#So the fusion process is only something rose can do with a human through this

[ratsbanes]

rose quartz: how did she baby? Like, I get eating to gems, they just shape shift a stomach and remove the contents later, but a baby? We've all been to sex ed, you need a sperm and an egg. But rose is inorganic, so she has none, so how? I would get it if Steven is not related to Greg at all and is only a gem, but he's not so?

[gemkidsau]

Season Three

I made some posts on Tapas about this but I guess some people missed them, so the confused people in that crew, here is a screenshot of an explanation:

The original plan was to draw the entirety of season two before scheduling it all to post. But a handful of episodes in I got caught up in something else and by the time I had time to work on it again, I just couldn't. I tried and tried but I really just could not get back into it.

So continuing in my promise, here is season three:

Super watermelon island

Garnet sees Malachite surfacing on Mask Island so they go there and ambush her. Peridot stays behind to work on the drill and Rose volunteers to supervise her. Alexandrite defeats Malachite. Jasper is lost in the ocean again and Lapis is brought home, passed out.

Gem drill

Same plot but replace Steven with Rose.

Same old world

Lapis wakes up and Amethyst helps her process what she went through and finds a new home for her (similar plot but Amethyst has a different approach cause of her personality). She chooses the barn.

Barn mates

Peridot insists the barn belongs to her because she’s already been using it. Lapis insists it was promised to her even though Amethyst never actually said that and doesn’t own the barn in the first place. Amethyst decides this is going to be hilarious and makes popcorn. She soon realizes she’s too close to it for it to be funny so goes to solve the problem, but it’s harder than she anticipated. It generally follows the same plot though. The red eye shows up at the end and lapis flicks it.

Hit the diamond

Yeah this one’s the same.

Steven floats

Rose learns she can float.

Mr greg

Steven & Connie’s backstory (Never fleshed this out)

Too short to ride

TBH the same but replace Steven with Rose.

The new lars

Rose wakes up in the middle of the night in Pearl’s body. Terrified, she shakes herself awake, which triggers the switch back. Pearl wakes up groggy and asks Rose why she’s awake. She says she had a bad dream and they go back to sleep.

Beach city drift

The cool kids invited Lars to a party and he’s bragging about it. When Pearl and Amethyst show interest, Lars says little kids aren’t allowed. They fuse and try to keep Opal stable so they can attend the party.

Monster reunion

Rose figures out that she does, in fact, have healing powers. She’s sure it’s a Diamond thing, but thankful as heck it’s also a Rose Quartz thing. Rose says she should try and heal one of the monsters and Pearl says she should do corrupted Rose Quartz. Once CRQ is half healed, it’s the same plot switching Steven for Pearl. We get to learn about the Crystal Gems’ demise. They were fighting at the beach and where Beach City would eventually be built. A Quartz fusion chucked the warp pad to prevent further backup from arriving. Rose notices a Nephrite receiving orders to retreat and looks up to see the diamond attack. The warp pad lands on the Nephrite. Rose doesn’t have a means to protect her friends(sword instead of shield), so they all succumb to the attack. (exit flashback) Rose runs to the temple, but can’t get in. Pearl lets her in. Pink Rose is in there like “wat happen why.” (Maybe CRQ finds something in the chest? IDK where to go from here.)

Alone at sea

Peridot is sad because Lapis is sad and she can’t figure out how to make not sad so she asks Garnet for help. Garnet takes Lapis into the ocean and does her best to show her more of the beauty of Earth. Lapis is finally starting to cheer up when Jasper sneaks up on them and begs on her knees to become Malachite again. Lapis tells her no and makes her leave. Garnet and Lapis go home wary.

Greg the babysitter

Sour Cream is excited because his baby brother is being born today. The gems are like what is a baby. We learn that gems don’t start out quite that small. They theorize that since humans only incubate for 9 months, they don’t develop as far. Gems incubate for years. They come out as 5-year-olds ish. Then Connie wonders if gems were to incubate for a very long time, would they form as adults? The gems laugh at such an idea. :^)

Gem hunt

Connie is getting very good at being close to danger even though she can’t fight or anything, so when she hears the gems are going to the frozen North, she insists on tagging along to supervise. The gems think that’s stupid but they aren’t gonna say no to Mom. Connie and Garnet get separated from Pearl, Amethyst, and Rose. While separated, Connie actually helps Garnet take out one of the beasts. Pearl, Amethyst, and Rose encounter Jasper, who poofs their beast and walks off menacingly as Connie and Garnet find them. (Rose summons her shield for the first time when trying to protect her teammates)

Crack the whip

Amethyst loses a sparring match to Pearl for the first time and is super self conscious about it.

Steven vs amethyst

Amethyst internalizes the problem instead of confronting Pearl.

Bismuth (This is out of order. Should happen before Monster Reunion)

Rose asks why she doesn’t have a room in the temple yet and the gems are like yeah that’s chill we have another spot go for it. She makes her room and to her surprise there’s already stuff in it. The other gems are like yeah there were a few things in our rooms too. We think they’re left over from the previous owners. Stuff like swords and relics. But Rose has some peculiar items in her room. There’s a chest, a sword, a flag, and a bubble. Rose likes the sword and wants to use it in battle.

Beta

Amethyst still feels like shit so Rose takes her to Peridot and Peridot takes them to the beta kindergarten. Same plot.

Earthlings

We find out that even though Jasper was originally made for Yellow, since she was young when PD emerged she was actually training to be given to Pink.

Back to the moon

Same plot mostly. The other gems hear for the first time (from the rubies) that Pink Diamond was shattered on Earth. ‘Who would do such a thing?’ It was a Rose Quartz. All eyes on Rose. Not having planned for this, she panics and runs downstairs. Pearl says she’ll talk to her since she’s closest to her and asks the other to continue helping the rubies without her.

Bubbled

Pearl talks to Rose about what they’re going to tell the others. They decide Rose was bubbled and when Pink returned to Earth in search of her Pearl, she released Rose. Rose asked who she was and she told her she’s a Diamond. Rose is a Crystal Gem so she identified her as a threat and took the opportunity to strike. Soon the others return but their cover (pretending to be homeworld gems for the rubies) is blown at the last second. Rose opens the airlock to blow them into space and one of them grabs her, trying to pull her with them, but she escapes the ruby’s grasp safely.

[truetgirl]

Pride posting time baby! Today our subjects shall be...

Ruby and Sapphire (and, by extension, Garnet) from Steven universe!

Just a heads up: I’m here to reflect on nice things. I know a lot of people have, like, an irrationally fervent hatred of this show. If that’s you, then fine, whatever, just keep it to yourself and move on with your life like a reasonable human being. Otherwise, I use my block button liberally and with great pleasure. 

But yes, rupphire! There’s a lot going on with these ladies, but I want to zero in on one thing in particular: how we tend to see them earlier in the series vs later. Because at first we pretty much only ever see them when either they’ve been forced apart or, more relevantly to this, when they’re in the midst of a very serious argument.

Ruby and Sapphire’s relationship is very... shall we say unique, given the amount of time they spend merged as a single person. Fusion in this show being shown as something that can only be achieved and maintained by incredibly close cooperation and trust tells us right up front about how close these two are. It’s not until, if I recall correctly, about 52 episodes in that we even learn Garnet is a fusion. Their bond is so deep, stable, and trusting that we never see them split until they get poofed and come back in separate holding cells.

The next time, when they were having their disagreement over how to handle learning that Rose had lied to them, things are not going great. They can’t seem to reconcile over how to handle their feelings of betrayal, and they’re both seemingly unable to process things without the other’s help. Their reconciliation and helping each other through difficult emotions is obviously a joy to see, but I think it shows them as having a bit of a co-dependency problem.

Why, it must be asked, do we only see them as people who each have their own lives in the worst of circumstances? They don’t get a healthy kind of distance, only thinking and acting on their own when they’re too deeply distraught or angry to have their usual exchange of trust and intimacy. Their relationship is a beautiful show of deep, deep trust, but even the best things can be too much. Trust and intimacy are wonderful, but when you start to lose who you are in the process, you need to be able to step back, take your space for a bit, and then be able to come back refreshed and better for it.

And that’s why I love them later on, particularly in the movie/future era, because we see them doing that. They still live together most of the time as Garnet, but they have regular time spent un-fused from one another and pursuing their own interests. That is such a huge change, and such a good one. They hit a few rough patches in their relationship, and those rough patches were all the more severe for their intense, never-ceasing togetherness. Healthy, happy, and regular time to be their own people, with the certainty of trust that they’ll be back together later, is the biggest upgrade their relationship gets, just in terms of healthy behavior, and I love it.

[pennylogue]

Steven is a Diamond, and that’s okay.

So, Steven’s way too caught up in the fact that he’s a Diamond right now, and therefore a hideous and overpowered monster who can’t hope to be understood by normal humans or normal gems. Let’s talk about that.

For all Steven’s enthusiasm to be a Crystal Gem and to demonstrate his powers, he’s always been weirdly ashamed of how being half-Gem affects his ability to live alongside humans. I don��t think he’s ever really decided how to feel about it. It’s only after seeing Steven growing substantially and changing his hair and getting diamond eyes, now that it’s clear that his physical form is so malleable to how he thinks of himself and what he wants to be, that it really hits me how growing up with Greg and around so many humans has affected his identity. How sort of…quietly unhealthy it was, to go around with his gem covered up all of the time, and his appearance so determinedly human. I mean, think of how upset and ashamed he was when he decided his inhuman aging would screw up his friendship with Connie.

Right now, Steven is a whirlpool of self-loathing mixed into repressed issues and trauma with the Diamonds and hatred for his mother, and because he’s feeling so disconnected from and alienated and misunderstood by both other humans and other gems, because his gem powers are being triggered by his trauma, he’s connected some dots and blamed it all on being a Diamond. 

Looking back at that quiet “No,” at the end of “Fragments”, it’s easy to identify it as one of horrified realization. And you know, this is the logical conclusion of Steven’s feelings about his mother in “Mindful Education”, of “Storm in the Room”, of “Volleyball”—but it’s also the sum of a lot of other things:

Peridot: The Diamonds are the Gem matriarchs! …We live to serve them.

The culmination of Peridot flipping to the Crystal Gems is tied directly into her rejecting the Diamonds. Diamonds are introduced as the symbol of everything wrong with Homeworld.

Garnet: “How dare you fuse with a member of my court? You will be broken for this!”

…

Garnet: Pink Diamond thought for a moment, and then laughed; a wicked, empty sound. “You wish to save these life-forms at the expense of our own? Ha! Don’t be absurd. Return to your post, and I will forget your insolence.”

Diamonds are shatterers. They hate fusion. They hate Earth and organic life. They hate Garnet. They’re the evil queens in Garnet’s fairy tale. 

Garnet: The Earth belonged to Pink Diamond. Destroying her was the only way to save the planet. For Amethyst to be herself, for Pearl to be free, for me to be together. For you to exist.

Free will and the Diamonds are utterly opposed. It might be a tragedy that Pink Diamond was killed, but she was a monster, like the other Diamonds. The  ultimate enemies of the Crystal Gems.

We got almost five seasons of the Diamonds being spoken of this way. You see how terrified every Gem is of the Diamonds, whether they worship them or despise them. 

And then we found out a) Rose Quartz was one of them. And b) that Steven is one of them. 

Hey, quick question–anyone remember what Sapphire said, right in front of Steven, after the reveal?

Sapphire: Of course she was a Diamond. What a long road she took, to torture us all like this...

…Yeah, we never really got his feelings on b, did we?

I think Steven was so overwhelmed by everything else that was going on and everyone’s reactions, and later so eager to jump on the chance that being seen as one of the Diamonds gave him to fix the corrupted gems and help everyone, that we’ve never really seen him process this realization. Steven drew a very clear line in the sand. The Diamonds are the Diamonds, and Steven is Steven. The Diamonds are wrong about everything, so they’re also wrong about him being Pink, the same way everyone else in the series who’s called him another name has been wrong. He’s not Rose Quartz. He’s not Pink Diamond. 

Except…that second part isn’t true. Sure, Steven has a human body. Sure, Steven’s not the original Pink Diamond. That doesn’t mean he’s not a Pink Diamond. 

But it was easy back then, right? Because Steven was so, so different from them. A Crystal Gem. A defender of fusion. Weak. Small. Human-colored. Harmless. And as Steven says in the finale promo:

I don’t hurt people. I help people.

Yeah, there’s no way that building an incredibly black-and-white mindset with impossibly high standards for himself to create and hold on to a sense of identity was going to backfire.

So yeah, we never really saw Steven process that he was supposed to be one of these terrifying rulers. Except now he’s hurting people. In fact, it seems that all he can do is hurt people. And since he’s only able to see the bad things he can do, the amount of horrible power he has and how isolating it is and how terrifying it is–of course he blames it on what’s always seen as the source of so many horrible things. 

No wonder he’s having an identity crisis! He’s always told himself that he’s different than the Diamonds. He’s better than them. He has to be. So if he’s doing everything wrong, if he’s a freak, if he’s a shatterer, than it’s because he’s a Diamond. He’s just like them. He’s just as bad as them. He’s just as much a monster as the Diamonds are.

It’s complicated, what’s going on. Steven’s very, very wrong. But he’s also, strangely, right on target.

The thing is, this isn’t happening because he’s a Diamond, it’s because he’s human. He’s experienced trauma while growing up and is trying to react to it in a very human way. He literally has PTSD and CPTSD, and if you’ll look up the symptoms you’ll see he’s showing all of them. He’s not a monster. He’s part-human, so his symptoms are manifesting in partially inhuman ways. And that means he just happens to have the power to do a lot more damage than other humans when he lashes out in a way that is, once more, very characteristic for humans. But you know, even the best of humans can do a lot of damage, too, especially when they never really get over trauma. After all, Greg sure did a number on Steven. 

The flip-side of this is that the hilarious irony of ancient magical rocks trying to treat themselves as perfect and inhuman alien beings has always been that, that in reality, they’re every bit as fucked up and human as humans are. That’s the whole point of the Crystal Gems and the Homeworld Gems. Remember back when Garnet seemed so perfect? Peridot seemed pretty alien and unfeeling at the beginning, right? Jasper, Topaz, Aquamarine, it goes all the way up to the Diamonds. 

The whole point of the Diamonds and why the old system was broken was that the Diamonds tried to present themselves as perfect beings without flaw, when in fact they were all just as much a disaster as every other Gem. Remember back when Rose Quartz was a flawless goddess? Yellow and Blue were terrifying when we first saw them, but then we saw them comforting each other at the Zoo. They’re literally just a screwed-up family grieving and dealing with the death of one of their own–White’s first appearance painted her as this terrifying and totally inhuman being above even Yellow and Blue, but in the end, every one of the Diamonds is a normal, flawed person…just vested with the power to do a lot more damage than most.

The thing about White, was that she was so sure she had to be perfect, that she had to make everything better, but in the end, the solution was just to…let go. Accept that she was imperfect, and live with the consequences of it. Let other people help her. Stop trying to fit into being something she’s not, and just let herself be who she is. 

Does any of this sound familiar?

All four of the original Diamonds had destructive powers. All four of the original Diamonds experienced a change and made a conscious choice to control themselves and try to stop using their powers to negatively affect others. White Diamond might be stuck being White Diamond, but as “Homeworld Bound” made clear, she’s also the only one who gets to decide what that means.

So you know what?

You can call Steven half-Gem and half-human, but that doesn’t really describe what he is. He’s a human with a Gem. A Gem with a human form. None of that’s good or bad. It is what it is. And as much as it sucks to be different from everyone else, he’s also the only one who gets to decide what being different means to him. Steven Universe isn’t Rose Quartz and he’s not his mom, but just like he’s a human, he’s also Pink Diamond, and that isn’t bad. 

And I think that’s what he needs to hear from everyone. The solution at Steven’s birthday party wasn’t to react to the situation they were in and cheer him up the same way you’d cheer up a baby. He wasn’t just a baby, he was Steven stuck in a body that he didn’t know how to control. What he actually needed was to hear from Connie that she wanted to be there for him, no matter how strange he was. 

He needs the people he loves to stop telling him he’s “better than” his trauma and his diamond powers, to stop freaking out at how much damage he can do or treat it like a problem to be fixed. To not tell him that they know he’s going through, they’ve been there, too. They haven’t, and that’s not what he needs to hear. He needs to hear that none of what he is is bad. That his loved ones will be there for him and will love him unconditionally. 

And I think that’s what will allow him to accept himself; accept that if he’s a Diamond then he’s also a human, if he’s human then he’s also Pink Diamond–and, just like the previous Pink Diamond, he’s the one who gets to decide what that means.

TL; DR I actually really hope diamond eye Steven is permanent for non angsty reasons. This kid needs to stop being ashamed of his identity.

[kittyprincessofcats]

I love both shows (Spop and Su) but I wanted to ask about some things you’ve said:

“Can’t believe “It’s okay for fans to be disappointed when oppressive dictators who’ve murdered millions and have tried to kill the protagonists before get forgiven without having to face consequences” is a so hard to understand for some people, but here we are”

“So did Steven Univerae end with the Diamonds in prison where they should be, or did I do well to stop watching when I did?”

With that logic can’t the very same thing be said and applied to She ra regarding Catra?

“So did She ra end with Catra in prison where she should be, or did I do well to stop watching when I did?”

Hi there. First of all, I want to say sorry for taking so long answer this. January’s been a very busy month for me and I literally just didn’t have the time to write the kind of reply I think this ask deserves.

Next, I want to make a few things clear just so we’re on the same page:

I love both shows as well and nothing I’m about to say is intended to be seen as hate against Steven Universe. SU meant a lot to me and I was a big fan of it for many years. Change Your Mind disappointed me a lot as an episode and as a finale, precisely because I didn’t want the Diamonds to get any sort of redemption, but just because it was a dealbreaker for *me*, that doesn’t mean I harbor any ill feelings towards the fans or writers of the show. None of this is meant to be a personal attack against anyone who worked on this show or likes it.

I stopped watching SU after CYM, so this post will ignore anything beyond that. I have not seen the SU movie or Steven Universe Future and I don’t intend to. Please don’t try to convince me otherwise. I’m not comfortable watching more.

I wrote the posts you quoted because I got quite a few rude messages after I said I didn’t like Change Your Mind and that I don’t want to keep watching SU. The first one was a response to people who were giving me a hard time for not liking the Diamond redemption – it wasn’t me saying that /no one/ should like it, just that my feelings on it were valid as well and people shouldn’t badger me about it.

In that sense, YES you could say the same thing about Catra! If someone wanted to stop watching SPOP because Catra’s redemption made them uncomfortable (maybe because they knew someone like her in real life or something similar), that’d be absolutely fine! I’d never send them the kind of messages I got or try to pressure them into continuing a show they’re not comfortable continuing. Because respecting real people is more important than a show or a fictional character.

I’ll be honest: I’m a little tired of justifying my feelings about the SU finale to people. But I believe you’re asking out of genuine curiosity and I haven’t made too many posts defending Catra yet, so I’ll try to analyze this step by step for you – and anyone else who might be curious.

So, without further ado: Here’s my essay on why Catra’s redemption works for me but the Diamonds’ doesn’t.

Short explanation: Because if you compare the scale of their actions, their motivations, what’s supposed to make them sympathetic to the audience, their build-up, and how their respective redemptions are handled, then the Diamonds aren’t an equivalent to Catra – they’re an equivalent to Horde Prime. And if SPOP had suddenly redeemed Horde Prime at the last minute after building him up as the big bad, I wouldn’t have liked that either.

Long (very long) explanation under the cut

Okay, let’s get into this in detail.

1.     The scale of their actions

Let’s look at the evil stuff these characters have done first.

The Diamonds: Created an intergalactic empire, conquered millions of planets (destroying all life of them in the process) for millions of years, created a strict caste system in which all gems only have one function to follow and where Pearls are essentially slaves who have to obey every order, persecute and send shattering robonoids after gems that don’t fit into the system or fuse outside of their caste (off-colors), created a human zoo and kidnapped people for it, shattered anyone who wasn’t loyal to them, bubbled all the Rose Quartzes, created the Cluster and the other fusion experiments out of the shards of their fallen enemies (essentially torturing them for all eternity), corrupted all the gems on Earth, including those that were loyal to them. And that’s just what we get told upfront in the show. We’re talking about intergalactic dictators with no respect for life who will ruthlessly kill anyone who gets in their way.

Catra: Helped Hordak conquer one (1) planet. Bad, yes – but not nearly on the same scale as devoting eons to conquering entire galaxies. Also, Catra isn’t the one who founded the Horde in the first place; she just happened to grow up there (likely because she was taken from her real home as a baby) and was raised with their ideals. The Diamonds, on the other hand *are* the people who started their empire.

So yeah, the Diamonds aren’t Catra – they’re Horde Prime. He’s the one who founded the intergalactic Horde and destroyed millions of planets. (There’s even a whole parallel about how both Horde Prime and White Diamond think they’re perfect and everyone should be like them…)

Now, you could argue that Catra opening the portal was a crime on a larger scale. But even that would have likely only destroyed Etheria – one planet, not millions. The scale we’re talking about is still way smaller than Horde Prime’s or the Diamonds’ actions.

Catra’s other “crimes” in the show are things like being a toxic friend, manipulating and lying to people. Those are things I’m going to ignore for this post, since you specifically asked if Catra shouldn’t be in prison for her crimes. Being a toxic friend is bad and all, but it’s not actually something illegal that you can get thrown in jail for, so it’s irrelevant for this discussion. And it still wouldn’t be on the scale of the Diamonds, who, let me repeat, have destroyed countless galaxies.

2.     Motivations for their actions

“But what about *why* they did all of those things? Isn’t that relevant?” It is, and I’m glad you asked. Let’s have a look.

Catra: Catra grew up in the Horde through no fault of her own and was mistreated and abused her whole life to the point where survival and safety became her primary motivations. She was treated as second best to Adora, filling her with a desire to prove herself. She got told as a child that she’s only worth “keeping around” if Adora values her, so she tied her self-worth to Adora’s approval. She feels betrayed when Adora leaves the Horde, because she interprets it as Adora caring more about strangers than about her. She stays with the Horde because they’re the devil she knows, because she wants to prove herself and because she’s hurt about the only person who ever showed her kindness leaving her. She grew up without a proper parental figure and without ever learning what healthy relationships are supposed to work like, so it’s understandable why she has no concept of it. She opens the portal because she sees her abuser working with (and seemingly being accepted by) her enemies and that knowledge makes her feel powerless to the point where she’d do anything to get back at them. She’s been abused and victimized her entire life and all of her actions are a direct result of that. Catra thinks that if she gains enough power, it’ll finally give her the safety and approval she craves.

In general, Catra’s story always makes it clear that she’s a victim of physical and emotional abuse who never learned what healthy relationships are supposed to look like and who’s lashing out in the only way she knows how. Some people might disagree on this, but I personally never had a point in the show where I couldn’t relate to her or couldn’t understand why she’s doing a certain thing. SPOP did a brilliant job of making sure that even at her lowest point, Catra’s actions are still understandable when you think from her point of view.

The Diamonds: … Uhm yeah, I’m drawing a blank here. Unless there’s some explanation in the movie or SU Future, we never actually learn why they did any of what they did. We get an explanation for some of their deeds – that they created the zoo because they thought Pink wanted it, that they corrupted the gems as revenge for Pink’s supposed death – but what the show never goes into is the real problem: Why they’re dictators in the first place. Why they consider themselves superior to other gems. Why they shatter anyone who doesn’t fit it, etc. They’re just dictators… because they’re dictators. We never get to understand their motivations.

And just to be clear – I think that in itself is perfectly fine. I don’t think SU should have had to give us any more explanation than that. SPOP also never explains why Horde Prime conquers other planets in the first place. He just does it because he’s evil and power-hungry and the show needs an antagonist. I think not giving a villain a deeper motivation is fine – if you’re not planning to redeem them.

3.     What makes them sympathetic

Catra: I pretty much explained this already. We’re told from season 1 that Catra was abused by Shadow Weaver, that Adora was the only person who cared about her, that she was always treated like she was second-best. Heck, there’s an entire backstory episode just about everything Catra’s been through. We’re meant to feel bad for her, even when she’s evil. We’re meant to cheer for her when she stands up to Shadow Weaver and defeats her. We’re meant to feel for her when Shadow Weaver stabs her in the back and Hordak sends her to the Crimson Waste. Her entire breakdown is meant to be tragic and engaging. When you’ve watched a character suffer so much through no/little fault of their own, when you’ve watched them stand up to bigger villains in a way that makes you root for them, it makes sense that you want them to eventually get their happy ending.

The Diamonds: I realize in retrospect that the writers probably meant for us to feel bad for the Diamonds, too. Like when they’re grieving Pink, during What’s the Use of Feeling, Blue?, or when they complain how stressed they are in Change Your Mind. But the thing is… it just didn’t work for me. After the show spent all that time showing us all the death, despair, and destructions the Diamonds had caused, after it was made clear that the Crystal Gems had lost multiple friends and allies to them, it just didn’t make me feel sympathetic that the diamonds had lost one (1) person. So what if someone shattered Pink for being a dictator? The Diamonds themselves have shattered millions of gems and now that it’s someone they care about I was suddenly meant to feel bad for them? I didn’t.

When That Will Be All first aired, I loved What’s the Use of Feeling, Blue? – because I thought the show was doing this brilliant thing where they show that evil people can still have loved ones and have feelings but that doesn’t make them less evil. Every horrible person in history had feelings and loved ones. That doesn’t excuse their actions. In retrospect I find it disappointing to know that we were meant start feeling bad for the Diamonds due to their grief for Pink, that we were meant to see Pink/Rose as the evil one for starting a rebellion against them, that we were supposed to believe Bismuth was in the wrong. Rebelling against a dictatorship is a good thing. Standing up for equality is a good thing. I don’t like that the show suddenly tried to spread this message that conflict is always bad even when you’re actively fighting against tyranny and oppression. What happened to the Crystal Gems and their cause? What happened to the Steven from season 1 who reassured Lapis that “They’re mean, and that’s why we *have to* fight them”? And no, the “but being a dictator is so stressful, please feel bad for us” part didn’t work for me either.

4.     A well-written redemption arc

For a well-written redemption arc, a character needs to actually regret what they’ve done and realize they were wrong. Then they need to put in the effort to be better from now. They need to… actually change. And then they need to do things that make up for their actions.

Catra: We get to see Catra go through an amazing character arc that culminates in her redemption and her eventual love-confession to Adora. The entire arc that was built for her over 5 seasons leads up to that moment and it’s so satisfying when it finally happens because it makes sense. We get to see her make big mistakes, get to see how she finally even scares Scorpia away, how Scorpia leaving breaks her, how Double Trouble gives her a harsh but needed lecture, how she understands that she and Glimmer aren’t so different, how she finally remembers Adora and decides to save her. We see her regret her actions as early as season 1, when she feels visibly bad after leaving Adora on the cliff in the temple. In season 4, she has nightmares about Entrapta and feels guilty for what she did to her and for opening the portal.

And from the moment she decides to change, she’s willing to make huge personal sacrifices to make up for her actions: She sacrifices herself to save Glimmer, gets tortured, mind-controlled and nearly dies in the process. The heroes saving her doesn’t come from nowhere and their forgiveness is well-earned because she was willing to put herself on the line to save someone else. She then keeps helping the heroes, apologizes to everyone she’s hurt, is again willing to sacrifice herself for Adora in the finale, and finally saves the entire universe from Horde Prime by staying with Adora and confessing her love to her. If we’re trying to be realistic about this – I’d say saving the whole universe from an intergalactic dictator would at least dramatically shorten her prison sentence? So no, I don’t think Catra should have ended up in prison.

The Diamonds: So the thing about their redemption arc is… they don’t really have one. We’re just kind of meant to forgive them out of the blue. Steven and the Crystal Gems ask the Diamonds for help to cure the corrupted gems and they manage to convince them, but there’s never any point where the Diamonds regret their actions. They only start to regret their actions towards Steven and Pink, but there’s never even an ounce of regret for what they did to anyone else. The Cluster? The deaths? The millions of destroyed planets and civilization? The humans and Rose Quartzes in the zoo? The presumably thousands of off-colors fighting for their lives underground on homeworld every second? That’s all swept under the rug in the finale. And therefore, the Diamonds can’t even get to the point where they make sacrifices for someone else or do anything that would lead me to forgive them, because they’re not even at a point where they realize they’ve done anything wrong. The show treats them like they’re redeemed in the end, but they’re not. Everything they’ve done just gets ignored.

5.     Being held accountable for their actions

Another thing that’s important for redemption arcs is that the heroes don’t just ignore what a character has done and act like it never happened.

Catra: SPOP never shies away from admitting that Catra has done bad things. Even after her heroic sacrifice, the other characters don’t just all forgive Catra at once. Adora still calls her out when she’s being selfish, some of other princesses are resentful towards her, Frosta punches her in the face, etc. One heroic sacrifice isn’t enough: You see Catra constantly working on herself afterwards and doing what she can to become a better person and make up for her actions. And most importantly, those actions are addressed in the show. (Arguably they could have addressed what happened to Angella again, but overall Catra’s actions get acknowledged in the show.)

The Diamonds: My other big problem with SU suddenly acting like the Diamonds are redeemed is that their actions never get addressed. People act like when I say I wanted the Diamonds to be held accountable that means I wanted Steven to shatter them in cold blood – no, I just wanted Steven to at least *say* that what they’re doing is wrong. Like I said, all of their actions other than corrupting gems and treating Steven & Pink badly completely get swept under the rug in Change Your Mind. It’s like we’re meant to assume that everything else will be fine now just because Steven managed to convince the Diamonds to do one (1) thing for him. What will happen to their colonies now? What about the humans and Rose Quartzes in the zoo? What about all the off-colors fighting for their lives underground on homeworld? What about the enslaved Pearls and the class system? None of that ever gets addressed in the finale – we’re just supposed to take that happy ending at face value and believe that all the other stuff will get fixed now, even though the show never says that!

(Before you tell me how any of that gets addressed in the movie or in Steven Universe Future – I don’t care. SU Future is a new show that takes place after a timeskip. The movie is also a separate thing. SU should make sense as a show on its own and it doesn’t. Change Your Mind was presented as a finale and therefore should wrap up the most important plots and it didn’t.)

For all we know after watching CYM, Steven doesn’t actually care about anything the Diamonds have done. He’s sitting on their shoulders and laughing with them in the end and we’re meant to take that as a happy ending. For all we know, there’s still an oppressive class system and gems getting shattered for not fitting into it on homeworld. The Cluster’s still suffering. The Pearls are still slaves. The Diamonds are still dictators and that aspect never changed – because it’s never addressed. When White Pearl regains consciousness, Steven says “Welcome Back”, but nothing in this episode ever implies that she’s not still WD’s slave. When Lars and the Off-colors arrive on Earth, the fact that they’re terrified of the Diamonds is played for laughs. The finale revolves only around Steven’s feelings while Garnet and Pearl never get a moment of standing up to the people who hurt them.

“But Steven needed the Diamonds’ help the heal the corrupted gems!”

Yes, that’s the in-universe explanation. But a writer still invented that rule. And even so, they could have added a scene where Steven takes the Crystal Gems aside and tells them “Hey, I know these people killed many of your friends, enslaved and persecuted you, but I just want you to know that I don’t actually like them or consider them family and I’m only doing this to help the corrupted gems. You’re my real family.”

6.     Identifying with their victims

I don’t remember who made that post, but there was a post on Tumblr somewhere that said that how likely someone is to forgive a villain often depends on how much they identify with the people that villain has hurt. And if I’m being very honest, that’s what a lot of my hate for the Diamonds boils down to:

The Diamonds don’t appear in Steven Universe until way later in the show. The way we first learn about them is indirect. We know the Crystal Gems fought a war against someone and are hiding on Earth from someone, but that someone doesn’t get a face until way later. By that point, we’ve already been told that fusions like Garnet are illegal on homeworld, that Pearls are considered lesser gems, and that Amethyst would be defective by homeworld’s standards. And all of those things made me personally sympathize with the Crystal Gems and their found family of misfits – and it made me angry at whoever did all of this to them. You can easily read the discrimination Ruby and Sapphire faced for their relationship as a metaphor for homophobia or prejudice against interracial relationships, the discrimination Pearl faces as racism or classism and how Amethyst is treated as ableism.

(Getting personal here for a moment: I’m gay and my parents are from a homophobic country that’s run by a dictator, so I strongly identified with Garnet and how she can’t go back to homeworld because she wouldn’t be allowed to exist as her true self there. Am I maybe reading too much into the show there? Yeah. But honestly, if the Diamonds’ redemption relies on people not identifying with the Crystal Gems – aka the literal protagonists of the show – too much, then maybe it’s just not a good idea. Yeah, maybe if I hadn’t identified with the CGs so strongly, I wouldn’t have minded the Diamond redemption – but it also means I’d have never loved SU as much in the first place.)

What I’m saying is that we first learn about the Diamonds from the point of view of the people they oppressed, persecuted, and tried to kill. We also meet the off-colors and learn about their plight, how they had to spend eons hiding from robots that want to kill them, how they believe the way they are is wrong, etc. We see the Cluster, the people in the zoo etc. and get told the Diamonds did all of this. And then Change Your Mind expects us to suddenly randomly forgive them with no build-up and be okay with Steven calling them “family” over the actual people who raised him.

Catra, on the other hand, is first introduced to us as Adora’s best friend. We get to meet her from the point of view of the protagonist who obviously loves her. Throughout their separation and their struggle, the relationship between these two characters drives the show. Their episodes together are emotional and well-written and make the audience root for them to eventually find their way back together again. We meet her as an abuse-victim who thinks her best friend left her, and we get so many reasons to sympathize with her before she ever hurts anyone.

(And yeah, it helps that the show never lets us personally meet any of the people from the lands she conquered. Yes, we feel bad for Scorpia and all that – but again, being a toxic friend isn’t actually a crime. And yes, we feel bad for Entrapta - but so does Catra, and Entrapta ends up being fine and forgiving her.)

7.     A satisfying ending for a show

This is more general, but SU didn’t have a satisfying conclusion imo, because almost none of the things that needed fixing were ever addressed. We’re meant to take “but the Diamonds say please and thank you now” as a good conclusion without getting to the part where they murder people every day. For all we know, Steven doesn’t even care about that part because the writers never made him act like he does.

And yes, I realize that the Diamonds are meant to be a metaphor for a conservative family that finally learns to accept their queer child (Steven), but that metaphor just didn’t work for me (a queer child of an unaccepting family) at all. Because they’re not presented as an unaccepting family: The show spent 4 seasons building them up as dictators and the ultimate big bad, only to drop the “they’re related to Steven” thing in there last minute and sweep the other stuff under the rug. We’ve also spent 5 seasons seeing the Crystal Gems, the people who literally raised him, as Steven’s family, so suddenly giving that title to their oppressors feels super wrong to me.

To give you a comparison, imagine the following ending for She-Ra: Near the end of season 5, Adora suddenly finds out she’s Horde Prime’s long-lost granddaughter. After calling him out for treating her/her parents badly, he finally regrets that part of his actions and promises to leave Etheria alone so Adora and her friends can live there in peace. However, he’s still going to conquer and destroy the rest of the universe and keep Hordak and the other clones mind-controlled. Adora is fine with this and you see her and Horde Prime laughing together in the end. Catra and all the other people Horde Prime chipped and tortured are seen being okay with him now because as long as Adora, the main character, is happy all the hurt Horde Prime caused anyone else doesn’t matter. When the Star Siblings show up on Etheria while fleeing from the Horde army, the fact that they’re scared of Horde Prime is played for laughs. The End.

… Sounds pretty stupid, doesn’t it? I’m glad SPOP had the guts to just let Adora kill Horde Prime instead. Because some people are not redeemable, and that’s an important lesson, too.

Anyways, I’ve been rambling for too long. The bottom line is: The Diamonds are way more comparable to Horde Prime than to Catra. The scale of their actions is the same as that of Horde Prime, their motivations are never explained, we never get any reasons to sympathize with them, the main characters have all been victims of their regime, their redemption arc is nonexistent, they never get called out for their actions and the way their story is concluded is just badly written and leaves way too many factors unaddressed. They get forgiven without ever even being sorry and the Crystal Gems never get a moment to shine and stand up to them. So yes, I consider them irredeemable and was disappointed the show didn’t end with them getting imprisoned at least. (I was kind of hoping for a Homeworld revolution where everyone finally stands up to them, but… *sigh*.) If the show was going to redeem them, they should have at least done it properly by actually showing them have a change of heart and making them try to make up for their actions, instead of letting us assume that all happened off-screen.

Catra on the other hand gets presented as someone to root for from the beginning. She’s only in the Horde due to unfortunate circumstances, got abused and mistreated her whole life, is motivated by a desperate attempt to prove herself and make sure she doesn’t get hurt again, and never committed crimes on the same scale as the Diamonds. Her change of heart is believable and what her arc has been building up to for 4 seasons, she makes great personal sacrifices for Glimmer and Adora, gets held accountable for her actions, helps save the entire universe and is a character who has already suffered her entire life – so yes, I strongly believe that she deserves to live a happy, free, and peaceful life after the show.

[misssophiachase]

...fake dating christmas au?

This took on a life of its own and is a kind of fusion with Holidate but with my own twist - hope you like it, Nik : ) Thanks for the awesome prompt. 

No Refunds or Exchanges

Workaholic Caroline Forbes gets more than she bargained for when she receives a surprise gift on Christmas Eve from her friends. 

“I’m sorry, you did what now?” Caroline hissed, pulling her friends away, strategically ensconced behind the impressive, Christmas Tree. She was attempting some level of discretion but that pretty much ended when her Christmas ‘gift’ was unveiled. 

“You’re always so picky and difficult to shop for, Care,” Katherine argued, Bonnie by her side nodding enthusiastically. “Plus, we wanted to surprise you and given that shocked expression I think we succeeded.”

“The reason I’m shocked is because you gifted me a person. Like a real life, living, human being.”

“She called him a human being, Kat, I think that’s what they call progress,” Bonnie smiled triumphantly. 

“It was a slip. Excuse me if I’m a little distracted by your totally inappropriate gift.” she growled, sneaking a glance at him from between the green, pine needles. 

Why did he have to look so good in that woollen sweater with those lips and those curls and those damn dimples? 

“Anyway, Klaus Mikaelson is most definitely an extra terrestrial.” 

He was also closely related to her friends’ boyfriends which was not a good thing in Caroline’s book. She’d begrudgingly accepted that he’d be around every now and again but not disguised as a present at her own house on Christmas Eve. 

“You always loved ET.”

“Leave him out of this,” she shot back, eyeing Bonnie. “You don’t just go around giving people other people as gifts.”

“Drama queen much? Caroline, he’s not the gift,” Kat clarified. 

“Great because I was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable with this entire scenario.”

“It’s the services he provides.”

“Wow! Who knew Klaus Mikaelson moonlighted as a Christmas gigolo?” Caroline scoffed, wondering if they were playing a prank or she’d drunk too much of her nana’s spiked eggnog. “If they haven’t made a Hallmark movie about this yet then I’m buying the rights.”

“We are gifting him to you as your holidate,” Kat insisted, rolling her eyes for added effect.

“I’m sorry?” 

“A holidate is someone you take as your date to all holiday celebrations throughout the year,” Bonnie grinned, clearly pleased with their gift.

“We both know you have that New Year’s work function,” Kat added. “We love you, even with those workaholic tendencies, so what better way to make those witches from legal accounts jealous than to show up with some English eye candy?”

“Our gift is valid for an entire year of holiday fun,” Bonnie added.

 “Oh, and no refunds or exchanges,” Kat winked. 

“I suppose that would be difficult given I don’t have a receipt of purchase,” Caroline groaned sarcastically. “I need more eggnog to process this whole ridiculous episode.”

“I know you don’t love me, Forbes, but there’s no need to turn to alcohol addiction.” 

Speaking of English eye candy. She turned around not quite sure what she was going to say or do. 

Her friends then decided to make themselves scarce. Traitors.

“Pretty sure you should be used to driving girls to drink, Mikaelson,” she snapped. “And if this is your idea of a joke then...”

“Says the girl wearing the festive, elf hat?” He reached out and tugged playfully on the bell at the end. She was trying to focus because he smelled so good and his close proximity was making it difficult to concentrate.

She hated him.

Well, that’s what she’d been telling herself since he’d crashed into her life nine months ago, mainly thanks to her friend’s bad taste in men. 

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I lost a bet to my cousin Matt,” she replied through gritted teeth. “We do it every year so as to try and avoid unnecessary, family dress-ups. I don’t get around in Christmas garb for fun.”

“Well, you wear it well, love, especially with that cell phone stuck to your ear permanently.” 

“It’s called a job and why exactly did you agree to this? Or did they spike your eggnog too?”

“Number one, I have a job too, sweetheart, go figure. But being single at the holidays is torturous at best and if I can avoid my mother’s forlorn and pitying expressions I’ll do it.  Surely you have some relatives and friends you want to shut down?”

“Maybe but, even so, I don’t like you in that way,” she blurted out. “Like, not if we were the last two people on earth and we had to procreate to save the human race.” Caroline was rambling uncontrollably, and she knew it. 

“Well, someone certainly has tickets on herself,” Klaus chuckled earning a dirty look from his newly acquired holidate. “Good to see that we are on the same page at least.”

“Exactly! No kisses at midnight, no roses on Valentine’s Day and I get full costume approval on Halloween.”

“Someone needs to read the holidate contract,” he murmured, placing the paper in her hands. 

“There’s a contract?” 

“This is a fifty-fifty partnership, love. Trust me, I insisted on that when your friends decided to draft me for this task. We can discuss all holiday particulars beforehand.” 

She was frozen, not quite sure how to react. How was he more organised than her? 

“And I hate red roses so no worries about Valentine’s Day.”

“I still don’t like you,” she grumbled before making her way toward the kitchen. “Where is the damn eggnog?”

12 months later...

“Nice elf hat” she joked, tweaking on the bell like he had all those months prior. Klaus wore it way too well, but she wasn’t all that surprised. “Matt is a swindler when it comes to bets. He’s considering a professional poker career in Vegas, so don’t feel bad”

“Given your skills, maybe you should join him then, love?” 

The Klaus she knew should have been upset by his current predicament but the lazy grin on his face was telling her something else entirely. Those creases in the corners of his eyes definitely meant something big. 

Love. 

“I’d much prefer to hang out with you and mistletoe,” she smiled, capturing his lips with hers. Caroline would never get sick of that feeling. Ever. “And anyone who can celebrate the holidays like you deserves a kiss or ten.” 

She wanted to hate her friends for their ‘i told you so’ looks and constant commentary but it didn’t seem to matter when it came to him. Even though she still detested the term she’d begrudgingly fallen in love with her holidate. 

“I’m so glad I never had a sales receipt for you.”

“There was a receipt?” He asked incredulously pulling back and breaking the spell between them. “Why do I suddenly feel like a piece of meat?”

“You should be so lucky,” Caroline teased. “But apparently I was told no returns or exchanges and for that I’ll be forever grateful.”

“I bet you say that to all the boys.”

“Only to my one and only holidate.” 

[mimik-u]

Fragments III, 1-100

300 drabbles about Steven Universe/Future, 100 words each! These are the first 100 prompts and writer’s choices that have been fulfilled.

Asterisks are placed next to my personal favorites that I’ve written.

Baggage* — Steven meets his new therapist!

Eternity —How about a Bellow interaction you've always wanted to see in canon but didn't get to?

Foe —Jasper is simultaneously satisfied and yet left deeply empty inside by her self-isolation on Earth, and doesn't understand how to even begin to process this dichotomy. (So she doesn’t.)

Letter — Young Greg's POV when he wrote those letters to his parents Steven found on Mr. Universe episode.

Sword —Connie interacting with someone she doesn't usually talk to by herself (ex Jasper, Bismuth, Lapis, etc.).

Reconciliation — Idk about you but I wanna see more Mega Pearl. The others have not met Mega Pearl.

Marks —How about... Spinel, and the tiny, everyday baby steps towards healing?

Tangled — Peridot finds out/is told about PD/RQ? (And is confirmed in her guess that Pearl is fancy...?)

Challenge* — How is Steven’s TubeTube channel doing?

Bruises — Priyanka tends to Connie's wounds after training sessions with Pearl. [Writer’s Choice]

Rest* — Yellow Diamond gets to relax. (She's the one who most expresses regret and real understanding. Let her take a nap! She deserves it!)

Barbecue* — Post-movie, during cleanup, Steven and Lars talk and plan the BBQ we got a glimpse at during the final song.

Ghost — Yellowtail and Greg talk about fatherhood and how it can be ruined (mentioning Marty and Greg's father subtly).

UNO* — Date between Pearls (platonic or otherwise).

Height — The pebbles!!! They're so small???? Where are they? *Sobs, points at the Heaven and Earth Beetles.*

Embrace — Steven gets a well-deserved cuddle pile from family and friends.

Constructs — Bismuth and Peridot have a lot more in common than they think.

Horns — Amethyst makes an unexpected new friend at Little Homeschool. (Whichever other character you feel would fit best!)

Garden — Pre-show scene. While having a funny chat, Greg mentions something that reminds Rose about her abandoning Spinel, which makes her regret more of her choices.

Advice — Garnet can tell when Stevonnie has a lot on their mind. [Writer’s Choice.]

Hum — Yellow and her relationship with music.

Love* — Pearl considering her romantic feelings towards someone and thinking about how she's finally moving on from Rose. (Doesn't mean she'll ever forget her.)

Kid — A glimpse into “Sadie Killer.” Maybe when they played their first show, while Steven was still in the band. Celebrating afterward or a discussion on why Steven didn't stay IN the band?

Troubleshooting* — Integration of gem communication networks and Earth Internet and phone lines and the resulting inevitable disaster.

Fairytale — Connie gets a tour of Little Homeworld.

Hope — Jasper finally starting to let her guard down and realize her self worth.

Song* — As for prompts... Steg? Like, him in general, just being himself. It's a bummer we only got to see him in the movie.

Mistakes* — Steven talking to someone (not a therapist, just another character) about his trauma?

Forgiveness — The Topaz fusion reconnects with the Crystal Gems at Little Homeschool and apologizes for her role in the kidnapping all those years ago.

Visions — Sapphire and Ruby reflect on the events of "Together Forever." [Writer’s Choice]

Reunited — Maybe a scene where Yellow comes home from a long escapade and is reunited with a worried Spinel?

Beginnings — After CYM, Lapis and Peridot discuss where to live since the barn is destroyed.

Pet* — White Diamond happily announces one day that she has decided to take in a small creature (of your choosing) as a pet.

Together — What were Doc, Army, Navy, and Leggy doing during Future?

Desert — Steven meeting Lion from Lion's perspective. I dunno, I think it could be neat.

Freedom — For a post-CYM/SU:F prompt, what do you think about the exact moment it hit either Blue or Yellow Pearl that they were completely free to follow their whims?

Apologies — Greg apologizes to Steven due to the incident in “Mr. Universe” and both have the talk they should've had in that episode.

Change — Blue and Yellow Zircon's relationship has improved even if they are now rivals in the new democratic Homeworld. This last tiny bit is related to the “Homeworld Bound” episode.

Hug — Bellow cuddling. Yellow has no idea what to do, but Blue is loving it.

Valentine* — Steven gives Peridot a Valentine's Day gift. [Writer’s Choice]

Spite — Aquamarine and Eyeball are distraught at knowing they won't be rewarded for their actions because their worst enemy, Steven Universe, has been labeled a hero and royalty by the Diamonds.

Reevaluation — How about more Peedee and Steven friendship? Like, Peedee noticing Steven’s change in demeanor the farther along the show we get?

Camp — Connie kicking ass at space camp.

Family — The night after the events of the movie, Steven gets some quality family time.

Homestretch — Peridot, Lapis, and Bismuth spend time together while preparing Little Homeworld.

Enough — We know what Jenny, Sour Cream, and Buck are gonna do for their futures, but what's Kiki been up to? Is she gonna take over the pizzeria?

Spillage — Vidalia and Amethyst catch up after Steven's monster episode.

Reformation — White Diamond has learned how to be so extremely empathetic to the point that she literally becomes another person, but has she really begun to understand others?

Comment* — Sardonyx makes some Internet videos.

Unicorn — While traveling through California, Steven encounters two fishermen arguing about unicorns. [SU/GF crossover.] [Writer’s Choice]

Worry — Andy and Greg stay in touch.

Homerun* — I hopal for Opal—perhaps she will attempt some baseball.

Skydancer — Post-CYM, Pearl getting to “truly” take Steven out for a joy ride through the cosmos in a properly operational ship of her design.

Mercy* — The shattering-is-wrong discussion between Rose and Bismuth that led to Bis being bubbled.

Happy — Smoky Quartz hasn't made a self deprecating joke in a while—is it Steven's therapy?

Electric* — Yellow’s gloves—I feel like they’re covering something up, maybe.

Cake — Fusion Cuisine 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Belonging — The Rose Quartz sisters visit again.

Transcendence — Fluorite offers someone wise caterpillar grandma advice.

March — Connie and Steven reflect on changes in life after the pandemic. Not canon compliant. [Writer’s Choice.]

Understanding — Onion be doing Onion things.

Ocean* — Andy and Steven post-”I Am My Monster”? I love their relationship, lol.

Ignorance* — Does Lapis even realize Bismuth was probably the one who poofed her?

Reflection — Did I already say more Mega Pearl? ‘Cause there can never be enough Mega Pearl.

Possibility* — Yellow deciding she should try putting shattered gems back together. (She probably broke the most.)

Storyboard — Peridot’s budding career as a storyboarder.

Fall — Lapis and Steven talk about trauma and recovery. Pre-The Future.

Limbo — How the dismantled gempire has affected the lives of noble gems like Emerald, Holly Blue Agate, and others.

Now — Garnet reminds herself to live in the present.

Grief* — Alexandrite forms for the first time. [Writer’s Choice]

Inauguration — Wait, did Connie's parents ever meet Stevonnie?

Please — Did Kevin ever learn anything? Naaaaaah....unless...

Friend — General prompt? A sequel/prequel to this, please [White D’s panther].

Treatment — Greg starting to learn more about gem stuff to be more involved in Steven's life if something ugly happens.

Numbers — Pearl, please do something with all those phone numbers in your head.

Generations — Rose continues to discover the wonders of Earth, even after all this time. (No angst allowed in this one, just pure wonder.)

Survival — The Off-Colors used to have more members in the past.

Acting — How did Rainbow 2.0 even get invited to babysit Onion?

Kindness* — Former Mayor Dewey coming to terms with his new position in town.

Play — The Gems and Greg try to capture Steven's first moments on a bike. [Writer’s Choice]

Documentary — Ronaldo makes a real actually informative documentary about Little Homeworld.

Rain — Blue Diamond still cries sometimes.

Zoophobia — Also, I saw Z and my immediate thought was "Zoophobia.”

Echo* — Why does the tiny floating whale have Rose's voice before Steven ever heard it in the tape?

Sketch — Steven and Connie discover an anime character/mythological figure who bears an awfully similar resemblance to Obsidian.

Unironically — Why does Buck wanna be a doctor?

Club — How did Bismuth, Lapis, and Peri become such tight friends?

Nostalgia — Greg considers a comeback tour.

Pressure* — The creation of the Diamonds, maybe?

Coping — Amethyst and Pearl grapple with Rose's pregnancy. [Writer’s Choice]

Theatre — Sugilite, meet Rainbow 2.0.

Dadhood* — Whatever happened to Mrs. Fryman? IS there a Mrs. Fryman, or was it only a passing on-and-off thing that resulted in kids?

Lingering — Jasper finally lets Malachite go.

Human — Steven talks to his therapist about his mom, the feelings of before and the now. (It was left open-ended—his relationship with his mother.)

Words — Kofi is proud of his daughters.

Quest — [Letter prompt] Quest.

Picture — Sour Cream and Steven talking about absent parents and bad parenting. Post-The Future.

Bittersweet* — Shep finally gets to meet the notorious Lars.

Gemini — Spinel discovers memes and we're all doomed.

Weird — When he's younger, Steven doesn't quite know how to label the Gems.

[homeworld-railroad]

Lil’ Sanctuary Au tidbits

Garnet still exists, Ruby and Sapphire fused for an entirely different reason, but still faced a threat of being shattered. Rose found Garnet and was like “Oh hey you’re real’ neatto why don’t you come with me”, and scared the hell out of the poor fusion when she took her back to Homeworld. Thankfully, Pink has her way of squeaking by the rules.

Rose still found Amethyst, and while still getting extremely attached, and treating her like family, brought her to Holly at the zoo, where Amethyst was ‘raised’ with her big sisters and the Agate. The zoo only exists here because the others had tried to sway Pink with the ‘’lets keep some humans’’ idea before she sprung the “Lets fuckin keep them ALL and their planet” idea on them.

Lion has been with Steven since he was born. Rose wanted someone who could stand up for Steven if the others tried to force him into something he didn’t like, someone who wouldn’t turn pale when the Diamonds talked to them, so before Steven was born she went back to find the noble animal she’d brought back to life. Lion still does what he pleases, but he hangs around Steven out of both their friendship and his determined goal to protect the boy from bad treatment. Rose did ask him rather nicely, and she did save his life, the least this big cat can do is fulfill the one request she asked of him.

White is VERY sweet with Steven, she didn’t intend to get attached to hybrid, a creature that she had believed disgraced the Diamond name. But she did, and he stopped becoming a disgrace to her right when he first started learning to talk, and ended up learning her name as one of his first words (After he learned how to say ‘Daddy’ and how to sorta say Pearl and Garnet’s names). Hearing him scream “WHIIIIII-” whenever she came into his view, with this big baby grin on his face just got to her. She couldn’t resist starting to care about him, and soon enough she became a grandma who spoils him with lots of love whenever she gets a hold of him. 

Bismuth has been making this boy weapons since he could properly hold something. Of course, they weren’t actual dangerous weapons, but making weapons for others is kinda like....how she shows love. She ended up being allowed to be a blacksmith instead of a builder because Pink just kept insisting “I like this Bismuth, she’s pretty, let her be happy im begging you guys-” and the two of them bullshitted their way through the process of convincing the Diamonds to let this happen. So her works are very important to her because she knows damn well she’s cheating the system and it makes the tiny rebellious part of her so so happy.

I’m so starved for Pyrope content. Let this lady be his sort of personal stylist. She takes one look at this kid and goes “OOHOHO you will be sO fabulous and I will make sure of it”. He rants to her about something stupid that happened and she nods and says things like “I see” and “Really?” while she helps him with his outfit. They’re actually close friends thanks to this, he walks in all tired and disheveled and she perks up like “Come on bestie spill the tea while I fix your hair”

Nobody on Earth, not even the people in beach city (other than Connie) know that the Diamonds are protecting their planet as just...one big national park. The people in power think they’re in charge, but nah chief, it’s the gigantic space ladies who can’t murder you because their dead relative said so.

[mysecondsecretaccount]

Media Theory Analysis - Steven Universe

Steven Universe is an animated children’s TV show from Cartoon Network.  The show had 5 seasons from 2013 to 2019, and was followed up by a 2019 movie and 2019 epilogue series entitled “Steven Universe Future” that ran until 2020.  The series was created by Rebecca Sugar, notable for being the network’s first bisexual non-binary women to run a show.  Steven Universe follows the titular Steven, who lives with his human father and Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, who are gems, humanoid aliens with a variety of fantastical powers, including the ability for two gems to fuse into one gem, essentially two people becoming one for an amount of time.  Steven is half-gem, and his Mom, the gem Rose Quartz, gave up her physical form to become Steven, essentially dying in the process.  Much of the show centers around Steven coming into his own: dealing with his identity as half-gem, figuring his relationship to his dead mother, and fighting with the responsibilities and assumptions placed on him by Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, who simultaneously view him as just a little kid, and the next Rose Quartz.  As the show progresses, we learn that the Gems have a caste system based on function, which is run by the tyrannical Diamond Authority.

Power distance

As mentioned above, the show has a caste system based on function, which reflects our current system in many ways.  In the episode “Too Far”, the character Peridot shed some light on how the caste system works (shown at 3:12 in the video below)

As Peridot says “Pearl is a pearl, Garnet is a fusion,  [and Amethyst is] the only Crystal Gem, that's actually a Gem!”  There’s very clearly a power structure implied here, with Pearls and Fusions being seen as second-class citizens.  With this in mind, let’s start to look at the parallels to our real life caste system.

First, let’s talk about Pearls.  Pearls are essentially a slave race of personal servants, owned by nobility and forced to do work similar to secretary work, all while expected to look nice and fancy.  Throughout the show we see Pearl, the character (characters have the same name as their type of gem), being passed off as “just a pearl”, or “a feisty pearl”, and it’s a huge deal that she’s “a pearl that belongs to no one”.

“A Pearl who belonged to no one”

As you may be able to tell, the way Pearls are treated is allegorical for how women are treated in society.  Though views of women as second-class citizens aren’t exactly common in today’s world, backwards views like this still exist in many parts of the world.  There are still places where women are essentially bound to their husbands, in the same way that Pearls are bound to their masters.  And though it isn’t common now, the time when women mainly did secretary work was not that long ago in the grand scheme of things.

Next, there’s fusions.  In the show, fusions between the same types of gem are normal and common, though they are only used for military purposes and unfuse immediately after battle.

Three rubies fusing 

But fusions between different gem types are relatively unheard of, and are heavily shunned by gem society.  The first time two different gems fused, onlookers were horrified, and both particular gems were ordered to be shattered (killed).

Now it’s important to note that fusions, being the physical embodiment to two character’s feelings towards each other, are often used to represent romantic relationships.  And since all Gems are female (or at least, female-coded, I’ll get into that later), all relationships are necessarily queer.  And by viewing fusions through a queer framework, the hatred and contempt felt towards fusions becomes an obvious allegory for homophobia.  And though it may seem like most people are accepting of the queer community, especially seeing how gay marriage is legal in the united states, that’s simply not the case, especially seeing as a major political party in the U.S. is explicitly against gay marriage.

“Garnet? Does that call herself a Garnet? Haha! What would you have her do? Enter with the Demantoids? The Hessonites, the Pyropes?”

This degradation is embodied in the show.  When two gems become one, the gem that they become is one that would be higher rank than the two composing gems.  However, the rulers of gem society do not recognize the status of fusions, and find the very idea laughable, as shown above.  This only further shows how much of a second class citizen fusions are in this society.

 Let’s return to that Peridot quote from earlier: Amethyst is higher status than both Pearl and Garnet.  The thing is, Amethysts are lowly soldiers, so the fact that she could be the leader of the group, despite being the youngest, and despite the fact that Garnet should be a high-ranking military commander is frankly astonishing, and really speaks to the backwards nature of their society, which can, in turn make us reflect on the many absurd contradictions of our society.

Uncertainty avoidance

Newness and uncertainty are heavy themes in Steven Universe, even being built into the show’s very premise.  You see, Steven is a half human, haf gem hybrid, and that’s something that’s completely new in this universe.  

“There's never been anything or anyone like Steven.”

This is at the heart of one of the show’s central conflicts: how Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl view Steven.  Steven is something new, and that’s confusing and scary to the gems, because they frankly have no idea what to do with him.  But, over time, they learn that they have to accept Steven as a member of their team.  And this message of accepting the new and uncomfortable comes through with one of the show’s main mechanics: fusion.

“Something entirely new”

As shown in the video above, when the first fusion between two gems occurs, it’s portrayed as “Something entirely new”, and the show makes sure to emphasize. how special and unique that is.

“I still can't believe it. Only on Earth, don't you think? Only on Earth where anything can happen. A fusion of two completely different Gems! Can all Gems do that? How have I never heard of this?! I've only ever heard that it's unheard of.”

Furthermore, in the episode “Alone Together”, Steven fuses with his best friend Connie, creating Stevonnie, the first human/gem hybrid fusion.  At first, Pearl is perplexed and uncomfortable, calling it “inappropriate”, but Garnet, who’s portrayed as the wisest of the group, don’t ask questions or make assumptions, instead only telling them to “Go have fun!”

Finally, it's important to note that trying new things is at the crux of the plot, at least in season one.  You see, the show starts with Steven and the Crystal Gems going around and capturing corrupted gems, who are animalistic in nature.  For most interactions with these creatures, the Crystal Gems just fight them.  But Steven is irked by this, and proposes nonviolent solutions.  Ultimately, it’s only through these new solutions that progress is made.  Just as in real life, progress can only be made by accepting new and uncertain solutions.

Finally, it's important to note that trying new things is at the crux of the plot, at least in season one.  You see, the show starts with Steven and the Crystal Gems going around and capturing corrupted gems, who are animalistic in nature.  For most interactions with these creatures, the Crystal Gems just fight them.  But Steven is irked by this, and proposes nonviolent solutions.  Ultimately, it’s only through these new solutions that progress is made.  Just as in real life, progress can only be made by accepting new and uncertain solutions.

First of all, the entire Gem race is female (or female presenting rather, I’ll get to that in a minute), except for Steven, who’s half-gem and identifies as male (he/him).  This is notable, because many mainstream franchises have casts that are almost entirely male, usually save for one token female (see: the smurfette principle).  Steven universe is unique for having an entire race designed specifically to subvert this.

But what’s interesting that none of the Gems are actually female, they’re all nonbinary.  According to the show’s creator (who herself is a nonbinary women), all the gems are sexless and agendered, an alien species that don’t have a gender binary.  However, they all present female and use she/her pronouns (with a couple exceptions I’ll get to in a moment).  This is unique as nearly every character in every piece of media falls within the gender binary, and though the gems may lean to one side of it, they still fall strictly outside the gender binary.

 Masculinity vs femininity

Steven Universe is notable for defying gender expectations in several unique and groundbreaking ways.

First of all, the entire Gem race is female (or female presenting rather, I’ll get to that in a minute), except for Steven, who’s half-gem and identifies as male (he/him).  This is notable, because many mainstream franchises have casts that are almost entirely male, usually save for one token female (see: the Smurfette principle).  Steven Universe is unique for having an entire race designed specifically to subvert this.

But what’s interesting that none of the Gems are actually female, they’re all nonbinary.  According to the show’s creator (who herself is a nonbinary women), all the gems are sexless and agendered, an alien species that don’t have a gender binary.  However, they all present female and use she/her pronouns (with a couple exceptions I’ll get to in a moment).  This is unique as nearly every character in every piece of media falls within the gender binary, and though the gems may lean to one side of it, they still fall strictly outside the gender binary.

Some characters go even further in being non-binary, not leaning to either side and using they/them pronouns.  Specifically, we have Stevonnie, who is the fusion of Steven (male) and Connie (female).  Stevonnie is romanticized by the show as a true human experience, which also serves as a validation and confirmation of nonbinary identities.

Stevonnie being awesome.

All of the other fusions that include steven use they/them pronouns, including: Smoky Quartz (they/them), Rainbow Quartz 2.0 (They/Them & He/Him), Sunstone (They/Them & She/Her) and Obsidian (They/Them & She/Her).

It’s also worth noting that in Steven Universe Future, we get to briefly meet a nonbinary character named Shep, proving once and for all, that you don’t have to be a half-alien gem fusion to be nonbinary.

They 

Another gender standard that Steven Universe rebukes is that of traditional female beauty.  Though most Gems are female-presenting, they all present their femininity in different ways.  

Taken from a Contrapoints video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bbINLWtMKI)  

As you can clearly see, even though all of these characters use she/her pronouns, they all present their femininity in radically different ways, not being afraid to stray into nontraditional femininity.

Then there’s the subversive masculinity of Steven Universe.

The video above basically says everything I wanted to say on this topic in a manner infinitely better than I could ever do, and I don’t want to just limply restate its arguments, so just go watch the video for yourself.  All I have to add is that Steven is not at all afraid to wear traditionally feminine clothing, or act in a traditionally feminine manner, as shown below:

Individualism vs. collectivism

Throughout the show, the Crystal Gems are constantly fighting as a team.  They’re always working together, and there’s an assumed promotion of the value of teamwork throughout the show.  All major problems are only ever solved through cooperation.

What’s more interesting is how fusion plays into this topic.  Fusion is an allegory for relationships, of all different shapes, sizes and kinds.  So naturally, some fusions represent teamwork, specifically Alexandrite and Obsidian, the fusion of Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl and the fusion of Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and Steven respectively.  These fusions only exist as long as the contributing members are willing to cooperate, and have trouble staying together when the members aren’t working well together.

Alexandrite coming apart after her components start bickering

We also see the smaller, two-gem type fusions being used to represent teamwork and collective power.  The philosophy behind fusions is that they are greater than the sum of their parts, and as such are extremely useful for completing tasks.  Throughout the show we see characters fusing to do things like lift up a drill, destroy a tall structure, babysit, or even just to fight.  Recurring is known for lamenting the fact that she’s always beaten by fusion, even resorting to fusing with an uneasy ally to win a battle, twice (it works neither time).  The message is clear: teamwork creates synergy.

Pearl and Amethyst fuse to lift a drill

But what makes this truly interesting is how Steven Universe also champions individuality.  The show features plenty of characters who have arcs of self discovery, eventually coming into their own as a unique person, most notably Steven Universe himself.  Though you may think that these themes of individuality and collectivism may contradict each other, Steven Universe finds a way to escape that binary and champion both.

In episode “The Question”, the idea of differentiation is explored.  Differentiation is the idea that members of a couple need solid individual identities to work together as a couple.  And this idea can be applied to many other fusions throughout the show.  For example, in the episode “Mindful Education”, Stevonnie starts hallucinating when one of their components, Connie, is having trouble at school.  In said episode, Garnet explains that for fusions to stay fused, there has to be balance, and all participants have to be stable.  

“For a fusion to work, there needs to be balance. An imbalance can cause your fusion to...fall apart. That is to say, if one of you is falling apart, your fusion will as well. To find balance, you must understand your feelings.”

Ultimately, Steven Universe conveys a complex but important message: “Teamwork and cooperation are vital in making societal progress, but individual identity is crucial and cannot be ignored”

Indulgence vs restraint

While Some critics of the show have posited that in the first season, Steven has everything he wants.  And while that may be true from a physical statement (he eats what he wants, he gets to play video games all the time, he lives extremely close to both an arcade and an amusement park), his emotional needs, his need to be accepted by his family, his need to feel like he’s a valued member of the team, his need to be not be seen in the shadow of his mother, taken entire seasons to be meet, and some of those needs are frankly never met.

In the end, Steven Universe proves to be a subversive masterpiece, defying traditional expectations of gender and power structure, while providing new ways forward through uncertainty and the combination of individuality and collectivism.  To matter what framework you view the show through, it will always have something to learn from. 

[pearlplusau]

Chapter 5- The insertion (Part 1)

Decades passed in the home world galaxy, everything was different now, as the planet slowly ripped in half, the anguish of the three diamonds remains unscathed and permanent as the infinite suns.

After the incident, White Diamond isolated herself in her giant head ship all day, carrying out duties through simple mind control and formal messages to the higher ranked gems in her court, never needing to leave, never needing to see the empty palace of her starlight or the absent of the pink ship.

Blue Diamond wept, she wept day in, day out, as her only companion to feel happy together was lost and never would she returned. She suffered greatly from losing her, the sadness got so out of hand, under her eyes were dark bags as if they came to warn her about her powers draining her life force. Every now and then, she would visit Pinks sacred planets or the Human zoo, just to mourn for her, just to be reminded how she didn’t help as much as she should, just to feel what was left of her.

Yellow Diamond showed no more than what she already feels, anger. she would be in her chambers, attempting some long forgotten experiments of retrieved gem shards from the battle on Earth. Could she recognize her own soldiers from the rebels? No, it was impossible to distinguish gems by their shards, so she decided to continue the experiment. as she examines the various shards scattered on the counter,she thought of a plan . “If I can’t make a colony out of that hideous rock, then it looks like I’ll have to destroy it. White may have yet to approve my idea, but her refusal of talking anything regarding Pink won��t stop me from wiping that planet out of existence,” she thought as bitterness and anger fueled her, but she knew she was just as heartbroken as Blue, she just couldn’t show it.

She wiped off something from her eye and called out, “Pearl!”

The yellow pearl peeked out behind the counter with her arms in salute, “Yes my Diamond?”

“I want you to seek out the Inordinate one, and get her here immediately, I have a very important mission for her.”

“Yes,right away my Diamond!” Pearl bowed and left the room.

 Back on Earth,

The remains of a war was mostly scattered about, there abandon weapons, obilerated lands, and broken space ships here and there, but no gem shards were shining in the dusty bright dessert, and no real sign of battles can be seen.

A corrupted giant yam monster, the size of a giant boulder was rolling away into an abondoned kindergarden. The Crystal gems, which consisted of Garnet, Pearl and Coral panted as they chased the monster for the whole day, but it was too fast for them.

"Not that i know of, but we need a break, i dont think Coral here can withstand another hit from the monster." She pointed to the aformentioned gem as she looks like shes gonna collapsed at any moment.

Pearl was the first to recover herself and started, "That’s the third time this week it got away! Garnet! Can you see if we're able to take care of it?"

The fusion, paused and go through the multiple outcomes of the situation, but none shows a newly bubbled gem in her room.

The pink pearl was panting and wheezing as she was rather in low health, but she held her head up and assured the two gems that she's fine.

"Really! I'm fine! Let's keep goin-" She almost finished her sentence before collapsing.

Before she went unconcious, she heard Pearl mumbling and complaining, "I knew it was a bad idea! Why was she so insisting on coming along? She was the one that lost track and couldn’t keep a stable stance with it!”

“Pearl,” Garnet said, “You can’t blame her for the inevitable, besides, Rose needed sometime alone and she was the one that suggested we do it together since we can’t all just swing a sword and poof them in an instant! At least she’s trying her best.”

Pearl responded the fusion, “Well maybe, her best just isn’t-”

Coral passed out before she could comprehend her last words, and drifted into some sort of realm of the past, or rather, somewhere that’s so familiar but yet still the same.

She was standing in a dark room, but was suddenly lit up bright, she found that she was in White’s Head ship with her heels up in the air, her arms stiff and stuck in an unsual pose, and she was…greyscaled? Before her stood White Diamond herself, she looked pleased of what she’d just done.

‘Ahh yes,’ The great diamond spoke, but her voice was echoing from somewhere nearby, ‘it’s been a long time since I used my powers but looks like its doing just fine!’

She looked at Coral as if this was a fun game, and only she know how it ends.

‘Don’t be too hard on yourself pearl,’ Her voice was almost, sympathy, pitying the pearl, ‘You wouldn’t want to remember any of this now would you?’

She placed her index finger under Coral’s chin and lifted it up to her bright face, her nail was so sharp it was a miracle her skin didn’t poof on impact.

‘I’m doing you a favour,’ Her voice echoed more, it was louder this time. ‘That crack of yours will never truly heal, she can’t be seen with an old, broken pearl, you understand now don’t you? Besides, she has her new pearl now, so don’t you wory about a thing!’

Coral tried to spoke, she tried to defend herself, but she couldn’t even look away, she doesn’t know WHAT to feel. All she could remember was Pink demanding a colony from the diamonds.

“Now off you go!” A white bubble materialized around her and floated out of the White torso ship. Everything went dark.

 Back at the temple, Coral was lying in her room, tossing and turning and gasped, shes awake.

She found herself on a pile of human clothing, she doesn’t wear them, but they were soft, perfect to lie on and rest when needed. The different shades of pink from ranging from Light to Deep pink to medium violet red can be seen neatly placed in piles, almost the size of a human bed.

“What was that? I don’t think I ever... dreamt before?” Coral questioned herself.

She looked around and saw all the things too familiar, surrounding the pile of clothes was running water in a pink hue, stretching out longer and wider than the sea, but no deeper than a kiddie pool. Above her, pink clouds were drifting through, they seem endless as well, going to the same direction as the sea around her.

“Wait a sec,” Coral suddenly thought, “Weren’t we on a mission or something? Where are the others?” She rose up and took a step out of the comforting pile of fabric and ballerina her way on the water’s surface.

She concentrated and a door size glow materialized in front of her. As the light dimmed, rose stems with thorns glowed and departed, leading her outside her room.

Just as she was half-way through, she heard a voice, no, two voices talking aloud and complaining.

Rose’s voice was first recognized, “-too dangerous, you need Coral on this mission!”

‘For what? All she did was getting trampled and hit by that thing! Any more damage taken would’ve poofed her! Or worse!”

Garnet’s voice joined in, ‘That I agree.”

‘Well, even if she’s not capable of catching the corrupted gem, you should’ve leave her out like this, she’ll be heartbroken if she finds out you went without her!’

‘So? It’s better than her slowing us down! There’s so much more monsters out there, we won’t be able to bubble them all with her around! Garnet and I can’t fight AND  keep her safe at the same time!’

Garnet chipped in, ‘And it’s not that we dislike her, we love her, all of us, but if we’re gonna take care of the planet and avoid locals from getting harmed, we need to bubble as much as possible in the least amount of time.’

A faint sigh can be heard, the leader spoke, ‘If it means less suffering and less humans getting hurt, then I suppose it would be fine for Coral to have a time-out for a few days. You two need to rest, but you should head out before Coral wakes up, all right?’

‘Of course’ said Pearl.

‘Noted.’ said Garnet.

‘Good,” Rose ended, ‘Dismissed’

Coral slipped back into her room before any of them noticed her. She was processing what was heard while the rest of the crystal gems head back to their respective rooms.

I’ll show them, she thought, I’ll show that I’m capable of handling a gem monster AND myself!

When the coast was clear, she quietly tip-toe out of her room and went back to the last known location of the yam monster.

 Just outside the Earth’s orbit, various yellow spaceships can be seen in a form of a diamond, specifically, Yellow Diamond.

Inside the first spacecraft, with green and yellow glowing alien technology far advanced than anything that ever existed, and piloting each ships were handfuls of Era 1 peridots. These peridots each have a triangular gem and the same heights as pearls, but far more intelligent as they are very competent technicians. The peridots were capable of doing various tasks such as data logging, research, communication range bigger than the galaxy without external equipments.

(Art by @gemfiles​, if you would like your artwork removed please dm me, as this pic here has the purpose of visual aids for the readers)

They were busy working on the coordinates and history of the planet Earth, typing required data and analyising it’s past reputation and current resources on the ships available platform and programs.

A peridot stood and walked off from her post, the others took no notice and persume their work. The peridot stood still in front of a door, and a scanner appears from the right wall. The contraption scanned her form for her gem and found it on the back of her left hand, the light scan turn from green to light yellow and beeped.

The door slid open and the peridot went through, her arms in diamond salute as she greets her superior officer.

‘My Anglesite,” She said, ‘I am here to report that we have arrived at the planet’s orbit, do I have your orders and coordinates to land ?’

‘My, my,’ The main gem-in-charge yellow Anglesite replied, wearing a white lab coat and triangular pointy shoulder pads in the colours yellow and white. She wore glasses so thin you could only notice it up front, the right side of her face was covered by her light blonde short hair.

If you think she’s the same as the other gems, she not, cuz her lower half was just hovering circle platform, so she would resemble a vase on the circular coffee table. But, the platform serves as a method of transport, as it is designed to float above any ground so she can travel as same as other gems, it’s just faster and requires her pretty much no energy to be in motion.

at the edge of the platform, robotic hands can sprout out and execute projects better and faster than a normal gem, weapons and defence systems? You dont need to worry about that.

The yellow gem continued, ‘Just as I calculated, looks like even the atmosphere is liking what will be done to that little chunk of rock, wiping it out of our starmaps will be so much faster, and then, the great Yellow Diamond will praise me for my work, promote me and i will finally have the chance to meet my glorious, shining White Diamond!’

The peridot was getting tired of hearing the “possibility” after the mission was complete, but she could only agree with her superior, ‘Of course she will my Anglesite! So, about the course-’

‘Ah yes, set the course towards north of the largest continent on the planet, that is where the final stage of the mission will commence!’ The yellow gem started giggling and laughing, but she gave one last order, ‘That will be all!’ and continued with her laughter.

‘Yes my Anglesite.’ Peridot trudged back to her position and set the course.

The ship entered the planet’s orbit and the technicians went to work.

 It’s been a few hours, the sun was starting to rise, the cold nigh air was starting to warm up the atmosphere as shadows began to crept under the desert lifeforms.

Coral was walking aimlessly through the desert, mumbling and kicking the sand, just wanted to catch that gem monster and prove to them she’s not useless.

I can’t believe they didn’t want me to come along, she thought, I’ve been with Rose longer than Pearl has, and I was there when everything happened, it’s not fair!

She kicked more sand, but the impact wasn’t obvious, since the whole terrain was a desert.

She sighed and sat behind a rock to take a break, physically and mentally.

The whole trip was to catch that monster but she’s done nothing but follow her “instincts” and it led her nowhere. There was no tracks, no damaged that looks like its from a giant yam monster, and most importantly, no idea whats next.

Wait, she thought, whats that on the sky?

Is that….a homeworld spaceship? No wait, there’s more than one?

Ohnononono, she thought, they’re coming back for us!

I have to go back! I have to tell Rose and Garnet and Pe-

….

….

Or…

Maybe this is the chance I’ve been waiting for, to prove that I can handle myself.

Yeah, I wont be able to fight off ships of soldiers, but I can do a little sneaking around, trying to see what’s really going on, or better yet, their plan of attack so we’ll know what’s coming!

Coral summoned her trusty lance and did a quick jog to catch up with the ships.

End of Part 1.

(Heyo, so...as you finish reading this youll notice it’s pretty different from the story before.

But its not like im trying a COMPLETY different thing, its kinda like the previous chapter where we see what happens on homeworld, but in this chapter, we’re dealing with something that doesn’t really have any leads from the canon series.

Sooo, yeah, the north of the largest continent, Yellow diamonds plan, corrupted monsters, you should have a pretty huge idea of whats going on.

Also, the new gem is very different from what we usually see, but there’ll be a concept art in traditional paper, and probs no colour, just for you guys to see what she looks like, cuz the description of her isnt so...Complete?

But feel free to draw her tho, cuz i guess she kinda an OC here? If you could tell, she’s a gem under yellow’s court, but she also contains little essence from white diamond, which is why she has two diamonds on her design.

So yeah, she will be posted in a few days or smth.

Aaaannddd thats abt it for now, if youre reading this, it means you respect what i have to say, and i thank you for that.

Happy reading!

Pearlplusauchap Pearlplusauchap5

[anythingstevenuniverse]

*SUF Spoilers* Anyone Can Suffer from Trauma

As the series ends, “Steven Universe: Future” gives us a reminder and portrayal that anyone can suffer from trauma. “Steven Universe” and “Steven Universe: The Movie” have showed trauma many times. However, the epilogue series gives us the one person who is suffering the most right now: Steven. Steven has been through a lot but is usually positive and is able to deal with the situation or does not see it and pushes it off. However, two years after saving the universe, he is starting to fall deeper in depression and isolating himself from loved ones due to trauma from his past. In the beginning of the series, some fans saw this as a surprise because his character is to be kind, empathetic, and positive no matter the situation. But even a positive character like Steven will struggle with a situation he cannot deal with due to his past trauma. “Steven Universe: Future” bring the subject of trauma the show has dealt with before using Steven, the main character, to emphasize that trauma can affect anyone.

The franchise has portrayed trauma in many different characters. The Crystal Gems have had their share of traumas related to the Gem War, Gem society of Era 2, and before and after Steven was born. Pearl was obsessed with Rose Quartz and was deeply traumatized by her passing. She projected her obsession to Steven and questioned her worth as an individual without Rose. Garnet is a mixed gem fusion and was frowned upon by Era 2 Gem society. She did not exhibit much trauma until we see “Keep It Together” where she felt guilt and anger over forced fusion Gems which can be viewed as survivors guilt and she puts pressure on herself to be a calm and collected leader. Amethyst was not affected by the war due to emerging from the ground later then the other Gems. However, she developed insecurities about herself not only because she is a defective Amethyst but also because the Crystal Gems associated the Kindergarten as a bad place therefore making internalizing her existence as a mistake. She struggled to love herself and it later created an unhealthy obsession to beat Jasper in season 3. The Crystal Gems have had their fair share of trauma but are not the only Gems who have suffered some type of trauma. Lapis Lazuli was a war prisoner trapped inside a mirror for thousands of years and trapped herself in an abusive relationship/fusion with Jasper. She was very untrusting of others and when the Diamonds were involved, she ran away out of fear despite hurting others in the process (this is not to blame or negatively criticize anything on Lapis, these are just my observations and opinions). The corrupted Gems during the series are war victims who lost their minds and forms from the Diamond’s blast. Bismuth suffered betrayal from the Gem she idolized because of her radical ideals without anyone ever knowing, leaving her to lash out at Steven and hurt that no one know the true story. After Lapis left with the barn, Peridot fell into a deep depression and lost any form of joy in her life. Spinel suffered abandonment from Pink Diamond that lead to her lashing out at Steven, who did not deserve it, and caused her to loath herself and act out irrationally. Even the Diamonds suffered trauma when they lost Pink Diamond. Yellow Diamond buried herself in her work, Blue Diamond never moved on from mourning, and White Diamond isolated herself from others to maintain a perfect image (does not excuse their genocidal actions in the past, again just my observations). Lots of the Gems suffered some form of trauma in “Steven Universe” and “Steven Universe: The Movie” and were able to move on from it with the help of Steven.

This time it is Steven’s turn to face his trauma in “Steven Universe: Future”. Steven is known as the problem solver and using empathy and kindness to help others. In “Steven Universe” he can handle tough situations and help Gems to move on or/and cope with their trauma. However, this is due to the problems his mother has caused and was a target of Homeworld. He has faced attempted assassinations, identity crises, family drama, and adult situations which can be so much for a child. With the support of his family and friends and his empathetic and kind nature, he either brushes off these problems off to save everyone or deals with these terrible situations with a support system. However, with Era 3 peace time and losing his purpose to save others in “Steven Universe: Future”, he is now dealing with his past and the trauma is manifesting into his behavior.

“Steven Universe: Future” is not the only time he has faced traumatic experiences. There are many episodes in “Steven Universe” where Steven had to face serious situations. “We Need to Talk” Steven clutched his Gem after witnessing Connie and Greg fist bump over shared experience with Gem related knowledge. Steven is a hybrid of a Gem and human and feels alone because he is one of a kind. “Mindful Education” he bottled up his feelings of failure to save others and it started to appear as hallucinations when fused as Stevonnie. He was only able to confront those feelings when talking to Connie and her reassurance to Steven that it is okay to feel bad made him feel better. “Storm in the Room” he confronts his mother (more of a hologram AI) about questioning her motives and damage she caused. The room reassures Steven that his existence was purely out of love to bring life not to fix problems unrelated to him. In “Lion 4: Alternative Ending”, he is frantically trying to find his magical destiny or purpose. After watching a second version of the Rose video, Greg tells Steven there is no destiny for him and Steven realizes his mother just wants Steven to live his own life how he wants it. “So Many Birthdays” he aged rapidly because he felt silly liking childish things and starts aging rapidly. It was not until the Gems started bickering, did he realize he can still like things deemed childish. There are episodes I am missing where he dealt with adult situations and Steven starts to have recollections of his past in “Growing Pains”, but the main purpose is Steven has faced traumatic events affecting him but is able to deal with them because he talked it out or it never bothered him.

When the movie came out, he accomplished restructuring Gem society and creating Little Homeworld for Gems, uncorrupted and Homeworld, to help integrate into Earth society. Everything seemed like the usual happily ever after until Spinel comes in injecting bio-poison into the Earth and rejuvenating the Crystal Gems and Steven. He and the Crystal Gems had to restart, literally, and figure out everything with limited use of his powers. Spinel was a tough character to help, especially when she spiraled downward when Steven left her for a few seconds, and she became angry and started fighting. After fighting Spinel, tiring her out and resolving the conflict, destroying the injector, having the Diamonds take Spinel back to Homeworld, and fixing the damage, it seemed like everything is at peace again.

“Steven Universe: Future” shows how Steven and everyone else is after times of peace. However, something is different with Steven in this mini epilogue series. Once he realizes people are doing fine without him, he is losing his purpose and feels like is friends and family are drifting away. There have been some incidents where Steven had to save the day, but it was solved quickly and he is used to life-threatening situations. The recurring theme or problem of the series is Steven feeling disconnected with everyone because they do not need his help and does not know what to do with his future. We also see trauma resurfacing from this past and he is unwilling to share or get help for it. Steven is dealing with trauma from the past, closing himself off from friends and family, having self-doubt and feelings of being left behind, and suffering from the over-bearing responsibilities and facing life-threatening situations from having a savior complex. He has devoted himself to helping others and is used to chaos surrounding Gem related conflict. There is no other way for him to communicate without helping someone and with no conflict outside his own, he can’t talk to other people normally anymore. In the recent episode “Growing Pains” Dr. Maheswaran explains Steven about childhood trauma is starting to affect his body in dealing with stress. Because he has been in so many life-threatening situations in the past, Steven’s body is reacting to mild stress as life-threatening and activating his powers in extreme ways. It did not seem to have been a problem until Connie’s rejection in “Together Forever” is triggering his body to act as if his life is in danger very much like PTSD. With Dr. Maheswaran’s honest and factual explanation on trauma to Steven and his father as a support maybe he can try to recover. Depending on how the Crewniverse decides to end, it will resolve in Steven figuring himself out and learning to heal himself from the trauma to start moving forward and to the future.

The epilogue series portrays a very important concept of trauma: everyone can suffer from trauma. Are there people affected from severe trauma far worse than others? Yes. Does that make it okay to invalidate mild or moderate trauma depending on person’s background, personality and resources? No. Coming from personal experience and the few reactions I have seen on Steven’s behavior from the series, trauma affects anyone regardless of the person. There are people who can better themselves with more resources then others such as a support system, therapy, self-care, awareness, and coping mechanisms. Some have access to these resources and others may not, but it still does not change the fact anyone can suffer from trauma. There were a few times I saw posts remarking the change in Steven’s character. In “Steven Universe”, Steven was an optimistic and empathetic kid who solved other’s problems through communication. When “Steven Universe: Future” aired, some fans commented negatively on Steven’s inability to communicate well with others anymore and isolating himself due to fear of his friend and family drifting away. His savior complex, especially the need to save others, is causing him to not talk with others about his own problems because he has needs validation from fixing other’s problems. Steven is starting to develop depression and PTSD from his past and the trauma is manifesting and showing. It is not surprising he would go from a happy-go-lucky kid to a teenager suffering from trauma and not talking to others about his problem. He has been through so much as a child; learning about his mother’s identity and past, resolving conflict from his mother’s mistakes, fixing the Crystal Gem’s issues, heal corruption, almost killed multiple times, and restructuring Gem society. It would be shocking if he was still happy with his life, especially after the fight scene with Spinel. Despite being positive during conflicts, he usually pushes aside his own problems to fix others and it is starting to take a toll on him when there are no more problems to fix and he questions his worth. The Crystal Gems are trying to help him, but he cannot open to them because he must be Steven, savior of the galaxy, not Steven, a teen suffering from trauma and unwillingness to confront his past. Steven does have a support system and still has some of his positive traits but even so, he is denying his trauma and not looking for the help he needs. “Steven Universe: Future” shows that no matter one’s background, severity of trauma, personality, and resources, anyone can suffer from trauma. Trauma does not have to define who you are but how you deal with it does. Many suffer from guilt or shame of trauma due to stigma of specific people suffering trauma, comparisons of trauma, and personality traits determining who trauma affects. No one’s trauma should be invalidated but should be supported and treated as real. It’s okay to talk about it and to get help but the only way to do that is if the person suffering wants to get help. Rebecca Sugar and the Crewniverse have demonstrated the importance of recognizing that anyone can suffer from trauma and the best way to heal is self-awareness and accepting help from others.

This post was both difficult and exhausting to write. I was getting anxious a lot and had to take breaks writing this. It took a few days to write and get my thoughts in order before suddenly feeling uncomfortable and taking breaks. Below is a story/reason as to why I wanted to write this post. I cut it because it is really personal to share but I feel comfortable sharing it now. You don’t have to read it which is another reason why it is hidden. Just wanted to tell my story related to this post.

The reason I wrote this post was from the negative backlash from some fans expressed about Steven in “Steven Universe: Future” because of his behavior. Steven is dealing with trauma and an identity crisis and does not talk about it to the Crystal Gems or anyone else. Some fans critic this change in behavior because in “Steven Universe” he was always so positive and used communication to solve his problems. I was getting a bit distraught by this until one of my favorite theorists/reviewer/editor (will not name), tweeted about how Steven has been through a lot as kid, someone as positive as Steven can still suffer from trauma, and his current behavior is related to how he is dealing with losing his purpose and trauma. I cannot find the tweet as it was long ago, but it inspired me to make a post about how anyone can suffer from trauma. Even if the person is positive and has dealt with issues/situations in the past, trauma can change a person, especially ones who help others more then they help themselves and how to deal with certain situations.

I relate to Steven a lot throughout the series. Although Peridot is my favorite character, Steven from the original series, the movie, and the epilogue series, is the character I see myself. With “Steven Universe: Future” I can see myself in Steven even more, especially during my college years. Throughout my childhood I was always the positive child/teen who was able to make friends easily and not afraid to show who I am. I was not popular but lots of people liked me for some reason and I just rolled with it. I always liked helping others with their problems and it did not bother me as I liked being the friend who helped. My sophomore year, I started dating a girl online (I saw her on webcam before to see if she was real) and we clicked and started talking a lot. Things started to go well and my life seemed pretty good despite the stress of school.

About 5 years ago, something happened. I had a friend, let’s call him X, who I started reconnecting with. He was in the Marines and stationed in Japan so we mostly face timed when we could. X told me he was diagnosed with mild schizophrenia and was being discharged from the military. I knew he seemed a bit upset and I thought hanging out would cheer him up. At first, it seemed he was happy, and we mostly just stayed at my place and watched anime. However, X started to drink and exhibit weird behavior. The first time he drank in my apartment, he was yelling, clinging to me, and throwing stuff. A friend of mine came over and X threw a can at him which triggered my friend’s PTSD. The day after, I apologized to my friend and told X to not drink in front of me. About a week later he came over and started drinking again. His excuse was it was hard liquor this time and it makes him act different. Instead of being physically aggressive, he was emotionally aggressive. He talked about his troubles, thoughts, and feelings which shouldn’t be a bad thing. But it was a bit too much for me to where I started crying and he held me and said sorry. The next day I told him to seriously not drink the next time we meet. Around a couple months later, I get sick with a nasty head cold, but was going to an anime movie with X and two other friends. He came to my place a couple hours before the movie to prep but saw I was sick and took care of me. Everything seemed fine and we went to dinner and talked. Then he stepped outside for a long time and when he came back, he said he was talking to someone from the VA which is why it took so long. We get our seats for the movie and enjoying ourselves. Half way through the movie X starts spitting at random, questioning the logics of the movie in a rude manner, and being extremely clingy. We didn’t know why until we smelled alcohol from his breath and saw an opened lemonade bottle. Once we exited the theatre, X started yelling at my friend who was shielding me and throwing soda cans at random. My friend took me to her place, and I called his parents to pick him up before I called the police. The next day I texted him I could not be friends with him anymore because he broke my trust and he needed professional help. X texted back saying I did not want to deal with his problem making me a bad friend and just listening to my friend’s opinions instead of my own. He told me he was getting help but I was hurt by his words and decided to end our friendship because of his toxic behavior. I have not spoken to him for over 5 years now.

I was around 20 when this happened. I was comfortable telling my story about what happened, and that the decision was the right one and necessary. The truth was I felt guilty about what happened. I am the one who helps others before helping myself and cutting one of my good friends off and not helping him when he needed it most was making me depressed. I started going to bars with my friends less and had a strict role that there was no drinking in my place. But I suffered more from it. My apartment started to become a complete mess which attracted cockroaches and a smell so foul my neighbors in the whole complex could smell it. My diet consisted of take out and junk food which may be one of the main causes of gastritis a couple years ago. I stopped drinking and became the prude and boring of the friend group and I started isolating myself because I was no fun. I became distant with my partner and started having negative thoughts I never had before. I never told anyone about my problems because people would compare theirs to mine. I do have a privileged life and at a young age learned that other’s problems were far worse than I am, and my problems are nothing compared to theirs because I have it better. That comparison led me to keep my problems private and divert my feelings in a forced positive way. It was not until my fear of eviction and losing my cats did I start to ask for help. My friend helped me clean my entire apartment before inspection and lots of people reassured me that my problems mattered because they are my problems no matter the severity. I am a bit more open about my problems, but I can hide my emotions or brush it off. I am still working on that.

“Steven Universe” the franchise has helped me through a lot. The original series helped me connect with others and deal with my own problems. I was able to relate to the characters and some of my positivity came back. It even inspired me to both pursue psychological research and start drawing and poetry. However, I still felt guilty for cutting off my friend. Until “Steven Universe: The Movie” came out. After watching the movie and reading interviews, I felt a sense of relief. Seeing Steven trying to help Spinel multiple times despite her toxic behavior made me see the same incident that happened with X. Spinel realizing she is hurting the wrong person and deciding to heal on her own gave me something X never did: it was not my fault and sometimes the person has to heal themselves without you. I finally had closure on my guilt and was able to move forward. “Steven Universe: Future” I can relate to Steven more than anybody on the show right now. When hearing some negative backlash in the beginning of the series, it reminded me of people who thought my problems did not matter because of my privileged life and positive personality. Steven is bottling up his emotions and trauma like I did and it is affecting him. It is not until later in the series, do we see that his childhood was more traumatic then we realized and his affecting his actions and emotions in the present. Even Rebecca Sugar in an interview opened up about her trauma in the past that affected her in the present that inspired “Growing Pains”. I did the same and hardly opened up about my real feelings. I am even trying to get therapy for my issues and turning to my partner and friends for support. With people seeing Steven suffering from his trauma, I am hopeful it will let people know anybody can suffer from trauma and it can affect people despite background and personality. If you read my story thank you for reading and this is just my opinion on the show and story on a part of my life.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Weird “Movie Star”

Ok, so funny story, I can’t help but notice that as soon as school started, all of my stats went up, so I see you there browsing tumbr in class when you should be paying attention. Ha ha :)

I promised I would start writing more, so here it is the next story. It was a funny idea that I have had for a while, and I hope you like it, or at least find it entertaining. 

The mass operation to move UNSC’s military headquarters had begun shortly after first contact with the Galactic Assembly. They had originally deemed it prudent to move the base completely off world and out of the zone between Mars and earth orbit. So, they had set up headquarters orbiting Europa, which in turn Orbited Jupiter. They had done this mostly for its proximity to the fueling station based on the surface of Europa, and the particle collection operation harvesting from Jupiter’s upper atmosphere.

The U/N.S.C Harbinger landed shortly after operational sunrise using Jupiter’s  gravity well as a way to slow itself down and conserve the fuel used to travel over moderatly short distances. The ships short-range engines used fusion technology to power itself, but required a specific type of hydrogen ion to properly fuel the ignition process, so it was more than a good idea to keep their largest store of space vessels so close.

The crew unloaded all their cargo while Commander Vir took Sunny and Krill to report to the Admiral and other officials on the success of their current orders. He wore his uniform, light grey, pinned at the sides with the wings that signified his ran. He even wore the cap, which is something he tended to avoid wearing. Sunny walked at his right wearing the ceremonial armor that she had inherited from her father and the war staff she had taken as prize from her defeated mother. Krill floated at his left shoulder propelled by a backpack with a small attached motor, worn over a white lab coat he had taken to wearing after the fashion of the humans.

The base itself was teaming with life, men in women in a plethora of uniforms colored to signify their use. Brown coveralls for engineering and maintenance, grey for janitorial. Scientists wore light grey  lab coats while medical staff wore blue scrubs, paired with white coats when the doctors were involved. Commanding officers wore the standard military uniform in light grey.

They caught quite a bit of attention as they passed by despite the occasional glimpse of another alien lifeform working with the crews. Most of the time they would be tesraki, but he occasional Drev could be seen carrying boxes at the direction of a human officer.

They passed through a set of doorways that hissed open with the pressure difference, and into a steel grey hallway that lead down into the administration offices. The place was as austere as the military had preferred for thousands of years. The only decoration could be seen through open doorways and into offices, usually UN flags hung next to metals pinned into velvet backed glass cases and pictures of the officer shaking hands with someone important.  Commander ir had a similar office on the base decorated with an old US flag tattered and scruffy next to the pristine white of the UN logo on the other side. His purple heart and bronze star hung above the desk. For all purposes, it looked like any other office of any other commanding officer in the fleet…. Accept for his desktop background which held a screenshot from the cult classic series Replication, but no one had to know that.

-

They made it to the admiral’s office in good time, and the door was already open and waiting for them. She lifted her head as she heard them approach and stood from her desk holding out a hand. The commander took it with a greeting and stepped back as she greeted sunny with a nod of the head, “General.” before looking at Krill, “Dr.”

Sunny seemed pleasantly surprised that the Admiral had used her title, standing up just a bit straighter. Commander Vir’s fingers brushed over her forearm as if to say see, what did I tell you?

“Admiral.”

“I hope you have good news for me Commander.”

“Only the best, ma’am.” The man responded, “There have been no serious issues to report. All orders are going well, and our men have retaken the prison and returned all the inmates to their cells without complication. A few people died, but I am told most of them were lifers waiting on death row, and despite my slight disagreement the GA does not consider it a great loss.”

The admiral sighed deeply and spun in her chair to look out the window. A magnificent view of Jupiter’s powerful red rings rose up behind her, and Commander Vir couldn’t argue with the aesthetic nature of the image..

“I am glad to hear things seem to be going so well aboard…. To be honest things are…. A little strained here…”

Commander Vir tilted his head in confusion, “In what way?”

She threw up her hands in exasperation, “It is that ongoing issues with the LFIL and the GA. If we want to maintain our good graces with the GA we have to take their side in the issue. Personally, I don’t mind what people choose to do as long as both parties agree.” Her eyes moved across Vir and Sunny quickly, “But as things stand the GA disagrees with my sentiment, so we continue to remain neutral. However, our action, or lack thereof, has caused some issues planet-side. Our recruitment has gone down by almost 60% in the last month. People are shipping off on those Tesraki cruisers for their fill of space rather than join.”

“I am…. Sorry to hear that Admiral, but I am not entirely sure what I can do to help.” 

The woman sighed and stood, coming around the front of the desk, which she parked herself partially seated against, “Before I tell you, I want to make sure you know that you are in no way obligated to agree to this if you don’t want to. We can find some other way to get things done and I wouldn’t blame you, but it would be an unbelievable PR move.”

Commander vir looked on nervously, “Go on.”

“We got a call from an agency on the west cost….. And they want to buy the rights to your life story.”

Sunny would have sword she could hear Adam’s jaw pop out of place as it hinged itself open. He sputtered and gasped for a few minutes “My…. my life story…. Why would they…. What would they want that for?” 

The admiral raised on dark eyebrow, “Come now, Commander. The man who flew on the first manned mission into interstellar space, made first contact with an alien race, fought in the Drev War, and then became Commander of the first interstellar fleet. You’re life story is striking media gold.”

“What agency in California?”

The woman shrugged, “Hollywood Incorporated.”

He nearly choked. Hollywood Inc. was the biggest film cooperation that side of Earth, named for the infamous strip of land which had, two thousand years ago, produced some of the greatest actors of their time.

“I…. I don’t know ma’am.”

“Well, that’s entirely your decision, but I would suggest heading to their Martian office and talk to the director because he is going to keep pestering me until he gets an answer.” 

***

The Hollywood Inc. Office was located just towards the edge of the gravitational strip in the largest city on Mars. Because of its location, the gravitational field was slightly weaker. The children who wandered about where unusually tall for their ages, a fact that Commander Vir couldn’t help but notice as he opened the glass fronted doors and stepped inside.

The interior of the room was gaudy and over the top, lined with hundreds of vintage posters spanning the last two thousand years. He thought he might have seen a batman poster in the far corner that had to be at least two thousand years old encased inside a climate controlled glass case. It must have cost a couple thousand dollars if not more. The rest of the room was decorated in a similar fashion with hundreds of priceless moments of the entertainment industry from years long passed. Another climate controlled case held at least one of the costumes used in the original pirates movie. The thing should have been mostly ash and dust by now but somehow it had maintained its shape.

The three of them stepped up the nauseating checkerboard floor and up towards the reception desk. The woman who sat there looked like the Victorian era had thrown up all over her. He was surprised she could fit behind the desk, or even sit with the sheer amount of petticoats she must have been wearing underneath. He had to clear his throat a few times before she looked up, and when she did she looked positively board, “Can I help you?”

He rubbed his hands together awkwardly, “Um…. i was told to come here…. To meet someone.” She didn’t look particularly impressed at his explanation, so he cleared his throat, “Uh, my name is Commander Adam Vir from the UNSC….” He was cut off quickly as the woman leapt to her feet with a yelp.

“Yes, Yes of course, right this way, he’s been expecting you.” In the next second, he found himself grabbed by the hand and dragged bodily through a door behind the desk, and into a long, and even more lavish hallway. They hurried past a few rooms before she made it to the door, which opened for them, “Mr. Clayton Ellis, He’s here, he’s here.” 

“Wait Clayton E-” His voice trailed away slowly as he looked towards the end of the room and found one of the greatest directors of their time sitting at a horrible tacky golden desk in an overstuffed zebra chair wearing something that made him appear as a prohibition gangster, a powder blue suit with shoulder pads and matching fedora.

This couldn’t be real right? It explained the extravagance though, the man was known for being way over the top even as far as directors and movie producers go. The man stood as soon as he saw them a massive smile playing over his face as he made his way around the desk arms held wide, “Look who it is, the man of the hour, the star, the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“Uh.” Adam said as the man caught him by the hand shaking vigorously. Sunny and Krill exchanged a confused glance. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Ellis.”

The man waved a hand, which glittered with enough rings to satisfy a king, “Please call me Clayton.” He stood back arms still held wide, “And just look at you mmm mmm perfect main character material, I mean who doesn’t love an eye-patch, just the kind of little piece of personality I would add, you know.”

Commander Vir stood there in bewilderment, “I’m sorry sir, I don’t”

But the man had turned his attention away towards his companions, “And look at this. The quintessential alien sidekicks to our roguish human protagonist….. What a story what a set.”

Sunny couldn’t hold back a snort of derision, “Sidekick, excuse me.”

He turned his head eyes lighting up, “Check that, how about Love interest.” he spread his hands wide above his head as he said it, “Think of the publicity. With all the LFIL stuff going on this would be perfect.” He made  heart with his hands and framed the two of them in it, “I can see it now, the roguish space captain falling in love with this aesthetic exotic-

“Wow…. just hold on a second.” Commander Vir barked, “I haven't agreed to anything just yet, and I thought this was about my life story, about accuracy.”

The man waved a hand, ‘Right, right, right, but let's be honest reality is often disappointing. Sometimes film requires a bit of dramatization.”

Commander Vir crossed his arms, “I beg to differ. Unless you consider being almost brainwashed by sentient-space-vacuum dwelling humanoids boring.”

The man’s eyes flashed greedily, and he hopped up on his desk legs dangling over the floor, “Ok, I see you clearly aren't kidding around here, so I will make you a deal.” He raised his right hand, “I swear to be as accurate as possible, do my research and everything, but you have to understand, you are a national-no planetary hero, no interplanetary. You have the ability to be a role model for thousands of young minds who just eat up this media stuff. You and I can do some real good together.”

Commander Vir shifted his feet on the floor running a hand through his hair. He knew what his family would say. His father would tell them to shove it, his mother would want him to do what made him happy, his brothers would kick his ass if they knew he turned down an offer like this, and well….. The contract he could make with them, the things he could do with the money.

“I would have a few conditions.”

“Of course you would, of course you would.”

“I get royalties, and i'm not talking a measly ten perent, I am talking about thirty, and all of it better end up at a charity or you can color me gone. Plus this isn’t just some excuse to do some intense super action space thing with a ton of drama. I consult, and this thing better be accurate, or I am also gone, and my life story comes with me. Plus, don’t ask about things that are classified because I won’t tell you. Push me and I am gone.”

The man sighed, but waved a hand, “Alright, alright.”

He took another deep breath, “I’m not pausing my job for this, so you are going to have to have to talk to me on my free time. Try to underhand or backstab or go around any of these agreements and consider your ass sued.” Sunny champed her beak together for emphasis, shifting in her massive plate armor. Clearly she had a different idea of litigation than he did, but he would talk to her about that later.

Clayton took his seat back behind his desk again, “You drive a hard bargain there, Commander, but a deal is a deal. I will get the contract to you as soon as things are formalized.

“How long have you been thinking about this?”

The man shrugged “Long enough to have started the casting process. I even hired the man who will be playing you, isn’t that exciting.” 

“You have?”

“Yeah here let me call him out. Keith! You can come out now.” There was a shuffling from behind some of the stuff, and a man made his way out from the other side of the room.

Krill wasn’t particularly impressed, but by the way Adam took a step back it seemed as if he was, “Keith…. J-Jenning.” The man stammered.”

Sunny gave the  human a once over, and immediately didn’t like the casting choice, sure they had similar builds with blond hair and a charming smile, but this guy was….. Well he was a total Deva…. Not that she followed the gossip magazines…. Too much. But just looking at him, with his manicured nails and perfect hair, it just didn’t seem right. She much preferred Adam, rugged, useful, confident in his work, but also not a massive ass.

The man held out a hand, “Commander.” He looked him up and down eyes falling on the eye patch, “How the hell do you see out of that thing.”

Vir paused in his fan boying to look confused…. “Uh…. I don’t, that’s sort of the point.”

The man turned to look at the director, “Do I have to wear one, It would cover like half my face.”

Vir frowned, “No it doesn-”

“Look Keith poles say that women find a man with an eyepatch at least ten percent more attractive than men without one”

The man glanced over at Adam and frowned, “Well…. I guess I’ll need all the help I can get.”

Adam frowned, but before he could say anything a large blue shape had cut in front of him, grabbed the man by the front of the shirt, and lifted him to eye level, “Look here you little weasel, Adam is twice the man you are, and has more honor in one of his little toes than you have in your entire body.” She poked him in the chest with a free claw, “So I would shut the hell up and learn some respect  before I reverse the typography of your face.”  

A hand grabbed her by the elbow “Sunny, put him down.”

“Why he's got insurance on his face.” 

“Sunny, that’s an order.” She let him go with some hesitation grumbling the entire way.

Keith hit the ground with a hand around his neck . From behind them clayton began to clap slowly, “Bravo, bravo, what a show, what an act, such emotion, such loyalty. That really was deeply moving , you feel that Keith, you feel the sexual tension.”

“What.”

“Hey-”

The two men ignored them as keith rubbed his neck ,”I felt SOMETHING alright.” 

Clayton stood walking in a slow circle around sunny prodding at her armor, and her carapace, “Now ths, this is interesting, quick do something else intimidating.” 

Sunny growled.

“Oh yes, I have the perfect casting choice for you Rita Ortiz.”

Sunny tilted her head thoughtfully and couldn’t help but nodding. The actress was mostly known for  her roles in action movies somehow managed to dodge the romantic arcs that film still can’t let go of. She was cool, Sunny liked her.”

With a critical eye the director turned to look at Krill, who watched, uninterested and unimpressed, “How about you little fella.”

The Vrul remained standing arms crossed, “I think this is stupid, i think you’re stupid, and I thinnk he.” Pointing at Keith, “Is especially stupid. IF you just look at his eyes you’ll know he is a terrible casting choice. I mean look at him you can hardly expect someone with the pain threshold of a ballsack to play a decorated war hero.” 

That didn’t really get the response Krill had intended and had the man in stitches laughing on the on his desk, “The comic relief, I get it now.” “Wait, no I’m not-”

“We will be in touch commander, I look forward to working with you and your hilarious friends. Come on Keith, lets go call the studio, this is going to be big.” Commander Vir barely had time to react as the two men left them standing in the center of the room with confused expressions.

“This…. This is going to be a disaster.” Krill commented in the following quiet.

Sunny gave a sigh, “That should be the title of your autobiography.” She said nudging Adam on the shoulder.

“Yeah and yours should be Sidekick.” He said smugly.”

“Hey!”

He sighed then.

“You’re probably right though, this is going to be a disaster.” 

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 129: Stuck Together

“I’m afraid right now.”

And here, after almost a hundred and thirty episodes of waiting, do we finally see that Lars can make a change.

The Good Lars was a great start, with Lars opening up enough to suggest that he might take a risk and let the Cool Kids know something real about himself. But he never makes it to the party, and as we learn here, it wasn’t because he was abducted. I Am My Mom proves that those events didn’t transform Lars, as when the going gets tough his instinct is self-preservation over all else. But these two incidents in quick succession, combined with his capture and uncertain future, yank him kicking and screaming into the realm of sincerity.

But not at first. After Aquamarine starts the episode off with Steven, reminding us of the recent plot and her all-around awfulness, Lars is discovered just in time to prove that he’s frustrating as well. It’s a different shade, as Aquamarine is a bully at every opportunity while Lars lashes out as a reaction to feeling pathetic, but he has the chance to be an ally when Steven needs one the most, and it’s lousy that he chooses spite.

Don’t get me wrong, Aquamarine is worse for sure: there’s no reason to further ensnare her captives now that they’re on the ship, and the process is uncomfortable for the humans and Topaz, but she orders it anyway. She goes back on her word by refusing to return Lars, which is predictable given they’re already in space, but still displays her lack of honor. She’s not even good at telling jokes, unhelpfully explaining that her fake tear is her gem. And while Lars evolves over the course of the episode, the idea that she would do likewise is silly enough to fuel the episode’s best sight gag.

Still, I’ll give her this: considering how she revels in lording over Topaz, and considering Topaz not only disobeys her but attacks her, Aquamarine has a single quiet moment of empathy when she chooses to let bygones be bygones. It’s the lowest of bars, as she only does so after breaking Topaz’s will and on the condition that Topaz follow her commands, and saying that “we’ll never speak of this again” shows that she wants this toxic status quo to remain forever, but this is a character who takes glee in cruelty, so it’s fascinating that she doesn’t leap at the chance to punish Topaz further. It’s the tiniest speck of affection you could hope for, and it doesn’t come close to “redeeming” Aquamarine, but it’s there, showing that even this little monster has an ounce of depth.

While Lars might have similar jerk vibes, railing against Steven and refusing to even try and break free, it’s just his starting point. Stuck Together crystallizes the loop that has defined Lars up to this point: he’s mean, then he gets some sympathy, then he seems ready to change, then he’s mean again. But there’s a big difference this time, and it’s not just the setting: after putting up with it for the entire series, Steven is done with Lars’s nonsense.

When Lars blames Steven for the alien invasion, Steven doesn’t even apologize, instead saying that of course he’s the reason aliens invaded, but he did everything he could to help and Lars should’ve escaped better. This is huge, as it not only breaks with Steven’s usual patience for Lars’s behavior, but comes at a time when Steven is feeling so low that we might expect more than ever for him to wallow in his failure. We then get into miscommunication: first Steven calls Lars worthless, meaning well but feeding into Lars’s insecurities, then Steven does a shoddy job of explaining a shoddy plan (how the heck was Lars supposed to lasso anything on the other side of the room?). This is not his best self, but if he was thinking things through he probably wouldn’t be on a ship hurtling towards the Diamonds in the first place.

Between the stress of recent events and his frustration with Lars, Steven snaps in a way that’s reminiscent of, well, Lars: short-tempered and impulsive and frazzled and loud. Lars admits at last that he’s always been driven by fear, and that Steven’s enduring faith in him only makes the problem worse. In the same way Lars thinks baking is lame because he likes doing it and he’s lame, he takes it as a given that he’s a wuss, so hearing anyone say otherwise is annoying rather than encouraging. But by explaining it aloud, the flip of personalities begins to form: now Lars is pepping up an ornery Steven, and Steven completes the puzzle by admitting his own fear.

It’s not as simple as Lars becoming Steven and Steven becoming Lars, but both take major cues from the other. And when Lars goes further in his tentative enthusiasm, Steven cuts him off by revealing a brilliant new wrinkle in their relationship: because he’s an optimistic kid with parent figures who have always sugarcoated the bitterness of life, he appreciates the one person who's willing to talk about how much things can suck. And in this new era of his life, where it’s become clear that the sugarcoating extends past white lies and into major secret territory, it’s more important than ever to have a friend who tells it like it is. There’s been an underlying notion in their entire relationship that Steven wants to help Lars out, but it’s so much more meaningful to hear that Steven hangs out with Lars because Lars is a crank. 

This doesn’t mean Lars was perfect the way he was, or else his arc wouldn’t involve him changing. But there’s a huge difference between changing because it’s what makes other people comfortable and changing because it’s good for your soul, and this would be a very different story if Lars only grew to make Steven’s life better. Instead, it takes Steven showing Lars the value of his flaws for Lars to see enough value in himself to want to improve. 

We wait just long enough on Topaz for her voice to matter most, threading the needle between emotional beat and punchline. Martha Higareda sells her change of heart in no time, showing the first instance of a same-Gem fusion having the deep relationship we’ve seen from cross-Gem fusions like Garnet; perhaps our ornery rubies are closer than we think when they form Big Ole Ruby, but we haven’t seen any evidence of it. 

In lesser hands it might be hackneyed for the stoic character to reveal a soft heart, because the gentle giant is a bog-standard “don’t judge a book by its cover” trope. But this is our fifth episode in a row featuring Topaz as a wordless brute, first as a silhouette and then contrasted with a talkative brat of a partner. Are You My Dad in takes her into monster movie territory, complete with bloodcurdling music and tree-clearing stomps when she reveals her body full of writhing captives, and squeezing Jamie’s head in I Am My Mom is the most visceral threat we’ve seen a human face on the show. This isn’t just some big galoot opening up, it’s a Terminator showing she was a real girl all along.

A big reason why this works is that we don’t go full cloying, instead tempering the reveal with humor that’s both inherent (we don’t expect Topaz to get this emotional) and specific (using Steven’s pants to wipe the tears away). Instead of swinging for a Big Moment that exposes Topaz’s turmoil in a dramatic fashion, the mood is quiet and sweet. Topaz isn’t just a softy, she’s sort of a dork, and that extra bit of characterization for someone we’ll never see again in the original series is what makes Steven Universe so great. Effort always matters!

After seeing Steven help not one but two people begin to change, we see that he’s still stuck in his own rut of martyrdom: he plans to send Lars back alone and continue along his sacrificial path. Perhaps there’s a level of rationality to this, as if they both escaped then the ship would turn right back around to Earth. But Steven isn’t operating on rational thought, and he hasn’t been since his friends were first endangered: going to the Diamonds as Rose Quartz might secure his friends’ safety, but at the cost of near-certain death, so from a pure odds perspective it’d be better to go to the Zoo incognito where known allies like the Zoomans and Famethyst could help out. But he’s acting out of a misguided sense of duty, so he doesn’t express any tactical purpose for sending Lars away, instead repeating the idea that he must pay for Rose’s actions.

The perfect response to the downside of Steven’s selflessness is Lars presenting the upside of his selfishness. It might not be brave to run away, and Lars might only be on the ship in the first place because he ran away, but he’s right: if Steven doesn’t want to be punished for his mother’s mistakes, he shouldn’t have to be. It might be the easy way out, but we just saw Steven praise Lars’s ability to cut through the BS and find the truth, and here we see a prime example. And for just a second, Steven thinks about it.

But then Aquamarine barges in, because Steven isn’t allowed to learn his lesson quite yet. In the same way corruption is the Diamonds’ greatest sin, attacking many of their own troops to spite their foes, this is perhaps Aquamarine at her worst: it’s one thing to bully your enemies, but cruelty to a partner is a step beyond. Contrast has defined Topaz and Aquamarine from the moment we saw their shadows, and this is the final stage. We already knew one was big and the other was small, one was quiet and the other was chatty, but both acted as a single front with different but united antagonism. Now one is an ally and the other is an opponent, one is cute and the other is vicious, and while Topaz might have the upper hand in a physical fight and the heart to do the right thing, Aquamarine only needs her words and her ruthlessness to win the day.

This is the last we’ll see of Topaz and Aquamarine until the time jump, and it’s surprisingly brutal. We got a test-run of this story with Holly Blue Agate, another cerulean tyrant dominating a larger, friendlier force (this time in terms of size as well as numbers), and it ended with our new friends overcoming their oppressor. Not this time. Aquamarine emerges victorious, while Topaz splits up and slumps away in defeat, and that’s it until Steven Universe Future gives the latter a happy ending at Little Homeschool and the former a new role as Team Rocket villain.

Topaz getting her brief burst of joy snatched away sets the mood for our Homeworld adventure. We’ve long known that the Crystal Gems are a stubborn group of rocks, but at least they have the freedom to change if they wish. Homeworld Gem stubbornness is reinforced by a society that persecutes anyone that doesn’t fall in line, from the outcast Off Colors to the Diamonds themselves. 

But the mood of this arc is also set by Lars, because like the ending of Stuck Together, this is a story about Lars being taken away from Steven. But it’s also a story where Steven helps Lars change, and with change comes a glimmer of hope.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

A great showcase for Steven and Lars, and a great coda for Aquamarine and Topaz. There’s not quite enough going on for it to make my favorites list, but it’s up there.

Top Twenty-Five

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Steven’s Dream

When It Rains

The Good Lars

Catch and Release

Chille Tid

I Am My Mom

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Doug Out

Are You My Dad?

Stuck Together

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

(No promo art for this one, so I went with Jastea’s gorgeous take on Topaz.)

[thecommonbloodstone]

Amethyst headcanons/theories? dump

I've always been onboard for Florist/Gardener Amethyst ever since Watermelon Steven where she said "those flowers are lovely!"

While she and Rose loved plants, Rose was very impatient with the process and would just use her powers to speed up the process while Amethyst likes the process, seeing a plant grow up and helping it grow is a very calming experience for her.

Amethyst absolutely believes in talking/singing to plants will make them grow better.

She has a secret garden behind the waterfalls in her room that Steven and Pearl accidentally discover just before the events of Pale Rose because one of Pearl's swords fell down too close to the entrance.

Amethyst loves making friends with artistic and creative humans. Shakespeare; she knew the guy personally. Frida Kahol was her pal. Van Gogh were close for a long time. (She fully believes the theory that his death wasn't a suicide)

Amethyst has only fallen in love twice. Once with Pearl a long time ago and she falls in and out of love a lot with her. The second with a painter she met a few hundred years ago. This woman painted the shark painting in Amethysts room. They'd met not to long before then and Rose had noticed that Amethyst had taken a liking to her and she commissioned the painting to set them up.

The painter had always said she'd look beautiful in long hair and Amethyst promised next time she poofed she'd come back with long hair. The painter passed away not too long after this promise due to sickness. It took Amethyst a long time to come through with that promise...

The painter had said I love you a lot to Amethyst but Amethyst could never say it back... until after the painter passed away. It's one Amethyst's biggest regrets.

Aside from those two, Amethyst had experimented around a lot (she stopped after the painter) with all kind of people but nothing serious ever came out of them.

Current day Amethyst has been done with experimenting for a long time and is pretty much ready for a permanent relationship. However, despite a lot of gems being interested in her, right now they're are experimenting themselves and Amethyst is reluctant to try anything with anyone as of now. Right now Amethyst just wants to focus on herself, her family and little Homeworld. Everything else can come later.

To Amethyst no matter how big Steven grows he will always be her Little Man

Amethyst likes writing poetry. There a random bits of paper, parchment and even wood that are in her room that are covered in her poems. Steven once found a bit of drift wood in her room with a particularly romantic bit of poetry on it and Amethyst swollowed it whole so he would read it. She ended up being really sick after that.

Amethyst knows how to deliver babies. She thinks it's gross but she's had enough friends with humans over the years that she's well aware on the how to.

She had to deliver Sour Cream on the way to the hospital when Greg's van broke down.

She also had the heartbreaking job of bringing Steven into the world...

Amethyst is the unofficial leader of the Famethyst. Jay and Sharky used to be the head gems but when Amethyst came along she unintentionally took charge of the group. Not that anyone minded that is. If there's a problem with the Earth Quartz (or any earth made gem) you get Amethyst.

The Famethyst got into a habit of calling Amethyst by various titles associated with leaders, "boss, chief, captain etc". It drives Amethyst crazy as she doesn't really see herself as a leader figure. When she tells the to stop they just switch to a new title. It's mostly because they are messing with her but there's a dash of seriousness in it.

Amethyst emerged without code. There's the bare essentials of a gem and even the bare essentials of an Amethyst but she is essentially codeless. She will never feel compelled to do anything by any gem of a higher authority. The diamonds are the exception as their powers work by overwhelming a gem and filling them with their light. Even then, Yellow still can't down Amethyst for long and White can't completely overwhelm her. Other gems may not remember what happens under Whites influence but Amethyst does...

Amethyst has a crazy amount on excess energy within her from being incubated for so long. It's normally inaccessible to her but during fusion and through shapeshifting she can push her limits as an amethyst and use the reserved power. She could push her mass to be really super large if she wanted but the stain would damage her gem severely and she'd never try it. In fusion it's fair game, if the moment calls for it she can basically power a fusion.

Amethyst learnt everything by mimicking and shapeshifting. It makes her really good at picking up other languages.

Amethyst is an average fighter, closer to a really strong ruby than a really weak quartz.

Amethyst judging by the timeline had emerged during the war. She saw the corruption song and immediately hid in her hole. It only barely saved her...

The first time Amethyst fused was with Garnet. It was a really calm event with the two simple spending time together. It lasted less then a second and it took a long time for them to do it again. But once they figured it out Sugilite came out to play a lot.

Amethyst and Pearl managed to fuse for the first time by accident during a gem mission. Amethyst technically wasn't allowed to go on missions yet as she had yet to summon her weapon but a large group of ruby monsters were stampeding their base (this was before they made the temple) and during the chaos Opal emerged.

Despite how much Amethyst would ask Rose would never fuse with her. The only time they would fuse was to form obsidian. It wasn't until Rose was revealed to be pink that Amethyst understood why.

Over time as more gems began taking nicknames, even the CG began picking them up. Garnet would always be Garnet (Ruby and sapphire fusions were too rare and it was the name she chose in a way) but Pearl would go by her old war nickname Renegade. Amethyst took a long time to pick up one. For a long time she just let gems call her whatever; runty, pip squeak, or just 8XM but eventually one stuck; Rogue. She was basically the crystal gem of freedom right? Why not have a name that literally means wild. Plus it had a double meaning. A rogue plant was a defective one. No one but close family would call her Amethyst after that.

After the events of Earthlings, Amethyst decided to clean up her room. At first it was just getting rid of useless junk but she eventually got the idea to build something with her scrap. The rest of the gems noticed and began helping too. By the end of it the scrap had been turned into a large tree made of her junk. It had several platforms and landing areas for amethyst to just hang out in and they even made a rudimentary power system powered by the water in her rooms for a tv to be hooked up with in.

Amethyst hates Homeworld. Before going she was indifferent but after spending time in the place she can't stand. The whole place just sets her on edge. You couldn't pay her to go there again. So while Steven, Pearl and Garnet are out fixing up gem society, Amethyst stays behind on earth to hold down the fort and eventually work on Little Homeworld. It takes her a long time to be able to go to Homeworld comfortably but that's only after era 3 has completely taken hold on the place.

Amethyst and Centi are close pals. The two of them can be often seen hanging out and just goofing off together.

Amethyst and Bismuth also develop a close friendship too. They are both heart gems with a pension for shapeshifting. Bismuth is the first gem to encourage Amethyst to use her shapeshifting for more combat uses. Encouraging her to get more creative with it.

Amethyst loves being someones wingman. She's a romantic at heart (she lived with Garnet, Rose and Pearl it's hard not to be) and helping out her pals with their romantic endeavours is her absolute pleasure.

Amethyst and Pearl go to a lot of concerts together. There's no set genre to the concerts they attend, they just like going to them together.

Amethyst wants to travel to other planets. Even since she was in the kindergarten she would sometimes see the stars through the mist and she wanted to see more of them. Once everything with Homeworld and Era 3 is mostly sorted and she can have a break she wants to do some travelling. Just for a few months at a time nothing too serious as she would miss home too much if she was away any longer. No matter what Amethyst would come back.

During Steven and Connie's wedding, Pearl and Amethyst are the best"gems"/ring bears while Garnet officiates. There was an incident just before the wedding were the rings got lost, involving a corrupted gem, a trip off world and a battle with an alien but Amethyst and Pearl managed to return with the rings in time.

I'll add more later (probably)

[jean-arclight]

Helping Steven

Ok, so I know that we can only theorize that Steven can become corrupted and we can see many of both foreshadowing and theories on Steven corruption. However, I would like to talk about WHO will help Steven should he corrupt. Now how I am going about this is I’m gonna name the character and explain why they may either help in the process or how they may be the key in helping Steven.

Also one more note, most of the characters named have been helped by Steven so in a way, they all are returning their help. Anyways, let’s get to it.

1} The Crystal Gems

Let’s start off with some familiar characters.

Garnet was one of the first of the many character’s introduced in the series. She is more described as the leader of the crystal gems due to her leadership, calmness, and ability to see in the future (sapphire) and her strength, fierceness, and loyalty (ruby). However, we see that even Garnet can have her problems. She does have some doubts about herself such as thinking that she may seem that she might not care about the future due to her future sight and sometimes even getting to caught up in trying to see into the future to plan ahead in how to help. In a way, she’s too worried about what might happen in the future too worry about herself. This is where Steven comes in. Steven reminds Garnet that she shouldn’t worry about the future. That she should not worry at all. In other words, what happens happens. They’ll figure it out when it comes but we should be happy in the now moment. With this in mind, Garnet will help with Steven in helping him remind that they shouldn’t worry about the future. He’s worried that he might not be needed nor will he find that he is anything but useful. Garnet will be the one to remind him that the future is nothing we need to worry about and that we need to focus on the now.

Amethyst is maturity. Steven right now is so focused on being mature, as an adult. Amethyst, at the beginning, was really immature in a way. She acted like a child. She pulled pranks, caused mischief, and hardly ever listen. In a way, she’s Steven older sister. However, she slowly reveals why she acts the way she is. She’s feels unwanted, unneeded, not useful, and wondered why she was ever made. Once the others realize this, they try to change their ways which only caused more stressed. Steven, however, tries a different approach. He takes thing a bit slower. He shows that he needs Amethyst, that he accepts who she is despite her not being perfect. It especially shows their relationship when they fight Jasper before her corruption. With this, she shows that Steven is needed when he questions why he feels unneeded. She shows that it’s okay to still act childish as we all (even adults) have a child in us. That its okay to have fun every now and then.

Pearl can also be helpful in a way with feeling the need to serve another. I mean, she’s a pearl. They’re made to serve those who they’re made for. For Pearl, she served Pink Diamond for the first few thousands of years, then served Rose Quartz for the next thousands of year until Rose’s passing, and then lastly Steven. However, it was Steven who finally severed her servitude to anyone. He shows that she doesn’t need to serve anymore. That she should now focus on serving one person... herself. It’s okay to not serve, to not have to worry about that person, and to provide care for herself. Thus she shows to Steven that he doesn’t need to help anyone anymore. That he needs to start to practice self care now.

2} Connie

Connie is, in a way, Steven’s closest thing to humanity besides his father and the others on Beach City. Of course, with the recent leak, she may both be the cause for a possibly corrupted Steven (from her refusal of marrying him and also Steven taking it the wrong way and thinking that she doesn’t need him nor want him anymore) and the cure for Steven’s (again) possible corruption. From the beginning of the series, she has been by Steven’s side. His knight, much like Rose had Pearl. She went through what Steven had gone through, even as so much as carrying him when he couldn’t stand. In Hear comes a Thought, she had problems too. She is human and humans make mistakes. But Steven helped her through her mistakes, helped her learn to be her own person. To be independent. To be her own being, even this being said in the leak. (I want to be my own person). Steven is getting to a point where he doesn’t feel needed, to where he can’t live without the fear of something going wrong. That the only use for him was to be a protector for others. To be a shield, to be an entertainer, to be a therapist to others, to heal others, etc. He forgets that while he may be half gem, he is also half human. And as humans, we will eventually learn to be independent. That we will have to provide for ourselves. She will be the link in helping Steven find himself as he helped her find herself. She was “forced” to be someone else by her parents (not saying that her parents didn’t care about her but that sometimes when people want the best for their kids, that they need to take a step back to allow their kids to find themselves), she was a book worm and workaholic. Thus she was like a kid running on auto drive. She hardly had any friends nor family time and hardly ever made choices for herself. But Steven helped her with her problems by supporting her. Like helping her face her mom in wanting to fight and learn more about space, etc. or helping her not feel that much guilt in flipping a kid at school and help find a solution (just a few examples). She’ll help Steven calm down and eventually help him find hisself and become independent. Of course, she’ll have to go to college, but (hopefully) he’ll learn by then that it isn’t forever. She’ll be back and she’ll be with him on his path to recovery.

3} Greg

Ok, Greg is Steven’s second closest link to Humanity. He raised him, protected him, and tried his very best to support Steven as much as he could. Being a single father is hard, I know. My father (with the help from his side of the family) did his best to help raise me. It’s hard as I had no mother as did Steven as Rose left Steven. But me and Steven have one thing in common, we made a family. Steven will need Greg as Greg probably knows Steven the best (besides the Crystal Gems and Connie). Greg had hard times as well. His music “wasn’t” really successful (later given his rightful money he earn) and he lost his wife. But the thing that he does know humans can do, is move on. It’s hard, yes. But we have to keep going. Greg lost his wife, but not his son. Thus he’ll keep his act together a such as he can and will do what he can to support his son. He is successful. However, he stills has lots to teach to Steven in being an adult, mostly in moving on. Greg cut his precious hair, worked as much as could in the car wash, was injured (leg sprained, nearly injured from being pushed off a roof, etc.), kidnapped, etc. but despite all that he kept going on for his son. He support Steven as much as could even when he knew it was dangerous. HE had to trust his son to make decisions and despite him being protective, he had to move on as he knew his son was growing up, thus Steven had to learn how to make decisions for himself now. It’s all a part of growing up.

4} The Crystal Gems 2 (Lapis, Peridot, & Bismuth)

Lapis

Lapis is such a relative character that some people can agree on. Especially for some harsh relationships, and again with moving on. However Lapis had to take a lot of time to find a sense of peace and is working on building new relationships. She was hesitant on build relationships especially with people who are both new and were old enemies. She felt as if there was no one she could trust. Especially after that fusion with Jasper, she felt as if she needed it, despite all the abuse she was given and that she gave back. Even when trying to get along with Peridot and the Crystal Gems. She was hesitant. What if they try to force her to fuse? What if they poof her and bubble her or worse, trap her in a mirror? What if they betray me? What if I’m bad? She had all the right to be scared and hesitant, with all that she has been trough, how was she suppose to cope? She was scared. But Steven helped her see that all her fears and worries are just herself trying to cope. Steven helped release her from her prison. Steven helped healed her both physically and mentally. It took time and patience, but Steven was willing to wait for her and was willing to lend a hand when he could. Steven is in a situation where he believes that the people he trust the most as turning their backs. That they (again) don’t need him. That they are leaving because of him or are treating him the way he is, because he is useless. Lapis might help Steven in building relationships again. Yea, our friends will change, some will leave, some will turn enemies, and some will still treat you like a child. But the thing is to take time and let others come into your life when those who have hurt you, let them leave. It will hurt. It will leave you thinking that you did something wrong. But in order to cope, we need to build new relationships. Especially with those who know the same pains, those who won’t leave you, and those who will love you no matter what. Like Lapis did with Steven (helped teach her that things change and that you need time), Peridot (new relationships help bring a sense in belonging and helps cope with other relationships that may have hurt you), and the Crystal Gems (once enemies, can become friends if you give them the chance).

Peridot

Peridot, much like Amethyst, felt as if she was defective. That she needed the support the Diamonds once gave her. And like Pearl, that she needed to do everything that was need of those higher than her. She followed every rule. Rules are not meant to be broken. That’s what she was taught. However, spending time with Steven and the Crystal Gems, she was eventually taught that some rules are meant to be broken. Not all rules show that they are right. Some are justifiable but others are needed to be improved. Thus, once she slowly started to break her “rules”, she started to be the Peridot that we all know and love. She doesn’t use her limbs-enhancer anymore ( this being a rule with covering their flaws), she uses her powers now (forbidden), and she even talks back more (unacceptable). Thus she’ll show that its okay to break a few rules if they don’t sound right and that its okay to show your flaws. It what makes you, you.

Bismuth

Speaking on not wanting other for you to be around, Bismuth had shown a lot of that during her debut. She felt unwanted by Rose (of course, being used by Rose) and she felt unneeded by the Gems. However, Steven told her that they do still need her. Maybe not in the same way as they did in the past but as a friend to hang out with. A friend to play, to talk, to listen, and to learn. She has really improved. It shows that when they are fighting Blue and Yellow diamonds. She’ll show Steven that everyone still needs him, but not as their protector, not as their instructor, and certainly not as their entertainer. They need him as their friend. As their family.

5} centi

Obviously, Centi was helped by Steven who had absolute faith that she’ll regain herself. He helped her find her mind and body, just by having faith that she is still there. Centi will really help Steven cope if he’s ever corrupted. She’ll have faith that he’ll find himself, just like he did when Steven did with her. Thus instead of learning, She’ll help Steven as she was the first corrupted gem who he worked with. Thus in return, she along with other corrupted gems will help Steven heal.

6} Sadie & killer suspects

Sadie and the Killer suspects (or was once known as) was a bit of a hard one to think about. However, Steven had gotten them together. He helped them find their talents and while Buck, Sour Cream, and Jenny split from the group, they all had found something they love. Steven had been a piece in helping them find that.

Sadie

Sadie found her talent. Steven helped her bring it out and supported her through it all. He helped her in bringing out her talents and not to shame it but to embrace it. She’ll help Steven find something he’ll enjoy and maybe even help Steven in bringing out his true self.

Sour Cream

Sour Cream is kind of like a cousin to Steven as he was constantly babysit by Greg thus he’s bound to know Steven like a little brother or a cousin. While he didn’t have the best dad, his mother and step father helped him. Steven helped Sour Cream better understand family. Helped Sour Cream better understand his step father and helped ease his tension with his biological father. Thus Sour Cream will help Steven by reminding him that family is there to help him.

Jenny and Buck are a bit harder as they only appear is a few episodes. However, like Sadie, Sour Cream, and maybe Lars, they see Steven like a little brother or cousin as well. Steven has always supported them and helped them when needed thus they’ll be happy to return the favor.

7} Lars of the stars

Lars wasn’t the best at first the whole franchise. But he improved after a few seasons. He wanted to be cool. He wanted to be one of the cool kids. Yet somehow Steven always stole his chances in ever being cool. However the more time he spent with Steven, he sees that Steven is just being himself. How? He’s a kid? He’s nowhere near as cool as the other kids. Yet the cool kids are always hanging out with Steven. Why? Well, Steven is just being himself as he has the courage to be himself. He wants others to see him as who he is and not what he isn’t. Courage. Lars had always been on of the ones who would say “yea, I’m strong, I have no fear” yet he’ll run away rather than join the fight. Thus when he and Steven are taken to homeworld, It is all that is needed to have Lars grow a pair and gain courage. Thus he fights. When he fights, he truly shows who he is and then he isn’t afraid anymore. He can probably understand why Steven is able to get along with others so well as when he starts being himself, the other defective gems start to admire him. They like him for being himself. Thus, when Steven is starting to act differently, he starts becoming someone else (shown when he try’s to be a therapist, try’s to be a leader, and try’s to be a gardener). Lars will show Steven that he needs to be brave and be himself.

8} Andy

Andy is another hard one as he appear for a couple episodes. However, he is really supportive of his nephew. Yea, Greg may have left the family, but he still cares. I need help with this one but like the other humans, he may show that despite him traveling and hardly being in any episode, he’ll come back and help in any way he could. This showing that there is proof that even if his friends are somewhere far away, they’ll always come back.

9} Lion

Lion was another hard one to think about. I think he’ll be more like an emotional support animal. However, he’s clearly more than that. Pets sometimes mirror their owners actions. Thus when he was with Rose, he might have learned how to “heal” people. Specifically, again, like an emotional support animal. But he also won’t hesitant on letting anyone know that they did something wrong. Such as when Steven gave himself up to the diamonds, Connie was furious thus being around Connie a lot, he picked up on her emotions to know something was right. Thus acted against Steven letting him know that he did something wrong. I think Lion can help my calming him and with however he knows something is wrong, he’ll support the others in “taming” Steven as such as Steven (and Rose) tamed him.

10} the diamonds

The diamonds came a long way from being the enemies, to being friends. They still have their flaws but they’ve been learning to right their wrongs and change.

Blue

Blue is a lot more cheery and is able to get along with gets in an emotional way as she is able to express that she has feelings and that she doesn’t always have to hide them nor show that she has to be strong. Thus she’ll help with Steven’s emotions as to help him express it more than hide them.

Yellow

Yellow is a lot more at ease than keeping up the strict attitude. She makes jokes and shows that she loves them and is even shown that she likes to make Blue laugh. Thus she’ll show Steven to loosen up. Yea, we need a strict attitude and must keep professional, but we also meed to loosen up.

White

White saw everything was flawed and that needed to be corrected. That she had to be the symbol for perfection. However, even the shiniest diamond has her flaws. She was more of a mother. However, probably due to Pink’s childish nature and her tantrums. She probably thought she was doing something wrong. Why wasn’t she like Blue, Yellow, or herself? She had to fix it. She changed to something as what she sought as perfect and from there changed to a “villain”. But it took Steven to show that change is good but it can be bad. Flaws? Its natural. There is no such thing as perfection. Its all just an illusion. Its something that makes us different from others and that difference, that change, its good. Thus with all that has been changing around Steven and all the mistakes and flaws he sees, he may need some advice from someone who has been there. White lost Pink. A relationship lost. Change was bound to happen as she may have wanted to prevent any more lost of relationships. But theres a healthy way and a bad way to cope. Steven showed a better side to change and a better understanding of flaws. Thus White may need to remind Steven of what it means to change and have flaws.

11} Spinel

Spinel was also hurt a lot. She was left and abandoned. She felt as if she was played. Much like Lapis and Amethyst, she felt as if she was unneeded. But she coped differently unlike Lapis who ran away and Amethyst who acted like a kid or teen and gives attitude. She thought revenge would serve her right. She felt as if she needed to right the wrong by hurt others. And after the movie, she felt as if she messed up the chance to make things right and build new relationships. However, Steven told her to not give up hope. There is still time to make amends and time to make new friends. Now it is Spinel’s turn to remind Steven that there is hope. That he won’t be left alone. Least not for 6000 years. She’ll help remind him that amends can be made and that she’ll help him find a new healthy relationship once again.

12} Volleyball

Volleyball saw the worst side of Pink. It scarred her. Thus she hides it. She chooses to believe the better side and forget the worst. However, while trying to heal she learns from Pearl that you’ll heal. It’ll still hurt but its okay. You’ll cope. She learned it from Pearl, but she’ll need to teach Steven that while trying to forget and heal from his mother’s mistakes, that he needs to learn that bad side that he knows, shouldn’t outshine the other side as well. His mother made a lot of mistakes. But like I said before, we all have our flaws. His mother wasn’t a bad person, she just need time and trials to figure out how to stop her own mess and her own problems (I’m not saying that she is good and forgiven nor that she is bad and she should not ever be forgiven). But healing is going to need both sides to shine and yes it’ll still hurt but it’ll be alright. Your coping.

13} Jasper

Jasper may help Steven as well. In the beginning of Steven Universe Future, Jasper was shown to still have a grudge with Steven. While he may have attempted to help Jasper and hardly have ever any success, Jasper will help when Steven is corrupted and when he is healed. Steven shows that he keeps a lot of negative emotions hidden and we need to think, what is Steven’s power tied to? His emotions. Thus Jasper will be sort of a punching bag. She’ll help Steven cope with his negative emotions and spar with him to release the negative emotions. We even saw a little of that in the beginning of this season. She was really impressed with Steven and was happy that he fought her. In a way, they may both help each other by doing this. Jasper still has lots of hate and hurt in her as she feels weak and powerless and that Steven and his friends made her feel that way with fusion. Steven has a lot of bottled up emotions from both the past and present. Thus they may both heal from the sparring.s as we even got a little view of that in

14} Pink Diamond

Yes, the main “villain” of the story. But is she really? Yes, everything started because of her. Yes, Steven has to face her problems she left. But did she know any better? I don’t know. We all tend to make decisions that may seem the best and yet sometimes they can turn in the wrong direction. Pink was able to learn from her mistakes and she was able to learn from new things and she learned to adapt into new life. She fought for her freedom, she fought for other gems freedom, she fought for humanity’s freedom. Yes, this may not justify some of her actions but because she built a new life she was able to create new life through Steven. As parents, we want only what is best for their children. However, how do we know if what we choose is best for our kids? Well she already learned that the diamonds aren’t the best example of adults. Thus she wanted to be better than them as much as she wants Steven to be better than her. Now Steven fixed her mistakes, fixed the right she wronged, help build a new world for gems to live freely in. But at what cost? This I feel like if Steven were to be corrupted, she would appear in an ghost like image in his mind (just guessing or imagining but lets just say). She isn’t truly gone yet. A bit of her stays in Steven as in all kids, there is something that we have of our parents. She may appear to him to try to right her last mistake. Leaving her son to do all the work. She left when he needed her. When everyone needed her. And remember, in this season, Steven is trying to escape from his mothers past and her mistakes. He hides her portrait in lion’s mane, he denys any mention or fact about her, and he, I’m guessing, blames her for a lot of things. Thus she may appear to “knock” some sense into Steven. Thus he’ll eventually calm down and we may even learn more about her from herself and maybe even finally get some mother and son time. We also got to remember the chest in lion’s mane. We have no idea what is in there. This may be the perfect chance for Pink to give Steven a key to the chest. Maybe in there will reveal more stuff about Pink or maybe something else. This may not happen but it’s fun to think about.

15} Everyone

Of course, maybe talking to Steven in his corrupted form is going to be hard as we all know how corrupted gems first act when meeting others. However, I think everyone would work together in bringing Steven back. Basically using this slot as how everyone would give back to Steven in their owns ways as show in the list above. I know I missed a lot of characters, but I honestly think those characters will help too but as in the side lines. Thus seeing everyone work together will help Steven calm down and maybe reveal all what he has been holding in.

I can’t wait for the episodes and hope you all enjoy the last few episodes of Steven Universe.

[ren-c-leyn]

The Vampire’s Child

 Since it’s October, I’m bored, and I found a lot of prompts chilling out in my drafts that made up a really good story once I started thinking about it, I decided to do a slightly more Halloweenish story than normal, and may be doing a few more in the near future. =D

 This is a fusion story, my personal nickname for stories done up using multiple prompts from multiple prompt blogs. This particular one was made up of these 1,2,3,4,5,6 by @thependragonwritersguild, these 1,2,3 by @humdrummoloch, and these 1,2,3,4 by @givethispromptatry. 

This one does have fight scenes, death, minor gore, nothing too descriptive, though.

~

 It was a strange fate life had decided to deal me, the half-human child of a vampire lord. A lord that had lived for thousands of years and fought wars every single day of every one of those long years. Today was no different: not for him, at least.

 The halls were silent as I glided through them. The servant’s eyes were downcast, the lesser vampires stood in tight circles, watching me with dull eyes; waiting for the marching orders I’d inevitably bring back from our lord. How could I not when I had been summoned to the war room the night after our enemies had attacked? Had shown us we were not even safe here, in the darkest and grandest of castles?

 They had torn down a tower, lit the stables on fire, and slaughtered a few lesser vampires. But the thing was, it wasn’t just the destruction that made everyone shake, it was knowing that we were at each other’s mercy. Mercy we all knew no vampire, or any other creature of the night, had.

 I rounded the corner and spotted a vaguely familiar figure. Or perhaps, it would have been more accurate to describe him as a familiarly vague figure: Lord Crow, my father’s oldest friend. No one but father knew what he actually looked like beneath the swirling mist of darkness that shrouded him. I remembered him telling me that you could see Lord Crow’s true form when lightening crashed, but I had never been fortunate enough to catch him in the midst of a literal storm.

 The shadowy mass paused in the hall and turned to me.

 “On your way to the war room, Raven?”

 “I am. And you?”

 “Yes, though I doubt it is for the same reason.”

 Ah yes, it had been so long that I nearly forgot that his form was not the only thing vague about him.

 “I see,” I answered simply, already knowing that prying was pointless. He had several centuries on me and was no one’s fool.

 We both continued our silent trip to the war room. He opened the door for me, offering what I assumed was a bow. I gave a small nod in return and stepped through.

 Lesser lords and ladies were gathered around the table, all watching the late comers come in. Father was standing at the head of the table, hands folded behind his back, red eyes nearly glowing in the darkness as I took my seat. 

 It was always dark around father. I could tell exactly when he was near. I still know when Father is coming. The lights go out and the darkness in people gets brighter. It was something that even set other vampires on edge... with exception to Lord Crow, who opted to stand at the opposite end of the table from father and do the unthinkable: speak out of turn.

 “Figures that you would spend all of eternity being a shithead. When will you learn that this isn’t working, Night? We can’t keep this up. We can’t wage war forever, even if we do live that long.”

 “Yes, I am aware of this, Crow, which is why we are ending it for good: tonight.”

 “How?”

 And father answered with his best laid plan. I was to be apart of a task force that would infiltrate the enemy’s castle, and kill their head vampire, Lady Nyx, as well as the rest of their lords and ladies, before pushing the underlings to either join, flee, or die. He made it sound so simple, like pruning some great, overgrown tree. Defeat wasn’t a possibility.

 The meeting ended, and the lords and ladies went to issue orders. Only father, Lord Crow, and I remained.

 “Remember, Raven, I am counting on you. The others believe you beneath them, that your mother’s blood makes you weak. You know that is not true, I know it is not true, now is your chance to force them to accept it is not the truth.”

 “Yes, father,” I replied as I rose from my seat. “I will make mother proud.”

 And he smiled, pale fangs a stark contrast to the darkness around me.

 “And it shall be so. Now go, prepare yourself for battle.”

 I gathered my finest equipment, things other vampires, including father, were fearful to wield. My human blood was a great asset in my role as the enforcer. I could use vampire hunter’s tools with far less fear than the rest. It made up for the slower speed and reduced strength, didn’t it?

 I shook the thought off. Of course it did. I would make sure it did. Then no one would slander mother’s name. Never again.

 I joined the others and we set out to the enemy castle, just blurs in the night. It wasn’t hard to get in. Their guard was down and they were still celebrating their victory over us. We wandered in and split apart, just like we planned. Nyx’s head was mine, and the others would deal with the weaklings.

 I roamed through the raptors for a while, making full use of the shadows and the noise where I could. Several minutes later, I found my target: the queen’s chambers. Slipping inside was easy enough, catching her by surprise obviously wasn’t.

 A knife had left a bloody trail on my cheek as I rolled out of the way. Then a sword glittered through my vision as I ducked again, drawing my silvered blade. There was the thunderous clash of swords.

 “Well, well, if it isn’t the little Raven. What can I do for you, love?” she spoke softly, mockingly.

 I smiled politely at her.

 “You can die.”

 “Ah, I don’t think so, dear.” 

 “What a shame,” I replied before kicking her in the gut.

 She barely budged under my power, and applied pressure to her sword to force me back. But I wouldn’t die, I wouldn’t lose. 

 I broke the lock and slashed savagely at her, doing my best to keep up with her speed. It only just dawned on me that this woman was a vampire lord, head of her clan. She would be on par with father. Another visage of death in physical form.

 And I felt it. Particularly when I went crashing through her chamber wall into the next room. But my persistence was slowly paying off. Every little nick with my silvered blade burned her like acid and fire, and was slowly sapping her strength. After some time passed, she was almost down to my speed, and was an easy kill.

 But something about the look in her eyes as I drove the blade through her heart bothered me. Fear. I saw... fear. Vampires... didn’t have fear, or mercy, they couldn’t. Father said they couldn’t. Or could they? 

 I had almost convinced myself I had been projecting my own nerves onto her when I spotted something odd on her bed. I picked it up, staring in disbelief. I held my enemy’s old teddy bear. And I realized even she was vulnerable once. Maybe she still was....

 I glanced at the body and then back at the little brown bear. Somehow, I had wandered downstairs with it still in my hand, listening to the screams and sounds of battle echoing through the halls. This... conflict I was feeling was new, and I was trying to figure out why this was starting to bother me all of a sudden. I had grown up with these sounds, I knew war. But the carnage didn’t look as black and white when reflected off of the shiny button eyes of an old stuffed toy.

 A body fell in front of me and I paused, looking up to see the shadowed figure of Lord Crow.

 “What did you do to them?” I asked as I looked around.

 “What I had to,” he replied, notes of remorse in his voice.

 Regret, another thing father said vampires couldn’t feel. I guessed he was wrong about that too.... 

 A moment of silence passed before Crow spoke up again.

 “Has Nyx fallen?”

 I nodded.

 “I see... I suppose we win, then.”

 “There’s nothing quite like victory,” I mumbled, staring down at the bear.

 “This hardly counts as a victory.”

 I looked up at him.

 “But we defeated her, right?”

 “And took the lives of many servants, lesser creatures, and other peoples who would never have posed a threat.”

 “But isn’t the victory worth it?”

 He shook his head.

“At the end of the day, it’s what you do that counts.”

“This event does not speak highly of you then,” I said, looking back down at the bear.

“I never said it did.”

 There was a moment of silence before I looked back up at him. Maybe he could help me figure out what this feeling was. He was like an uncle, and easier to talk to about these things than father.

 “Can I be real with you for a second?”

 “Sure.”

 “I’m starting to doubt if this is worth it. All of this...” I trailed off and gestured at the blood splatter. “It... it doesn’t feel right.”

 And I swore I could see the outline of a smile in the dark fog.

 “Because it isn’t, and I’m glad at least you’ve figured it out.”

 “But... why do we do it, if it isn’t right?”

 “Our lord demands it.”

 I processed the thought and nodded.

 “So, what do we do to stop it?”

 “Change his mind or change our course. I shall be changing my course. What will you do, Raven?”

 I ran my fingers over the worn fur of the teddy bear.

 “I think... I’ll try changing his mind.”

 “You’ll fail.”

 I shrugged.

 “Perhaps. Perhaps I will succeed.”

 “For his sake, I hope you do.”

 I planned my speech all the way back to the castle, going as far as to walk at human speeds for a while to buy myself some more time to put the words together. But, I wasn’t sure if I could convince him when I still didn’t entirely know myself why I didn’t want to fight anymore. On nights like this... I missed mother.

 But I didn’t have time to lament losses past, or fear the future. I only had enough time to think of a plan. And even that wasn’t enough.

 I was in the war room, face to face with father before I had finished thinking it through, Nyx’s bear still in my bloodied hands.

 “Ah, you’ve returned sooner than I expected. Tell me, what have you to report?”

 I opened my mouth, and hesitated. It was now or never, and I almost chose never. Almost.

 “I have come to the conclusion that... that this is pointless.”

 He stared at me, red eyes narrowing in confusion.

 “That fighting is pointless,” I clarified. “We... we have become no better than them. Just... just butchering people who couldn’t hurt us, and for what? Revenge? But... is revenge actually right, father? Because I don’t think it is. I think it’s wrong. In fact, I think I remember mother telling me it was wrong, a long time ago. Don’t you know the difference, between right and wrong?”

 “I know the difference between right and wrong,” he snapped quietly. “One is resigning yourself to getting stepped on and the other is the person doing the stepping. I tried to tell your mother, but she did not listen. She stayed so very kind and sweet and good until they stepped on her and put her light out.”

 “Because they were wrong,” I replied. “Just like we’re wrong now.... I, I think.... Well, that we didn’t choose hate because it lasts longer. We chose it because it felt important. Because we’re never more sure of ourselves than when we have an enemy. But, we didn’t have to hate.”

 “And what would you have me do?! That clan killed your mother.”

 “Let go of the past.”

 “Do you think it’s that easy?!”

 “Yes. Nyx wasn’t even the head when mother died, right? She was... new. And we attacked her first, no? We could have stopped it a long time ago. Ended with the ones that did wrong.”

 I looked up and realized that he was walking away.

 “I need you to look at me when I’m speaking so I know you at least tried to hear me!”

 “I will not listen to the words of a traitor.”

 Traitor... traitor. The word rung in my head for a while as I stood alone in the war room for a while. Eventually, I returned to my room and packed my things. And I stepped out into dawn’s light for the first time since I was a small child and mother was alive, holding Nyx’s teddy bear.

 “If turning my back on darkness is a betrayal, then I guess I am a traitor.”

 And I walked towards the sun, deciding to follow Lord... No, Uncle Crow’s suggestion. And maybe I could make mother proud this way, somewhere under the light.