t any buried treasure at the bottom of this little pond; Caterpie and his friends already checked for that,” Whiscash chuckled.

“Thanks, Whiscash,” Keahi replied, offering him a smile.

“No problem, kids! If you need me, I’ll be right here,” Whiscash hummed, already closing his eyes again and dozing off in the warm sunlight.

“Well, that was a load of help,” Alex snickered as he stepped out onto the stones that lead out into the center of the pond. “Anyway, there’s no way to really get close to the waterfall from here, hm…”

“Do you think we could jump through from here? I doubt we could swim in, the water at the bottom of the falls looks a bit too strong,” Nelvana commented, strolling up next to Alex and looking around the pond.

“You’re going to try jumping through a waterfall?” Keahi asked, hurrying after the others with a worried glance. “I’m not sure if that will work like you expect,” zie added, frowning slightly.

“We’ll be careful,” Alex assured zim with all the confidence of someone who did not plan on being careful. “I’ll go first; don’t have to worry about type disadvantage that way, even though I know Nel’s a good swimmer.”

Keahi gulped, a strained expression taking on zir face, though zie didn’t object. Zie wanted to trust in what Nelvana had seen, and while zie didn’t admit it aloud, Alex would be the best out of the three of them to test this out.

“Go ahead,” Nelvana told him, stepping aside to make more room for the grovyle.

“Alright, cool,” Alex smirked and gave her a salute. “I’ll call out to you guys if I see anything in there,” he told them, not even seeming to consider the possibility that there wasn’t even a cave at all.

Not taking the time to allow any possible objections, Alex took a few steps back on the stones to give himself the space for a running head start to his jump. Taking a few moments to ready and position himself to where the likeliest spot a cave could be hiding behind the waterfall, he sprinted off. He leapt off at the very end of the last rock, diving towards the waterfall.

Instead of just hitting rock and then falling into the pool of water, like most would expect if they had just wandered over to watch this, he disappeared behind the rushing water. There was no grovyle-sized splash into the pond, no yelp of pain. In fact, at first, there were no noises from him at all, until they could hear faint yelling from beyond the water. It was challenging to make out what he was saying, but it didn’t particularly matter, what did matter was that he had made it.

“Alright! Good job! We’re coming!” Nelvana called back, hoping her voice would make it clearer to the other side than his had for them.

Whiscash was roused awake from all this noise, but Nelvana simply nodded enthusiastically to him again and he nodded off once more.

“We’re going after him?” Keahi asked, glancing from the waterfall and back to her partner. “We’re weak to water,” zie pointed out.

Nelvana blinked, “yeah, this isn’t an attack though. We should be alright. Don’t you want to see what’s back there?” she responded.

“I… I do like discovering new things, but I think we should leave this one to Alex and wait here,” Keahi told her, “it might not be safe for us.”

“I want to try, at least. I don’t want to force you to jump too if that makes me uncomfortable, but I want to try going. At the very least, Alex is probably expecting us, and I don’t want him to have to wait there wondering where we are,” Nelvana explained.

“What if the water is too strong and you don’t make it?” Keahi blurted out, “you aren’t as fast as Alex, what if you don’t come in strong enough and-“

“Hey, it’s alright,” Nelvana assured zim, crouching down closer to the distressed torchic. “I’m not going to drown in the pond. I can swim, and I’ve taken bigger hits than that. If I were to somehow be knocked out by the water, Whiscash can help me out.”

“I… I know, I just… I can’t help but be scared,” Keahi murmured, “I’ve had family be hurt by water before. I don’t want that to happen here,” zie said quietly.

“It won’t happen; I promise,” Nelvana replied, “it’s going to be alright. I’ll hop over and be back in a jiffy.”

“You shouldn’t jump alone though! I’ll go with you!” Keahi insisted, stiffly standing up straighter, and puffing out zir chest, though zir legs shook.

“…do you really want to go? You shouldn’t have to if it makes you uncomfortable,” Nelvana said, reaching out to carefully hold one of Keahi’s wings in her hand.

“N-No, I don’t, but…” Keahi gulped, “I’m scared I won’t make the jump,” zie admitted, “but I don’t want to be left behind! And I don’t want you to have to risk the jump alone!”

Their conversation was momentarily interrupted by more muffled yelling from behind the waterfall from Alex. Clearly, he was going to start getting impatient.

“I can carry you,” Nelvana suddenly suggested, “we could both make it, together.”

“Are… Are you sure? Wouldn’t that just make it harder to get through?” Keahi questioned nervously.

“Maybe, but maybe if I get enough speed it will just give us more momentum to get to the other side,” Nelvana responded, “I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

Keahi swallowed, looked out to the water, over to Whiscash, who was still dozing, and then finally back to Nelvana, “okay, I trust you. Let’s do this,” zie told her.

Nelvana smiled, “got it, don’t worry about a thing.”

Carefully, Nelvana wrapped her arms around Keahi and picked zim up. This wasn’t the first time she had held the torchic, though this would certainly be the first time she would really have to be so careful and keep a tight grip. She held Keahi on her chest, having chest touch chest, so zir head was over Nelvana’s shoulder and facing behind them rather than where they were going.

Like Alex when he was preparing to make the jump, Nelvana took a few steps back to give herself some space for a running head start. She stepped further back than he did though, knowing she would need to give herself some more room. Keahi had had a point, carrying zim may slow her pace a bit, but she was confident not to mess this up for the both of them.

Taking in a deep breath to dispel any anxious doubts, she took off for the end of the rocks. Worried about going too far, she jumped earlier than Alex had, but this didn’t seem to make much of the difference. Before either of them could really think about being in the air over Whiscash Pond, they hit the waterfall and continued right through it, washing the both of them over in water.

Instinctively aware that she wasn’t going to be able to make a clean landing on her feet, Nelvana tucked her head in and held Keahi closer, readying herself for a roll. Despite flying purely by instinct, her body directed her into a perfect roll over the stone floor of the cave and she stopped in a crouch, still holding her partner close to her.

Alex, who had been leaning against one of the walls and impatiently staring at the rushing water, turned to the pair with an excited gaze and a smirk.

“Hey, you made it! I was starting to get worried there that you weren’t coming at all,” he greeted.

Keahi gasped and began nervously laughing, slowly pulling zir head away from Nelvana and looked around to see zir new surroundings, “heh… yeah! Yeah, we made it!” zie exclaimed.

Nelvana uncurled herself, carefully letting Keahi out of her grasp and shaking the cold water off her fur. Keahi shook out zir feathers as well, but between the natural warmth of a fire-type and the fact that Nelvana had protected zim from most of the water anyway, zie was already mostly dry. Nelvana smiled back at zim, looking around at where they were as well.

“Yeah, I promised we would, didn’t I?” Nelvana hummed, patting her partner on the head. “What was that you said about not getting overwhelmed?” she added teasingly.

Keahi laughed, batting zir partner’s hand away with a wing, “oh, lay off, you!” zie hissed playfully, “honestly though, thanks for that. I don’t know if I could have done that without you.”

“Hate to break up this nice bonding moment, but how ‘bout we actually explore this place?” Alex interrupted, gesturing towards where a hall deeper into the cavern.

“Oh, yeah, of course!” Nelvana responded, standing up and brushing herself off, Keahi following suit.

“Nice roll, by the way,” Alex commented, taking the lead and beginning to walk down the path.

They were led deeper into the cave, and then down some stairs. Worry spiked the trio momentarily as they wondered if they had walked into a dungeon without realizing, but the stairs lead them down to another pathway which evidently only lead to a single room.

“Wow, I would have had no idea that there was so much back here!” Keahi exclaimed, looking around the stone walls in awe. “Do you think someone lived here once?” zie asked.

“Don’t think so… Check this out!” Alex gasped, bounding ahead.

The room that bad been up ahead was what had lured Alex’s attention. It was a small space, having no other pathways leading out from it. In fact, the only thing in the room were many large crystals emitting a dull, almost rainbow looking glow. A small patch of grass surrounded the crystals; however, it was long dried up and dead, no color left in the leaves.

Alex carefully approached the crystals, eyeing them closely with every step to make sure he didn’t possibly mess this up. These were unfamiliar to him and Nelvana, though after a moment, Keahi’s eyes lit up as it clicked in zir mind with what exactly these crystals actually were.

“That’s an evolution crystal! A clear one too!” Keahi told them excitedly, “I had no idea there was one of these out in Pokemon Square! Wonder why no one talks about it?”

“Everyone probably forgot it was here…” Alex muttered, now standing a mere foot away from the evolution crystal. “Refresh my memory, what makes this clear one special?” he asked Keahi, not turning his gaze back to zim.

“Clear ones can make any pokemon evolve, no matter the type! They’re really rare too, so that’s why it’s so special!” Keahi explained, “usually they’re colored based on typing, like the gummi colors actually, and can only evolve pokemon with that as their primary type,” zie added.

“Didn’t you say there’s a fire one of these out by Scorched Plains?” Nelvana commented, slowly walking up to where Alex was as well.

Keahi nodded, “yeah, but it hasn’t been working in a long time… looks like this one isn’t working either; it’s so dull,” zie murmured.

“It is still glowing…” Alex mumbled, hesitantly reaching out a hand to touch it, but stopping himself and pulling it back. “Should we try touching it, or leave it alone?”

“Well, if we want to be sure if it works or not, it wouldn’t hurt to touch it,” Keahi answered, “none of these have ever hurt anyone before; even when broken.”

Alex still appeared reluctant, so Keahi gingerly reached out with a wing instead. When zie touched the evolution crystal, nothing happened. A bit of the glow almost seemed to move closer to where it was touched, but otherwise the item didn’t appear to react, and neither did Keahi. Zie removed zir wing again, ruffling zir feathers and turning back to look at zir friends.

“Don’t work,” zie sighed.

“That does confirm something though; evolution still isn’t working. This isn’t just about Lombre’s water stone being a bad one in the bunch; no one is able to evolve,” Alex muttered, “this, along with Nelvana’s dimensional scream that led us here to begin with, just adds more to confirm that something is still wrong with the world’s balance that we need to look into to fix.”

Keahi nodded, “we should call a meeting with the others to discuss this. I still think Ceebee and Tsuki would be the best to figure out the basics of what’s going on first, and then we can work from there.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Nelvana murmured, “let’s gather the others then.”

First [ARC 1]: In which the human is transformed First [ARC 2]: In which a present is prepared Next: In which partners reconcile Previous: In which bad deeds are fixed

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lululawrence · 6 years ago

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lululawrence’s February 2019 Fic List

Click here for previous months’ fic lists

It has officially been a year of my making monthly fic lists and I’m so happy I decided to start doing this. I have so much fun sharing what I’ve been reading and how much I’ve enjoyed it. I’m so glad to keep going with it and hope you like it too! This month I continued my catch up on the Tomlinshaw exchange but also started reading a lot of fics I’d been holding out on for awhile. So, without further ado, here are the awesome fics that rocked my world this month!

play the game by @candybarrnerd / icarusinflight This one was sexy and filthy and I just...don’t have much more to say hahahahaha It’s Tomlinshaw and reading it had me pretty much dropped right into Nick’s emotions and I loved it.

Leave Your Mark On Me by @fullonlarrie / FullOnLarrie OMG okay so like. Omega Harry who doesn’t even think he’s interested in alphas quick bonds with Alpha Louis because otherwise he can’t get the job he wants. But there’s a massive twist! And then feelings! And realizations! And pining! And flirting! And it just grows so perfectly and I loved it very much a lot. I can’t even find the right words and I think I finished it a week ago as of writing this little thing but yeah. It’s amazing.

Owner of a Lonely Heart by @shiftylinguini / shiftylinguini It’s a kind of Tomlinshaw rash marriage in vegas kind of fic but also not? There’s so many more feelings to it than something as simple as that. But it’s defo strangers to lovers and honestly the non-cameo Liam makes might very well be my favorite part of it as well as the Neil/Niall fiasco just because it plays out SO PERFECTLY with Nick and Louis. hahahahaha Gosh this fic is hysterical and soft and painful and just so many things. It is a perfect little fic. I love love loved it.

oh, i just want you to come with me by @hiatusniall / weddingbells I’ll be honest hahahaha the bit with the sprinklers had me wanting to cry a little because I was just imagining everything being ruined BUT the bookends were beautiful and the pain and the miscommunication cause, let’s be real, Tomlinshaw would never just have easy and straightforward and good communication. They’d have to fight it out and be stupid boys first, and this really captures that. It was a super fun read, I really enjoyed it!

Come and Get Your Love by @rsadelle / rsadelle A five times Tomlinshaw Fic! Featuring awesome dads Nick and Louis! This was so sweet and soft and cute and there was a twist I wasn’t expecting! And little interludes that just added even more to what was already incredible. It was such a fun read, I adored it.

dead set on a getaway by EmmyLouWho EmmyLouWho strikes again! Seriously, their fics are ALWAYS gold. I don’t know how they do it. This time features Tomlinshaw in a BOOK STORE. OOOOOMMMMGGGGGG!!! And the way it all finally comes together is adorable and perfect. And Gemma is hysterical hehehe Gosh such a fun and fluffy fic.

happiness hits like a train on a track by leighbot New dad Louis meets his neighbors Harry and Liam and Lirry are fucking adorable, okay? And they try to play matchmaker and it all goes horribly wrong and is so funny and yet bad BUT THEN! Nick to the rescue! For real, in the same ways the previous set ups had been all wrong, Nick is so right and I LOVED IT. Also, Louis’ relationship with Penny’s mother is so fucking cute too. I just can’t handle it. I loved this one too.

Say It With Flowers by @reminiscingintherain / reminiscingintherain Back to Larry! For a bit, anyway hahaha Roni took the most hilarious prompt and made Louis so awkward and angry and forthright it was incredible. Meanwhile Harry’s just confused and yet it somehow all comes together and I so so so enjoyed reading this! It was the perfect read after a long day. hehe

The Sleepover by @homosociallyyours / homosociallyyours THIS GIRL DIRECTION FICLET IS THE MOST ADORABLE PERFECTION EVER?! It’s so pure! So soft! So sweet! Gosh I loved it very much a lot.

Charity Ficlets and Tumblr Drabbles by @becomeawendybird / QuickedWeen This collection of ficlets has such gems! Merm Louis, a magical curse au, AND a prompt I gave her that essentially takes Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky in Old Hollywood and makes them Harry and Louis. It’s all AMAZING and I LOVE IT.

One Touch Is Never Enough by @fullonlarrie / FullOnLarrie Werewolf Louis goes to get a massage and things do not go as planned. Gosh I was cackling at this so much, it’s so great. A super funny, super ridiculous read haha

London Rain by @writsgrimmyblog / Writcraft Basically canon compliant Tomlinshaw where Louis wants to finally explore possibilities with boys and takes to online dating to try it. Gosh this fic is such a great read. There was a lot of emotion and parts that made me laugh out loud, it was absolutely fab.

Brave Love by @angelichl / angelichl And they were roommates!!! For real, though. They were. And there’s SO MUCH PINING and omgosh it’s so beautiful and soft and sweet and Harry and Louis are just so precious in this, okay? It’s so so so amazing. A great valentine’s day read.

hold on for one more day by @disgruntledkittenface / disgruntledkittenface This fic had me rolling but also so worried and I might have cried just a little bit, but seriously the Tomlinshaw banter was so great and so were the soft feels! The careful watching after each other and there’s a part where Grimmy is just so worried and scared and Louis is so so so soft and sweet and I’ll leave it at that. so good.

time stopped then sped so fast by sarcasticfluentry I went through the Grouis tag on AO3 and found very few fics. I loved them all, and they’re coming now, hahaha This is...basically Greg James/Louis Tomlinson porn lollll most of them are, tbh. It’s got panties though hehehe and if size difference is a kink for you, then this definitely has that for ya. An oldie but a goodie!

Let me be your good night by @conscious--ramblings / Conscious_ramblings I apparently read this ages ago when it first was published and I don’t remember it which seems impossible I don’t know how that happened?!?! This is Harry/Louis, but they go to a swinger party and Greg and Nick get added into the mix. It’s such a great read, though, because Harry and Louis are exclusive and never really considered adding more into their relationship, but this night changes some things and the way Sheena goes through the emotions of it all is so beautiful. And hot. Like damn hot. So. If that’s your jam, I would defo recommend this one.

sugar, butter, flour by EmmyLouWho After two incredibly smutty fics, have an entirely pure and smut free goodie from emmylouwho! hehe It’s a Nailed It AU and is SO GOOD. It’s so funny the way Harry, Zayn, and Niall are all depicted and the way it all plays out had me giggling the entire way through. A super cute, super fun read.

Like An Anthem In My Heart by @goodmorningtoyouuniverse / GMTYUniverse This fic, y’all. I love footie fics, but I’m also super picky about them because I love footie myself. This one was written so so so well in all aspects, but the football aspects had me screaming in excitement in a football chat. It was sooooo good and it involves a forced outing and how it was all handled and it was so believable and beautiful and the emotions and the relationships and the cameos of real players and people had me flipping out in a good way and I just. It was so great. One of my favs of the month, easily.

Taste Too Good by sarcasticfluentry Okay this one is more PWP basically, but it’s kinda...well, it’s Grouis, but it’s also...Tomlinshames. Is that the ship name for Nick/Greg/Louis? It is now. lol Anyway, this fic was a lovely little read and the switching in POV gave you a little insight on everyone’s feelings and thoughts throughout so yeah. haha

'cause i like it dark and low by sarcasticfluentry What can I say? More filthy, filthy Grouis PWP. lollll But it was good! haha

The Post-War BP by @jaerie / jaerie As per usual, Jenna comes in and just takes A/B/O and makes it an entirely different beast. I have no idea how her brain works, but I’d love to see inside it hahaha This is a fic where it kind of holds to the more traditional omegas stay home, have children, etc but in this world an alpha is required to be a part of the relationship in order for an alpha to have a chance at being produced. Add in a war where alphas were shipped off to fight and not many returned, and suddenly a Breeding Plan is introduced. This fic is somewhat dark, quite twisted in parts, and does involve some unsavory content, so please beware of tags. I ADORED it though.

Tell Me Your Secrets by @dimpled-halo / dimpled_halo This was for the Popularry fest, which I’m doing horribly at keeping up with. It was based on the film For a Good Time Call and I’d never heard of that until I read this, but now I wanna watch it! haha Harry and Louis are pseudo enemies to friends to lovers as they move into an apartment together and start a sex line and It’s...amazing. hahaha Such a great fic!

And that’s it for this month! Happy reading, and don’t forget to leave the authors kudos and nice comments!!

#mine #february 2019 fic list #fic list #my fic rec #fic rec #28th appreciation #fic writer appreciation

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wiersema1 · 5 years ago

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Reid ‘Em & Weep (2020.1)

It’s been awhile since we wrote the “Reid ‘Em & Weep” column of sports nuggets and other assorted issues that are on the “Dutch Lion’s” mind. So as Nike suggests, “Just Do It!”

What’s up with those NFL Conference Championship Trophies?

Ever since the NFL merged with the AFL in 1970 to combine into one super football league, the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC) have played Conference Championship games, with their winners meeting in the league championship game, known as the Super Bowl. For the first fourteen years there was no trophy for these Conference Championship games (1970-1983). Then the NFL introduced the conference championship trophies as they honored their founding heroes by creating the George S. Halas Trophy to be awarded to the NFC victor (founder of the NFL) while the AFC Champion would receive the Lamar Hunt Trophy (founder of the AFL). These original Halas Trophy and Hunt Trophy were introduced in the 1984 postseason. Therefore, the inaugural winners were the San Francisco 49ers and the Miami Dolphins on their way to Super Bowl XIX (19).

The original George Halas NFC Championship Trophy

The modern George Halas Trophy

For whatever reason, after 26 seasons the NFL decided to have Tiffany & Co. redesign the trophy. These current trophies were introduced in the 2010 postseason. They remain the current trophies, as many of you saw on Sunday when the 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs dominated their opponents to win their respective conferences. These trophies are hollowed out silver footballs that look like lame miniature Super Bowl Lombardi Trophies. Only these Halas and Hunt Trophies look like cheap garbage compared to the old oak wood base topped by the conference logos and sporting a design of old-fashioned players on a silver platter background. It’s a shame. The old ones were amazing. We grew up with those incredible trophies and they stood for something. The new ones look cheap and unoriginal. Hey NFL, word to the wise. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The original Lamar Hunt AFC Championship Trophy

The modern Lamar Hunt Trophy

The Illinois Fighting Illini basketball team is for real!

Under Coach Brad Underwood, the Illinois basketball program is starting to turn the corner just as we suspected a couple of years ago. After years of disappointments followed by recent malaise, the Illini are really rolling as we enter the new decade. Now in his third season, Coach Underwood currently has his squad sitting in second place in the B1G conference with a 6-2 conference record and a 14-5 record overall. Illinois has now won five games in a row including Tuesday night’s huge 17 point victory at Purdue by a score of 79-62. Who wins at Purdue’s Mackey Arena? Not #11 Michigan State. They lost at Mackey by 29 points on January 12. So did defending National Champion Virginia on December 4, also by 29 points even though they were ranked #5 at the time. Nobody wins at Mackey, including Illinois every time they’ve played there since 2008. This year, Illinois has only lost two B1G games so far, at Maryland and at Michigan State. I’m really looking forward to the rematch with the Spartans on February 11. Mark that one on your calendar as it should be a crazy atmosphere at Assembly Hall, led by the Orange Krush. The House of ‘Paign will be rockin’ that night baby!

Led by sophomore Ayo Dosunmu and freshman Kofi Cockburn, this Illini team is better on defense than most years since 2006, the last really good Illinois team. The reason is because of the talent which includes some solid big men in Cockburn and fan favorite Giorgi Bezhanishvili. Don’t forget about sharpshooting Trent Frazier! Plus, a relentless style preached by Underwood has some insiders saying his practices are brutally tough, intense, and competitive. That’s what it takes if you want to be great. Currently ranked #21 in the AP Poll, this Illini team will go to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013. You can book it Johnny Red Kerr!

The Australian Open

I absolutely love the Australian Open. Have I written about this before? I feel as if I’ve gone there but whatever. Let me know if this is a repeat. Anyway, there’s something about the first big tennis event of the year. It’s the first of the four tennis Grand Slams. Every Winter here in the upper Midwest, I celebrate the beautiful hot Summer of the Southern Hemisphere. Australia is a hidden gem of a country, if you will. I can’t wait to visit someday. I’ll be going in January with a trip to Melbourne for the Australian Open on my agenda. It’s a bucket list event.

The AO started in 1905 and has been held in Melbourne since 1972. As for this year’s predictions, I’ll go with Rafael Nadal, the #1 seed for the men and Simona Halep, the #4 seed for the women. Nadal has only won the Australian once, back in 2009. This tournament has been dominated by Novak Djokovic (seven-time champ) and Roger Federer (six-time champ) over the last two decades. I think Nadal will win his second Australian Open Championship this year. As for Halep, she has never won this Grand Slam event, finishing as Runner-Up in 2018. I look for her to get off the schneid down under. Tune in and enjoy the beauty of Australia while watching some incredible tennis. Plus, I really enjoy ESPN’s tennis commentators such as Chris Fowler, John McEnroe, Brad Gilbert, Mary Joe Fernandez, Pam Shriver, and the eternally young Chrissie Evert.

That’s it for now. So long and farewell!

Reid “Dutch Lion”

Reid ‘Em & Weep (2020.1) Reid 'Em & Weep (2020.1) It's been awhile since we wrote the "Reid 'Em & Weep" column of sports nuggets and other assorted issues that are on the "Dutch Lion's" mind.

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emeraldwaves · 6 years ago

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Title: In Which We Burn Together Angst Week Day 6 Pairing: Todomomo Rating: M Word Count: 2,252 Read on Ao3 Summary:

Todoroki Shouto has never believed in soulmates. Why should he? It didn’t work for his parents, so he doesn’t expect it to work for him, especially when he can’t even remember what his now burned off mark looks like.

Full fic under the cut! For @bnha-angst-week !! Day 6 Smile // Memories Thank you to @its-love-u-asshole for betaing! <3

"I'm home," Momo called out to her very empty apartment. It was a large living space for one person, but Momo was used to living in a larger environment. The one bedroom flat gave her enough space for her large, comfortable bed, as well as a living area with a classy table. Currently, it was decorated with her tea set.

She supposed it was a little sad to say hello to a home with no one else in it, but it made her feel more cozy. Originally her parents offered to have her stay at home, but Momo wanted to be closer to her agency, living in the city where her job would actually matter.

It had been a little over a year since they graduated from U.A, and Momo was growing used to her adult life, even if it was completely different. She would wake up early, train at the gym and head to her agency. As an up and coming hero, there was a great deal she needed to work on, especially pubic appearances, though she wasn't the worst public speaker.

In fact, one person in particular had told her she was quite good at it. But... those were memories she chose not to focus on.

Momo's phone buzzed in her jacket pocket and she pulled it out, almost forgetting she left it there.

[Text from: Kyouka-chan]: Yaomomo! It's Friday, which means we're going out drinking! I won't take no for an answer!

She hovered her finger over the text, unsure of how to answer. For the past few times, she had chosen not to go, too scared of seeing him. Going out with Kyouka meant Kaminari would be there, who probably dragged along Kirishima, who dragged along Mina and... well the list would grow and grow until it eventually landed on his name.

Todoroki Shouto.

She probably should've been over him, after all this time...

[Text to: Kyouka-chan]: I don't know. It's been a long week.

[Text from: Kyouka-chan]: Fine. I'm coming over. Girls night just you and me.

She couldn't really argue with that. They rarely got to see each other, now they were both pros, and Momo did miss seeing her best girl friend.

[Text to: Kyouka-chan]: I'll put on the tea.

[Text from: Kyouka-chan]: I'm bringing wine.

Momo set the two wine glasses down, forgoing making any tea, since Kyouka didn't seem to be in the mood. She uncorked the bottle and began to pour into their glasses, far more than she normally should.

"Are you sure you're okay with spending your Friday in like this? Won't Kaminari-kun miss you?" Momo asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious. She didn't wish to keep Kyouka away from her soulmate and her other friends.

"Denki gets me for the rest of our lives, I think he can spare an evening," she giggled. "Besides, this was the only way I knew I would get to see you." Kyouka held up her wine glass, gently clinking it against Momo's. "We're all worried about you, Yaomomo."

"Worried?" Momo asked, her heart skipping a beat. Apparently she wasn't as good at hiding her emotions as she thought she was.

"Yeah," Kyouka snorted. "You never come out with us, you're always avoiding things... I mean... I know you're avoiding him, but you can't let this ruin your whole life. I see you smiling all the time both when we hang out and in pictures and it kills me cause I know it's not real," Kyouka said.

Just like her, to get straight to the heart of things.

Momo gently lowered her glass to the table and let out a soft sigh. "I wish... I knew what to say."

"The truth is always a good place to start," Kyouka snorted, tilting the glass against her lips.

Momo looked down. How could she come out and say the truth? How could she admit that after all this time she still loved Shouto? Her heart couldn't let it go.

"I think you know the truth," she whispered. "It's too difficult to be around him..." she said. The memories were too fresh.

"I think he feels guilty about it," Kyouka whispered.

Momo bit her lip. She wanted to ask Kyouka what she knew, but she didn't want to dive deeper into something causing her so much hurt. It was always with her, like a dull ache throbbing in her chest.

And it wasn't like she could ignore him. No, Shouto was everywhere. Having joined his father's agency, many people tagged him as an upcoming hero, right along with Midoriya and Bakugou. It wasn't a surprise, he always was incredibly strong. Working with his father helped his popularity as well, which Momo was certain he hated.

She'd seen a few of his interviews when she had the T.V. on. She would catch one and be unable to look away. He didn't ever look happy. Shouto often kept his expressions subdued, but so many times had Momo seen his looks of true happiness. What she saw on the T.V. was a far stretch from it.

It made her worried, and as much as she knew it hurt, she always kept tabs on him privately, wondering how his career was going and what he was potentially up to.

"Did he tell you that?" she asked finally, unable to stop the question from pouring from her lips.

"No... well, he told Denki... or... well, he told Midoriya and Iida and Denki overheard it," Kyouka sighed.

"I see," Momo whispered. "It... never really made much sense to me."

"Yeah, no kidding, it didn't to anyone. Not trying to be rude, but Todoroki is an ass," Kyouka scoffed, tossing back another sip of her wine.

"...No, he's not, I'm sure he... had his reasons..."

"Oh really? You're just making excuses because you're still in love with him," Kyouka snorted, dumping more wine into her glass.

Momo gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. "I-I... I am not!" she said, but it was a poor excuse for an argument.

"It's okay if you are, no one judges you. I mean I think he's a total ass, but I get it... you two were good for each other," Kyouka said.

Momo nodded, doing her best to hold back her tears, her eyes blinking rapidly. "I-I guess I still don't get it at all..."

"Oh, Yaomomo... I'm sorry..." Kyouka said, her hand squeezing around Momo's.

"I loved him... I love him... and I never cared about being soulmates but... I think it really bothered him," she explained. She slipped her finger under her wrist band... a horrible nervous habit.

"I don't get why it would," Kyouka scoffed. "Todoroki is always so vocal about disliking soulmates."

"I know..."

From the first time she met Todoroki Shouto, she understood his frustration with soulmates. Soulmates were something she never truly understood either. Her parents were happily in love, even though both had lost their actual soulmates when they were much younger.

She didn't normally like to show people her own soulmark. Where most people had the mark on the underside of their wrist, hers was on the top, curving just above her hand. When Todoroki showed her his burned mark, she actually felt quite honored, and between it and his parents, she understood why he didn't believe in soulmates.

She always meant to show him her own, but thought he would prefer not to see it. Momo wanted him to believe she truly didn't care

"I should've... showed him my mark," she said. "Or explained it better."

"Have you thought about talking to him? I mean... if you really think that's it, you could remedy the problem easily," Kyouka shrugged. "Not that I think you should give him a second chance."

"I don't want to bother him..." she said, looking down.

"I guess," Kyouka muttered.

"He said he needed to focus on his career... that we both should... so I'm trying to do just that."

Kyouka let out a long sigh. "I know this is something you have to figure out on your own, or with Todoroki, but next Friday me and Kaminari are celebrating moving in together, so you can at least come to that, right? We'll make sure he doesn't come. I just... I wanna see you out with us and living happier, Yaomomo."

"I know," Momo said, pulling her lips into a tight smile. "I'll try."

Momo desperately wanted to keep her promise to her friends, but a week later, on Friday, she dreaded the idea of going to meet them at the bar. It wasn't really her scene anyway, and the idea of running into Shouto made her nervous, even if Kyouka had promised her he wouldn't be there.

She thought to ask who was going, but didn't want to upset Kyouka, or make her feel like she was going to back out, so Momo made her way to the bar, not worrying too much.

It was raining, and leaving her apartment didn’t appeal to her, but she really couldn’t keep backing out of seeing her friends.

When she finally arrived, she was greeted by the smiling faces of most of her friends. Kyouka and Kaminari were of course there, Kyouka immediately pulling her inside. Mina was already drunk enough to be draping herself all over Kirishima. She kissed him, and under the moonlight, the tiny gem pattern which made up their soulmark glistened, making the full complete circle around their wrists.

Sero was there, had his arm slung around Kaminari, and Ochako had somehow managed to drag Bakugou there. Apparently Iida and Deku were on the way as well, and Momo truly prayed that would be all.

"YAOMOMO!" Mina cheered and dashed to her, jumping into her arms. "Girl, I have missed you so much! You gotta come out more!"

"I know, I'm sorry, Mina-chan!" she giggled.

Ochako was quick to greet her too, handing her a drink. "Please ignore Katsuki, he's in a mood cause I forced him to come."

"Isn't he... always in a mood?" Momo asked, softly giggling.

"Yeah, who am I kidding?" Ochako shrugged, covering her mouth as she laughed. Under her sleeve, Momo could see the orange flames surrounded in tiny stars which made up her and Bakugou's soulmark.

She hadn't seen Kyouka's in awhile, but she was certain her and Kaminari's were conjoined by now too.

Was she slowly the only one getting left behind?

No. Soulmarks didn't actually matter. They were a thing people took far too seriously. Anytime she thought about actively looking for hers, she felt her heart sink and her anxiety spike. It wasn't worth it.

Ignoring her intrusive thoughts, Momo took a seat with Kyouka and Mina, sipping casually on her drink. Being out, surrounded by her old classmates did make her feel good, even with the nostalgia looming in the air. She enjoyed being with them. Maybe Kyouka was right about going out more.

"Hello!" Midoriya's cheery voice echoed through the bar as he stepped inside.

"Deku-kun!" Ochako called out. "Took you long enough!"

"You're never going to guess who we ran into on the way here!" he laughed, walking in more and Momo froze.

She knew. She could feel it in her veins and she immediately downed her drink, standing up. She had to leave... she couldn't see him. She knew she wouldn't be able to handle looking into his eyes in person, there would be no glass between them to separate her heart.

"Momo-"

"I'm sorry I-"

"Hello, I hope you don't mind me crashing." Shouto's smooth tone echoed in her ear and her heart leapt into her throat. He was here. He was actually here. She swallowed, her breath loud in her ears.

He stepped into the room and their eyes met. She loved the mismatched color... she always thought it was so beautiful, and of course seeing him in person brought back a whole slew of memories Momo didn't think she could handle.

She remembered him touching her cheek, his hand soft. She remembered their first kiss, how his lips caressed hers. She remembered how often he spoke of believing in her, and how much she believed in him. Images of them lying in bed together, snuggled close, whispers exchanged before they fell asleep, blew through her mind. She remembered how his fingers fit perfectly with hers, how she wished they would never have to let go.

The thoughts and images were so overwhelming. Now, she was convinced she might throw up, her emotions kept bubbling in her chest. Rising, rising, rising...

She needed to get away.

"Ah..." he stammered, glancing towards the door as if wondering if he should leave. Everyone was silent, and Momo felt her body tense even more. Should she say something? Should she stay with Kyouka and try and avoid him? The options were confusing and she couldn't focus.

No. She had to leave.

She pulled her lips into her broken smile, the one Kyouka always saw through, the one she was certain Shouto saw through too. "I was just leaving."

"O-Oh..." he stammered awkwardly, his eyes uncertain of where to look.

"I-I'm sorry..." she whispered, glancing to Kyouka as she grabbed her purse and pushed past Shouto, keeping her eyes turned to the ground.

If she looked at him again, she was certain she would break.

#todomomo #todoroki shouto #yaoyorozu momo #bnha-angst-week #BNHA #boku no hero academia #soulmate au #angst #i apologize for doing this to momo

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lexiy-dreyar · 5 years ago

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suprise vist

chpt-3 warning this is a bit messy so if you get confused tell me oki? oki!

“Hey gem how’s things going” Obara asked as he walked into the room “not any better I managed to get rid of the internal bleeding star mostly helped with that but something stills blocking it also I’m low on my so I can’t do anything to counter it” gem sighed “can’t void cancel out spells?” He asked “oh yeah he can..is he wake?” She asked “no he’s still sleeping if anything happens call me ok?”

He left the room and walked around ‘I have a strong feeling I know who did that to him but I need to make sure’ he thought. Then the doorbell rang “huh who could that be” star mumbled before opening the door “HEEEE LLLLLLLL OOOOOOOOOOOO dear shooting star!!” Someone shouted and hugged the life out of star. Then everyone paled ‘nkitas brother!!’ They thought at the same time.

“H-hey what are you doing here” lex said nervously with a nervous smile on here face “i came to see my baby boi! Why else!?” he shouted. “U-um i thought you were coming next month…” star said out of breath “yeah i was planning to but...I COULDN'T HELP IT!” he shouted hugging star tighter “heya frosghen you’ve really grown heh and you finally have a chest too!” he chuckled “YOUR ON THIN FUCKING ICE YOU PIECE OF SHIT” frosghen shouted upset, she huffed and looked to the side “whats the real reason you came here?” she asked looking down “well...i had a bad feeling I decided to act fast...when nikta didn't answer my calls I started to worry..considering the last time i brushed off a bad feeling he got badly hurt..” he looks down “oi buddy my eyes are up here”star glares still trying to escape his grip “oh sorry forgot I was holding you” he smiles slightly “tch how can you forget someone in your arms!!” star wiggles around more.

-------

There's a knock at her door “oi chara” a voice called “come in,” she said in a calm tone as she finishes signing something “were back from are job” a cheerful voice chimed in “and?” she asked “not much happens with them there pretty much normal same thing with the other two” “Butt eheh butt” the cheerful voice giggled “oi nalle focus” “r-right sorry anyway they all have there own form of straight here I wrote them down” she hands her a paper “i'm surprised you took notes” “oh shut up erii” she growled at her teammates

‘hmmm Nalle Sworea, age 34 yet she looks like she’s 20, her orange eyes and bright hair makes her stand out..which is why she’s mostly under freshens orders, but considering there on vacation she's under my orders, her power body puppet allows her to take control of multiple targets at once and control them like puppets just like the name says, this also allows her to take over their body which means she best for stealth missions but freshens division is more biased on being forward and aggressive without thinking much. Although she prefers carrying a giant sword around that looks like a knife...hmm’

she reads in side her head then looks back up ‘then there's erii drwin, age 28 yet he look 24, blue eyes and purple hair is hard to come by now-a-day’s his uniqueness also makes him stand out..but yet he’s undetected whenever he goes on jobs..which is why he’s under gems orders, gems team is more of a strategy based team where they both work on stealth and knowledge, like every good team they don't look the part of stealthers which makes it better for them to not be suspected when something happens, his power temperature. As if it wasn't clear enough by the name, this allows him to change temperature however it’s only around someone or something to ridiculous heights or freezing cold, his targets body will go into shock with the sudden increase in heat/ the drop of heat. This gives him a chance to sneak up and kill them with ease….however this powers a weakness when it comes to people immune to temperature changes.he’ a gun user which means he has a slientser’

she reads of his incomplete page. “Hmm” she looks at them to hear them arguing “mmmmm…..” she deadpans “oh well I didn't decide to stay in that abandoned house!” “whatever were lucky she jumped out the window before she got to her” he glared “yes we are otherwise lex would have been on are tails” nalle sighed “what do you mean she was here?” chara glared jumping out of her chair “yeah she said she was gonna stay around for awhile before are big attack” nalle coward a bit at the nomad demon “tch we can't attack with her around she’ll do too much damage..” she sighed as she sits back on her chair…”you are dismissed” “yes ma’am!” they bowed and left the room “hmmm so your here...guardian demon...huh...so I'm assuming you're here to bother lex and try and distort her to become like you hmmm. A fallen guardian…ehehe i must say i'm amused so what will your next move be” she takes a sip of her tea and looks at a picture “i assume you got and easy death nkita~” she smiles evilly.

-----

“Oh...so he’s dead” the brother looked down with tears slowly filling his eyes “hey dont worry im sure gem can revive him! Shes the best shot we got!”void said patting his back “yeah...i hope so..” that made void from ‘like dude im tryna keep you in high hopes tf?’ he thinks then he looks at lex “hey there's something we need to check out” he bluntly “huh…” she looks at him confused as he gets up and puts on his shoes “just come on” he grabbed her hand dragging her out of the house.

“O-oi void let go!!” Lex make chopped his hand “ow!” he screamed holding his arm “the hells you deal i told you we need to be quick” “n-no..no you didnt “ she deadpanned “oh i should have told you sorry” he chuckled “.....” she backed up a bit from him “hmm something wrong?” he asked “since when the hell did you say ‘sorry’” she says looking at him suspiciously.

#welp there you go!#chpt3 #oc #new oc's #mystery oc #gotta wait awhile for chpt 4!!

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tiny-smallest · 5 years ago

Text

warm summer nights

Rating: G Characters: Greg, Steven, Danny Fenton Warnings: none Description: Greg Universe is a lot of things- former semi-famous rockstar, musician, adviser, small business owner, best friend- but he is first and foremost a father.

But there were other things that made up his identity, things that hurt to remember and were usually easy to forget- until the day an incident on the beach and the appearance of a strange child in town sent both his fatherly senses and some old instincts screaming alarms in his head.

Also on AO3!

—

I thought this would be appropriate to post on the day that happens to be both one week after we said goodbye to Steven and the Dannyapocalypse. Like c’mon how perfect is that.

I started this in February back when I assumed we weren’t getting the end of Future until probably summertime. Parts have been rewritten or tweaked to accommodate the ending. Therefore there are SPOILERS in here for the latter half of Steven Universe Future (it is set between I Am My Monster and The Future) so do be aware of that. And also just be aware in general cause I’m sick of looking at this and details are blurring so if a detail or two seems off it’s because I didn’t catch it skljdfn

Enjoy!

—

Beautiful, blue, bejeweled.

This was one of the best things about living in Beach City. In this little town that was probably more of a village and definitely not a city, when the night was clear, as long as you weren’t standing smack in the middle of town where the lights would be brightest, Greg could see more stars than humanity could probably ever hope to visit. The fact that Beach City was very much a rural town helped immensely, too. No Empire City to smog up the skies from nearby.

Just the ocean waves and the twinkling expanse above, and his son’s house off to the side, the statue overhead serene and silent. You could write a song to a scene like this. Greg was trying, plucking idly at guitar strings, counting syllables in his head, matching words and chords. It wasn’t a serious project. More like a doodle of a song. Simple, short, maybe a little messy. Perfection wasn’t a requirement; just a bonus if it happened to happen.

He couldn’t say for sure whether or not Steven was in bed. Sure, he hadn’t heard anything, and Steven was sleeping much better these days, but Steven was also a teenager. Even at the best of times their inner clocks could be wonky. He sure remembered that. And it was a beautiful night; warm and breezy, calm and quiet.

So when he spotted a humanoid shape in the sky that lacked wings, he didn’t think much on it at first. Steven was seventeen, he reminded the nervous fatherly instincts pricking up. And Steven was seventeen and capable. If the boy wanted to go for a walk or hang in the sky for awhile, that was his business, and if it was because Steven was troubled, then Steven knew to also make it Greg’s business, if he wanted to.

Still, maybe he would pop by tomorrow morning with breakfast sandwiches. Just in case. Just to see him first thing in the morning.

Easy, Universe. Breathe. The air went in his lungs. The air flowed out.

He picked at the guitar again, but his eyes always somehow strayed back to the figure in the sky.

The first time Greg realized something might be off came when he realized the shape silhouetted against the stars was all wrong to be Steven. The body was too skinny- scrawny, even, and there was no sign of descent at all. Steven couldn’t hold his position. He could only slow his descent. Steven should have landed on the beach by now, if it was really him.

Unease bubbled in the pit of his stomach. He squinted, but whatever was out there was too far away for features to be discernible. Greg didn’t have binoculars.

Maybe he should go use that telescope…?

But it was probably just a gem, right? Right?

What was he supposed to do? Shout at them? They’d probably hear him from this far away…

Five dark bruises, long since faded, and the memory of what the house’s deck looked like from upside down, twenty feet in the air was what made him unsure if he liked that fact. It was definitely too tall to be Bluebird, though, and there were no wings present, so there was at least that comfort.

Not that there was much comfort at all. Who said Bluebird might not have friends? Sure, she was an obnoxious little goblin, but Greg knew there were other gems who hated his son and, apparently, that was a hell of a unifier in the gem world. I have no more hair to cut to get away if this is someone else who wants to try using me against Steven.

They hadn’t heard his quiet guitar playing, at least, and if they’d taken notice of the van on the beach, there was no movement to do anything about it.

Still.

He moved to strum the guitar, but his trembling fingers thought the better of it last second without any real thought and caressed the side of the fingerboard. Maybe he should call Pearl? He should probably call Pearl.

As he reached for his phone, a breeze blowing through the van made him shudder. Jeez, when did it get so cold? Why was it so cold! It was May!

Something made a noise outside. He froze.

The world went still. Greg’s heart hammered in his chest, pounded in his head. He could feel it beating in his ears.

A loud, wet thunk hit the window, slid down it. Greg raised his head just slightly and felt his heart somersault in his chest as the discolored, waterlogged hand slid down the window with a slow, wet squeak.

What. The fuck.

Greg was not a man who cursed liberally, years of raising a child to thank for that, but if there had been any air left in his lungs he would have said the fuck word like it was his day job at the sight of the other hand that slapped itself against the window. Fingers curled in like claws against the glass and there was a wet gurgle.

A face pressed into the pane. Skin blue, mottled with green and what looked like rotting bits, eyes nearly white, long, tangled, hair of indiscernible color, matted with sand and seaweed.

Their eyes met.

Before Greg could utter a sound she let out a guttural noise and banged on the window. It took a moment for Greg to realize that the strangled yelp was coming from him as he scrambled to close the back doors, slamming them shut with an echoing bang.

She clawed at the door underneath the window she was still smashed up against, something close to a growl pouring from her mouth. In the next moment the pouring was literally, water flowing like some kind of demented faucet from her throat. Greg watched from inside the van, feeling the world all but fall away as the girl began to turn inside out, discolored flesh exposing dully pulsating organs, meat rearranging itself into a ghasty, kraken thing with a pulsating eye sitting right where he was pretty sure squids did not have eyes.

It shrieked, slamming an arm the sand by the van, missing the front by an inch. Greg shouted in pain and scrambled to right himself, trying to get the doors he’d just closed back open.

“Hey!”

He stopped fumbling with the doors for a moment, then redoubled his efforts even though he felt the beast move a little bit away from where it had him pinned down.

The doors blew open with a bang and he half fell out, gaping from the sand at the sight of the back of a boy, floating in the air, fists raising for a fight. The kraken looked down at him, roared, and tried to slam its arm into him, next.

But as it came down, the child was gone.

He zipped around–around, the boy was flying–and kicked the thing right upside the head, sending it sprawling a few feet, before throwing what looked like glowing green fire at it from both hands. It swerved to the side, barely avoiding the beam of green fire, and looked back as if to assess where its prey had gone.

The boy shot like a reverse shooting star into the air and took another dive, feet held out to slam into the thing, but it halted his descent with a tentacle and threw him back, charging forward to meet him.

And it went right through him.

As it turned around again, the boy held up another hand of green fire and made a motion Greg realized somewhere in his frozen mind was very familiar. Like throwing a frisbee, the child flung a disk of green flaming something at the creature and hit it right in the eye in the middle of its head.

It exploded.

In a gush of green goo, it exploded, the slime expelled upwards in a really gross fountain. The boy landed in the sand beside the creature as the rest of the body began to melt away, blinking in what could only be surprise as the goo seeped into the ground. He tilted his head, bent over slightly, one hand resting on his knee as he fought to catch his breath, and opened his mouth.

Then he started, blinked, and turned the rest of his head to more clearly see what he must have been seeing from the corner of his eye–Greg himself–letting go of gravity as he did.

The boy floated there, breathing heavily, eyes locked on Greg, hair moving slightly like it was underwater, eyes glowing faintly. The world held still.

“Sorry about that,” he said softly, and as suddenly as he’d dove to Greg’s rescue, he was gone, the prints from his boots in the sand the only sign he’d ever existed at all.

A breeze blew across the beach. Greg wheezed out a gasp as his body remembered it needed to breathe.

He looked to the house. Undisturbed. Steven must be out after all.

He laid down in the back of the van. If he was more in his own head he might have immediately gotten up to go wait in the house.

But the world was tilting and his head full of cotton, so he didn’t do that.

But he did know one thing.

He was not sleeping until he knew his son was back safely in that house.

Hours. Minutes. Everything felt so quiet and so loud. He should call Steven. He should make sure he was safe.

But did any of that really just happen? Was this a nightmare? Was he just losing his mind? I started losing my hair early; maybe I’d start going senile early, too, floated lazily up in the swamp water that was his brain currently, and despite the concern he probably should have been feeling at that thought (when had he last gone to the doctor for literally anything?) he felt nothing.

Finally, in the predawn light painting the world gray and blue, Greg saw him. Steven approached from the left side of the van a little off in the distance and walked out of view. He thought he heard the screen door.

Steven was home. Steven was safe. Whatever happened, whatever dark thing had reached from beyond the void to touch this beach, it hadn’t touched Steven.

Steven was safe. Steven was safe. Steve was… safe… Steven… safe…

dear theodosia what to say to you

Sound. Light. That’s Steven.

Also, reality. Reality and pain. Headache.

He blinked and squinted, morning sun clear and warm, the world scattered, fuzzed at the edges, just clear enough to be entirely unwelcome in how real it was. Ugh. Why did his head hurt so much? Felt like he’d run a marathon-

Wait.

Wait wait what what-? Hold up. Put freakout on hold. Steven. He grabbed for his phone, fumbling it in sweaty fingers. 10:07. No wonder everything hurt. He’d slept maybe five hours, if that.

His eyes flicked from his phone to the sand as he thumbed over the screen to receive the call.

The van was parked far enough from the beginning of the beach for footprints to not leave indiscernible holes in the sand, but they weren’t close enough to the surf for the tide to wash everything away. But it had been windy.

There were marks, but had they come from feet? He couldn’t tell. He honestly couldn’t tell. God.

“Dad?”

“Hi, Stchu-ball,” he said aloud with a numb mouth and a number mind. Right. Think. Wake up, brain. Focus. He wanted to get breakfast for him.

“Hi Dad! Just got up; I was wondering if you wanted to join us for breakfast? Or, well, me; the others have to run to go do Little Homeschool stuff.”

“Yeah, sure buddy,” he managed. “My treat?”

“You sure? I can cook-”

Something firm and determined pushed him forward. “No, that’s fine. I’ve been meaning to try some of those breakfast sandwiches from Arianna’s, anyway.”

“Well… okay, if you’re sure.” The smile in his voice was warm. He wished he could return it.

“Yeah, I’m sure. See you in a few?”

“See you in a few.”

They hung up. He swallowed and climbed into the front seat to start the van, ignoring the good morning text from Pearl with only a slight pang of guilt. Might as well get breakfast and practice smiling. He was going to need it.

——-

The second Steven saw him, Greg knew the smile he’d pasted on before the door opened was too plastic.

The bright, sunny grin on Steven’s face drooped, eyes quickly flicking up and down his father’s form. Damn it. He hadn’t changed his clothes from yesterday, that’s right. There was nothing he could probably do about the dark circles he bet he had under his eyes but he should have changed his clothes at least.

Please don’t comment on it. Just let it go by.

“Your sandwiches, Mr. Universe,” Greg said, some distant part of him relieved that the silly, over-the-top voice came out and came out right. He gave his son a little bow as he presented the bag.

A giggle. “Please,” Steven replied in an equally silly voice. “Call me Steven. Mr. Universe is my father’s name.” The weight of the bag disappeared from Greg’s hand and he righted himself, wincing just slightly as one knee complained. The bag rustled, Steven stepping back inside the house. “My highly esteemed, very talented, charming father and oh my god is that an omelette? Is that an egg and mushroom breakfast sandwich? I’m throwing ‘amazing’ on that list I think.”

He snorted as he followed Steven inside. “You flatterer you.”

“Flattery has nothing to do with food that smells amazing. That you brought me,” Steven said as he set the bag on the counter and withdrew the plastic containers. Something inside Greg’s chest loosened at the absolutely ridiculous goofy face his son was making. They’d better dig in before the boy started drooling.

“All right, all right. I’ll take some of those compliments,” he laughed as he held his hands up in defeat, approaching the table. “Even though all I did was place an order.”

“For the right things,” Steven chirped as he reached into the cabinet to pull out plates. “Very much the right things. Stars that smells good.”

“Well, what can I say? We Universes have very… refined pallets.” Greg took the containers over to the table, Steven following with the plates.

Now it was Steven’s turn to snort. “Yeah, okay, sure.”

“Hey, remember that night in Empire City? I am a man of taste.”

“The classiest,” Steven agreed, a touch of warmth to the banter. Greg chuckled and ruffled his hair.

The boy moved to take a seat before pausing, looking to his father. “Hey, what are we doing? It’s a nice day! Let’s eat outside?”

Inwardly he quailed a little. He’d really rather not look at the beach today, if he were being honest.

But that earnest expression? How could he ever say no to it? Especially when it was asking something totally reasonable of him. “Sure, kiddo.”

He picked up the containers and Steven carried the plates, the door opening with the usual light creak of hinges moving. Steven sat on the steps with a sigh, stretching his legs and then scooting over to make room for his father. Greg sat beside him.

“So um… I was wondering…”

Greg turned his head. “Mm?”

Steven’s eyes were lowered, foot tapping against the step below. “… Are you feeling okay?”

Ah geez. “What do you mean, Schtu-ball?”

“Uh, well, you look kinda- really tired today, and I dunno-” He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. “I was just wondering, like, did you sleep okay? Do you- maybe need to talk about something or…? Because I know, I know you’ll say it’s not my job, but you’re my dad, and well, I just- I love you a whole lot and even if you don’t wanna talk about it I’d just- just like to make sure you’re all right.”

Oh, Steven.

He stared at his son, this sweet, brave, beautiful boy that he could barely believe came from his own dna, and leaned down to press a kiss into his hair.

“Dad?” He leaned back to find confused eyes that were rapidly becoming worried. Small wonder. Greg gave his son kisses all the time growing up, but they’d tapered off the past couple years out of respect for Steven’s slowly emerging adulthood and the determination that his son would never, ever feel patronized by him.

He only gave in a few times, and considering the ones he could remember were Steven being abducted to space, the second time his son was abducted to space, and Steven returning from saving them all from certain, eventual destruction at the hand of space dictators?

Yeah, he could see why he’d be concerned.

“It’s nothing,” he promised, smoothing back Steven’s hair a little. “Just… Had weird dreams last night. I’m very glad you’re here.”

“… You- could talk about them? If you wanted to,” Steven ventured. The powerful affection swelled even more and he gave him another kiss, on his forehead.

“Nah, they weren’t that bad. Nothing your old man can’t handle. Besides, you don’t need to fight them for me.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I don’t mean to brag-” the worried knot in his forehead hadn’t quite left despite the grin he flashed at Greg- “but I’m quite the dream warrior. Just ask Kiki!”

“Kiki?” Oh, right, the pizza nightmare nonsense. “You sure are, but you don’t have to be responsible for everyone’s sleep, kiddo. Just yours.” He ruffled his hair. “But hey- if there was something we could learn from this, I’d tell you. But there isn’t really. It was just weird and uncomfortable. Not even really a nightmare.”

“Oh.” He made a face. “Those suck.”

“They do,” Greg agreed, reaching for a sandwich.

Maybe it had been a dream, somehow.

——-

It was a few days later that the next oddity happened.

Just enough time for Greg to maybe consider that what happened on the beach was some weird sort of hallucination- or maybe something less severe than what that implied, maybe just a scary dream. A really, messed up, unsettling dream. He wasn’t sure if he ate anything before falling asleep (he was pretty sure he didn’t) but mark that down as something to never do again before bed, just in case.

He just really wish he didn’t remember that kid’s face as well as he did, or that… thing.

But it was fine! Greg was fine. It was probably just a nightmare, and nothing happened. Nobody got eaten the next day when they went in the water. No reports of missing persons. It was fine. He played guitar, hung out at his car wash, washed a couple cars, spent time playing music with Steven and Pearl, pacified Peridot’s twenty questions when she and Lapis dropped by town to visit, introduced Garnet to a new band, cooked a dinner with Steven, and even took a long walk down the beach with Pearl, chatting about anything and everything.

As always, the talk eventually turned to the townies, and what they were up to.

“It’s so odd,” Pearl mused. “I didn’t know we could even get raccoons around here.”

“Yep. They don’t usually come into town, but there’s plenty of them in the forest. Them and their weird tiny people hands.”

Pearl made a face. “Oh- that doesn’t sound- very nice.”

Greg chuckled. “They’re mostly harmless. It’s just really startling to be sleeping and suddenly feel tiny hands just like yours touching you.”

“Oh no, they haven’t done that to you!?” She looked so scandalized Greg almost laughed.

“Oh yes they have! But not in town. Happened a few years back when I took Steven camping in the woods.”

“Well that’s awful rude of them,” she huffed.

“Nah, cut them a break. We were intruders on their home, after all. They were just curious. Also they don’t understand decorum like we do.”

“Fair,” she sighed. “Still, they must be capable of some form of human-like reasoning.”

“Oh? Why’s that?” Pearl was an incredibly sharp person, but 5000 some years of refusing to properly interact with humans left her woefully unaware of a lot of things about the planet she lived on. Sometimes hearing her reasoning was downright hilarious. She certainly was a creative one.

“Well,” she started with all the innocence and assuredness of a small child about to explain a logic only they could understand, “The Frys and the Pizzas are the only ones it seems to bother.”

He blinked. “Huh?”

“If it’s really here for food, why does it only get into their garbage? Why not other people’s? Food is food and organics need to consume it, so logically shouldn’t it just go anywhere?” A pause. “Why, if it’s coming from the woods, it’s going out of its way to get to their trash, even! Fish Stew Pizza and Beach Citywalk Fries are all the way down the block from the forest.”

Huh. She had a point. “Who knows? Animals are weird. There’s a reason we still study them, after all.”

She clucked her tongue. “I suppose we’ll never truly know until we catch them in the act.”

They only get into the Frys’ and the Pizzas’ garbage.

He wish he’d paid more attention to that little tidbit than he did.

——-

Three days after that conversation, four after that nighttime beach dream, standing in Fish Stew Pizza at the counter, waiting for Kiki to finish his order, he saw him.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted movement from out the open window and, as humans were wont to do when something moved in their peripherals, he turned his head, not expecting to find much. This was one of the more popular spots of Beach City. People weren’t super uncommon, especially with the gems hanging around the city now.

What was uncommon, what was odd, was the sight of a new face, hanging around by the garbage– a teenager, with messy black hair and a t-shirt and jeans. Greg blinked in surprise, but any curiosity he might have felt evaporated as he watched the hunched up teenager glance, and not very inconspicuously, left, then right-

And then grabbed the little paper container containing a half-eaten thing of fries right from where it was perched on top of the rest of the trash, sliding over with guilty, shameful stumbling to the bench beside the garbage can. He shoved his hand into the bag and dug out a fistful of fries.

Greg froze. For a moment, all he could see was white hair, glowing in the moonlight, floating slightly in the air, topping a face that was a bit too thin. Something familiar-

Not the only thing familiar. At the same time he remembered walking by that same can, hunched over with shame and hunger, chewing the inside of his cheek, worries swirling, Rose oblivious thank god-

Sitting on the boardwalk with a hungrily suckling baby kicking the bottle, staring at the food places he couldn’t afford to order from because that crib had cost way more than he’d anticipated, stomach complaining with a hollow, gnawing pain-

Trying to ignore the burning in his cheeks as he counted up nickels and dimes for Kofi, grateful for his patience but feeling anxiety draw its claws along the inside of his head, wondering how long that patience would last when there was a line behind him-

“Mr. Universe?”

“U-um-” Trying to stuff his brain back into his head, he turned to look back to Kiki, whose face was lined with concern. Right. Pizza. “Oh, uh, thanks Kiki. This’ll- uh, make great leftovers."

"Well… I always thought cold pizza was yucky but hey, it’s your food, not mine.” She returned his weak smile and ducked back into the kitchen. He picked up the box, gears whirring as he stepped outside and approached the bench.

As his shadow fell over the teenager, the boy glanced up from where he was trying to peer into the clearly-empty box, eyes that looked too big for his head watching him warily. They were a startling shade of baby blue and it almost wrecked Greg’s concentration. Almost.

“Hey there!” he smiled at the boy. “Today’s your lucky day! I’ve started doing a 'one nice thing a day’ resolution– you know, spread some goodwill and all throughout the whole year, not just at the holidays– and you’re today’s winner! Have a pizza.”

He held the box out to him. One eyebrow quirked up, but the slightly shaking hands did accept the box.

“… And you didn’t put anything weird in it.” It wasn’t a question, and it wasn’t quite a statement either, brushing instead somewhere lightly against an accusation, especially with the pointing finger at the box now sitting on his lap.

“On my honor as a musician,” he promised, raising one hand, putting on his best overdramatic voice. There was a brief spark of amusement in the boy’s eyes. Greg took the minute of lowered guard to give him a quick scan.

Messy black hair he’d seen from the shop, but closer now, he could tell there was a very slight greasy quality to it, exacerbated by the lack of brushing. His frame and his face were a bit too thin, elbows poking out a bit more noticeably than they should have been, cheekbones a touch too sharp. There was a hole in one of the knees of his jeans, and given the dirt smeared on the pants, it didn’t look like fashion.

“Yeah, well… thanks, I guess.” He was still suspicious. Understandable. Greg knew what it looked like, a grown man approaching a lone boy he had no relation to with free food. He didn’t begrudge the kid the wary gaze still honed in on him with laser focus. “I’m staying right here.”

“Never said you had to go anywhere,” Greg said, backing away this time with both hands raised. “Enjoy your lunch, kiddo.”

He turned and went right back into the pizza shop, hailing Kiki down again.

“Yeah, Mr. U?”

“You see that kid outside?” he asked softly. Her head turned with his in time to watch the boy tear the pizza box open, rip out a slice, and begin to hork it down. She nodded, her face a wince of sympathy.

“Yeah.”

“Tell him he can get a free pizza a day, okay? I’ll pay for it, but don’t credit me. Let him think whatever, just as long as he knows he can get something to eat here.”

“Awfully sweet of you,” she said with a little smile. “Yeah, I’ll do that. Should we get ahold of his parents or…?”

Something twisted uncomfortably in his gut. “No. He might recoil if we’re too obvious about helping. If his family needs food, he’ll take the pizza home.”

“Well, looks like they must be having dinner tonight. Sure hope he doesn’t eat that whole thing by himself right now, though.” They resisted the urge to check. “I’ll keep an eye on him, Mr. Universe. Can’t leave the shop, but as long as he’s hanging around outside, I don’t mind watching him.”

“Maybe try to keep your dad or Mayor Nanefua from hovering too close?” He forced an awkward chuckle. “I remember what it’s like, being that age. He’ll just get embarrassed and shut down. Free pizza won’t do him much good if he won’t come to claim it.”

“Don’t worry Mr. U; I got this.” She winked at him. He tried to let it comfort him, and smiled back.

The boy was still tearing apart the pizza when he stepped outside. Resisting the urge to check on him again, he walked away.

He went to find Steven, lunch forgotten, and made sure to give his son a great big hug.

“Dad?”

“Nothing. Just wanted to give you a hug.”

If he had his way, it would have been for the rest of forever.

——-

He’d almost convinced himself by the time a week had passed that the white-haired floating kid from the beach was a bad dream, or maybe even some kind of… weird, residual Future Sight rubbing off on him.

Could that even happen? Greg was sure around magic stuff often enough for something weird to pop up, right? He was tempted to as Garnet about it, but the urge to keep quiet about this wouldn’t go away. Especially since he wasn’t sure that he could trust Garnet to keep this between them- not when she shared almost everything with the other gems now, not when they were finally feeling something like a family unit after all the years they wasted being distant and combative with one another. Garnet was nothing if not protective, and he knew the implication he’d started seeing things might concern her into consulting the others. Maybe even consulting other humans, given that he was pretty sure she knew little about human biology and how brains and bodies connected.

Or she could take it to be a literal, physical threat and sound the alarm. That felt likely, too. Extremely likely. He thought of the way she very carefully shadowed Steven in the months following his meltdown, and winced. Yeah. That would be a bad idea.

Especially if this was all just absolutely nothing. God, the last thing he’d want to do is alarm Steven for absolutely nothing.

He locked up the car wash at around dusk, checking his phone as he walked his way down the street towards the beach. Steven would probably be starting to cut the vegetables, and if he hurried, he’d get there before he was ready to toss the salad and reheat the sauce from three days ago. He might even be in time to help Steven dice, actually.

As he reached the street that became the giant back area of The Big Donut, he heard it.

The sound of metal rattling.

Greg froze, looking up from his phone, staring down the block. Boardwalk Street saw the back of several stores and featured two small parking lots, indents in the street that hid the actual backs of the stores from sight- not helped by how far back Shirts 4 You extended.

A memory floated. Raccoons.

Well huh. He should. Probably look.

He stood there another minute before there was another rattle of metal and sighed, pressing his thumb into the power button of his phone to make it sleep and following the sound.

Is that… is that glowing?

He turned the corner of Shirts 4 You, staring across the little parking lot at the backs of the junky souvenir shop (the name of which he’d never bothered learning in the thirty some years he’d lived here), Fish Stew Pizza, and Beach Citywalk Fries.

And floating above the dumpster of the pizza place was-

The phone dropped to the concrete with a clatter and the white haired boy looked up from where he was reaching into the trash, green eyes locking with his.

For a second the world was still.

Then Greg blinked, and there was nothing there. How long he stood there he didn’t know, the buzzing of his phone the only thing to make it past the pounding in his ears.

Numbly, he bent and picked up the phone.

Hey dad, where are you? You okay?

With trembling fingers he tapped out a message.

Fine, sorry kiddo. Customer took too long. Just got him to leave. Be right there.

He looked up. The dumpster lid was now back in place. The sound he made was barely human.

Greg shoved his phone in his pocket, turned, and left.

——-

“You’re really not slick, dude.”

Greg startled, nearly dropping the bag. He fumbled it embarrassingly, only just managing to catch it by one of the loops in the plastic. A deep sigh came from above him, and he lifted his burning face to look into the eyes of the unimpressed teenager sitting in the tree.

How did he even climb that high? It wasn’t a very sturdy tree. Just the tallest one in the park. The thought made his gut knot. Please get down from there.

“Why are you following me?” His thin shoulders hunched, face tight, fists clenching.

Well this was sure going the exact opposite way he wanted it to.

“I- uh… wanted to give you this,” he admitted in defeat, setting the plastic bag down at the base of the tree. “Thought you could use it.”

“I’m not getting down.” Greg heard the real meaning crystal clear. I’m not getting within grabbing distance. “Throw it up to me if you want me to see it that bad.”

Well, it wasn’t exactly heavy, but… “You… sure it won’t unbalance you?”

“Try me.” The barest hint of smugness amidst the defensive suspicion.

Huh. Welp. “Okay, sure.” If he fell, Greg knew a guy who could repair anything. Even if he had to cushion the kid’s fall with his own body there’d be no lasting harm with Steven around, not really, and insisting the kid come down was not worth risking the boy running off. He threw the bag up.

The teenager caught it in one hand with an ease that surprised him. Shifting slightly, likely to ensure his butt was securely on the branch, he dared to let go of the tree with his other hand to open the bag, a few brightly-colored plastic bottles and a loofa staring up at him. “… This is-”

“There’s a public shower over by the beach. The beach open to the public, I mean. It’s a much better place to clean up than the ocean and it really will help you feel loads better.” He pointed at the direction of the beach, resisting the urge to shield his eyes from the setting sun. “We really get barely any tourists compared to Ocean Town, but we get just enough that nobody will think twice about you using the facilities. It’s May, after all. This is when tourist season starts.”

The boy lowered the bag a little, eyebrows shooting to the sky. It made his eyes look even bigger and his confusion even more child-like. “… Why?”

“Uh- why do we have a tourist scene? Beats me. Beach City’s a nice place, but it’s tiny and has less stuff than-”

“No I mean- why?” He gestured to the plastic bag in his lap.

“Oh, that.” He shrugged, doing his best to seem nonchalant. “You look like you could use a little help.”

“And you just… decided to help.” His voice was flat with disbelief.

Greg blinked. For a second he could’ve sworn his eyes were green.

Green. Green like-

Focus, Universe!

“Yeah.”

“And you don’t want anything.”

“Nope.”

“… I’m not sure if I believe that.”

Shit, he’d probably turned down the pizza offer too, then.

“Listen I know it sounds… weird. And I didn’t want to butt in, so I won’t ask. But I can help without having to know every detail, so… well, why not?”

The kid tilted his head to the side, chewing on his lip a little.

“If you ever wanna talk, you can find me at the car wash.” He pointed. “Can’t miss it. Out of the park down this way to Boardwalk Street, take a left to Thayer Street, walk up the block. It’s at the base of the giant hill, only thing on that side of the street, right next to the ocean.”

“… Mmhm.” He wasn’t looking at him. Okay, fair.

“See you around?” He gave the teenager a wave.

As he turned to leave, he heard a soft “See you around.”

——-

“Um- is this seat taken?”

Greg glanced up in surprise from his lawnchair at the voice. That surprise quickly turned into relief at the shock of messy hair, even if the teenager looked like he was trying to curl into himself while still standing. “Nope. Go ahead.”

He sat down on the other lawnchair, tucking his knees against his chest and glancing skywards.

For a few minutes all was quiet.

“… It’s a nice night.”

“Sure is,” Greg returned easily. “We get a lot of those around here, especially in summer.” The kid looked so sad and he ached to do something about it, but pouncing was ill-advised right now.

A star shot across the sky. Suddenly that pain became a look of sheer joy, the boy gasping in delight. Greg smiled. “Pretty, huh? Meteorites are aweso-”

“Meteors.”

“Mm?”

“Oh- uh-” The boy flushed. “They’re only meteorites if they don’t disintegrate before they hit the ground. Otherwise they’re meteors.”

“No kidding. What about comets, then?”

“Oh, those are like-” He held up his hands a width apart. “They’re small solar system bodies made out of ice, and when they get close to the sun, the sun warms them up, and that makes them start releasing gasses- it’s called outgassing? And that’s what makes them look like they do- although they don’t always get a tail.”

“The only comet I’ve ever heard about is Haley’s Comet,” Greg mused.

“Oh, we won’t see that again until 2061,” he chattered. “That comet only comes around every seventy-five years, give or take a year.”

“Well look at you, little astronomer!” Aw hell, that face was cute. It looked just like Steven’s when Steven was going off about music. “Okay, what do you know about other solar- bodies?” That was the term he’d used right? “In our solar system.”

“You- really wanna know?”

“Yeah!” For all his son was a space prince he knew dip about the solar system. “Lay it on me.”

“Oh- geez- where to start-! Okay, did you know a day on Venus is longer than an earth year? Uhhh- the footprints on the moon?” He pointed up, like Greg might’ve forgotten where the moon was. “Those’ll be there for a hundred million years- oh here’s a really cool one; if two pieces of the same kind of metal touch while in space, they permanently bond because the atoms straight up have no way of knowing that they’re separate! It doesn’t happen on earth because there’s air and water between the pieces.” He stretched out one foot, eyes locked on the starscape above, face practically glowing, hands moving as he spoke, as if trying to pluck the wonders he spoke of from the sky to show him. “The highest peak on any planet in our solar system is Olympus Mons, which is a giant volcano on Mars that’s like, three times as big as Everest! Neutron stars–those are the densest and littlest stars we know of so far–their radius is around six miles long but their mass might be several times greater than our own sun, and they might spin six hundred times a second because of their weird physics-”

Greg didn’t realize how hard he was smiling until Danny stopped, cheeks turning bright red.

“U-um- sorry, didn’t mean to just go off like that-”

Greg waved a hand. “It’s fine. I asked, right? Besides, that was all pretty cool.” He wondered how much Steven knew.

Quiet again.

“It really is a nice night,” the boy murmured.

“If you stick around, you’ll get used to them.”

The teenager’s back went rigid. “Uh-”

“Look,” Greg said with a slow sigh. He set aside his guitar. “… I don’t pretend to know exactly what your situation is. And I’m not demanding to know, either. I have some guesses-”

The blood drained from the boy’s face.

“-But! Well… I’d be a hypocrite if I turned you over to the police. I get it, I really do. But I’m a father, kiddo. I just… want you to be safe. Wherever that is, however that has to happen. Even if the law wouldn’t exactly be smiling at me for how that comes around.”

“… So you’re saying… you’re… not? Gonna call the police?”

“No. And frankly we’ve got enough weirdness going on here that I don’t think a lot of people will be too upset at something new if you just started hanging around. That’s what my son’s friend started doing, for days, and nobody questioned her. They all just assumed she’d just moved to Ocean Town nearby and, well, she had.”

“Son?” Now that his fear was easing, he was processing that. “You’ve got a son?”

“Yup.” He didn’t bother trying to hide the pride in his voice. “About your age, too. If you do start hanging around here, you can expect to run into him. He’s very much a people person. Spends a lot of time wandering town and usually ends up here at some point or another.”

“Huh.” There was something else in his face now, a look Greg recognized very much indeed. It took everything in him to not physically react to the yearning in his eyes. “… If he’s anything like you that… doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Steven is a million times my better, trust me,” he chuckled. “I know I’m his dad and it’s kind of my job to say that, but really, he is.”

“Heh…” the boy stretched his legs.

Silence.

“You got a place to sleep?”

The big, baby blues were defensive again. “Yeah.”

“Sleeping bag?”

“Mmhm.”

“… And you’re not lying?” he coaxed gently.

“No.” Though still lined with borderline aggressive caution, Greg could read his face well enough. He wasn’t lying.

“Okay. But if the weather ever gets really bad, come find me. We’ll figure something out- and it won’t be with me,” he added hastily as the boy quirked an eyebrow, drawing his legs in again. “You can crash with my son, maybe, or I’ll find somewhere else you’d feel safe in, but I wouldn’t try to make you stay in a space with me alone. I get it. Stranger danger.”

That got a head tilt. “He doesn’t live with you?”

“Ah- no.” That old pang, especially given recent events. “He lives with his mom’s relatives. It’s a sort of… joint custody thing, but we’re on good terms. He comes down and sees me all the time, and I go over there all the time. We cook together. Hang out. He’s fifteen minutes away by walking from here. I basically just don’t actually sleep there, really, unless he wants me to.”

And lately he’d wanted him to quite frequently. Especially after the other night. It had taken a minute of comfortable silence while eating for Greg to realize that if he’d only slept five hours, so had Steven, since Steven had gotten back from his walk not minutes before Greg finally passed out. Steven squirmed under his gentle questioning but caved quickly enough, admitting he’d had a nightmare and wanted to go clear his head. Even better, he didn’t resist Greg’s offer to stay over for the rest of the week.

That therapy sure was helping. Little steps. It hadn’t stopped the nightmares, and the boy still went pink occasionally, but Steven was opening up, accepting help. Greg was proud of him.

Now hopefully this kid would accept some manner of help, too.

… He probably should explain the magical aliens, huh. Then again, if the boy was hanging around Beach City so much…

Well it wasn’t like all the gems had humanoid anatomy to their forms. Hell, Bixbite had a claw! And the kid hung around Fish Stew Pizza often enough to have probably seen her.

“So have you seen the- uh-” He gestured out over the city. The boy blinked in confusion before understanding dawned on his face.

“Oh, you mean the literal aliens walking around.” He snorted at Greg’s face. “Well they’re not exactly subtle.”

“Uh- no, you’re right, they’re not,” he laughed weakly. “It’s a good thing the ones that look less human have the sense to avoid Beach City during the day during tourist season but there are slips now and again.”

“I’d say it’s kind of amazing the news hasn’t spread but like- aliens. Who’s gonna believe that.”

“Exactly. You have no idea how long that’s kept us safe.”

Something passed across his face, something grim and hard and understanding and wow it made a rock lodge in his gut. The look was gone in seconds, but some of that steel remained. The nod the boy gave was way too mature for a kid his age. “Yeah. Yeah, I’d imagine it’d be bad if it got out beyond Beach City. I won’t say anything.”

“We all appreciate that,” Greg said softly, still stunned. “Uh- thanks, kiddo.”

“Mmhm.” He stretched out again.

A breeze blew through, ruffled their hair.

“Danny.”

Greg’s head turned from the starscape above them. “'Scuse me?”

“Danny. My name’s Danny.”

“Nice to meet you, Danny. I’m Greg. Greg Universe.” He held out his hand across the divide of the lawn chairs. Danny studied it for a moment before taking it.

“It’s… been nice to meet you too.” A hint of a grin. “Universe? Really?”

He flushed. “Ah, well- bit of a story, tha-”

“How’d you manage to land the coolest last name in the world? You and your kid get 'Universe’ and I get something dorky as hell? That’s not fair.”

Greg stared at him for a moment before laughing.

He liked this kid already.

#danny phantom #phicc #steven universe #greg universe #danny fenton #steven quartz universe #su greg #su steven #steven universe future spoilers #suf spoilers #my writing

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valenshawke · 6 years ago

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Identity Ask- 1&3!

identity asks… oh shit

3. list your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with.

I’m limiting myself to five.

Claymore - Clare

Death Parade - Chiyuki

My Hero Academia - Izuku Midoriya

Violet Evergarden - Violet

And not to be an anime/manga-cliche-riddled-mess

Deadwood - Al Swearengen

1. if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?

I’m answering these as to what I was watching/reading/listening to during my late teens/early adulthood as they either proto-formed most of political and social ideology while other things better informed me later. But without these, probably would have turned out different.

Watch: Uh… man… this is gunna be terrible. But probably watch The X-Files, Law & Order, and the first two seasons of The West Wing. The X-Files kinda got me somewhat deep into conspiracy theory circles for a bunch of years before the right wing really got deep into it and it became a mess of fascist white supremacy. Law & Order cause I wanted to be Jack McCoy for a lot of years and he is an influence as to how I lectured when I was teaching. Plus, his righteous sanctimony is something identify with since people do consider a sanctimonious prima donna and drama queen. The West Wing is probably a shocker because that show first about 4 seasons (when Sorkin wrote it) was fucking idealistic as hell and a nice counterbalance to the Bush administration. I’ll also toss in Stargate SG-1 because I loved that show and it replaced The X-Files as must-see-TV after the movie.

Listen: Metallica. If you’re a male, and you like heavy metal, at some point… you listened to Metallica a lot (or Megadeth if you hated Metallica and thought Dave Mustaine was the superior guitarist and songwriter). This WAS the band of my high school years. And Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, and … And Justice for All were all great in terms of social commentary on politics, corruptions, religion. I listened to Metallica a lot, and I mean a lot, while I was reading what I’m going to talk about in a bit.

The Black Album also means a lot to me since my first girlfriend in high school actually introduced me to the band and told me her all time favorite song was “The Unforgiven.” I listened to it and it’s still my all time favorite song by Metallica and, AND, I got to see them play it live in December. A moment I will never forget (I also recorded it and bought the official live recording of that concert).

Read: I give this answer a lot but it’s been awhile and I’ll give a why on what someone would read: Dune, specifically the Dune Chronicles. The original six books. I was actually going through my replies one night and someone @thetwistedmentat asked my thoughts on the fourth book, God Emperor of Dune. So I’ll try to cover it all briefly here…

Still going under a cut.

When I was 16 and read the first four books, it really did change how I viewed the world. About 2.5 years earlier, I became an atheist, which went over real well in Catholic school. I was already the ostracized kid in Catholic school, so this added to it. I guess I had a lot of questions on morality and how things really were.

When I read the first book, it really opened my eyes. No, I didn’t get the subtlety or all the commentary the first time I read it, but I got the broad strokes and I got older and learned more, I started to understand the references and the complexity of what Frank Herbert was saying.

Messianic figures are, by-in-large, a bad idea. Either because they become a prisoner to their ideas and mission or don’t have the courage to do what it is needed if they’re smart enough to realize, “Hey, being a single ruler with religious devotion is a terrible thing.”

Dependency on a single resource to move a system’s economy is… a terrible thing as well.

Social engineering (a more complex and devious form of socialization) is a terrible thing and can lead to terrible outcomes.

Religion and government being one and the same… is a terrible thing with terrible outcomes.

Cultural and evolutionary stagnation is… A terrible thing.

Complacency is… A terrible thing.

The ecology of a planet can give us clues and inform us of what a society holds sacred or important. Which also ties into #2.

People tend to drop Dune after the second book or criticize the first book for pretty much the same reason. Dune has been criticized as a colonial white-man’s fantasy because the “hero” wins at the end of the first book. As one gets closer to the end, Paul Atreides makes more more comments about a terrible decision he has to make, a Jihad that is coming, and billions that will die. People will die under and because of his name. When you get to book 2… Frank Herbert takes a wrecking ball to the entire notion that Paul is a hero. Paul compares himself to Hitler for love of Teresa of the Faint Smile. And no, this isn’t Frank Herbert was a Nazi or a sympathizer. For Frank Herbert, this was the clearest way for him to say Paul Atreides was evil, a coward, and weak. Frank Herbert literally said Paul is someone who “thinks he is God. “

And he leaves those terrible decisions to his son, Leto Atreides II.

In the third book, Leto and his twin sister, Ghanima, have the same power Paul had, the ability to see the future and the ability to tap into both sides of their genetic memory and Leto struggles with the decision to take on the skin of the Sandworm.

What is the decision? Save humanity. Because on it’s current path as outlined by points 1, 2, 3, 4, & 6… humanity will meet its end. Again this is a galactic empire but it can be controlled by one person who controls one resource.

Which actually leads into the second criticism I actually read very recently. That the books still fall into the strong-man political leader/fascist leader to solve the problems. And I’ll admit, that is a strong criticism if you discount the nuances Frank Herbert brings and the ultimate goal Frank Herbert apparently had in mind (According to Norman Spinrad, Frank Herbert actually detested the royalist politics he wrote about, which is pretty clear, and that the universe would eventually move to some kind of true democratic confederation).

Yes, both Paul and Leto (especially Leto) were strong man/fascist dictators for all intents and purposes. But both clearly could see into the future and had pretty much all of human history in their heads to realize humanity, as a group of people, naturally fall into the trap of charismatic leadership and authority. It’s actually rather easy to do if you examine just how Paul becomes a messiah to the Fremen (which is an explicit criticism of the Catholic Church and its role in European Colonialism).

And this gets into an overall theme in many of Frank Herbert’s work: Harsh social and environmental conditions can produce genius or people able to survive. At the micro-level, you have the Fremen, who can best the imperial militaries best.

At the big, macro-level, Leto’s oppression is meant to foment rebellion, is meant to make people angry generation after generation, is meant for people that want freedom, to never be under the rule of one person ever again, is meant to make him the ultimate symbol of evil everyone can agree upon (sound familiar anime fans?). They must call him Shaitan. He must be remembered as a Tyrant. As evil. He must die in a certain way. The problem with humanity, and you can see it to this day, is we forget the mistakes of the past. Leto’s goal:

“When I set out to lead humanity along my Golden Path, I promised them a lesson their bones would remember. I know a profound pattern which humans deny with their words even while their actions affirm it. They say they seek security and quiet, the condition they call peace. Even as they speak, they create the seeds of turmoil and violence. If they find their quiet security, they squirm in it. How boring they find it. Look at them now. Look at what they do while I record these words. Hah! I give them enduring eons of enforced tranquility which plods on and on despite their every effort to escape into chaos. Believe me, the memory of Leto’s peace shall abide with them forever. They will seek their quiet security thereafter only with extreme caution and steadfast preparation.” - Leto Atreides, The God Emperor of the Known Universe.

It only takes 3500+ years.

There’s also just a lot of gems about leadership, bureaucracy, and the idiotic repetition of history in God Emperor of Dune. The Dune Chronicles aren’t very action-based, there aren’t prolonged battles that are written out. Dune ends with a duel, Dune Messiah has a few moments of violence with stone burners, and a few deaths at the end, Children of Dune has a very sad written death of one of my favorite characters. God Emperor of Dune probably is the closest something heartpounding as Leto’s goal is ultimately achieved. Heretics of Dune again has some moments of violence. Chapterhouse: Dune actually has a battle sequence written out. After that, there are no more Dune books.

“But-”

THERE. ARE. NO. MORE. DUNE. BOOKS.

Why I became a sociologist? Why I ended up reading Marx & Lenin? Why I’m so critical of the intersection of politics, economics, and religion? Here you go.

This isn’t to say stuff HASN’T influenced me later. I’d also suggest reading books by Mira Grant and Ann Leckie, as well as Terry Pratchett’s Discworld and mangas such as Claymore by Norihiro Yagi and Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa or watch Code Geass, M*A*S*H, and The Wire. Just that the Dune Chronicles was the first, and probably, most important step.

#long post #An Anon drives by...#ValensHawke gets asked #ValensHawke answers

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lovixcore · 6 years ago

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Could you do 3(amethyst being the one saying i love you) please?

3. I just told you I liked you but now I’m shy and say “never mind, forget it” and why are you looking at me like that?

So, this took awhile to write, but here it is. This takes place after my other two fics ‘Comfort’ and ‘Swirling Emotions’. It takes inspiration from ‘Too Close’. Somethings are the same as Too Close, some are definitely not. I hope you enjoy this anon, and I hope whoever else reads this enjoys it too. (I’ll also post this on Ao3 soon too)

They were sitting on the edge on top of the hill where the lighthouse sat, the hill that overlooked the Crystal Temple. Sun was setting. It was just the two of them, no other gems or humans in sight.

“Sooo, why did you take me here?” Peridot asked.

“I dunno. Guess I just wanted to show you how pretty the view is up from here when the sun’s setting,” Amethyst answered.

“It is intriguing,” Peridot intoned, staring off.

“Then I was right to take ya up here,” Amethyst grinned.

Peridot looked over and slightly smiled, “Yea.”

“Soooo.. I never asked but… how were things with us on Homeworld?” Amethyst asked, not really knowing what to talk about.

“Boring.”

“Thought ya would’ve been hanging out with water w- er I mean Lapis,” Amethyst pointed out.

“She took longer to reform then I did.. and when she came back, I felt.. conflicted..,” Peridot stammered.

“Conflicted?” Amethyst questioned.

“Well.. She was the reason why I was ‘depressed’ for a long time. She fled, after I was so emotionally honest with her! She took all my stuff into space, and just.. left.. me.. but I.. really missed her,” Peridot explained why she felt conflicted.

“That’s understandable.. I guess,” Amethyst opined. Before, she didn’t like Lapis. She didn’t like that she broke Peridot’s heart and didn’t care. Now, she was okay with her, just over protective of Peridot.

“So how was being on Homeworld for the first time?” Peridot asked, genuinely curious. She knew Amethyst was interested in learning about Homeworld.

“Crazy.”

“Crazy?”

“I mean…it’s just that.. I’ve never been to Homeworld before. It was just shocking.. There were thousands of gems, maybe even a million! I dunno. Heck, there were even era one Peridots! Butttt… They weren’t as cool as you are,” Amethyst rambled. Peridot’s cheeks turned blue. “We even saw White Diamond! And her Pearl! Man, they were so creepy!”

“Yea..”

“So, how’d you like your first wedding?” Amethyst asked.

“It was fun, until the diamonds crashed, but.. it was beautiful. They really love each other, a lot,” Peridot gushed, twiddling her fingers. “It.. amazes.. me. The concept of love, and how earthlings celebrate it.”

“Yeah. Ruby and Sapphire really love each other.”

“The concept of love.. really is.. interesting.. it’s intriguing.. and beautiful,” Peridot smiled. “On homeworld.. We weren’t taught what romance and love are.”

“Of course you weren’t! Those guys hate happiness! They hate love, and they hate romance!”

After a long moment of silence, Peridot finally broke it. “..Have you ever loved anyone else?” Peridot asked.

“Well - I love you guys. You guys are m’a family.”

“Amethyst, I meant a romantic attraction for someone else.”

“Oh. Well.. Um.. I’ve kissed others. I’ve even kissed humans. I’ve done stuff, I’ve experimented. I’ve even had relationships, buttt, they weren’t exactly long term,” Amethyst admitted.

“You��ve.. kissed someone?” Peridot asked.

“Yep. Jealous?” Amethyst teased. Peridot’s lips clenched, posture slumping, cheeks turning blue. “Per, relax, I was joking.”

“Ahahaha,” Peridot fibbed, trying to fake laugh, but noticeably failing.

“Peri.. you’re really bad at lying,” Amethyst pointed out the obvious. She wrapped her arm around Peri, “So tell me.. what’s up.”

“I-I don’t know,” Peridot stuttered. “How do you describe the feeling of having romantic feelings for someone else?”

“Well.. for me.. it’s like.. my chest’s pounding, or it’s tingly. And when I’m around them.. I just can’t stop smiling. And when I see them all I have is the urge just to pick h-them up and spin them around, or hug them, or hold their hand, or even kiss them. And when we touch, even just a brush, I shiver. Tremble - actually,” Amethyst rambled. Her eyes were sparkling, her cheeks were a dark deep purple, and her lips were parted. “I guess.. that’s how I feel about you.”

Peridot was speechless. She tried to speak but she couldn’t. She just found herself, trembling, speechless, blushing, and staring at Amethyst. Amethyst liked her? Of all gems? Why her? What was so special about her?

Amethyst jerked back, now getting shy that Peridot wasn’t responding. Was she weirded out? Did she not feel the same way? Did she just make a major mistake and mess up? Was it too soon? “Urgh, I-just-nevermind..forget it.. forget I ever said anything.” She got up, and started to walk away. Peridot got up too, and grabbed Amethyst’s hand. Peridot was just staring, eyes wide and sparkling, lips parted, cheeks blue. “Per.. why are you looking at me like that? Why are you stopping me?”

“I like you too..,” Peridot gushed, weakly.

“Ya do?” Amethyst asked, kind of shocked, but smiling.

“Yeah. I thought it was pretty obvious!” Peridot responded.

“Not obvious enough, nerd,” Amethyst flirted. Peridot giggled.

“Why would you hold a romantic attraction towards me though?” Peridot asked.

Amethyst face-palmed, “’Cause. You’re funny. You’re cute. You’re smart. You’re honest. You’re literally my closest friend!” She paused. “But.. why would you like me? I came out.. wrong.”

“You may have not been.. well made.. but.. you have very attracting features, two being your personality, and your appearance,” Peridot explained.

“Heh. Thanks dork,” Amethyst smiled, still blushing, and ignoring Peridot’s comment about her not being well made.

Amethyst cupped Peridot’s cheek, while the other hand was holding Peridot’s hand. They were just blushing, smiling, and staring at each other. “So Peri.. are ya familiar with the concept of kissing?”

“Yea.”

“Can I introduce you to it?” Amethyst asked.

“Of course.”

Amethyst gently pulled Peridot closer, then leaning in and gently and slowly placing her lips on Peridot’s. She then wrapped her arms around Peridot’s shoulder, while Peridot wrapped her arms around Amethyst’s waist. They held the kiss for a minute, and then let go. Peridot’s eyes were big and wide, sparkling, pupils enlarged, her cheeks were blue, and her mouth was open. “Hehe.. Not bad for your first time, Per.”

“Holy smokes. Y-yeah,” Peridot stammered. She felt so many new feelings, but she didn’t know what they were. She could feel her chest pounding, her stomach felt like butterflies were swirling.

Amethyst laid down on the grass, staring up at the sky. Peridot joined her by laying down too. Amethyst smiled and then grabbed Peridot’s hand, holding onto it. “Is this okay?”

“Yes.” Peridot held onto her hand. To her, it was unbelievable of how fast things went by, and how she kissed the gem she longed to be with and the gem she admired. She knew it was real, but it felt like a dream to her. Then, they just laid there. Not questioning anything. Just hand holding, blushing, smiling, and enjoying being together, while staring at the sky.

#amedot #perithyst #fic #fanfic #evie writes #fanfiction #prompts #asks #anonymous

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mercuriallycooperative · 6 years ago

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Another one of my two-year-late-rewatches! Again, the below is the complete and unaltered text of my reaction/rewatching-a-day-or-a-few-later of the SU episode “Mr. Greg” from the Summer of Steven like two years back. Including typos, I think. Also, unfortunately missing the line-by-line unpacking of “It’s Over, Isn’t It” that I meant to do, which I guess is why I didn’t post this at the time. I appreciate that past-me’s reaction to things still remains rather relatable, even though I have absolutely no idea if any of those questions got answered in the meanwhile. Also, pffft, my note at the end, ah yes, two years later, definitely got to posting these in a more timely manner. Absolutely.

“Rewatching Steven Universe: Summer of Steven Edition” continues!

(This one was, uh, actually written before the first two episodes of the week because I have Great Outpouring of Feelings(tm).... I didn’t get to it first only because I delayed writing these until after Monster Reunion and Alone at Sea.)

Day 2 (Tuesday, July 19)

Mr. Greg

Okay first thoughts before actually rewatching, after my memory has had time to dull for awhile. This episode was great, I loved it so much, I love Pearl and Greg and Steven and music and singing and feelings and dealing with the spectre of Rose Quartz.

I’m wondering a little where Amethyst and Garnet are, but actually, given the number of times Steven has been left to his own devices for an extended period of time, the gems just sort of... not noticing people have gone for awhile has a lot of precedent. Probably.

I don’t actually have a lot of new and Strongly Opinionated longwinded thoughts to preface this episode, possibly because I left this rewatch for so long. Actually, I suppose I’ll get to actually rewatching all the Summer of Steven episodes after progressing through the whole rest of the episodes eventually. It’ll be interesting to see what information and perception has changed by then.

Now, actually rewatching the episode...

1) Hey, actually, just a thought, but when’re we getting a new opening?

2) Okay, the Marty in the commercial is young!Marty. When the hell did he sell Greg’s song as a jingle, and how long has it been circulating, and why has it taken so long for a) anyone in Beach City to notice and b) Marty to come by with the money?

3) Greg’s song works really well as a jingle, actually.

4) Hey maybe the reason Marty needs the Guacola contract (even though his contract with Greg says Marty gets like 75% so if Greg is rich Marty should be richer) is because Marty got all that money early or over a lot of time and delayed paying Greg long enough that Marty had used up so much of his money, that a sudden 10 million dollar draw on his account put him in a bad place moneywise. A friend of mine proposed that gambling is how Marty could manage to burn that much money to the point he’s in need of sponsorship.

5) $5.95 isn’t a bad deal as long as it’s a good, hefty burger with maybe a soft drink, actually. At least, with real-world American money. What is the in-universe value of American-ish money, anyway- the same as real life, or... ?

6) Actually if the ad is regional (i.e. not in Beach City’s region) and we assume Greg is the only one besides Rose who would have known the song (because his CDs never sold and nobody came to his concert), it’s not too off to assume they’d have never noticed the jingle. I’m now wondering how Greg even found the ad in the first place, it’s not like Marty gave any explanation about why he just handed Greg a large cheque. Maybe some information was written on said cheque, like, from the bank or what the money was from, and it just wasn’t detailed?

7) “This is what did it? Burgers?” I get the impression Pearl is trying to hang what happened on just one event that started everything. Then again, it’s a fair point. If Greg had, say, been singing about the glory of war and nationalism in the way that hot-blooded youth stereotypically might, or even angsty nobody-understands-my-feelings hackneyed stuff, how would things have gone then? Was it only the fact that Greg’s schtick was Space and the Universe that drew Rose in, that first night? I wonder if that’s something Pearl wonders. Wonders why her own dreams of stars weren’t enough for Rose.

8) Oh god that is something they had and may yet have in common, isn’t it. The stars, and dreaming of flying off into them.

9) “She would have loved it.” Aside from Pearl continuing to break my heart, this bit is curious in a couple of ways. Greg is asking Pearl what Rose would have thought- and by his tone of voice, it is an actual question, not a rhetorical one. Greg and Rose were together for years and years, but Greg still will ask Pearl to confirm some things. (Then again. Human memory is not crystalline clear.) More interesting still, Pearl brings herself to answer honestly, if sadly.

10) After asking, Greg immediately looks like he kinda regrets it, like, ‘uh, oh, uh, maybe I shouldn’a done that, right, Pearl still can’t really. Talk to me, about this.’

11) ‘Don’t Cost Nothing’ is a wonderful song and I like it. Also. “You could buy a house and a car” oh Steven you’ve said what the whole fandom thought the moment the teasers and promos started rolling. “Or I could buy you all the finest courses online”, Greg, making with the realness here, that was just such a good line that’s just- it really places it in the modern day, and I kinda like it, dated like that, just a little.

12) The size of that van is occasionally rather odd seeming- does it shift a lot, do you think? I’mma keep an eye on that as I rewatch earlier episodes...

13) Pearl’s unamused expression as Greg and Steven burst in through the door of the house while Pearl is pacing (and presumably brooding). Actually, on that note, Pearl probably could have escaped a number of the things in this episode if she’d hid in her room after walking away from the van.

14) “Empire City!” “And let’s bring Pearl!” Steven did you just think of this plan on the fly, oh for the love of- I can’t not laugh, that was just a very sudden addition to that song that came rather out of left field.

15) Greg’s startled “What-!?” and Pearl’s rather more put together “I don’t know...” segueing into:

16) “I don’t know, past experiences have taught me that three’s a crowd.” Whoa there. That was, pointed. Think about this line for a moment, though... Was there some time in the past when Rose did try to bring both Pearl and Greg to a thing, trying to, I dunno, get them to get along over her, and it didn’t go well. Ah, jeez. And Pearl’s expression for the second half of this line looks like Unfond Memories(tm) and- I wouldn’t say exactly bitterness, because we’ve seen that in younger Pearl, but some blend of bitterness and dry distaste, something that comes with time.

17) “It’s be great! Just you, me, Pearl- and don’t forget Mom!” Steven you had to go and make it weird. You were starting to convince them, even with Pearl’s Skeptical Face(tm), and then you had to go and make it weird.

18) Le Hotel. What a very generic name for the hotel.

19) Greg when did you get those business cards printed out, or are they literally printer paper and ink as opposed to anything remotely professional. What am I saying they say Bazzzilionaire on them, professional is not what is happening here.

20) Pearl carrying the stuff in from the car- to avoid some of the super awkward while she could, maybe? Because like, she probably would not have brought stuff, so that’s Steven’s stuff, yeah, and Greg’s, in the suitcase. For that matter, Greg was on about the sights in Empire City, the things around to do, and then we cut to the hotel straight away- did they all three of them wander around and do other stuff for a bit before checking into the hotel?

21) Pearl looks super uncomfortable being carried like that though- is it a touching people thing, or a touching human people thing, or a touching stranger human people thing, or just that this whole situation is awkward in general and what even the fuck? Like, being sat at the dining table, you’ll notice the lines under her eyes- she looks really very upset in a shocked sort of way.

22) Pearl being like Greg what the fuck why are you on the table. And then rescuing that one plate.

23) Okay wait a second. When they were being carried out of the dining room, did... did they just bump Pearl’s head against the doorframe? Wait I’m rewatching that. Yes. Yes they did. They bumped a (once again very distressed looking) Pearl’s head against the top of the doorframe. There. There was even a *thunk* coconut sound effect. Why. Why. Okay that’s probably one of a hundred straws atop the camel’s back during this episode.

24) And a super crowded elevator with a contingent of singing strangers- yeesh. Uh. Who all somehow manage to get out before Greg and Steven and Pearl get to the penthouse, where yet more waitstaff are already set up?

25) I just noticed from the aerial view entering the room, but Pearl is literally crouched down and hiding behind Greg, peering out at everything.

26) Why. Would there be a waterslide. And like. A full pool? Is that a thing penthouses have?

27) Not to mention, when did they have the time during this montage to get the suits? Were they singing while they got the suits? How did they get Pearl a suit? Did they get her to sit for measurements, or did they just guess? How did they get her into the suit? (Well actually the answer to some of this is probably just Steven’s puppydog eyes.)

28) In the pool wearing the suits? Really?

29) Okay so I was feeling really odd throughout this whole episode about Pearl sort of being confronted with a weird parody of Old Homeworld, that which we presume was a sort of decadent empire, or at least the part that Pearl was made to be in, a fancy, made-to-order servant. I suspect some of that might be contributing to Pearl’s discomfort.

30) Pearl, just crouching by the water, trying to find inner peace in idleness by poking it. Relatable.

31) And she looks rather upset when they keep offering her food. Like, yeah, on top of a day like that, even thinking about food considering her distaste for it is probably... yeah.

32) I love when Pearl sort of just starts getting into the song, with the suit and the hat and the tap dancing. Like, she’s just starting to kinda chill, enjoying Steven being happy.

33) Also, it occurs to me, the fountains in Pearl’s room in the temple are probably set up similarly to the room from The Test or Rose’s/Steven’s room, like, the water and things flowing through the Temple are probably programmed in, some weird extra mystical something-or-other. Or the water is piped in and cleaned from literally the ocean right outside. As opposed to the waste of potable water, in an area with high population density as compared to water access, which what I presume (after considering it for a bit) that Pearl means by “wasteful”.

34) That slight against the barn though. “Unlike that termite ridden barn-” hah. And, it looks like we see that Pearl does indeed have her contribution to Sardonyx’s gestures and mannerisms.

35) “You’re having fun?” “More or less.” “So dance with me, just say-” “No!” Well that happened. I feel like that episode might not have come to quite such a head if Greg hadn’t tried the dancing thing- particularly, hadn’t just swung right in there and tried to pull Pearl into a dance. Like, if he’d asked and Pearl said no and Steven said please, Pearl might have been convinced into a short, careful dance (which, to be fair, might have ended as badly anyway). Also, the implied continuation of that line into the same “Just say yes” as Jasper’s is very interesting considering how the Crewniverse has been thusfar with parallels.

36) Pearl suddenly looks very, very tired. My suspicions lie with the idea that Greg’s attempt at a dance reminded her in that instant of both of their dances with Rose, and how it must have felt that Greg had taken all Rose’s dances away from Pearl, from the start and in the end.

37) Have to shoutout to the guy to was like, Boo, you ruined the song! because whoa dude chill. Also, so I guess in-universe the singing is very much a thing that is actually of the happening. I’m curious to what extent.

38) “Don’t worry about it kiddo. It’s always been this way.” Seriously, I’m curious how past interactions with Greg and Pearl have gone. Like, we see (and have seen in the past) that they can get along decently well in the present day. They certainly don’t devolve into squabbling. What led up to that, and what does Greg mean, exactly? That things can be going fine, swimmingly even, and then a small thing a word or a moment can suddenly chill the atmosphere, probably.

39) Please note that in the scene just before “It’s Over, Isn’t It?” when Pearl is walking toward Greg and Steven’s room, the state of that penthouse. That blasted golf game is on the flatscreen TV, over which there is strewn a sock, there’s a towel on the lampshade, and then in Greg’s and Steven’s room there are socks and pizza all over the place. I never quite understand how that ends up happening- like, in real life too, sometimes, I look away, and suddenly there’s food boxes and such everywhere.

40) Actually, wait, where did Pearl go, for the intervening time? Between her “No!” and her song? Did she, what, hang out in a different room, or on a balcony, or just go for a walk? I want to know this.

41) What is with the roses everywhere as furnishing, honestly, is this actually how hotels of the fancy kind have themselves set up? Or was this like, the one day of the month where the hotel has the fancy room set up with bouquets of roses?

42) Pearl looks in on Steven and Greg, and as she sighs, she smiles, a little. I just. I recognize that expression, okay, from the inside, same as the laugh at the end of Sworn to the Sword, the bittersweet happy that’s wrapped around sorrow that goes back, back, back.

43) And now for my exceedingly long line-by-line unpacking of my interpretation of “It’s Over, Isn’t it?”, prefaced by some comments.

Oh boy, this song, though. I’ve been listening to it on repeat since I heard it, tryin’ to sing it, just all sorts of Great Outpourings of Feelings(tm). There’s just so much nuance in this song, the way it’s sung and the way it was written and due credit to whoever played the instrumentals, it’s just. Amazing to me.

44) Okay, now, but after that. It’s Greg’s turn now to sound so very tired. It’s unsettling, the way we don’t see his face until the very end of this scene. It’s weird to think, actually- keeping turned away from things is, as far as I remember, not something we’ve ever seen Greg do. We never hear him sound defeated, either, and yet here....

45) And Pearl, calling out after him- it’s interesting, she’s so very far beyond the point she wants to hurt anyone with her grief. Maybe once she would have wanted to make Greg guilty, make him understand the hurt she was feeling, but now, she’s just. Tired. Done. Her quiet, “I shouldn’t have come along”...

46) Steven is starting more of his plans to fix things and people... It’ll be interesting to see him continue, but, at the moment, I’m rather just relieved this one didn’t go wrong on him. Because this could have gone really, really rather off.

47) Steven, glaring at both of them. I wonder, is that his determination face?

48) And really, in this case, Steven is very perceptive. It’s actually not so much a surprise, because these are two of the most important people in his life, and he’s seen their hurts, he’s seen a lot of this hurt in particular. More than any of the people-plans he’s ever had, he certainly does have the background for this one.

49) I’m curious, now, though. Pearl says “I don’t hate you” and the way she says it, that reads very true to me, but did she every? Hate Greg? And if so, when did she stop?

50) Them bonding a little over Rose and the things they both saw in her, saw of her, is wonderful and I want to see more of it.

51) And rounding it out with compassion and understanding and a dance, willingly held, is a good way to bring things around full circle to the start of this altercation, and, for that matter, the start of everything really.

52) Ending it in laughter was a nice touch too, although I now really wonder when the heck all the waitstaff reappeared, and how much of the goings on they took in. Because really, this was a microcosm of a lot of the Pearl-Greg heartbreak that Rose left behind, and it would I think have been fairly clear to a perceptive individual what was up. What I’m trying to say, is, I wonder if this scene brought any of the waitstaff to tears and secondhand heartbreak later.

53) Pearl looking at the bill as though she has limited scope about what exactly is up with this Earth-human-money and its value is entertaining- especially when she’s still chimes in to the reprise of “Don’t Cost Nothing/It’s Over Isn’t It”

54) For that matter, though, it’s interesting, her reaction to trying to improv lines. “Getting it wrong-” Pearl looked like she was really about to start freaking out a little there, before Greg chimed in the accompanying “-don’t cost nothing.” It’s interesting to wonder here, what sort of intersection that reaction is between it being just a Pearl-thing-that-she-does versus a product-of-Homeworld-and-the-Pearl’s-as-poised-servants thing.

55) Pearl and Greg talking at the end really cements the fact they have something of a new understanding. Like, I’m sure both of them have lingering issues about what’s happened that they won’t be sharing with one another, but, for the most part, I hope to see them moving forward.

Well, that was long. Lots of thoughts. More episodes to come! (Hopefully in a more timely manner.)

#steven universe #mr. greg #steven universe spoilers #su spoilers #spoilers #rewatch #rewatching steven universe #my contribution #it's over isn't it

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themadlostgirl · 7 years ago

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Not Dead Yet (Part 45)

*Okay kitties I really like this chapter! I have read and reread it about a dozen times making minor tweaks here and there and I am excited for you to read it. I hope you like it and please do not be shy to leave a comment. They make me smile and motivate me to write more. That’s all. Love ya!*

Pairing: Reader x Peter Pan

Warnings: language

“Good morning, pet.” Peter plunked himself down on the branch above me the next morning. I was sitting in his Thinking Tree enjoying the morning silence before training. “What brings you here?”

“Just relaxing.” I pulled myself up so we were sitting on the same branch, “Where’d you go last night?”

“Was scouting another town looking for the Truest Believer. Now that the curse has slowed down I can finally get back to finding him myself. I feel renewed. I have a feeling we are going to find him soon.”

“Well that is a relief.” I reached out and brushed a blush of dirt off his face. “Now that you have your strength back to normal you’re just going to have to take me flying like you promised. You didn’t forget, right?”

“Me? Forget?” he plucked a leaf from my hair and tickled it under my nose, “Never.”

I blew the leaf out of his hand and watched as it floated down to the ground far below. Peter gave a mock frown before pulling me closer and threading his fingers through my hair. He had certainly gotten into the habit of playing with my hair whenever we were sat close together. I didn’t mind. It had kept him placid when the worries of his curse got to be too much.

It looks like he cares about you more than just as a friend or lover...

Tigerlily’s words reverberated through me. Why had I let her get in my head? Peter and I are friends and lovers but to think that this murderous codfish could care about someone more than himself was expecting way too much of the git.

“We should be getting back to camp.” I dropped from the branch to the one below away from Peter’s arms.

“What’s the rush?” he followed after me grabbing my hand and holding up a vial of pixie dust. “We could go for that flight right now. What do you say?”

“Maybe another time. We shouldn’t be wasting pixie dust so frivolously anyways.” I detached my hand from his and kept climbing down. Peter followed right after me usually teleporting just inches from me so he was almost always touching me.

“Is something wrong, pet?” he asked about halfway down.

“No. Why?”

“You’re acting like I have the plague. What’s wrong? Did I do something to offend you again?” he raised an eyebrow at me.

“No. Nothing like that.” I leaned myself away from him as far as I could without it being obvious, “It just seems silly to use up such a valuable resource on something that doesn’t need to be done.”

“But I want to.” he leaned forward the more I backed away, “It’s like riding but instead of mounting a horse you’re riding the very wind. I know you’d love it, so why are you so reluctant all of the sudden? You were the one that reminded me.”

“I already said--”

“Is it because you’d be so high up? You know I’d be right there to catch you. I would never let my Lost Girl fall.” he smirked and my heart gave a wild flip in my chest.

“I know…” My desire to close the space between us and kiss him was rivaled only by the sudden desperate urge to jump out of the tree altogether.

“Y/N,” he moved in to kiss me and I pushed his face away.

“I’m hungry. Let’s go get some breakfast.” I rushed the words out faster than I was moving down the tree. A pit of shame and regret resting uncomfortably in my stomach.

~~~

What had that been about? Peter watched Y/N stumble clumsily down the tree in a haste that was much faster than just that of a hunger fixation.

“Waiting for an invitation, Pan?” she called up when she must have noticed he hadn’t moved. He blinked down to the base of the tree and waited for Y/N to catch up.

Had he done something to her recently? Said something? He couldn’t think of anything that would warrant this. Perhaps he was just reading too much into it. She was allowed to be strange once in awhile. If she wasn’t she wouldn’t nearly be as fun. He found himself smiling once more by the time she made it to the bottom of the tree. They walked back to camp in a less than comfortable silence. If something was wrong she was bound to tell him sooner or later.

It wasn’t until well after they got back to camp that it hit him. Did she call him Pan earlier?

~~~

“Hey Y/N, I uh, I wanted to give you this.” Isaac held up a silver necklace with a small gem of sorts about the size of a coin hanging off it.

After training that morning I had gone down to the pond to wash away the sweat and grime along with some of the other boys. Isaac had followed the group but hadn’t jumped in the water like the others. Unlike Devin and the rest I doubted he was used to girls walking around naked without any shame so he had stayed off to the side staring down at the ground the entire time. The other boys heckled him for being embarrassed but I thought it was kinda sweet. The boy had some sense of propriety in him that he wasn’t as comfortable or perverted to blatantly ogle me in my nude glory. He only approached me well after I had put my clothes back on.

“I remembered you mentioning that you lost your old necklace and thought that you would like another to replace it.” Even though I was fully clothed he still refused to look at me. He’d get used to the rather uncouth happenings of the island soon enough.

“Thank you,” I took the necklace gratefully, “Where did you get this?”

“I found it. I suppose it must have fallen out of a treasure chest or something.” he shrugged.

“Well we lug it around to hide often enough I wouldn’t be surprised.” I clasped it around my neck. The precious metal was much colder than I was used to from my old leather string pearl necklace. “It’s great. Now I’ll have something to fidget with again.”

“I’m glad you like it.” he scratched at the back of his neck. A small pink blush coming up to cover his face once more. “I should go. Some of the boys said they’d take me out hunting. See ya.” He bolted away and I let out a short laugh as he did. He’s a bit of a naive kid but I still stand by my choice. He has promise. I can’t figure out what it is about him but he’s different from the other boys in a way. There’s some real potential under all that stammering and blushing. We just needed to fish it out.

Later that night I was laying in Peter’s tent pleasantly basking in the post-coital afterglow. The worries from this morning just a distant memory. Why had I been so freaked out before? Stupid Tigerlily messing with my mind. That’s all it was.

“Where did this new bauble come from?” Peter pointed to the necklace resting against my sternum. “I thought you didn’t like pretty trinkets like these.”

“Normally no I wouldn’t but it was a gift from Isaac. He wanted to replace the one I lost.” I rolled off the cot and started to collect my clothes from the ground. Ever since he put the silencing charm over our tents we hadn’t needed to go out of camp for our fun. Still it was strange to think that the boys were only a couple feet from us. Strange but also kind of exhilarating in a dangerous/naughty kind of way. As nice as it was though there was always the matter of leaving. Having to shift around the tent grabbing clothes and shimmying them on while the other watches was weird.

“Another wide-eyed simpleton following you around like a dopey pup? How is it you have such influence on my boys?”

“He isn’t a pup. He’s my brother now and I’m his sister. It was just a kind gesture.” I bent over to pick up my shirt when it disappeared before me. I turned around to see it in Peter’s hand.

“I am not leaving here topless. Hand it over.” I reached to snag it from him.

“You know I never pegged you as the sort that was satisfied with just one round. I thought my Lost Girl had more stamina than that.” he tossed the shirt aside and grabbed me before I could dash for it.

“I have plenty but you get tuckered out so quickly.” I tweaked his nose, “I rather thought it was you that didn’t have enough energy for more.”

“Still so naive.” he pinned me beneath him once more, “Perhaps I should demonstrate my actual prowess.”

“I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.” I latched onto him again and after what had to be hours more we fell asleep completely satisfied and lying in each other’s arms.

~~~

“Hm?” I squinted my eyes open. Why am I awake?

I looked next to me and saw that I was in fact still in Peter’s tent with him asleep next to me. Dammit. How could I be so careless?

I shifted to leave and one of his hands snapped out to grab me. I held back my surprise when I saw he was still sleeping. But it didn’t seem to be soundly. His face was tensed and he was muttering things under his breath.

Peter Pan has nightmares.

The hand holding my arm was shaking so slightly and his breathing was becoming erratic. Carefully I touched my fingers to his brow and his jaw locked. I ran them through his hair and his breathing became easier as I continued to pet him. “Shh.” I whispered, “It’s alright, it’s just a bad dream.”

He let go of my arm, his face relaxing once more. I kept whispering soothing words until his breathing evened out completely. I looked towards the tent flap before staring back at the boy who had rolled closer into me. “To hell with it.” I mumbled under my breath as I laid back down and wrapped my arms around his torso. “Sweet dreams.”

~~~

I didn’t bring up what happened last night, not that he would have remembered anyways. I doubt it could have made the morning when we woke up any less awkward. We were used to each other naked and leaving each other's tents but not like this. At least I wasn’t.

“You know you have to leave sometime.” Peter said.

“Yeah, I know. I was just planning on doing it sometime tonight when the boys are all asleep.” I shrugged.

“You knew this was gonna happen when you stayed last night.”

“Well it wasn’t exactly on my mind when I agreed to.”

“Oh really?”

“Shut it. I’ll go in a minute.”

“Whatever. Do what you like.” He left the tent leaving me alone. I really am going to have to leave sometime.

Why was I acting so worried about this to begin with? It was almost common knowledge that Peter and I were sleeping together. But we had made it such a point to keep that part separate from our lives with the boys that to leave like this was cementing every rumour. There’s a lot of new blood that doesn’t respect me like the others do. How can I possibly prove to them that I am a girl to be respected and feared if they thought the only reason I was here was because I was sleeping with the leader?

But that’s not true. I have been here for years. Worked like hell to make my body a lethal weapon and brought down anyone who dared to stand in my way. I am the girl who outsmarted an entire ship of pirates. I’m the girl who spoke out against Peter when he was being unjust. I am the girl that commanded his respect and made him earn mine! I was a forced to be reckoned with and some puny little maggots that couldn’t bruise a peach were not going to make me feel inferior. They were not!

With a sudden surge of confidence I left the tent. I was feeling good and no one was saying anything. Maybe I really was freaking out over nothing. No one probably even saw me leave the tent, much less cared that I did.

I saw Nick staring off into the distance and decided to scare him. I crept up behind him and jumped on his back. “Nicky!”

“AH!” he staggered on his feet. “Y/N, really?”

“You know you love me.” I jumped off his back. “Bored?”

“What gave it away?”

“The thousand yard stare. Let’s go play.”

“As the lady wishes.” he smirked and made a ridiculous show of proffering up his arm.

“You’re such a dork.”

“You know you love me.”

“I believe that’s my line.” I took the arm and we went to find something to do. “Can we stop at my tent for a second? I forgot my dagger.”

“Sure.” we walked back to the outskirt of the camp where my tent was located. When we got there though things were far from how I left them last night. My entire tent was just gone leaving only the cot in its place.

“My tent! My clothes! My club! Everything is gone!”

“Who would take your stuff?” Nick asked.

“I don’t know. Everyone knows better than to touch my stuff.” Most do at least. “Nick, things are about to get bloody.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” he pulled me back “Whoa, whoa! Think you may be overreacting a little? It’s just a harmless prank.”

“No. I don’t think it is and I’d much rather prefer to nip this in the bud.” I marched into the center of the camp, stealing a spear off of one of the boys that I passed. I must have looked downright terrifying because I had one boy jump out of my way at the sight of me.

“Listen up!” I shouted to the camp and all eyes that weren’t on me already shot to me. “Someone here has taken my tent and all its contents. Hand it over now and there won’t be any problems. Got it?”

The camp was filled with mutterings but no one said anything of importance. “Okay, let me make this more clear.” I hurled the spear where it dug into the trunk of a tree without slipping. “Where are my things?”

The mutterings simmered down into silence. Then I heard it. A small, quiet chuckle. Everyone turned towards the noise where one of the newer Lost Boys stood with a crooked shit-eating smile. He made eye contact with me and didn’t so much as flinch when I glared at him.

Him. What was his name? Verne or something stupid like that. It had to be him that took my things. Him and the others that were sniggering behind him.

“Something funny?” I snapped at him. I was not going to deal with Slightly Part Two.

“Yes,” he sighed as he got nose to nose with me. “You say that you want your things but why do you even need them?”

“Because they are mine and I kind of need them. How would you like it if I took your things?”

“Again, I think you’re mixing up needing and wanting.” he said, “You want your things because it makes you look like you belong here. We left what you really need.”

“A cot?”

“Well spending all that time on your back probably isn’t as comfortable on the bare ground.”

Crack!

I nailed him hard in the face. He spiraled back clutching his bleeding nose. I wiped the blood off my hand. “Son of a…” he groaned in pain.

“Someone has quite the temperament.” one of his friends laughed, “Bet it took quite some smooth talking to finally get you to open your legs.”

The others laughed and I felt my ears burn with anger. I couldn’t believe this. I just decked a boy so hard that his nose broke and they were laughing. They were laughing at me! The other Lost Boys were not as stupid and backed away slowly from the laughing boys. Smart move.

“Come on, sweetheart. What is it about you that Pan finds so endearing?” one of them smacked my ass. I swung to elbow him but someone else beat me to it.

An invisible force blew my harassers back against the ground. Peter strode up to them with a hand outstretched threateningly. The camp grew silent at the appearance of their leader. “I say you all mind your own business because it is no loss to me if I have to kill you. Understand?”

The boys nodded terrified. “Good, now get out of here.” The boys rushed to their feet and ran.

I looked to Peter but he turned away without meeting my eyes. “Devin!” I called and he was at my side in a second. “Get Nick and Ben, give those newbies hell for me will you? Normally I would but I’m a little busy at the moment, you understand.”

“Already on it.” he whistled and Nick followed after him with Ben in tow.

I backed away into the jungle and was soon met with Peter. “You handled that well.”

“I agree.” I twisted the necklace at my throat, “I was doing just fine until you came in. What was that about?”

“You just sent your own little posse to rough up some new boys and you’re questioning my motives? I ended it didn’t I?”

“You didn’t need to! How am I supposed to look those boys in the eye after your little stunt? I don’t care if they know we’re fucking but I don’t want them thinking that you’re giving me special treatment for that, Pan!”

“Y/N!” he snapped and I bit my tongue to keep from snapping back at him. He regarded me for a moment before letting out a long sigh. “Would it make you feel better if I explained?”

I nodded. I wasn’t sure what that look before was about but decided not to dwell. Peter is an unusual sort, who could tell why he did anything?

“I don’t like seeing them touch you like that.” he whispered, “I know that you could have and would have handled the situation your own way but I felt like I needed to step in. You are my...Lost Girl and they shouldn’t feel like they could get away with such disgusting behaviour. They’re lucky I just threatened them. Part of me wanted to chop off their hands.”

The confession caused my heart to spasm in way that was both pleasant and disturbing. I swallowed back any nerves and flashed him a smug smirk. “Is someone jealous?”

“Jealous? No. Jealousy is for saps that are scared they’ll lose something. I’m merely territorial.”

“Territorial?”

“I protect what’s already mine.”

Again my heart spasmed.

“I belong to myself. Not you.”

“Yes but you’re also mine.”

“What did I just say?”

“Never heard of sharing?”

“You are such a--”

“Imp? Codfish? Pain in neck?”

“How about all of the above?”

“Sticks and stones, pet.” he pulled me close so our noses touched, “Don’t worry, I’m just as much yours too.” And with that my heart stopped completely. I had barely grazed his lips when we were interrupted.

“Y/N? Y/N!” I pulled my face back as Isaac stumbled across us. His pale face turned crimson upon spotting us. “Oh, I um--I’m sorry! I wasn’t--I mean I was just--uh…”

“Spit it out already.” Peter snapped at him. He made no move to let me go or even pull back so I was still pressed flat against him as he stared daggers at Isaac.

“I saw what happened back at the camp and I…” Isaac’s words trailed off and he stared down at the ground, “I just wanted to make sure you were okay, Y/N.”

“I’m fine. Not the first time I’ve dealt with pigs like them and it won’t be the last. Thank you for your concern.”

“Of course.” He glanced back up giving me a small smile. He peered back at Peter and dropped his gaze again. “I’ll just be going now.”

“Good.” Peter grumbled.

Isaac took off back the way he came. “Do you have to be so short with them?” I turned my attention back to Peter.

“I was in the middle of something and he interrupted. Anyone would be upset with that.” he lifted me up by my bum and I wrapped my legs around him on instinct. “Now where were we?”

“I believe you were saying you were mine.” I whispered against his lips. The thought more pleasant than alarming now that I had caught my breath.

“Anytime you want, precious.” His mouth overtook mine leaving my thoughts scattered.

~~~

She took the necklace?

“Yes mother.”

Good. Very good.

“Mother?”

Yes my son?

“Do we have to…do we have to hurt her?”

Yes! She is the focal point of my plan. Her pain is your revenge. Do not be fooled by her outward behaviour. She would kill you without regret if told. Do not fail me as the last one did.

“I won’t. I’m sorry.” Isaac sniffed back tears.

Do not snivel my child. Our time grows near. You will have all that you have wanted in no time at all. Now smile and return to your games.

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