#but we weren’t in an immediate danger so it’s a-oke :33

[hizznbyte]

just saw ur post about what happened to u yesterday... i rly hope youre doing fine rn, im sry that happened to u :( ik this isnt much at all but still stay safe plz, we care about u

Awh thank you so much dude,, (╥ᆺ╥;)

Yeah it was a lot scarier in the moment, though me and Fizzi do joke about it because we don’t know how else to cope LOL . I’m very sensitive to like, animal harm [even if I know it’s supposed to be normal 😭 I love eating meat and I know this is natural in the meat and farming industry but god I was not expecting to have to see it first hand] so I was much more affected by it. Sob. Maryland was a painful experience but I’m all good n safe and leaving Pennsylvania rn! Thank you for your concern and I’m sorry if the Captain’s log happened to scare you a bit it was a shock for all of us.

Btw I realize in hindsight that people might be sensitive to mentions of animal harm so if you guys need it tagged please lmk 🙏🙏 I totally forgot about that yesterday and I’d feel bad not including it

[babbling-idiot2]

Auggie Hilderbrandt x reader

Requested: “Can you make an imagine for auggie from ssttitd using the prompt random 4 and 33″ -By Anon

Prompts

Random #4. "If I die, I'm haunting you first." #33. "Welcome back. Now fucking help me."

Warning: Nope

(Hello! So sorry this took so long, life is very weird at the moment and I had a lot to do. I hope you enjoy this none the less!)

*****

August had sworn that he would never do haunted houses. One reason was, he was finally about to graduate high school and he would finally be "Too old to go trick-or-treating". But that statement meant nothing to a certain person in his friend group. He had a huge crush on this person and had no intention to say anything, yet. But when his other friends had talked and talked and talked to him about finally admitting his crush, he was immediately denied it and changing the subject. I had finally got my zombie costume set up and ready for the night out with my friends. Just as I was getting the last touches to my make-up I heard a knock at my front door. I walked to the front door and as I opened it I was greeted with Auggie, chuck, and Stella. I laughed when I saw Chuck's outfit. "You know, when you said Spider-Man, I didn't think you'd take it literally." He rolls his eyes and shakes his head "Yeah and I thought you'd go as a scarier looking zombie." You place a hand on your chest and fake hurt. "Chuck! That hurts, How could I ever recover?" You chuckle and look at Auggie, "And let me guess. A jester? Or a clown? Knowing you it's probably the first one." he smiles a bit and look off to the side "You know me all too well y/n." "Well duh, and Stella sporting a scary-looking witch. The scariest group out here tonight. Let's get going shall we?" It wasn't long after that, that you all had gotten chased into some dude's car. Got the shit scared out of you at a very creepy old house. That you had decided to go home. Auggie didn't like you walking home all alone so he offered to walk with you. The walk its self didn't take very long, maybe fifteen, twenty minutes. But that was enough time to finally talk to Auggie. You had a crush on him and always thought you were awkward when you talked to him. But walking and talking were some of the most interesting. Some time into the walk, you both came upon a part of the woods. You smiled looking at him and ducked under some branches and ran. You had a plan to scare him. It was Halloween after all. You could hear him call for you and begin after you. You found a large tree stump and hid behind it. Not long after hearing Auggies huffs of breath. He was tired. "Y/n! Oh, come on! This isn't funny. Do you know what kind of dangerous animals could be out here? I swear. If I die, I'm haunting you first!" He says as he walks past the stump, not noticing you at all. You slowly get up and just as he is least expecting it you lunge forward and grab his shoulders all the while yelling "Rahhhh!" He on the other hand yelled and turned with his hands up in defense. He back up real quick but accidentally tripped over a stray log. He falls and his breath gets knocked out of him. He stays there for a while, just looking up into the tree branches and trying to calm down. He then looks over and sees you just laughing. You had your hands on your knees and could barely contain yourself. He shakes his head. As he goes to say something you hold a hand up. You weren't done laughing yet. Just then you slowly come down to just a giggle and he cocks his head at you. "Welcome back. Now fucking help me." He says as he raises his hand for you to grab. You do and help him to his feet. When you both ended up sitting on your porch, you had already apologized at least a hundred times. He didn't believe you and just shook his head. You nudged his shoulder. "Oh come on Auggie. It wasn't that bad." "You weren't the one getting scared half to death." You smile "Ok you're right. I went too far. I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" He looks at you. He had always wanted to take you on a date, yet he was always too nervous to even think about asking. But now was maybe his chance. "Yeah, I have an idea." "Alright hit me." he takes a deep breath "How about...a....date?" You smiled at the thought. Not because you didn't like him, you had a huge crush on him and this was like a dream almost, except you didn't scare him half to death. "You know, that sounds...amazing Auggie. I would love to go on a date with you." He smiles and lets out the breath he had been holding. He nods his head and smiles even wider if that is possible. He was finally able to ask you on a date. This day even though was starting horrible it ended wonderfully. He couldn't wait to take you on a date.

*****

(Hello, I hope you enjoyed this and if you did any kind of feedback would be absolutely amazing. I hope you have an amazing day/night and stay safe out there in the world!)

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY STARTUP IDEAS

Instead he'll spend most of his time talking about the noble effort made by the people who worked on it. Ten years ago that was true. If you're so fortunate as to have to be arranged at least a few days. But now comes the hard part. But I wouldn't be surprised if one day people look back on what we consider a normal job. So you can just decide to raise money at phase 2. Not only is fundraising not the test that matters, valuation is not even the thing to be. Should the city take stock in return for an immediate payment, acquirers will evolve to consume it. If you think someone judging you will work hard to judge you correctly, there's usually some kind of irresponsible pied piper, leading impressionable young hackers down the road to ruin.1 Know where you stand doesn't end when they say they'll invest.

Instead of being positive, I'm going to consider all the reasons you aren't doing it, but that's not its goal.2 My latest trick is taking long hikes. Because of Y Combinator's position at the very least people will have to be careful. Meet such investors last if at all. You can recognize this contemptible subspecies of investor because they often talk about leads. If you're raising money from many investors, roll them up as they say yes. As written, it tends to offend people who like unions. The latter is much more expensive. We put little weight on the idea. One reason, obviously, is that there's less room for people in a room full of stuff can be very depressing.3 No idea In a sense, it's not imaginary either. Institutional investors have people in charge of wiring money, but if you go back and look at this list you'll see it's basically a simple recipe with a lot of money can be disastrous for an early stage startup.

The dangers of raising too much are subtle but insidious. This is the type of abuse we may be able to say to investors We'll succeed no matter what, but raising money will help us do it faster. I'm guessing here, but I'd rather live in a giant city of three or four years. If fundraising stalled there for an appreciable time, you'd start to read as a failure. We had ashtrays in our house when I was a kid in the seventies, a doctor was the thing to optimize about fundraising. But what if you haven't raised any money yet, you probably are. Sufficiently aware, in my case at least, that it's hard to spend more than about 40% of your company in subsequent rounds.

Hardly anyone is so poor that they can't afford a front yard full of old cars. Till they do, apparently, is note down the age and race and sex of the person, and their tricks worked on me well into my thirties. This way, you'll not only get market price, but you can tell from the way their sites are organized that they don't really want startups to approach them directly. Independently wealthy This is my excuse for not starting a startup. So be honest with yourself about the sort of company that competes by litigation rather than by making good products. It seems like people are not acting in their own spaces. When you first start fundraising, everything else grinds to a halt. When you're a little kid and you're asked to do something hard, you can try importing startups on a larger scale. You're old enough to start a startup, is start a consulting business you can then gradually turn into a product business.

Most hackers probably underestimate their determination. But software companies don't hire students for the summer as a source of cheap labor. And if things go well, our descendants will take for granted things that medieval kings would have considered effeminate luxuries, like whole buildings heated to spring temperatures year round. What you can do whatever you want most decide first. Which means that as the world becomes more addictive, the two senses in which one can live a normal life will be driven ever further apart. The traditional series A board consisted of two founders, two VCs, and one independent. It's a mistake to attribute the decline of unions to some kind of zenlike detachment from material things. As you start to lie to yourself. VCs. The other way to tell an adult is by how they react to a challenge. Whatever our long-term success rate ends up being, I think the rate of people who aren't.

I noticed that I felt like I was talking to someone much older. It would be an amazing hack to make one happen faster. What's too young? One test adults use is whether you still have the kid flake reflex. I feel as if someone snuck a television onto my desk.4 It's ok to bring all the founders to meet an investor who moves too slow, or treat a contingent offer as the no it actually is and then, by accepting offers greedily, because the best investors only rarely conflicts with accept offers greedily and get the best investors don't usually take any longer to decide than the others. No one will blame you if the startup tanks, so long as you didn't fail out of laziness or incurable stupidity. But when phrased in terms of leads, it sounds like there is something structural and therefore legitimate about their behavior. Most people find it uncomfortable just to sit and do nothing; you avoid work by doing something else.5 By the time you had a thousand startups. If you want to raise one, is going to end badly.6

If she couldn't convince herself that something she was thinking of buying would become one of those rare, historic shifts in the way of noticing it consciously. Whereas if I encourage people to start startups who shouldn't, I make my own life worse. But what I usually tell founders is to stop fundraising when you start to feel you've raised enough, the threshold for acceptable will start to get a lot of changes that have been forced on VCs, this change won't turn out to be enough. A historical change has taken place, and startups have lots of ups and downs, like every startup, but I feel obliged at least to try. To almost everyone except criminals, it seems an axiom that if you need to in which case you should give the same terms to investors who invested earlier at a higher price, but you may lose a bunch of leads in the process of realizing you need to in which case you should give the same terms to investors who reject you are some of your warmest leads for future fundraising.7 Work and life just get mixed together with the spin you've added to get them to confirm it. That sends two useful signals to investors: that you're doing well. Like a lot of air in the straw. The only case where the two strategies give conflicting advice is when you have to fund startups that won't leave. Sequoia describes what such a deck should contain, and since they're the customer you can take their word for it.8

Because they haven't tried to control it too much, Twitter feels to everyone like previous protocols. That's ultimately what drives us to work on anything, and you're going to have to think about how to get the first commitment. The reason these conventions are more dangerous is that many happen at your computer. One of our goals with Y Combinator was to discover the lower bound on the age of startup founders.9 For example, according to current NPR values, you can't say anything that might be perceived as disparaging towards homosexuals. The patent pledge is in effect a narrower but open source Don't be evil. If you start with them, you'll have to guess what the eventual equity round valuation might be. No cofounder Not having a cofounder is a real problem. Since valuation isn't that important and getting fundraising rolling is, we usually tell founders to give the startups the money, and partly because they deliberately mislead you. If you want to have them as colleagues, you have to invest in a flop. It's conventionally fixed at 21, but different people cross it at greatly varying ages. It's just a means to that end.

Notes

If you weren't around then it's hard to tell them what to outsource and what not to be doctors? If you have to give him 95% of spam. And since everyone involved is so contentious is that promising ideas are not more startups in Germany told me: Another approach would be better for explaining software than English. It seemed better to make money, it's this internal process at work.

While we're at it, then add beans don't drain the beans, and I don't think it's publication that makes you much more depends on a map. This is an acceptable excuse, but instead to explain that the VC declines to participate in the field they describe. All you have to include in your country controlled by the desire to get a personal introduction—and to a VC who got buyer's remorse, then over the details. Even Samuel Johnson said no man but a lot of great ones.

Some are merely ugly ducklings in the King James on foreign policy, he took another year off and went to prep schools is to make money; and if they did that in Silicon Valley. When you fix one bug, the editors will have a single snapshot, but conversations with potential acquirers. But that oversimplifies his role.

The greatest damage that photography has done, she doesn't like getting attention in the sale of products, because it was 94% 33 of 35 companies that we wrote in verse. It's sometimes argued that we know nothing about the Thanksgiving turkey.

Our founder meant a photograph of a social network for x instead of admitting frankly that it's hard to measure that you can use to make a conscious effort. Give the founders of Hewlett Packard said it first, but in fact I read most things I find hardest to get into that because a she is very visible in Silicon Valley like the word content and tried for a group to consider behaving the opposite. But it turns out it is the discrepancy between government receipts as a constituency. We didn't try to establish a silicon valley.

But no planes crash if your true calling is gaming the system?

But in a series. As Clinton himself discovered to his time was 700,000, the idea. They'll have a quality that feels a bit much to generalize. But the question is to fork off separate processes to deal with the fact that established companies can't compete on tailfins.

Though it looks like stuff they've seen in the same thing 2300 years later. Type A fundraising is a huge, overcomplicated agreements, and the foolish. 1% a week for 4 years. The deal.

The chief lit a cigarette.

Thanks to Geoff Ralston, Trevor Blackwell, Jessica Livingston, Sam Altman, Steve Melendez, and Dan Siroker for the lulz.

[yuki-d-raizel-blog]

Hero

Chapter 1/??

Relationship: Todoroki Shouto x Reader (Your/Name), (Full/Name)

Summit: It all begin at the Sports Festival when Shouto’s other half met Endevour by mistake. The student never thought to see his partner fight against his father just to show him that he is wrong. It started from that instant, Shouto’s new path started exactly from that moment thanks to his friends and his beloved one.

---

You two start to date thanks to the class, it was so painful to watch the strongest member of the hero course always staring at you during lectures and when you talked to him, he always ran off somewhere with a light blush on his cheeks.

Yeah, just too painful for the class to watch. Thank god you are a friendly and open-minded girl, so they talked to you programming a plan.

When classes were over, finally you managed to trap Shouto. You were waiting him outside the gates and you were clear about that he wouldn’t be able to move an inch until he would talk to you. He accepted hesitantly, he knew that you were strong despite your look and he didn’t want to hurt or scare you. After you two confessed to each other, the class celebrated with high-fives, and yes, they were spying and cheering all the time. Let’s be honest, who doesn’t, you were the perfect couple in the academy; even the other classes were shipping you with the famous Endevour’s son. Both of you are educated, calm, charming, strong and smart. The-best-couple-of-all-the-times.

 ---

A few months passed already and the Sports Festival is near. You and Shouto are eating and talking about training, when Izuku, Iida and Uraraka join too. You are close to Midoriya, both of you have that little vice… Use brain too much, especially you. The class never see your quirk even once, you always won with logic; so, everyone just thought: “If she forced Bakugou to surrender with a plan, if she uses her quirk she must be super strong!”.

<<Yeah, from that day, Bakugou always curses on you and never talk to you, even if is a death-life situation!>> says Uraraka remembering Katsuki’s face, <<Don’t let it bother you, (Y/N)-chan.>>

<<Midoriya-kun instead, started to ask so many things that you almost understand what he was saying, but I see that you get used to it quickly.>> Iida added smiling.

<<I-I’m sorry…>> Izuku apologies, <<I wanted to know how she managed to think about a plan so sophisticated in a such short time. I didn’t mean to be a bother to you (Y/N)-chan.>>

<<Don’t worry.>> she reassures him with a smile, <<I was only surprised, you weren’t a bother, we’re friends, right? Ask me everything, I’ll try my best to satisfy your curiosity.>> after succeeding in her mission, she adds: <<About Bakugou-kun, I don’t think he’ll forgive me so easily, hehe. He’s prideful, it must hurt when someone defeat you… and the big event is around the corner, I think that he’ll come at me pretty angry.>> she comments while eating her food, “I’m prideful too, so I know how does it feel.”

<<You don’t need to worry.>> Shouto speaks with a little smile on his face, <<I believe in you. Just do your best and everything will be fine.>>

<<(Y/N)-chan, can I ask what type your quirk is?>> here we are again, <<When I think I get it, your hero costume confuse me every time.>>

<<Then my plan is working.>>

<<Eh?>> even Iida and Uraraka stop eating surprised by that answer.

<<Mph.>> Todoroki smirks a little, “This is fun.”

<<Why are you laughing, Todoroki-kun?>> the green hero asks with a little blush on his face, <<You know it, right?>>

<<I don’t. I didn’t ask her and I honestly don’t care what her quirk is.>> he answers with his calm tone, <<I love her for what she is, with a quirk or not.>>

<<S-Shouto!>> the girl hits him lightly on the shoulder and hides her face looking away, <<Geez…>>

<<The other classes think that (Y/N) is a mystery person, but look at her, she’s blushing because she’s not used to hear such lovely words from her beloved one yet.>> Uraraka teases you, <<Hahaha, you’re so cute!>>

<<Stop it, please…>> everyone is smiling happily, even (Y/N) herself, <<By the way, I’m not telling you my quirk Izuku, I don’t want you to defeat me easily during the festival, so find that out by yourself. You’re scarier than everyone thinks, you know?>>

<<Midoriya-kun is scary…?>> Tenya is trying to imagine it, but it’s almost impossible for him, it’s Midoriya, how can he be scary, he is such a kind person, <<I think I don’t understand you, (Y/N)-kun.>>

<<Yeah.>> even Izuku himself doesn’t understand it, <<Beating you? Me?! That will not happen soon, so->>

<<So, you’re sure to achieve that in the future?>> she’s smiling and everyone understand that she is pushing All Might’s pupil in the edge, <<Knowing your type, the more you see me fight, the more you get used to it. If we’re talking about “adapt to-” in our class, you’re the fastest.>>

<<Now that I’m thinking to it… She’s right.>> whispers Iida remembering Midoriya’s behavior in battles.

<<Even when he fought against Bakugou, he was prepared and he often changed the plan…>> adds the gravity girl, <<Wait, (Y/N)-chan you’re analyzing people again!>>

<<Ops my bad, haha!>>

The lunch break keeps going, but Midoriya doesn’t forget your words. You see him like a scary person? Why? He’s sure that he did nothing bad to her, both are such good friends, oh wait, maybe she was talking about his fighting style? She’s good at analyzing more than him, so she must have seen something… but what?

Like you saw a danger in your friend, you saw a change in Shouto. The more the festival is near, the more he’s getting agitated and sometimes colder even with you. Of course, you don’t mind it, you know his problems, he’s fighting against himself, against his father, against his own quirk, but that doesn’t mean that he’s alone, in fact you’re always by his side until he says clearly that he wants to be alone for a while, and you do as he wishes.

One day at school, he become aggressive because a student said something that pushed the wrong button, you are not here yet, so Midoriya tries to stop an imminent fight, but apparently he obtains the opposite. The guy from the Class B, is almost frozen alive and Midoriya get a punch, but we’re talking about Todoroki Shouto, so obviously that will leave a huge bruise on his cheek.

The trio is scolded by the principal, Aizawa and even All Might. The student from the other class apologizes for what he did, but Shouto’s apologizes sound so annoyed. While Midoriya is waiting for his turn, he decides to text you.

 [(Y/N)-chan, I’m sorry but after lessons are over, would you walk at home with me?]

 Your reply is immediate, thing that reassure Izuku. You’re so reliable, you will be a great hero in the future.

 [No problem, everything is ok? When I’m arrived, the class was panicking about something. I have a wild guess, but I prefer to listen the story from your viewpoint.]

 [I’m sure your guess will be correct, knowing your type.]

 [Hey, did you steal my-?! You supposed to be a hero not a thief!]

 [Hahaha, sorry I couldn’t help myself! Then, I’ll leave Todoroki-kun to you.]

 [See you later, Izuku.]

 [Yes.]

 ---Continue....

Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 21.5, 22, 22.5, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, Last Chapter

[minijenn]

Universe Falls Chapter 33

Ahhhh its finally done you guys! ANd I’m super hyped about it too, since writing for Peridot alone made the grinding I did with this chapter immensely worth it. So I won’t take up too much time here! Enjoy!

Previous: http://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/159304536002/universe-falls-chapter-32

Chapter 33: Marble Madness

MBOFALQ CXZBQ-2C5I ZRQ-5UD JFPPFLK: BXOQE PRYGBZQ: ZIRPQBO PQXQRP: LKDLFKD

In the aftermath of their latest victory, the Gems pushed their way through the flowery meadow that had been their battlefield just moments ago with relatively high spirits. And this generally cheerful sentiment was something that most of the members of the spectating trio that had come along on this mission shared in as well. It hadn’t really taken too much pleading and prodding for Steven, Dipper, and Mabel to convince the Gems to bring them along on their latest quest, one that, aside from a random encounter with a Gem monster, hadn’t been too harrowing or life-threatening. And even as Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl took said monster on, the kids were content enough to cheer them on from the sidelines of the fray, one that had, much to their pleasant surprise, been a quick and painless win.

“I can’t believe that went so well!” Pearl exclaimed with a satisfied smile as her and Amethyst emerged from one of the countless towering flower patches surrounding the warp pad.

“Yeah,” the purple Gem agreed with a small chuckle. “That was kinda great when you hit it with your spear and it went like ‘boosh’!”

The white Gem humbly glanced away from her teammate, her cheeks lightning up in a pale blue blush as her grin widened. “And the way you were circling around it? Almost looked like strategy.”

“Heh, well you know,” Amethyst smirked just as bashfully. “I can do that stuff too.”

By now, Garnet had stepped out of the flowers herself, the defeated Gem monster trapped in the bubble above her palm before she calmly warped it away. Mabel came rushing out of the flowers next, completely covered in the colorful buds out of her own volition, as she had not only constructed herself a lively flower crown, but had also managed to fix several more of them onto her sweater as well.

“Ok, so I just gotta say that this is the prettiest Gem place we’ve ever been to, hands down!” she proclaimed with a wide smile. “Can we just stay here for the rest of the day and make more flower crowns?”

“Maybe some other time,” Garnet replied with an amused smile.

“Aw…” Mabel stuck her tongue out in faux disappointment. “But this place is so great!”

“Speak for yourself,” Dipper huffed in aggravation as he finally pushed his way out of the flower patch, looking quite perturbed as he gingerly rubbed his sore and swollen arm. “I got stung by at least four bees back there, all because of that dumb flower crown you just had to make me.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t love it,” Mabel sent her brother a wry smirk. “But hey, what’d you do with it anyway? Don’t tell me you just threw my careful craftsmanship away like it was nothing, Dipper!”

“Calm down, I didn’t,” Dipper reassured, rolling his eyes. “I just gave it to Steven. Though honestly, I’m kind of regretting that choice now…”

“Guys, wait up!” Steven called breathlessly as he managed to at last break out of the flower patch. The young Gem was clearly much worse for wear from his trip through it, as could be seen from his runny nose and watery eyes, both aggravated by the immense amount of pollen in the surrounding area. “Sorry I couldn’t help much with the monster,” Steven said to the Gems, his voice quite congested. “I think the flowers are making me-” He cut himself off, taking in a sudden gasp of air before abruptly letting it out in a heavy sneeze, the brunt of which happened to land on the Gem leader. “Oh! Sorry, Garnet!”

“I’ll live,” Garnet remarked, casually wiping the mucus of her hip.

“Steven! You’re supposed to sneeze into your antecubital fossa!” Pearl scolded, only to garnish very confused looks from all three of the kids.

“My… what?” Steven asked with a bewildered frown.

“You’re—this thing!” the white Gem pointed to the inner crook of her elbow before continuing on to the warp pad.

“Steven, if you’re so allergic to the flowers, why don’t you just, I dunno, take the flower crown off?” Dipper asked caustically.

“Why would I do that?” Steven asked with a sniffle as he readjusted said crown atop his head. “It’s so pretty and Mabel worked really hard on it!”

“Well at least somebody appreciates it,” Mabel sent her brother a pointed smirk as she joined Amethyst and Pearl on the warp pad. Garnet and the boys crammed onto it after them, and as soon as the white Gem preformed the obligatory check to make sure all of the kids were safely on the pad, they were off.

The irradiant column of light that was the warp stream was just as mesmerizing as ever as the group gently zoomed through it. Since the flowery meadow was quite far from the temple, the warp trip would take at least several minutes, which was something the kids didn’t really mind seeing as how warping alone was such a fascinating experience.

“Hey, you guys know what this would be a great time for?” Mabel spoke up with a smile before pulling her camera out of her sweater. “A scrapbook-ertunity!”

“Didn’t we already have one of those on the way here?” Amethyst asked, smirking.

“Well, yeah, but that was the before picture,” Mabel clarified. “This one’s the after picture, which is always objectively better than the first one! Now everyone huddle in and say ‘we beat a Gem monster’!”

Amused, the Gems complied, as did Steven and Dipper, while Mabel managed to squeeze herself into the picture while holding the camera out as far as she could. “We beat a Gem monster!” everyone exclaimed with shared smiles as the picture was snapped. However, the camera’s sudden, bright flash managed to cause Steven’s allergies to flare up once again. The young Gem took in a sharp gasp, his eyes watering and his cheeks warm as he tried his best to hold the oncoming sneeze back, especially as the Gems quickly repositioned themselves in the stream to avoid it.

“Do it at Pearl!” Amethyst laughed, pointing to the white Gem.

“Steven! Your fossa!” Pearl warned in a sudden panic.

“Oh! Oh! Let me get a quick pic of this too!” Mabel exclaimed, quickly aiming her camera. “I have the cutest sticker of a sneezing turtle that’ll go great with it!”

“Mabel, do you seriously have to-” Dipper was abruptly cut off as Steven finally let his pent-up sneeze go, unable to hold it in any longer. The force of it was enough to throw the young Gem back quite a bit, propelling him backwards towards the edge of the stream itself. Before he hit it however, Steven accidentally bumped into Dipper, knocking him back towards the edge as well. The Gems weren’t quite quick enough to catch either of the boys before they both partially fell through the stream’s intangible barrier headfirst, without hardly feeling it at all. Because of the suddenness of it all, it took them a moment to regather their bearings, but once they did, both Steven and Dipper were absolutely amazed at what they saw.

The space that existed outside of the warp stream could be described as just that: space. There was darkness only void darkness for as far as the eye could see, though it was occasionally dotted with small flecks of light akin to stars. This void was hardly still, however, as several thick, ominous clouds swirled within it, roaring with gentle, rumbling thunder and the occasional bright spark of lightning. Yet despite this, the air itself, if it could be called that, seemed to carry a sudden, sharp chill, one that was far removed from the mild temperance that existed inside of the stream. Time seemed to crawl as the boys stared at this hauntingly amazing sight with the same expression of awestruck wonder, wonder that neither of them could really put into words, though Steven did attempt it.

“Whoa…” the young Gem muttered, only to immediately gasp over his own sudden, inexplicable breathlessness. Dipper realized the same exact thing as he remembered to take a breath amidst his amazement, only instantly choke over air that wasn’t actually there.

Yet despite this frightening revelation, both boys’ attention was quickly caught as a light suddenly flashed from afar within the warp space, one that certainly didn’t come from any periodical lightning. Instead, it was a long, thin blue illuminant pillar, a warp stream identical to the one they were both still partially within. It appeared out of seemingly nowhere, traveling upward instead of down, and traveling along its speeding path was what the boys could only make out as but a mere blur of a round shadow, but a clearly visible one nonetheless.

“What-” Dipper attempted to ask despite the prevalent lack of oxygen. Though before he could get anything else out, a pair of hands suddenly pulled both boys back fully back into the stream at last, just as the unknown object in the adjacent stream disappeared from view.

“Careful!” Pearl cried fretfully, pulling both Steven and Dipper close to her and checking them over for any apparent injuries as they both instinctively sucked a much-needed breath of air. “It’s dangerous to stick your heads outside of the stream!”

“There’s not much air,” Garnet explained calmly as she flicked the frozen snot off of Steven’s nose. “And it’s very cold.”

“Whoa… Did you guys die out there?” Mabel asked the boys curiously.

“Heh, looks like it to me,” Amethyst chuckled, smirking at the pair as they still struggled to catch their lost breath. Still, neither of them paid her usually heckling any mind as they exchanged a stunned glance, knowing that they had to share what had just happened.

“Y-you guys!” Steven began, taking in another sharp gasp. “We… we saw something out there!”

“What?” Pearl asked, raising a confused eyebrow.

“H-he’s right! There was-” Dipper cut himself off as he coughed once again, still trying to recover lost air. “There was something else warping out there!”

“No way! Really?” Mabel asked with immense interest. “I wanna see it too!” Without any deterrence or delay, she eagerly pushed herself towards the edge of the stream as well, only to quickly be halted by Garnet’s outstretched hand.

“There’s nothing to see out there,” she concluded, her tone cold and resolved.

“Huh?” Steven and Dipper asked in slightly alarmed unison.

“Garnet’s right,” Pearl quickly interjected. “It’s impossible that anything would be out there. Perhaps the lack of air out there made you both see things?”

“I can see perfectly… Pearl?” Steven guessed, having to squint to look at the white Gem since his vision was still blurry thanks to his lingering allergies.

“You guys, we know what we saw,” Dipper asserted. “Ok, well… maybe we don’t know exactly what it was, but it was definitely out there! If you don’t believe us, just check for yourselves.”

“Sure, whatever,” Amethyst shrugged, still not really buying it. “If it’ll chill you guys out.” In mere seconds, the purple Gem stuck her head out of the stream before quickly pulling it back in. “Yep, just like we’re sayin’. Nothing’s out there but a bunch of clouds and cold.”

“B-but it was there!” Steven protested insistently. “We both saw it!”

“Yeah! If you guys would just-”

“Dipper, Steven,” Garnet firmly interrupted. “It’s like I said. There is nothing out there. There hasn’t been anything else for a long, long time.”

Pearl and Amethyst nodded their fervent agreement with this as Mabel simply shrugged, mostly accepting it. Still, neither Dipper nor Steven could be so complacent over the matter, especially considering the fact that they had seen it themselves. Something was out there, and even if neither of them had the slightest idea of what that something was, it existed nonetheless. And they weren’t about to let the Gems convince them otherwise so easily.

Seeing as how their mission with the Gems had taken up most of the morning, the kids still had the afternoon to do whatever they pleased. Seeing as how Connie’s afternoon had been freed up thanks to her violin lessons being cancelled, she was able to join the trio as they hung out outside the Mystery Shack in the pleasant afternoon sun.

“Ok Connie, so what’s this super cool thing you said you brought with you?” Mabel asked with excited curiosity, paying Steven and Dipper no mind as they both kept their gazes fixated on the temple up the hill.

“I’m glad you asked,” Connie grinned, reaching into her bag before pulling out a thick novel. “Ta da!”

“Ugh…” Mabel let out a disappointed groan. “Books? Seriously? What are we? In school?”

“Whoa,” Steven’s interest was suddenly peaked as he looked to the novel. “Books! Cool cover! What is it?”

“Book 1 of the Spirit Morph Saga, which is only my favorite book series!” Connie gushed, smiling at the mysterious cover of the book, entitled The Unfamiliar Familiar. “It’s about this girl named Lisa, and she’s a witch! I mean, she doesn’t know she’s a witch at first, and she has a familiar, which is sort of like this spirit companion that everyone in the world has. And hers is a falcon named Archimicarus! Anyway, she goes on this quest to find her father after he’s kidnapped by a mysterious one-eyed man!”

“Ooo, mystery!” Steven exclaimed, now fully invested despite his earlier scrutiny.

“Sounds like something that would be right up your nerdy alley, huh, bro-bro?” Mabel asked, elbowing Dipper, who was still quite distracted with focusing on the temple.

“I’ve already read them all, actually,” he replied duly, still not bothering to glance away from the temple and instead focusing his thoughts on whatever him and Steven had seen in the warp space earlier.

“Wait, really?” Connie asked with an excited grin. “Finally, I have someone to talk to about them face to face with instead of having to resort to venting on message boards and fan sites! So, Dipper… what’d you think of the ending of Destiny’s End?”

Upon hearing this question, Dipper instantly tore his gaze away from the temple at last, letting out a harsh scoff as he did so. “Are you kidding me? That ‘ending’, if it could even be called that, was awful.”

“Ugh, I know, right?” Connie thoroughly agreed, already incensed on the matter. “They spend three whole books subverting tropes and crashing through stereotypes and expectations and being really self-aware about being a pastiche, and for what?”

“For them to completely ruin it all by taking up 50 pages just to describe a cake,” Dipper remarked with equal disdain. “The first three books totally had me going with the mystery of the one-eyed man, only for us to never actually get a real name or backstory for him. It’s seriously the most disappointing and anti-climactic thing ever.”

“What drew the line for me was how they just uprooted all those themes about standing against absolute authority!” Connie added adamantly, not noticing the bewildered looks Steven and Mabel were giving her and Dipper both. “Lisa and her talking falcon, rebels challenging the stifling traditions of the magical bureaucracy? I loved that! But no, let’s just drop it all for ‘romance’ and ‘fluff’.”

“Talk about pandering! Like, come on, could they have gotten any more schmaltzy. I couldn’t believe what I was reading when Archimicarus turned into-”

“Whoa, hold on a second!” Connie quickly interrupted. “We don’t wanna spoil it for Steven and Mabel, no matter how trite and hackneyed it is.”

“Oh yeah,” Dipper said with a small, embarrassed laugh. “Honestly, we probably said too much about it already…”

“Pfft, you guys are A-ok spoiling your nerd books for me,” Mabel groaned again, lying down on the ground lazily. “As long as it gets you and Steven to stop freaking out over whatever you saw when we were warping earlier.”

“Oh yeah! I almost forgot about that!” Steven exclaimed with a gasp. “Thanks for reminding us, Mabel!”

“Why can’t I ever keep my adorably big mouth shut?” Mabel whined in exasperation, covering her face with her sweater sleeve before the boys could even begin their worrying.

“What does she mean?” Connie asked the boys inquisitively. “What did you guys see?”

“We… actually don’t really know…” Dipper admitted hesitantly.

“It was some weird roundish thing zipping through a different warp stream!” Steven exclaimed. “The Gems said that it was nothing, but that means it’s gotta be something, doesn’t it?”

“It was something!” Dipper insisted. “Something that’s possibly really important or dangerous, especially if the Gems are right and nothing’s supposed to be out there. That’s why they should have listened to us and actually looked into it instead of just shrugging it off!”

“Ugh, you two have been going on about that thing ever since we got back earlier!” Mabel exclaimed tiredly. “Can’t you just give it a break already? The Gems said it’s all good, so we have nothing to worry about.”

“Mabel’s probably right,” Connie said, giving the boys an understanding smile. “I mean, we want the Gems to trust the four of us; maybe we should meet them halfway and trust them in return. Besides, if what you saw really was dangerous, then they would have already handled it by now, right?”

“Sure, if they had actually believed us about it in the first place,” Dipper muttered, crossing his arms.

“Hm…. I guess so…” Steven sighed, even if he didn’t really agree. But even so, he figured that they wouldn’t have much luck convincing the girls of what they had seen since, much like the Gems, they hadn’t had the chance to witness it for themselves.

“Good! Then that means you two can finally stop being Worried Walters and relax for a change!” Mabel quipped jokingly.

“And it means we can get you guys started on these!” Connie held The Unfamiliar Familiar up to Steven and Mabel, the former perking up with excitement while the latter let out another bored groan. “Ahem,” Connie cleared her throat, adjusting the frames of her glasses as she began to read the novel aloud. “Chapter One: The Morning Thief…”

Steven attempted to focus more on the first Spirit Morph Saga book that Connie had successfully finished reading to him that night as he climbed into bed, as opposed to thinking of the unknown object from the warp stream. Still, the young Gem could think of little else as he snuggled into his covers, his already palpable concern steadily growing with each glance he happened to chance towards the warp pad down below. Certainly if something was indeed flowing throughout the stream at that very moment, then there was always a chance that it could wind up warping right up to the temple itself, right?

While these ominous thoughts definitely troubled Steven, he soon began to feel his eyes grow heavy with oncoming sleep nonetheless. He was quick to snap himself awake again though, fearing that if he let his guard down, even for a moment, then the unknown object would show up without any warning. And if it was actually dangerous, then its arrival was certainly something the young Gem wanted to be ready for.

However, what Steven wasn’t ready for was for a bright light to suddenly flood the loft, startling him upright with a terrified gasp. And yet, instead of it being the telltale flash of light from the warp pad, it was the pale glow from the refrigerator instead.

“Wha—Amethyst!” the young Gem exclaimed, looking down to see the purple Gem raiding the fridge as she often did at this late hour.

“Hey, Steven!” Amethyst greeted casually, snacking on the powdered cheese that came along with macaroni. “Want some macaroni cheese?”

Steven didn’t answer her, tucking behind his blankets a bit until the purple Gem began sauntering back towards the temple gate. “W-wait!” he called after her. “I…. I can’t sleep.”

“Why?” Amethyst licked the cheese residue off her hand. “Are you scared of that thing you and Dipper saw earlier warping right into the house and attacking you in your sleep?!”

“…No…” Steven squeaked anxiously.

“Oh good!” the purple Gem smirked teasingly, continuing on to the gate. “Glad to know you’re not totally wimping out on us after all! Well, nighty night! Don’t let the ‘warp monster’ bite! Ha!” With a loud, callous chuckle, Amethyst opened the door to her room and entered, leaving Steven alone with his growing dread once more.

The young Gem bit his lip apprehensively as he looked to the warp pad once again, the familiar sight looking ominous and almost sinister as it glistened dully in the darkness of the room. It was silent and still now, sure, but how long could he really be sure that it would stay like that? Something was wandering through warp space freely, something unknown and certainly disconcerting. And for as long as it was out there, Steven knew that he would be unable to really think of anything else.

“Looks like I’m not sleeping tonight…” the young Gem muttered to himself with a long sigh. Still, if he was going to tackle anything that might try to come through the warp stream unwarranted, then he was at least going to tackle it with the proper arms. With firm resolve, Steven grabbed his water gun and crept downstairs to fill it up, already knowing that it was certainly going to be a very long night.

“Steven…” Pearl cooed in a sing-songy voice, lightly tapping the young Gem in an attempt to rouse him awake. Upon emerging from the temple that morning, Pearl and Garnet had found Steven snoozing propped up against the front door, water gun loosely hugged to his chest as he snored softly. The two elder Gems couldn’t help but feel somewhat guilty about their dismissive behavior the previous day, and so they intended on making it up to their young charge. As soon as he woke up that was. “Steven,” Pearl tried again, a little louder this time. “We’ve got a surprise for you-”

“Ah!” Steven gasped as he jolted awake, his finger already on the trigger of his water gun. On instinct, he pulled it as he pointed the weapon at whatever was in his immediate vicinity, which of course happened to be Pearl. The white Gem let out a startled cry as she was struck by the watery blast, knocking her back away from Steven and thoroughly soaking her, much to her aggravation. “Oh! Sorry, Pearl!” the young Gem exclaimed, jumping to his feet upon realizing his mistake.

“Now you’re not getting any cookies,” Garnet remarked as she stood by, holding a trayful of cookies they had made Steven.

“Cookies?!” Amethyst asked eagerly as she emerged from the temple. “I’ll take ‘em!”

Before Garnet could protest, the purple Gem snatched the cookie tray away from her, pouring the treats into her mouth without much restraint. “Amethyst, slow down,” the Gem leader advised, though Amethyst did anything but.

“Again, I’m sorry, Pearl,” Steven said with sincerity, wiping the sleep out of his eyes. “I just… I guess I didn’t…”

“Didn’t sleep,” Garnet finished thoughtfully as the young Gem trailed off.

Steven confirmed her suspicions as he let out an exhausted yawn. “Maybe,,,”

“Good morning, everyone!” Mabel greeted just as bright and blithely as ever as she burst into the house. Her cheerful smile quickly fell into confusion however, upon noticing Steven’s water gun, as well as the fact that Pearl was still sopping wet. “Whoa, what’s going on here? Were you guys having a water fight? Cause if you were, I wanna play! I’ll just have Dipper go get-” She abruptly cut herself off as she glanced over her shoulder, only to find that her brother had in fact not followed her inside, but was leaning against the doorframe outside, half asleep. “Seriously? Again?” Mabel huffed in annoyance, pulling Dipper inside and roughly waking him up fully in the process. “Now what did I tell you, bro-bro?”

“Uh… something about staying up all night reading the journal?” Dipper guessed tiredly, letting out a long yawn a moment later.

“That’s right, I told you not to do that because it would make you super tired the next day,” Mabel informed pointedly. “And what do ya know? Looks like I was right once again, cause you’re totally about to clonk out for like, the 20th time today!”

“No, I’m…” Dipper trailed off as he began to nod off once more, only for Mabel to wake him back up with a sharp snap of her fingers. “Huh?! What’s going—I-I mean, I’m totally awake! Yeah, n-not tired at all!” He let out a small awkward laugh, one that neither Mabel nor the Gems really bought as they all gave him unconvinced glances. “So, uh… what were we talking about again?”

“Yeesh,” Amethyst remarked dryly, rolling her eyes. “If I didn’t know any better, Dipper, right now I’d think that you and Steven are twins instead of you and Mabel. You know, ‘cause you both have the same big ol’ bags under your eyes.”

“You didn’t sleep last night either, Dipper?” Steven asked, his lingering exhaustion reminding him that this was something he easily related to.

“Ugh, no,” Dipper admitted, somewhat frustrated as he rubbed his eyes. “I was up all night looking through the journal for any hints about that… thing we saw in the warp stream yesterday!”

“And you didn’t find anything about it, which means that you pretty much wore yourself out for nothing,” Mabel added with a smirk. “Which is something you do all the time, but hey, I’m not here to judge.” She paused for a moment before discreetly whispering something else to the Gems. “Yes, I am.”

“Hold on a minute,” Pearl interjected, wringing the water out of her sash. “Is that seriously what all this fuss is about? You two are still thinking about whatever it is you think you saw yesterday?”

“We don’t think we saw anything, because we really did see it!” Dipper argued, more cross than he usually would have been, considering his exhaustion. “Right, Steven?”

“Yeah,” the young Gem readily, the smallest hint of desperation in his tone. “It was real, you guys! Something was warping somewhere in the warp!”

“And we need to figure out what that something was,” Dipper contended. “What if it’s something dangerous or violent? You three would care about it then, right?”

“Sure we would,” Amethyst said with a shrug. “If it was real.”

“But come on, you guys,” Mabel interjected just as dismissively. “When have Gem things ever been dangerous or violent before?”

“Are you seriously asking that question right now?” Dipper asked caustically, knowing he could give her countless examples of both of those things. “Seriously?”

“We wouldn’t lie to you guys about something like this,” Steven insisted earnestly. “If you’d just hear us out, then we could-”

“Listen,” Pearl interrupted, her tone firm and slow as she placed a hand on top each of the boys’ heads. “Both of you. Nothing on Earth can use the warps but us. Nothing. Do you both understand?” Neither Dipper nor Steven were willing to accept this conditioning so easily though, as they both glanced away from the white Gem sullenly. “Steven, Dipper,” Pearl appealed once again, her tone more authoritative this time. “Nod in agreement if you understand.” They didn’t of course, still resisting what they knew couldn’t be true, much to Pearl’s ever growing frustration. “Nod in agreement if-”

“I’m confident Pearl is right,” Garnet interrupted, looking to the boys calmly. “There’s no use in either of you staying up all night and waiting or looking for something that you’re not going to find. But…” Steven and Dipper took in a shared anxious breath upon hearing this, hoping that the Gem leader would at least listen to their concerns. “If it’ll make you both feel better, we can go check.”

Steven sighed in immense relief upon hearing this, and while it wasn’t exactly what Dipper had been hoping for, he nodded in tentative agreement with this plan nonetheless. After all, any amount of scrutiny on the Gems’ part in all this was better than none at all.

“Woo! Warp tour! Warp tour!” Mabel cheered, more than ready for another exciting Gem adventure, even if this one was going to be rather simple in nature. Still, no one wasted any time in squeezing onto the warp pad, seeing as how they had quite the trip ahead of them. And with another affirming nod from Garnet, the group set off on their so-called “warp tour”.

Their first stop was also their most recent destination: the flowery meadows. The area looked essentially the same as it did when they were there the previous day, the tall blossoms swaying to the peaceful breeze as the group warped in.

“Nothing unusual here,” Garnet noted, her hands on her hips. This information didn’t really discourage the boys though; after all, they still had plenty of other places left to go.

“Oh boy! Since we’re back here we can make more flower crowns before we go!” Mabel exclaimed, clasping her hands together with delight.

“No,” Dipper quickly deadpanned, far too focused on their mission to care about such trivial things.

Before they could move on, Steven happened to let out another heavy sneeze, his allergies stirred up by the dense pollen in the air once more. “Bless you,” Garnet excused him succinctly before they warped to their next destination.

Really, the next several spots that the group warped to turned out to be just as uneventful as the first. Some locations were familiar to the kids, some not, but all of them wielded the same results: nothing. Still, Dipper and Steven made sure to keep their eyes peeled, not just as they arrived to each spot, but in the warp stream as well. They hoped that with the thorough investigation they were doing, that they would be able to find at least a hint at something out of the ordinary, one that would point them in the right direction as to the location of the mystery object if nothing else. And yet with every new place they warped to, that hope steadily started to diminish, but even so, they didn’t once question whether what they saw had been real or not. Not only did they have each other was witnesses, but the memory they both had of seeing the unknown object was still so clear and fresh in both of their minds. There was no doubt that they had both seen it. No doubt anywhere except for with Mabel and the Gems.

“Well, this is the last place to look,” Garnet concluded as they arrived at the legendary Sky Spire, only for there once again to be nothing there of note.

“W-what?!” Dipper exclaimed in sudden alarm. “But… but that can’t be it! There’s got to be somewhere we haven’t checked yet! We need to-”

“Ugh, give it a rest already, bro-bro,” Mabel groaned, slightly annoyed. “Every place we’ve been today was super cool yeah, but also super relaxed. Why can’t you guys just accept that and let this thing go?”

“I agree,” Pearl nodded succinctly. “You both have blown this way out of proportion. We’ve looked all over! There’s nothing out here to find.”

“But you’re wrong…” Steven mumbled sullenly, rolling his eyes.

“Excuse me?!” the white Gem narrowed her eyes at her young charge.

The young Gem paled a bit, realizing his disrespectful mistake as he immediately tried to redact it. “I-I mean-”

“No, don’t take it back, Steven,” Dipper cut him off, looking to Pearl defiantly and scarcely caring about crossing the line now. All day the Gems had refused to take either of them seriously, and he had grown beyond tired of it, which was why he had every intention of putting an end to it in any way he could. “You are wrong. And we can prove it!”

“Oh, really?!” Pearl gasped, completely appalled. “And how are you going to do that? Might I remind you that nothing on Earth can use these warps but us? So how do you intend on disproving that proven fact? With that little journal of yours? Ha! Good luck with that!”

By this point, Dipper was aptly infuriated, especially as the white Gem callously mocked the journal, but still, before he could send a heated argument back at her, Steven cautiously interjected. “W-well…. What if… what if it was from space?” he asked tentatively. Really, it didn’t seem like too outlandish of an idea, given the fact that the Gems themselves were from space, and they were they only things on Earth capable of warping. Still, this suggestion seemed to silence all three of the Gems completely, all of their eyes widening at the idea of this proposal, even if Pearl was the first to provide an answer for it yet again.

“I-” she cut herself off immediately, pursing her lips as she met the expectant gazes all three of the kids were giving her now. “I don’t appreciate your tone.”

Still, before either of the boys could try to support this newfound idea, the white Gem was quick to warp them all away from the Sky Spire and to another familiar spot: the Galaxy Warp. It was indeed the only place they hadn’t scoped out yet, but still there was no unknown object to be found there. Neither Steven nor Dipper really cared about that at the moment though; currently, all of their frustration was saved for Pearl, who began to explain why she firmly believed they were both wrong.

“These are the warps that once connected us to other planets,” she said, her tone quite patronizing as she made her way to the central warp pad. “If something tried to come from space, it would be through here. But wait!” she exclaimed with faux dramatics, spinning around to face the boys. “This warp pad is broken, marked inactive by the very depressed cartoon breakfast sticker you placed here yourself, Steven!” With a cold glare, she pointed to the Wailing Waffle sticker the young Gem had put on the central warp during their test of the pad weeks ago, proving that it was indeed out of commission.

“Look,” Amethyst interjected with a comforting smirk as she walked up to the boys along with Mabel. “Pearl’s right, as usual. Sure, it’s annoying, but you get used to it.”

“Seriously, you guys need to chill out,” Mabel added with a discontented frown. “Dipper, it’s already bad enough that I have to deal with your dumb paranoia over everything, but now you’ve gone and rubbed that paranoia off on Steven to the point that you both are covered in it and neither of you are any fun anymore! It’s driving me nuts!”

“We’re not being paranoid!” Dipper stressed adamantly. “We’re being careful, which is clearly something that none of the rest of you care about, otherwise we would have already found that thing by now!”

“If there was actually anything to find,” Pearl pointed out caustically. “Which, as we’ve just proven, there isn’t.”

Garnet affirmed this sentiment, placing a gentle hand on top of both of the boys’ heads and sending them a soft smile as they looked up to her dubiously. “We’re safe.”

Neither Steven nor Dipper found that they could really argue with this, even if they both really wanted to. Yet every time they tried to voice their growing concern, they only fell upon deaf ears as the Gems stubbornly disregarded them, no matter how hard they tried to convince them of the truth. Which was why both of them were quickly starting to reach the conclusion that it was futile to really even try.

Dipper let out a bitter, defeated sigh as he crossed his arms, looking down to the ground with a sullen scowl. At the same time, Steven pouted anxiously as he looked to the central warp yet again, placing a hand beside the Crying Breakfast Friends sticker fixed upon it as he looked over its cracked, weathered surface. “Well…” the young Gem began, his tone still not entirely convinced. “I guess so…”

The Gems let out a collective sigh upon hearing this, one that Mabel also joined in on as all of their moods instantly improved. “Oh man, finally!” Amethyst exclaimed, stretching out casually. “That took all day!”

“Well at least we can finally head home and put this whole thing behind us,” Mabel said, sending a satisfied smile Steven and Dipper’s way. “And maybe you two can actually get a good nights’ sleep tonight instead of staying up worrying over nothing.”

Both of the boys bristled somewhat at this comment, but still, neither of them said anything, knowing that it would be wiser now to keep the peace, as much as it annoyed them to.

“Still,” Garnet spoke up, her hands on her hips. “It was important to make Steven and Dipper feel secure.”

“Yes, they both feel much better now,” Pearl concluded somewhat condescendingly. Of course, upon hearing this, both boys only grew even more irate over the entire situation. It was bad enough that the Gems had dismissed their fears entirely, but now they seemed to be completely talking down to them for it all. And the longer they silently simmered over it, the more unacceptable it became.

“I’m a little tired…” Steven began, his tone rarely cross and borderline hostile as he turned to face his guardians. “Of you guys telling us how we should feel!”

“Seriously, you guys are treating us like we’re little kids who are only making this stuff up but we’re not,” Dipper insisted hotly, his hands in tight fists at his sides. “We’re telling you the truth!”

“We know we saw something outside the stream!” Steven exclaimed, clearly livid by this point.

“And I know you didn’t!” Pearl retorted just as incensed. However this time, neither of the boys were about to back down from this false claim so meekly.

Garnet, Amethyst, and Mabel were all startled yet unsurprised as an inevitable argument broke out between Steven, Dipper, and Pearl. Then again, it wasn’t really as much of an argument as it was an all-out shouting match.

“Now both of you listen to me,” the white Gem asserted loudly and rather harshly. “I’ve been around much longer than either of you have. I know everything there is to know about the warp system. Which is why you two don’t tell me what I already know!”

Still, neither of the boys were hardly listening to a word she said as they ranted off their own immense grievances. “Why is it so hard for you to just listen to us?!” Steven exclaimed indignantly. “You don’t care what we have to say! You never do! You just want to do it your own way!”

“Whatever happened to ‘oh we’ll start trusting you guys more’?” Dipper asked just as angrily. “If you really trusted us, then you’d actually hear us out and stop pretending like nothing’s wrong, just like you always do!”

This heated quarrel went on for quite some time, all three of them yelling over each other to the point that most of what they were shouting couldn’t really be made out by the trio watching in stilted silence from the sidelines. Garnet, Amethyst, and Mabel all exchanged uncertain glances for a moment before turning their attention back towards the ongoing argument, none of them bold enough to throw themselves into this intense conflict willingly.  

“Uh, this is new,” Amethyst remarked with a small, amused chuckle. “I kinda like it.”

“Shouldn’t we try and stop them?” Mabel asked Garnet, who only shrugged apathetically in response.

“Ugh,” Pearl finally groaned, rolling her eyes as a break in the argument finally came. “You two just don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh we’re the ones who don’t know what we’re talking about?” Dipper asked with frustrated disbelief. “Sure, I mean, it’s not like we were the ones who actually saw it or anything!”

“It sounds like… maybe you don’t know what you’re talking about!” Steven shouted at Pearl, his voice echoing throughout the Galaxy Warp as the white Gem took in a sharp, shocked gasp. The others were quite alarmed at hearing the usually gentle and agreeable young Gem get so frustrated, but even so, he didn’t dare take it back now. Honestly, he likely wouldn’t have even if he wanted to.

By this point, however, Pearl was so frustrated with both boys that all she could really do was let out a petulant scoff as she crossed her arms and glared away from them. Of course, Steven and Dipper were still quite upset themselves, but at this juncture, Garnet finally decided to intervene.

“Alright, you two,” the Gem leader said, her tone calm yet firm as she stepped between the boys and Pearl. “That’s enough. Let it go.”

“But-” both Steven and Dipper attempted to interject, but Garnet quickly stopped them.

“I said, let it go,” she repeated authoritatively, making it quite clear that no matter how much they tried to argue otherwise, there would be no further discussion on the matter.

Mabel smiled as she finished positioning the pillows on her bed in a way that would comfortably accommodate both her and Waddles, before hoisting said pig up onto the bed as he trotted up to it. “There you go, my perfect pink angel,” she quipped, plopping Waddles down onto his pillow. “Now we can have a nice, cozy night’s sleep, unlike some people…” Mabel frowned, somewhat annoyed, as she glanced over at Dipper, who was pouring over the journal just as intently as he had the previous night. He was utterly exhausted, of course, but he wasn’t about to let that deter him from checking the book one more time, desperate for any answers it could possibly give.

“Complain all you want, Mabel,” Dipper said, not even looking up from the journal. “But I’m not giving up until I figure out what that thing in the warp stream was!”

“Why nooooot?” Mable whined, laying back on her bed and covering her eyes with her arm. “You heard what the Gems said! We’re safe!”

“That may be what they think, but I’m not about to believe it until I have proof.”

“Ugh, you’re so annoying when you get all obsessy like this! Remember the last time you went all crazy trying to prove something, Dipper? Cause I do! In fact, I remember it involving a bunch of gross zombies that tried to eat our brains out!”

“This is totally different!” Dipper snapped defensively. “Look, I’ll admit that I was totally reckless about the whole zombie thing, but I’m being the exact opposite about this! I’m trying to figure out the truth about this thing so we can all be safe.”

“Is that really why you’re doing this, Dipper?” Mabel asked, sending her brother a rather harsh glare. “Or are you just doing this because you wanna prove that you and Steven were right and the Gems are wrong?”

Dipper was more than ready to refute this assumption, but before he could, Stan happened to burst into the room, looking anything but pleased with his nibblings. “You two! Cut all that yelling out!” he growled sullenly. “It’s late, and I don’t wanna referee you munchkins if you get into a fist fight or something. Plus, I don’t have my camera on me to record it.”

“Grunkle Stan!” Mabel exclaimed loudly. “Dipper’s being dumb and he keeps stressing out over this stupid thing that him and Steven saw when we were out with the Gems yesterday!”

“Mabel!” Dipper quickly interjected. He was quite annoyed that she had no qualms over tattling on him, especially seeing as how the conman was already keeping a closer eye on him in light of the zombie incident.

“Oh yeah?” Stan raised an eyebrow as he looked to his nephew. “What kind of thing?”

“I-it was-”

“He doesn’t know what it looks like because they only saw it for like, a second,” Mabel informed pointedly. “If they saw anything at all, though I’m with the Gems in thinking that they didn’t.”

“Oh, so now you’re seeing things, kid?” the conman asked dubiously. “Figures. Reading a kooky journal like that will do it to ya.”

“Grunkle Stan, I’m not just seeing things!” Dipper argued intently. “What me and Steven saw in the warp stream was real, and it was-”

“Yeesh, calm down,” Stan interrupted with a small laugh. “I was just kidding. Still, if the Gems said it was nothing, then, as much as I hate to admit it, they’re probably right. They are the authority on all of that magic mumbo-jumbo, after all.”

“See?” Mabel sent her brother a smug smirk. “Told ya so.”

“Now both of you, get to bed,” Stan ordered as he prepared to take his leave. “And if you two actually do end up getting in a fight, don’t expect me to come up here and break it up. Besides, we all know Mabel would win anyway so it would be pretty much pointless to try and intervene.”

“Hey!” Dipper protested as Mabel let out a small snicker. The twins didn’t really didn’t converse much further with each other after Stan left, both of them still rather irritated with each other over the situation at large. Still, even after Mabel turned the main light off and nestled with Waddles into a comfy slumber, Dipper stayed up with the journal and a flashlight, just as he had the previous night, resolved to examine every word of it that concerned the Gems in the hopes that he would at the very least get some sort of lead. He didn’t make it very far into his search, however, before he began to nod off, only to be roused awake by sudden tapping against the attic window.

Since Mabel was already fast asleep, she didn’t hear the repeating noise, but seeing as how he was on edge already, Dipper didn’t hesitate in checking it out. Being as quiet as possible as not to wake his sister up, he climbed up onto the nightstand to get a better look out the window, only to find a sight he hadn’t really been expecting.

“Steven?” he whispered incredulously, frowning down at the young Gem who stood in the yard down below, a pile of pebbles in his hand as he waved up at him. Lion stood beside him, licking his paw boredly, but the intent, almost desperate expression on Steven’s face was enough to convince Dipper to grab his hat and jacket and sneak out of the shack to meet him outside. “Steven, what are you doing here?” he asked the young Gem, who’s worry turned into slight relief upon seeing him. “Don’t you have any idea how late it is?”

“I do, but…” Steven frowned anxiously as he glanced behind him towards the temple. “I need your help. The Gems still won’t believe me, and I keep having mini-freaks out every time I look at the warp pad, and you’re the only person I can count on in this because you saw it too and-”

“Whoa, Steven, slow down,” Dipper interrupted. “What exactly do you need help with?”

“I-I want you to help me keep an eye on the warp pad,” Steven said with shaky resolve. “Just in case… it comes through. We still don’t know what it is, and… I really don’t like the thought of being there alone if it does show up. So… I know this might be a lot to ask, but… will you help me, Dipper?

“Are you kidding? Of course, Steven!” Dipper instantly agreed, as though it was obvious that he would. “If that thing warps in, I definitely don’t wanna miss it.”

“Great! Thanks so much, Dipper!” Steven exclaimed, overwhelmed with relief as he abruptly pulled him into a tight hug.

“Steven! Not so loud!” Dipper was quick to pull away and shush him. “What if Stan or Mabel hear you?”

“Oh, right…” the young Gem blushed, lowering his voice down to a whisper. “Sorry!”

Not wanting to waste any time at all, both boys climbed onto Lion and rushed back to the temple in record time. The house was calm and quiet as they arrived, no signs of any unknown objects or unwarranted warping whatsoever. Still, they weren’t anywhere near appeased just yet. The pair began their vigil, one of them sitting on each side of the warp pad and scarcely taking their eyes off of it for a moment. While Dipper had the journal positioned in his lap, he was more ready to take notes in it than read it in the event that the unknown object did show up. At the same time, Steven had prepared himself a small snack of macaroni, bereft of cheese since Amethyst had eaten it all, but still it was something to help pass the idle hours. For almost an hour, the boys sat in still, perfect silence, their shared resolve filling in any sort of anxious conversation they might have had. Exhaustion and fatigue were weighing heavily on both of them, to the point that both of them were having trouble even keeping their eyes open for every long, but still, they forced themselves to remain awake. After all, if no one else was going to take this matter seriously, then they had to and were going to, for everyone’s sake.

Yet as time continued to drag on and still nothing happened, the wearier in their mission both boys started to get. Unable to bear the deafening silence along with his own growing dread, Steven finally spoke up. “Dipper? Why are we doing this?” he asked, his tone rife with uncertainty.

“What do you mean?” Dipper asked, finally glancing up from the warp pad.

“I mean…” Steven let out a frustrated sigh before he continued. “It’s been two days since we saw that thing… If it hasn’t shown up by now, then how do we know its gonna show up at all?”

“Oh it’ll show up,” Dipper affirmed intently, his tone somewhat unhinged. “It has to. And when it does, we’re gonna get the Gems and show it to them and then they’ll finally, finally realize that we were right all along!”

Steven sucked in an anxious breath at this, his doubt starting to grow even more as he looked to the warp pad again. “But what if it doesn’t? What if… What if we were wrong and everyone else was right?”

“You can’t be serious, Steven,” Dipper scoffed, angrily glancing away from the young Gem at this very suggestion. “We both saw that thing with our own eyes! The Gems, Mabel, everyone thinks we’re crazy for thinking that it’s real, but we’re not! And we have to show them that we’re not!”

“I know, but this-” Steven threw his arms out wide as he rose to his feet. “Staying up all night and sitting around waiting for who knows what? This is crazy! Let’s just face it, Dipper; nothing’s going to come through that warp pad.”

Before Dipper could even argue this point however, Steven was inadvertently proven right as something crashed into the house not through the warp pad, but through the ceiling instead. Both of the boys let out startled gasps as the small round, pale green orb smashed into the ground only a few feet away from them. Its surface was smooth and almost marble-like, and despite the intent it had left in the floor, it soon picked itself up as four short, leg-like extensions emerged from it, all of them detached from the orb itself. The machine made a swiveling noise as it pushed itself upright, before it began to skitter its way towards the warp pad.

For a moment, both Steven and Dipper were too stunned with shock over this turn of events to even do or say anything about it. And then, at the exact same moment, they both started to laugh.

“Oh my gosh! This is it!” Dipper exclaimed with a huge, excited smile as he watched the orb crawled its way towards them. “This was that thing in the warp stream! We were right!”

“No way!” Steven gasped, just as exhilarated, especially as he glanced up towards the hole the orb had left in the ceiling then back to the machine itself. “It really did come from space! Oh man, the Gems totally are gonna freak out when they see-” The young Gem cut himself off with another gasp as the orb continued to clamor forward, his elation suddenly turning to concern. “Uh, I-I think it’s trying to get to the warp pad!”

“What? But why would it-” Dipper was interrupted as the orb attempted to squeeze its way between them, using its tiny legs to try and push them out of its way. “Hey!”

“Whoa there, little guy!” Steven exclaimed to the orb, putting his hands onto it an attempt to stop it. “Hold on for just a—Ow!” Without warning, the orb’s insistent behavior turned violent as it lashed out, landing a surprisingly hard kick to the young Gem’s chest and knocking him back. Somehow, Steven had managed to hold onto the orb throughout this, and he still clung onto it as tightly as it could, even as it continued to struggle against him. “Guys! Come out here and check this out!” he shouted towards the temple gate in the hopes that the Gems would hear him, not even noticing as a small hatch started to open up on the orb’s upper half, revealing a short, pointed nozzle.

“Whoa! Steven, look out!” Dipper shouted, rushing over with the journal still in hand. Before the machine could fire whatever projectile it had at its disposal at Steven, Dipper hit it hard with the side of the journal, sending it flying off of the young Gem and to the other side of the room. The impact actually managed to damage the orb somewhat, as a small crack now ran down its otherwise polished surface and a strange, unknown light teal liquid began pouring from it as it skittered about in a sudden panic.

“What do we do?! What do we do?!” Steven asked fearfully as he jumped to his feet.

“Uh… we should…” Dipper trailed off anxiously, only to gasp in surprise as the orb suddenly lunged towards the warp pad once more. “We gotta stop it! Come on!”

Steven didn’t argue as they both charged for the warp pad as well, making it there at the exact same moment as the orb. As the machine made contact with the pad, it lit up with its usual glow, a sign that it had no intentions of sticking around much longer. “Oh no, you don’t!” Steven exclaimed as both him and Dipper pounced on the orb, though this time, it oddly didn’t struggle. “Garnet! Amethyst! Pearl-”

The young Gem was cut off as, without warning, the warp pad activated, taking both of the boys and the orb with it. Still, they hardly noticed as they were propelled up the stream, both of them still clinging onto the orb in a mix of desperation and confusion. “I don’t understand!” Dipper exclaimed, glancing over the orb in bewilderment. “Where’s it trying to go?”

Steven didn’t have much of a chance to even ponder this question as he was suddenly struck from something from behind. “Huh?” he glanced back, only to let out a startled gasp to find that another orb, identical to the first one, had somehow entered the stream, followed by countless more. “T-they’re coming from all over?!”

Likewise, Dipper was also quite alarmed to see an influx of orbs coming in from the other side of the stream, all of them quickly converging towards the two of them. “Steven, they’re-” Before he could finish, all of the emerging orbs suddenly smashed into both of the boys seemingly all at once. The machines’ became only more aggressive as they roughly pushed the boys against each other before shoving them towards the edge of the stream in a clear attempt to remove them from the stream.

“Ow! Hey! Stop it!” Steven shouted at the orbs as him and Dipper attempt to push back against them, to little avail. The machines were surprisingly strong and enduring, and given their immense and ever-increasing numbers, it wasn’t long before they managed to partially push both boys out of the stream.

As soon as their heads were forced out of the stream and into the empty chill of warp space, both Dipper and Steven took in large gasps of air that didn’t really exist out there. Still, neither of them had much time to focus on that, as their attention was instantly garnished by something much more important. The otherwise sparse void was lit up with dozens, if not hundreds of different warp streams, each of them carrying mass amounts of the same orbs as they all seemed to converge at the same exact distant point.

“Wha—t-they’re all-” Dipper was unable to finish his stunned statement as the lack of air all around them quickly left him breathless. Alarmed and concerned by this, Steven wasted no time in trying to both them both back into the warp stream, even though the orbs were still trying to do the exact opposite.

“N-no!” Steven exclaimed, shoving their way back into the stream and allowing them both to momentarily catch their breaths. Dipper quickly joined him in fighting back against the persistent machines, though it was becoming painfully apparent that this was a battle they were going to lose. “We won’t let you—augh!”

Without warning, the orbs all suddenly pushed back hard against the boys, to the point that there was nothing they could do as they were both abruptly knocked out of the stream completely. They shared a gasp of panic as they were sent freely flying into the cold depths of warp space, with the only thing they had to mutually cling onto being the lone orb that they had both managed to get a firm hold on before being pushed out. For a moment, all the boys could do was exchange a stunned, fearful glance, both of them quickly realizing just how much danger they were in. Not only did the bitter cold atmosphere instantly start to get to them both, but the sparse amount of oxygen at their disposal only made things even worse, especially neither of them really knew how to conserve it.

“S-Steven!” Dipper gasped, immediately panicking as he desperately glanced around for any nearby warp stream. “W-we gotta find a-another-” He stopped short upon hearing a small, weak, somewhat unnerving chuckle come from the young Gem, who remained rather still as he floated along, dully holding onto the orb. “Steven, what-”

“W-we were right, Dipper,” Steven laughed, clearly in something of a daze as he grinned towards the orb. “We w-were right… And now…” His smile faded into a sort of morose, almost tearful sort of expression, one also marked with grim acceptance as he slowly let go of the orb. “W-we…. We’re gonna die… Two tired… frozen… little s-sadsacks…”

For a moment, all Dipper could really do was stare at Steven with the same kind of crestfallen despair, but even so, he wasn’t about to give up so easily. “N-no! We… we can’t!” he choked, realizing just how tight his chest suddenly felt, no doubt a sign of slow suffocation. “We… There… T-there has to be…” He trailed off, a stark shiver running through him that wasn’t just from the freezing cold. As horrifying as it was to think, they were both stranded in a place where they couldn’t possibly hope to survive for very long, all because of their own desperate, reckless desire to be proven right. And now, because of their stubbornness, the only thing they could prove for certain now was how foolish they both had been.

And yet, just as both boys were about to resign themselves to their cold, dark fate, something that was nothing sort of a miracle happened. As they continued to aimlessly float through warp space, a sudden pillar of light soared up right behind them both, a warp stream of all things, and not just any random one at that. For as they drifted close to it, a pair of hands reached out from inside of it, hands that were quick to grab onto both of the boys and pull them safely inside.

Garnet pulled both Steven and Dipper into a tight embrace against her, allowing them to cling onto her tightly as they both desperately gasped for air and shivered uncontrollably all the while. “Stay calm,” she advised, even if her own tone wasn’t as relaxed as it usually was. “Take slow deep, breaths.” Somehow, the boys were able to do as she commanded, their thoughts on nothing else but recovering from their near-death experience, even as Garnet retrieved the orb that she had pulled into the stream with them. “So this is what you both saw.”

Still clearly shell-shocked, the boys tentatively glanced up at the orb, both of them partially reviled at the very sight of it seeing as how it had nearly cost them both their lives. Dipper slowly nodded, looking away from the orb in slight shame while Steven looked to Garnet instead, hot tears of frustration forming in his eyes. “I don’t care about that!” he cried, wanting nothing more to do with any of it.

“I do,” Garnet replied intently, lifting her hand up to her visor as she appeared to wipe away what might have been tears. “I should have listened to you two. We promised we would start trusting you more, but we didn’t. I’m sorry.”

While the boys had mostly recovered, they still didn’t say much as they both looked up to Garnet with small, grateful smiles, something that she returned as she gently relinquished her secure hold on them. The moment of solidarity didn’t last long, however, as Pearl caught up with them in the stream, followed by Amethyst and Mabel not too much later.

“Finally!” Mabel exclaimed with clear exasperation. “There you guys are! What’s with you two, going on a crazy midnight warp run like that! The least you could have done is ask me to come along too!”

“Are you both okay?!” Pearl asked the boys with apt concern. “Amethyst heard the warp pad activate, and Mabel had come to the house looking for Dipper, and Garnet said you were both floating outside the stream and-” The white Gem’s hurried explanation was cut off as she took in a sharp gasp upon seeing the orb Garnet was holding. “W-what is that?”

“You mean… you don’t know?” Steven asked with a confused frown.

“Whoa…. That thing’s far out!” Amethyst remarked, quite intrigued with the machine.

“I wanna touch it!” Mabel grinned, reaching a hand towards it only to be stopped by Garnet.

“Not until we know for sure what it is,” the Gem leader said, her tone as firm as it usually was once again.

“It’s some kind of space robot!” Steven exclaimed. “There were tons of them! And it looked like they were all going to the same place.”

The Gems exchanged a dubious glance at this, none of them really sure what to make of this news. Yet even so, Dipper couldn’t help but speak up in order to address the elephant in the room, so to speak. “Ok, so I know this is probably a bad time for this, but…”

“Oh boy…” Mabel rolled her eyes, already anticipating what he was going to say. “Here it comes.”

“We told you so!” Dipper exclaimed with a triumphant smirk. “We were right all along and we told you so! Guess you guys will think twice about not believing us next time, huh?” He looked to the Gems, still grinning rather smugly, only to stop upon catching the incredulously glance they all sent his way. “Oh, uh…” he took in an anxious breath, looking away somewhat awkwardly. “L-like I said, bad time…”

It was only moments later that the group followed the orb in their possession to its intended destination: the Galaxy Warp. As soon as they made it their, the machine leapt out of Garnet’s grasp and made its way over to join all of the others as they crowded around and on top of the central warp pad. All of them were currently in the process of shooting their unknown teal liquid onto the pad, covering it completely as the Gems and the kids warily approached.

“What are they doing to the Homeworld warp?!” Pearl asked with growing worry.

“Dang, there’s a ton of them!” Amethyst remarked, her eyes wide as she tried in vain to count them all. Soon enough though, the machines all started to skitter back away from the pad, until, all at once, the liquid they had sprayed onto it vanished. What was left in its place was a warp pad that completely lacked all of the cracks and cervices that had previously disabled it, leaving it looking as good as new. “What? They fixed it?” Amethyst asked, bewildered.

“So what does that mean?” Mabel asked curiously as the Gems exchanged another stunned glance.

“I-” Pearl cut herself off with a nervous, fretful gasp. “I don’t know!”

They had no time to try and find out the truth, however, as the Homeworld warp suddenly light up, activating for the first time in centuries. A unified gasp of unbridled horror escaped the Gems, and likewise the kids were quite startled by it as well. But even so, Garnet kept a level head as usual as she quickly grabbed them all, leaping away from the warp pad and taking refuge behind one of the tall rocks surrounding the area. The Gem leader used one of her gauntlets to hold onto the stone, providing the kids with enough of a boost to serve as lookouts as the light from the warp pad cleared, revealing an unknown figure in its place.

It was rather easy to tell that this figure was a Gem, based on her unnaturally colored lime-green skin, as well as the rounded, triangular gemstone of the same color positioned on her forehead. Her hair was also in an oddly-triangular shape, its short, pale ends styled in three precise points. Really, everything about her was angular, from her pert, pointed nose, to the opaque visor over her eyes, to her unimpressed scowl. Her green coloration continued throughout her outfit, save for the light-yellow diamond on her chest and knee pads. She was rather slender and tall, her arms and legs both seemed to widen and flare out quite a bit past her joints, and even stranger was the fact that she lacked hands entirely. Instead, her “fingers” seemed to hover over the end of her arms, levitating obediently as they followed her every movement. She showed little signs of emotion as she glanced around, her fists on her hips as she stomped on the warp pad she had just arrived on experimentally.

“W-who is that?” Pearl whispered nervously.

“No idea,” Garnet replied, just as confused as they continued to observe this new Gem from a safe distance.

The green Gem turned around fully, still unaware of the groups presence as she lifted her hand. Her fingers somehow repositioned themselves, four of them forming an electronic screen littered with indecipherable information, which she navigated with her spare finger as she began to record a report. “Log date 3 1 2,” she began, her voice cold and calculating as she paid little mind to the orb crawling up her to perch upon her shoulder. “This is Peridot, reforming Earth hub maintenance check.”

“Peridot,” Steven repeated with a small smile as he glanced down to the other Gems. “Her name is Peridot!”

Of course, the Gems were quick to shush him, terrified of their cover being blown, but all the same, the kids were immensely curious with this turn of events. “Maintenance check?” Dipper muttered, raising a confused eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He got no real answer, however, as the Gems quieted him as well before turning their attention back to Peridot. “Warp repair was a success,” she reported, tapping away at her screen. “All 79 flash robinoids deployed and accounted for. Preparing to locate and manually reactivate Kindergar-” The green Gem suddenly gasped as she noticed the damaged orb, or rather, robinoids, at her feet. The machine sputtered as it attempted to crawl up her leg, before ultimately crumbling to the ground in defeat. Peridot gave it a critical glance, one that certainly wasn’t lost on Steven as he continued to observe her from afar.

“Aw, the little ones are like her babies!” he whispered with a charmed smile.

However, this couldn’t have been any further from the truth as Peridot’s calm demeanor turned to obvious annoyance with the damaged tech. Clearly, she had already determined that the machine’s usefulness had reached its end as she stepped on its struggling form, pushing her foot down on it until it completely and utterly popped.

All three of the kids let out a shocked, rather horrified gasp at this display of heedless destruction, as small scale as it was. “I-if that’s how she treats her babies then she really shouldn’t be allowed around them anymore!” Mabel remarked in an anxious whisper, feeling quite sorry for the now obliterated robinoids.

The Gems overheard this, and while they weren’t able to see what exactly was going on for themselves, Amethyst and Pearl silently lifted their hands to ask if it was alright for them to come out. The kids quickly waved them off though before joining them in complete hiding, now actively frightened at the prospect of being found by someone as apparently merciless as Peridot.

“Now to access the domestic warp…” the green Gem said as she began descending the Homeworld warp’s stairs. “Huh?” she stopped short, however, upon noticing the Crying Breakfast Friend sticker still stuck to the side of the pad. Tentatively, Peridot retrieved it, giving it a scrutinizing look of confusion before suspiciously glancing around. “This site may have been compromised,” she noted, wasting no time in hurrying back up onto the pad. Acting quickly, Peridot placed a small, glowing device onto the pad only seconds before warping back to wherever she had come from. Mere seconds after her flight, the device went off, instantly deactivating every last robinoid in the vicinity.

As all of the machines went limp around the Homeworld warp, the Gems and the kids slowly and carefully emerged from their hiding spot, making sure that the coast was fully clear before approaching the pad. There was no doubt there were all rather shaken up by what they had just seen, but the Gems in particular were in a severe panic over it all.

“T-they’re coming back…” Pearl said, her voice shaky and raw with an age-old fear. “I can’t do this! Not again!”

“We’re dead!” Amethyst shouted, crossing her arms. “We are so dead!”

“So… that was another Gem, right?” Steven asked anxiously. The Gems nodded in flighty unison, though all of them were far too encompassed in their own immense worries to pay the bewildered kids much attention.

“Did… did she really come from Homeworld?” Dipper asked, his mind racing over what all of this could possibly mean. “What was she trying to do?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Garnet cut in, her tone oddly dark as she approached the warp pad with heated intention. The others all gasped in alarm as she summoned her gauntlets, which grew to a massive size as she held them high over the warp pad. And then, in a heavy, powerful swing, she brought them down, completely crushing the Homeworld warp once again. “She’s not coming back!”

Needless to say that everyone was quite solemn and shaken upon returning to the temple after everything that had happened. No one really said much about it or asked too many questions, mostly because there was far too much to say and far too many questions to ask. Still, the Gems insisted that the twins spend the rest of the night at the temple with Steven, promising that they would take on the burden of explaining things to Stan the next morning. And indeed they did, though in reality, they left out most of the details behind this impromptu sleepover when explaining it to the conman, namely anything concerning the robinoids or Peridot. The twins were grateful for it too, seeing as how Stan didn’t really give them a very hard time about sneaking off to the temple in the middle of the night without telling him. Yet even so, all three of the kids were still in slight shock over the events of the previous night, which was why the Gems had suggested that they spend the next day taking their minds off of it while they began looking more into the matter. And while normally the kids would have argued against this idea and insist upon helping, they actually didn’t protest this proposal too much, considering the fact that Steven and Dipper in particular really needed to catch up on their sleep. So the boys spent the morning snoozing, and by the time they woke up in the early afternoon, Connie had arrived at the temple at Mabel’s invitation so they could all spend the rest of the day simply hanging out and relaxing like normal.

Still, the kids didn’t really stay up at the temple for too long, mostly because of the nearby warp pad serving as a grim reminder to the boys that they nearly met a shared end mere hours ago. So they headed down to the shack instead, and on the way down, Steven, Dipper, and Mabel filled Connie in on the details about what had happened last night. Of course, she was immensely curious about the whole ordeal, after they arrived at the shack and took up shop on the porch, their discussion of it gradually began to peter out. In place of talking about these stressful current events, their conversation eventually turned back to the Spirit Morph Saga, much to Steven’s interest, Mabel’s protest, and Dipper and Connie’s shared insistence that they continue reading it. And of course, the vote came to three to one in favor of starting the second book of the series: Welcome to the Wizard Wilds.

“Lisa ran to the steadily closing gates, her boots slamming into the rain-soaked mud under her and her heart pounding intensely,” Connie read, adding a dramatic flare to story, mostly for Steven’s sake seeing as how he was the one listening with the most rapt attention. “Archimicarus soared a protective distance above her, keeping a watchful eye out for-”

Her reading was suddenly interrupted by a low rumble afar in the distance, one that she was the only one to apparently hear as Steven and the twins apparently hadn’t noticed it. “This is a really good book!” the young Gem pointed out, urging her to continue.

“Uh… okay…” Connie frowned, but nonetheless, she continued reading. “Archimicarus soared a protected distance above her, keeping a watchful eye out for any of the shadow creatures that could have followed them from the forbidden forest. The coast seemed clear, but right as Lisa reached the village gates, she-”

Connie was cut off once again, this time by something that none of the others were able to overlook. A large, round sphere, one nearly identical in appearance to the robinoids from the previous night, crashed into the forest right beside the Mystery Shack from above, resulting in a short, yet sizable earthquake. The kids all gasped in surprise as they all jumped to their feet, especially as a set of stilted legs emerged from the larger robinoid and it pulled itself upright. Still, none of them had any time to question it whatsoever before the Gems arrived on the scene.

“What was that?!” Amethyst asked, her whip already summoned as she glanced around.

“I-it’s one of those robots from last night!” Dipper exclaimed, pointing to the robinoid as it crawled out of the forest towards them.

“Yeah, only this one’s not as cute or tiny. It’s like way bigger!” Mabel added, throwing her arms out wide for emphasis.

“What?!” Pearl asked in alarm as her and the other Gems looked to the hefty robinoid. As usual, Garnet was the first one to leap into action, jumping on front of the large orb and putting a stop to its advance with her gauntlets, even if it was clear that she wouldn’t be able to hold it back for long.

“Amethyst! Pearl!” the Gem leader shouted, prompting her teammates to hurry to her aid. The pair preformed a graceful leap high into the air, before coming down hard and fast at the robinoid from above. Their impact on it was powerful enough to shatter the machine completely, though Steven was quick enough to summon a bubble around himself, Connie, and the twins to protect them from the burst of sealing goo that resulted from the explosion.

“You ok?” Steven asked Connie with concern, dropping the bubble as he helped her to her feet.

“I love hanging out with you guys!” Connie remarked with an amazed smile over what she had just seen.

“I don’t get it,” Dipper said to the Gems as he glanced towards the downed robinoid. “I thought we got rid of Peridot last night. So then why are her machines still coming?”

“It’s hard to say…” Pearl mused. “I suppose it’s because she’s not done with… whatever it is she’s trying to do… Still, it’s odd… The robots from last night were nowhere near as big as this one…”

“Or as gooey!” Amethyst chimed with a rouge grin, revealing that she was covered head to toe in the robinoids’ liquid.

“Amethyst, we need to be careful,” the white Gem cautioned. “We still don’t know what this stuff is.” The purple Gem pouted for a brief moment, though her expression quickly turned into a wry, mischievous smile as a sudden idea came to her, one that Pearl was quick to catch onto. “Oh no,” she hissed, already taking a large step away from Amethyst. “Don’t you dare get that stuff on me!”

“Goop hug!” Amethyst shouted, holding her arms out wide as she began to chase after the panicked white Gem. “Come here, Pearl! Don’t you want a hug?!”

In the midst of this, however, Stan happened to emerge from the shack, having heard the crash and commotion from earlier. “Hey! What’s going on out-” The conman cut himself off, his anger dissipating into annoyed acceptance upon seeing the mess the destroyed robinoid had left in his yard. “You know, I could get mad about this, but after years of putting up with this sort of stuff, I really don’t think I have that kind of energy left in me anymore.”

“Stan!” Amethyst shouted, her playful grin growing even wider as she ran up to him and threw her arms around him, smearing his suit with the goo that was covering her. “Ha! Gotcha!”

“Ugh, Amethyst!” the conman growled in newfound frustration, scowling down at the mess on his clothes. “Why I oughta-” Stan cut himself off, taking in a deep, controlled breath. “Nope. I said I wasn’t gonna get mad and I’m not. I’m just gonna do this instead.” Without any warning, he suddenly shoved Amethyst off of the porch roughly, laughing in amusement as she clumsily fell to the ground.

“Hey!” the purple Gem protested, even if she was laughing just as hard. “Ah well, you just gave me a head start on getting back to Pearl!” The white Gem gasped upon hearing this as she began running in the opposite direction of the purple Gem, who was quick to give chase once more, still as drenched in as much goop as before.

“Grunkle Stan! That machine was one of the ones we were telling you about last night!” Dipper exclaimed fervently. “Turns out it was real after all, even if some people didn’t think so at first.” He sent Mabel a smug smirk, only for her to retort by petulantly sticking her tongue out at him.

“Kid, I don’t care what that thing is as long as it gets out of my yard,” Stan deadpanned. “Broken, goo-covered garbage like that is bad for business.”

“We’ve got it covered,” Garnet responded with a sparse thumbs up, even if Amethyst and Pearl were still chasing each other around.

“That’s all I ask,” Stan remarked dryly, turning to head back inside. “Now if you need me, I’ll be inside cleaning this gunk out of my suit. Oh, and if any more magical alien robots fall from the sky, count me out of it!”

Without sparing another word, the conman left, slamming the door behind him and leaving the Gems to do their work. “Peridot….”  Connie spoke up thoughtfully, addressing the others. “Isn’t that the Gem you guys were telling me about? The one that’s trying to come to Earth?”

“Yeah,” Steven nodded. “We stopped her last night, but… I guess she can still shoot stuff here from space, including these things that are trying to do… something?”

“It’s not trying to do anything now,” Garnet said, looking over at the fallen robinoid with apparent distain.

“But… shouldn’t we try to figure out what it came here for?” Dipper asked, relatively concerned.

“We destroyed it,” the Gem leader remarked, picking a stray broken piece of the robot up off the ground before tossing it aside. “That’s all that mattered.”

The kids exchanged a doubtful glance upon hearing this, none of them very sure that the matter was that simple. Still, they didn’t get much of a chance to question it as Amethyst suddenly plowed into Garnet, cheerfully embracing her and smothering her side with goo. “Goop hug!” the purple Gem quipped, chuckling as Pearl approached, sullen and covered in the unsavory liquid herself. Garnet smirked as she pulled the white Gem into the team embrace, regardless of the goop drenching all three of them.

As it turned out, the next several days were only plagued by even more robinoids plummeting down to Earth from space. Fortunately, the Gems were privy to each ones’ arrival thanks to Garnet’s future vision, and they didn’t hesitate to track down and dispatch each and every one of them without delay, not even wanting to think about what the consequences might be if they didn’t. Steven accompanied them on most of these mini-missions, and occasionally Dipper and Mabel did too, even if each one only consisted of finding a robinoid and beating it into submission. This process of hunt and destroy was easy enough, but it was quickly starting to wear down on the Gems, especially since it seemed as though there was really no end to it in sight.

Still, whenever there did happen to be a break in this wild storm of robinoids, the kids took advantage of it to rest and catch their breaths from the tremulous passage of recent events. Steven, Dipper, and Mabel had taken to spending the early afternoon up at the temple, and instead of discussing the robinoids, or Peridot, or anything related to any of that, they once again tried to focus on discussing the Spirit Morph Saga.

“Come on, Steven, me and Connie have already been over this with you like, a million times already,” Dipper began, slightly exasperated. “The order goes like this: first there’s The Unfamiliar Familiar, then Welcome to the Wizard Wilds, then Overneath the Underworld, and finally it ends with Destiny’s End. Got it?”

“Um… I think so…” Steven said, looking over the set of books on the table with a frown. “I just have one question… What’s a familiar again?”

Dipper let out a loud, frustrated groan upon hearing this, one that Mabel shared, though for completely different reasons as she flopped onto the couch. “Ugh, this is so boring!” she complained, lolling her head to the side. “Are we ever gonna stop talking about these lame nerd books?”

“They’re not lame, Mabel!” Dipper protested defensively. “They’re really smart and well-written and interesting and deep. Until the last one, of course. That one sucks.”

“Well, I like all of them so far,” Steven cut in with a small smile. “Though I guess I’ll have to take you and Connie’s word for it on the last book…”

“Who cares?” Mabel stuck her tongue out languidly. “You guys going on and on about them almost makes me wish that another one of those marble things would show up just so something cool would finally happen!”

Of course, only seconds after she had said this, a distant rumble rattled the house. The Gems emerged from the temple gate almost as soon as it happened, the telltale aggravation on their faces filling the kids in on everything they needed to know. “Yes!” Mabel exclaimed with relief. “The timing of that couldn’t have been more perfect!”

“Augh! What is with these things?!” Amethyst growled, pulling at her hair in immense annoyance. “This is like the fifth one this week!”

“We’ll find it in the desert!” Garnet exclaimed, rushing to the warp pad. “Let’s go!”

The other two Gems were quick to follow, and sure enough, the kids weren’t too far behind either. While the Gems warped off first, Steven did so for himself and the twins very shortly after, to the point that their respective arrivals in the desert were only mere seconds apart. Still, as the kids arrived, they found that the Gems had already engaged the robinoid there. Amethyst and Garnet were pushing on it from the sides, while Pearl had perched herself on top of it and stabbed it continually with her spear in the hopes that its marble surface would crack.

“Stop! Coming! Here! You! Stupid! Balls!” the white Gem shouted, throwing her spear down hard with each word.

“Yeah! Let it out!” Amethyst hollered, lashing her whip out and coiling it around the robot. “Get crazy! Ha!” With a heavy tug, the purple Gem pulled the robinoid forward, causing it to teeter a bit, though it still didn’t fall.

“Guys! Wait! Stop!” Steven cried as he rushed forward along with the twins. “How many more of these things are you gonna have to fight?”

“We don’t know!” Pearl exclaimed, beyond stressed. “They just keep coming and coming and we don’t even know what they are! We don’t know anything!”

“Hey, welcome to the club,” Dipper remarked rather sarcastically.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Amethyst asked, raising a caustic eyebrow.

“He means… well, the three of us don’t know anything all the time,” Steven replied with a small, understanding smile. “It can be frustrating sometimes, yeah, but its ok to not know everything.”

“Trust us,” Mabel added blithely. “You guys will get used to being left out of the loop in no time! Plus its actually pretty fun, cause it means you get to experience all the fun of being surprised every time you have a bombshell secret dropped on you, just like we get to whenever you guys drop one on us.”

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly say that learning bombshell secrets is always ‘fun’,” Dipper said with a shrug. “More like ‘shocking and most of the time really confusing’ but still.”

“But no one even knows what these things are here to do!” Pearl interjected with a tired sigh. “So it’s not like we can even figure the truth out from anyone!”

“Well… what about that?” Steven asked, nodding to the robinoid itself. “No one would know more about what it’s supposed to be doing than itself.”

“…What?” the white Gem asked, dumbfounded.

“Whoa, Steven’s got a point!” Mabel exclaimed with a newfound grin. “We could just follow the little guy and see where he wants to go! It’ll be like playing follow the leader, only with a big ol’ mysterious robot instead!”

“Hold it,” Amethyst cut in with a scoff of disbelief. “Are you guys nuts?!”

“Who knows what could go wrong?” Pearl added, adamantly disagreeing with this plan.

“Well, its gotta be easier than just aimlessly destroying these things every time a new one shows up, right?” Dipper asked, seeing no apparent problems with the idea himself.

“He’s right,” Garnet spoke up, still pressed up against the robinoid. “We can’t keep fighting these things forever. Well, we can, but I don’t want to. Let’s to it their way.”

“Yeah!” Steven cheered enthusiastically, wrapping his arms around the twins’ shoulders in celebration. “Let’s follow the funky flow!”

“We’re dead,” Amethyst remarked dryly, exchanging an uncertain glance with Pearl. Still, the Gems didn’t argue as they climbed up on top of the robinoid first, the kids squeezing onto it after them. It was a rather tight fight, and given the droid’s already spherical surface, remaining steady on it was something of a challenge, but they all somehow managed to stay on top of it without falling off.

“Alright, big guy,” Steven said to the robinoid, giving it a solid pat. “Mush!”

At this, the droid began to skitter forward, somewhat unsteady thanks to the group of passengers now riding on top of it, but even so it slowly made its way over to the nearby warp pad. The kids exchanged apprehensive smiles as their plan was sent into action, all three of them hoping that it would provide them with the answers they had been looking for since all of this began.

As soon as it made it to the warp pad, the robinoid teleported off, taking its large crowd of passengers along with it. Upon arriving at its intended destination, the entire group let out a collective gasp to see some very familiar darkened, desolate canyon walls surrounding them.

“Kindergarten…” Garnet muttered, clearly caught off guard by this.

“But why here?” Pearl asked with apt concern. “This site has been damaged enough by the Gems that were incubated here 6,000 years ago! That’s it! It’s confirmed. These things are up to no good!” With a determined scowl, the white Gem summoned her spear and prepared to strike the robinoid, but fortunately, she was stopped before she could.

“Wait!” Steven exclaimed, holding his hands up. “We don’t even know what it’s doing here. Can’t we just… see where it wants to go?”

“Yeah, I mean, we’ll never find out what’s its doing here if we don’t at least follow it some of the way, right?” Dipper added with a shrug.

The Gems exchanged another uncertain glance, but as usual, Garnet was the one to have the final say on the matter. “Hm… Their way,” she nodded tersely. With an exasperated sigh, Pearl pushed her spear back into her Gem, which in turn, prompted the robinoid to get moving again.

The droid leapt from the warp platform and onto ground level, going at its usual pace as meandered about the Kindergarten, clearly having a particular destination in mind, even if no one knew where that could be. “What does it want here?” Pearl asked in an anxious whisper, as if she was afraid that the very sound of her voice could disrupt something in this scarred place.

“Maybe it just wants to see where Amethyst was made,” Steven suggested.

“Maybe it should mind its own business,” Amethyst remarked bitterly, crossing her arms.

“Oh, I don’t like this at all…” Pearl muttered, looking around the ominous walls of the Kindergarten apprehensively.

“Aw, come on, you guys,” Mabel quipped as brightly as usual. “You gotta admit this is kind of fun. Riding around on a nifty orb guy through a dark, scary Gem place? Way more interesting than sitting around talking about nerd books all day, if you ask me,” she said, sending a lightly teasing smirk Dipper’s way, though he merely returned it with an aggravated eye roll.

“Eh, actually, I’m kinda on Pearl with this one,” Amethyst said with an uneasy frown.

“Aw, but can’t you feel this guy’s funky flow?” Steven asked, patting the robinoid with a small smile. “He’s a funk master.”

“…I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Pearl said, her tone tight and rife with uncertainty.

The conversation was soon interrupted however, as the robinoid suddenly came to an abrupt halt right in the middle of the Kindergarten, much to everyone’s shared confusion. “Why’d you stop, little buddy?” Steven asked the droid, running his hands over its smooth surface.

“Something’s happening,” Garnet anticipated, not wasting any time in grabbing both the kids and her teammates and leaping off of the robinoid as a precaution. And she did so just in time too, as the droid’s legs retreated back into its body and a small burst of energy struck the ground underneath of it as it continued to hover in midair. Said section of the ground suddenly dissolved away without warning as the robinoid seamlessly shifted into a pyramid shape to accommodate the square hole it had created. The group let out a muted gasp as they watched the robinoid descend into the hole, fitting into it perfectly as it emitted a bright glow. The kids briefly looked to each other with growing excitement upon seeing this, especially as the droid began to sink into the hole, leaving the gap open for them to follow it down to wherever it had went.

“See?” Steven grinned to the Gems as they all ran to the edge of the hole. “I knew we’d find something cool! Let’s go!”

Without any further delay, the young Gem leapt right into the hole, Mabel eagerly following right behind him. “Woo! This is just like the Bottomless Pit, only hopefully this one won’t be so, well, bottomless!” she quipped cheerfully. “Come on, bro-bro!”

“Wait, you guys! I don’t know if this is such a good-” Dipper���s protest was cut off as Mabel suddenly grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into the hole along with her, leaving the Gems behind in absolute shock over what the kids were doing. Still, they were quick to rush in after them, as nervous about this whole situation as they were.

Soon enough, the kids made a safe landing on the still descending-robinoid, the Gems joining them mere moments later. “Hey, guys! Going down?” Steven asked with a joking smirk, one that soon faded upon noticing his guardians’ shared stunned expressions. “Are… are you ok?”

“What is all this…?” Pearl whispered, looking to the massive clusters of wires lining the walls around them.

“Wait, so… you guys have never seen any of this stuff before?” Dipper asked with growing concern. After all, if the Gems themselves didn’t know what any of this was, then there was certainly no way for any of them to know what they were getting themselves into.

“Nah, man,” Amethyst shook her head, her expression rarely tense and fretful. “This is just as new to us as it is to you guys.”

The kids took in a shared anxious breath upon hearing this, their excitement quickly starting to wear down into the ongoing worry the Gems already had. Still, they didn’t want to judge the situation so quickly without knowing for sure what was going on. And, as the platform they were on came to a halt at the bottom of the hole, it seemed as though they were finally about to find that out.

The robinoid had stopped at a large, open, hexagonal room, the perimeter of which lit up in a pale green as the droid arrived at it. At the end of the room, a hand shaped pedestal rose up from the ground, a yellow diamond resting upon its palm. The group soon caught onto an odd swishing sound from beneath them, prompting them to look over the edge of the platform to see that its triangular tip drip down to form a small robinoid. The miniscule robot steadily made its way up to the room, unaware of the group watching on as it skittered up to the hand pedestal, firmly placing itself upon it and causing it to activate. An array of unintelligible data appeared on the walls of the room as the crystal at its core projected a large, wide monitor. And on that monitor was none other than Peridot herself.

Taking in a shared gasp of alarm, the Gems quickly grabbed the kids and jumped off of the platform so the green Gem wouldn’t be able to see them. And as she began to deliver another report, the group took refuge just out of sight.

“Established Gem Projection Link with control room,” Peridot began dully, her fingers forming another small screen on her end. “Plug Robinoid has successfully landed on planet Earth and entered the Prime Kindergarten Control Room in Facet Five. Will now proceed to preform status check of the Kindergarten.”

As Peridot’s screen turned itself around, the Gems released the breaths they had been holding upon realizing that she was still fortunately unaware of their presence. “Ugh, what’s she doing here?!” Amethyst whispered, her eyes wide with fear.

“Is she trying to reactivate the Kindergarten?!” Pearl gasped in immense alarm. “Doesn’t she know it’ll destroy all life on Earth?!”

“Why don’t we just ask her?” Steven suggested simply.

“Yeah! I’m sure she’d tell us all about it if we just asked,” Mabel eagerly agreed.

“Are you guys serious?!” Dipper asked in a disbelieving whisper. “That’s a horrible idea!”

“Dipper is right,” Garnet said tersely. “We’re facing an enemy we don’t know with technology we don’t understand. This isn’t the time to be asking questions.”

“Really sounds like it is…” Steven muttered, pouting lightly.

“Ok, here’s the plan,” Garnet began, turning to her teammates. “We can’t let her see us, so we wait for an opening. When she’s distracted, we destroy the power source on the far wall. The kids stay here!”

As the Gems continued planning their assault, however, the failed to notice the kids coming up with a plan of their own. Though for the sake of being discreet, Steven and Mabel did so without really using any words, instead just exchanging determined nods and smiles concerning what they intended on doing. And while this was lost on Dipper at first, it didn’t take him too long to realize what their dangerous plan was. “Oh no, you guys,” he quickly spoke up, adamantly disagreeing with the very idea. “We’re not gonna-” He didn’t really get a chance to finish, however, as Mabel abruptly grabbed him by the wrist once again and pulled him along with her and Steven as they started making their way for the control room. “O-ok, I guess we are then!”

The Gems had only just finished preparing themselves for their own plan, however, as they noticed that the kids were missing, and were indeed, scaling the nearby wires to go meet the green Gem for themselves. The trio gasped in exasperated alarm, but they didn’t dare try to stop them, lest they blow their cover completely, even if the kids were already well on their way to do just that.

“Now accounting for all operational injectors,” Peridot continued her report, unaware of kids’ arrival since her monitor was turned away from them. “Checking for aberrations in perimeter.” As she spoke, the kids were startled as two very large, robotic hands, independent of any sort of arms or wrists, rose up from the ground nearby. The pair of hands got to work on activating a pair of panels on the adjacent walls, which brought ejected a group of cylinders from the ceiling. “Ugh, this Gem tech is simply archaic…” Peridot sneered dryly as she continued her work.

“I don’t know, I think it looks pretty cool,” Steven suddenly spoke up with a small smile.

“Yeah, it’s all sparkly and futuristicy,” Mabel added just as brightly, ignoring Dipper as he facepalmed in exasperation over their shared innocent friendliness. “You guys really know what you’re doing with this stuff!”

For a moment, the entire control room went silent, the robotic hands freezing in place before they suddenly lifted from the walls altogether. Peridot’s monitor swiveled around just as quickly, her eyes wide with alarm and confusion as she noticed the trio standing before her.

“Hi!” the young Gem greeted warmly as Mabel waved to the green Gem while Dipper glanced away nervously. “I’m Steven, and this is Dipper and Mabel!”

Peridot remained silent as her screen drew in closer to the kids, her surprise turning into annoyed confusion as she looked over her log once more. “There appears to be an infestation of ‘Stevens’, ‘Dippers’, and ‘Mabels’ in the Kindergarten,” she reported, her tone rather cross.

“…What?” Dipper asked flatly, quite bewildered by the green Gem’s odd logic.

“Aw, we’re not so bad once you get to know us!” Steven quipped as Mabel let out an amused laugh.

Peridot glared back at the trio, raising an eyebrow as she looked over them with slight scrutiny. “And how many more Stevens, Dippers, or Mabels are present in this area?”

“Oh, its just us!” Mabel informed her with a blithe grin. “Well, us and the-”

Dipper hurriedly cut her off by slapping a hand over her mouth to silence her. “Uh, like she said, i-it’s just us! N-nobody else!” he exclaimed with a very nervous laugh, remembering well just how much the Gems wanted to remain unseen in all this. And while he didn’t really understand exactly why, he figured that, based on Peridot’s apparently unconcerned attitude so far, that not mentioning them probably would be for the best.

“Hm, well that’s a relief,” Peridot remarked, seeming to buy it as she looked over her screen once more. “So tell me: have Stevens, Dippers, and Mabels replaced humans as the dominant species on Earth?’

“What?” Mabel chuckled, bemused by the green Gem’s apparent lack of understand. “We are humans, silly!”

“Oh really?” Peridot asked, her tone bored as she raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, but there’s lots of other humans too!” Steven exclaimed enthusiastically. “There’s my dad, Connie, Mr. Pines, Soos, Wendy, Sadie, Lars, Onion… I think. But yeah, lots of people, including us!”

“Hm…” the green Gem mused, rolling her eyes. “I suppose it is impressive that your kind managed to survive this long… Even if you won’t for very much longer.”

“Whoa, hold on, what?!” Dipper interjected, quite alarmed by the implications of this, though Steven spoke up before Peridot could divulge any further.

“Now we get to ask you a question,” the young Gem addressed the green Gem with a coy grin. “What are you doing?”

“Oh,” Peridot began, her tone as aloof as ever as her screen turned itself back around. “Just picking up where we left off…”

The kids didn’t have the opportunity to ask her to elaborate, however, as one of the robotic hands hovered over them, quickly taking the form of a tight fist, one that raised up high with every intention of crushing all three of them. And yet, as Peridot brought it down, the kids were fortunately saved at the last second by Garnet, who thankfully intervened by catching the massive fist with her gauntlets before tossing it aside. The green Gem immediately took notice of this, her monitor turning around as she let out a sharp, startled gasp. “A Gem?!” she exclaimed in disbelief, though her surprise only increased as Amethyst and Pearl leapt into the control room, standing protectively before their kids with their weapons at the ready. “Ah! More?!” Peridot cried fearfully. “But the Red Eye didn’t report the presence of any Gems on this planet!”

“That’s because we destroyed it!” Pearl exclaimed with boldness far removed from her earlier panic.

“Y-you what?!” Peridot gaped, frantically looking to her screen. “So you were the ones who—B-but the records say that Gems were wiped out on Earth! Wait a minute… you’re the ones who have been destroying my Plug Robinoids! Are you the reason the Homeworld warp is down again?! Is this your bizarre icon?!” she demanded, holding up an image of the Wailing Waffle sticker on her screen. “Augh! Why do you keep destroying my things?!”

“Because we are the Crystal Gems!” Pearl proclaimed fiercely, pointing her spear at the green Gem’s monitor. All the while, the kids could only watch this exchange with shared, stunned fear, unable to even think about whatever mistake they might have made as the white Gem continued her brave declaration. “We’re still alive, and we’re still the guardians of this planet and all its living creatures!”

Peridot’s fury turned to blank confusion at this, as if she had no idea what the white Gem had been talking about. “The… Crystal Gems…?” Before the green Gem could ask any further questions, however, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl courageously leapt into action. With fierce battle cries, they began a brutal assault on her hand constructs, lashing and beating away at them aggressively, much to Peridot’s immense frustration. “Stop!” she shouted hotly. “How dare you! I’m doing this one way or another! You’re just making it really difficult!” The green Gem seethed with visible rage as the Gems managed to take out one of her robotic hands with ease, crumbling it to ineffective bits.

“Now do you guys see just how bad of an idea this was?” Dipper asked Steven and Mabel dryly amidst all of this chaos.

“Yeah…” they both admitted in awkward unison, glancing away from the fray with clear regret.

“Amethyst, now!” Garnet shouted to the purple Gem as she went high and noticed her whip was wrapped around the other large hand.

“Destroy!” Amethyst growled, throwing the hand down hard at the power source at the back wall. The crystal instantly shattered, but not before Peridot managed to get one more word in edgewise.

“I’m reporting this, you CLODS!” she shouted angrily before her monitor vanished and the control room went dark, its link to Homeworld finally severed.

“Is… is it over?” Amethyst asked her teammates tentatively. Garnet and Pearl exchanged a brief, uncertain glance, but after a moment, they both let out a shared sigh of relief. Still, everything wasn’t entirely over, especially as the Gems approached the kids, giving them a round of exasperated, unimpressed stares.

“Ok, right off the bat, I wanna say don’t look at me,” Dipper quickly interjected. “This was all their idea, after all,” he nodded to Steven and Mabel, who met the Gems’ caustic gazes rather anxiously.

“Ok…” Steven admitted with a sigh. “So we might have gone… a little far this time…”

“A little?” Pearl raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms.

“Mmm, ok… a lot,” Mabel corrected with a frown. “But how were we supposed to Peridot was actually kind of crazy?”

“Really?” Dipper asked dryly. “You couldn’t have gotten that from how she totally destroyed one of her own robots the other night?”

“Well, you two weren’t completely wrong,” Garnet spoke up with a small, reassuring smile. “We did learn something new from your decisions.”

“And that something is…?” Steven asked curiously.

“…We have no idea,” the Gem leader admitted. “But we’ll figure it out eventually.”

“Alright!” the kids cheered with relieved unison before Garnet cut in once more.

“But yeah, this was a pretty bad idea.”

“Aw, man…” Steven and Mabel both sighed in defeat as Dipper merely rolled his eyes knowingly. Still, before the group left, they all looked over the wrecked control room once last time, both the kids and the Gems all silently mulling over the exact same thing. It was indeed as Garnet had said; they had discovered something new through this risky encounter.

And yet, only time would tell if they would ever really figure out what it all truly meant.

Next:  

[charllieeldridge]

12 Best Things To Do in Medellín, Colombia

In this article, you’ll learn the top 12 things to do in Medellín, including the best places to visit and the top attractions. 

Watch a football match, go hiking in a nearby park, visit the local communities, party all night, or even put down some temporary roots here as many digital nomads have done recently.

Nature, food, culture, history, sports, there’s something for everyone in Medellín! 

Our Experience in Medellín

The city of Medellín has shed its rough skin as one of the most notoriously dangerous cities on earth, but today many parts of the city are safe, and travellers who have their wits about them need not worry too much about crime or violence.

There are still areas in Medellín where you simply don’t go, but these places are quite easy to avoid.

For us, we felt safe the entire week that we spent in the city and this feeling of security was just one of the many ways that we were surprised by the “City of Eternal Spring”. Not to mention, the fact that there are so many fun things to do in Medellín!

Travellers and digital nomads alike had told us how fantastic the city of Medellín is and while we did enjoy our time there, we didn’t feel that it had the immediate charm that we have felt in some other places (particularly other cities and towns around Colombia).

The only “central” area for tourists is El Poblado.

Sure, it’s packed with cafes, vegetarian restaurants, yoga studios and other amenities which are great for the weary traveller, but it’s also packed with gringos, backpackers and all-night partiers.

If you’re into that, great! If you want a more authentic Medellín experience, most locals and expats would tell you to venture elsewhere, or at least find the cool bars in Poblado (like Social Bar) that are frequented by Paisas (people from the Antioquia region of Colombia).

Goats Having a Drink at Social Bar

Still, the city does have a particular vibe and it’s inhabited by some of the friendliest people anywhere. There are wonderful day trips from the city and there are some charming barrios (neighbourhoods) to explore.

Just don’t go to Medellín with the vision of wide leafy boulevards, Spanish colonial architecture and quiet green plazas.

This is a congested place and while you can find some respite in the Botanical Gardens and up at Parque Arvi, for the most part, Medellín is a bustling, noisy, chaotic (but, fun!) South American city.

There is definitely enough to keep you busy here for 5 – 10 days.

We’ve created this list of 12 things to do in Medellín for travellers, but if you plan to live in the city, you will find countless events, concerts and festivals that you can take part in nearly every day!

So, here it goes, 12 things to see and do in Medellín, Colombia.

1. Visit Comuna 13 and See the Street Art

This is one of the few comunas (districts) in the city which has undergone a famously successful transformation. This is one of the more interesting places to see in Medellín for sure. 

After the construction of escalators and a series of street art paintings around the neighbourhood, crime levels in Comuna 13 dropped and it is now a safe(ish) and interesting part of the city to explore.

Some crime still happens here, so while you’re probably ok to head to Comuna 13 independently and ride the escalators yourself, it’s still recommended to go on a tour with a local, and avoid nighttime visits.

One such tour is the highly-rated Comuna 13 Graffiti Tour which doesn’t just explain all of the best street art, but also about the history of the neighbourhood and how the transformation was so successful. Click here for details about that tour.

Getting There:

If you want to do the tour, check out Comuna13Tours on Get Your Guide, otherwise, you can take the metro. Hop on at Poblado Station and ride the A-Line north. Then change at San Antonio station and head west on the ‘B’ line getting off at the final station called San Javier.

From San Javier you can walk to the escalators in about a half-hour, or hop on one of the public buses that say “Escalas Electricas” in the window (1,000 COP, $0.33). Click here to find Comuna 13 on the map.

2. Check Out Parque Arvi

If you’re wondering what to do in Medellín to escape the hustle and bustle of the city, Parque Arvi is your answer.

This was probably the highlight of our entire stay and is one of the best things to do in Medellin. Perhaps it was the fact that we were so used to living in the Caribbean that we simply weren’t prepared for the chaos of city life, but this quiet, lush park was a nice respite from the city.

This greenspace is 39,500 acres (16,000 hectares), and offers 54 kilometers (33 miles) of walking trails! 

Ride the metrocable to the park and once there, you can enjoy a quaint little farmer’s market just as you step off at the last station. From there, you can go for a hike in the cloud forest.

There are a couple of well-marked trails that loop back to the starting point, where you can end your visit at one of the best vegetarian restaurants in Colombia (Cable a Tierra).

For the hike, get off at Parque Arvi and follow the only road you see up and around a rocky bend to the right. In about 5 minutes you’ll meet the main road where you’ll find a group of restaurants (including Cable a Tierra Vegetarian).

Turn right up the hill following the main road. Once you get to the police station you’ll see a sign for the Flora Trail on the left. This path is very well signed and eventually loops back to the main road where you can get back to the restaurants and metrocable station.

Getting to Parque Arvi:

Get on at Poblado Metro Station and ride the A-Line all the way to Acevedo station. From there you can hop on the K-Line metrocable on the same ticket, go to the Santo Domingo station and change to the L-Line metrocable.

Here you’ll have to pay again. Take the ‘L’ all the way to the end at Parque Arvi and get off (Total for metroline & metrocable: 2,150 pesos or $0.68). Click here to find Parque Arvi on the map. Current fares for the metro and metrocable can be found here. 

3. Ride The Metrocable

It may sound strange, but one of the top Medellín attractions is the metrocable. 

These gondolas climb the mountains on the northern and western ends of Medellín and they not only help residents cut their commute time in half, but they’ve also successfully connected some of the poorer barrios with Medellín’s economic core.

This means that more of the money from the middle-class of downtown has been able to funnel up towards the hillside neighbourhoods and this has helped with jobs and with the distribution of wealth in the city.

The people are very proud of the entire metro system and so they should be.

For travellers, riding the metrocable is a cheap and fun way to see more of the outlying areas of Medellín. Both the K-Line (Arvi) and the J-Line (San Javier) climb over some lively and fascinating barrios.

While you’re cruising above the neighbourhoods you’ll hear live music and see people going about their day-to-day lives. These gondolas are fantastic. The ride to Parque Arvi is the most beautiful one you can do.

4. Check Out El Poblado

This is most likely where you’ll stay and while it’s commonly referred to as “Gringolandia” it’s not a bad place to hang out! We were actually pleasantly surprised by El Poblado.

For one, it’s safe to walk around here day and night. Another thing that really surprised us was that while most of the vegetarian restaurants and hostel bars were packed with backpackers, some of the funkier local joints were frequented by mostly Paisa people.

This made it easy to meet local friends over a couple of cold beers.

Social Bar was our favourite place for sure, but also 37 Park was a funky bar with lots of local people and tourists all drinking and having a good time together.

Just walking around El Poblado was a lot of fun. There are some parks where people meet for pre-drinking (although legally you can’t actually sit down and drink in a park and you may get kicked out by police).

There were also free outdoor gyms, one of which was aptly named “The Prison” because it looked like a jailhouse gym with cement barbels and a few rougher-looking characters hoisting them.

For coffee, there are numerous boutique cafes in the area, check out Pergamino or Cafe Velvet.

Getting There:

You’re probably going to stay in Poblado, so you will really be “getting back there” after exploring other parts of the city, rather than “getting there”.

But taxis are cheap in Medellín so you can always get back to central Poblado for very little (under $7), otherwise, get off at the metro station “Poblado” and walk 15 minutes up the hill the central El Poblado.

Where to Stay in El Poblado

Yolo Hostel Medellín – from $28 / night, “Exceptional” rating of 9.5/10. Click here for the latest price on Booking.com.

Macondo Guesthouse – from $54 / night, “Exceptional” rating of 9.5/10. Click here for the latest price on Booking.com.

Binn Hotel – from $63 / night, “Superb” rating of 9.1/10. Click here for the latest price on Booking.com.

* We stayed at Maloka Hostel in the private rooms and enjoyed our stay there. The location was excellent. Click here to see the latest price on Booking.com.

If you’d rather stay in a private or shared apartment, check out Airbnb for accommodation, and get your discount here. 

☞ Click here to see all available accommodations in Medellín on Booking.com

5. Join a Free Walking Tour (what to do in Medellín when you first arrive)

In my opinion, this is one of the best things to do in Medellín.

Everyone who visits the city should definitely take part in this tour and preferably on the first day or two of arriving. The tour gives travellers a much better understanding of not just Medellín and Paisa people, but of Colombia as a whole.

For more information on the tour, check out my recent post: Why You Shouldn’t Miss The Medellín Walking Tour. The meeting place is on the pedestrian bridge at Alpujarra Station.

While the cost of the tour is free, it’s tip-based, so you should expect to leave a few dollars at the end.

6. Explore Parque Botero

This park is a cool place to hang out and spend a couple of hours in the afternoon. There are dozens of sculptures by Fernando Botero, as well as the Museo de Antioquia and a really nice cafe that serves delicious cold brew coffee.

The park is also very close to one of the dodgier parts of Medellín, but it is well-policed. The combination of armed officers and shady characters makes for a safe, but a fun place to people watch. This area is one of the more popular places to visit in Medellín, for both locals and tourists. 

Getting There:

Ride the A-Line north from Poblado Station and get off at Parque Berrio. Parque Botero is just around the corner of the unmissable, checkered Palacio de la Cultura Rafael Uribe Uribe. Click here to find it on the map.

7. Visit Parque Berrio

Not to be confused with Parque Botero, Parque Berrio is the first park you’ll see when you get off of the metro at Parque Berrio Station. The cool thing about this park is that in the afternoon, groups of people congregate here to play games and music.

Nobody is really looking for money. In the late afternoon, there will be a few musicians that just randomly start playing and they always form crowds around them. People buy beers from the local tiendas (shops) and before you know it, there are a few mini-concerts going on in the park.

The locals here are friendly and having a good time so it’s the perfect place to meet some new friends and have a couple of beers.

While you’re not technically supposed to stop and drink in Medellín parks, no police officers seem to mind here and they’ll often be enjoying the music with the groups.

You’ll also find some street performers and people playing chess and dominos here on some nights.

Getting There:

Hop on the A Line metro at Poblado station and ride it north, getting off at Parque Berrio Station. Walk down the stairs and you’re in Parque Berrio. There’s a nice landmark church on the far end that you can check out as well. Click here to find Parque Berrio on the map.

8. See a Football (Soccer) Match

If you’re lucky enough to be in Medellín for a football match, don’t miss it! Watching a game is one of the top things to do in Colombia as a whole. 

The energy in the stands is incredible. You should head to the stadium a day or two before to pick up tickets, which are pretty cheap by tourist standards. A good seat in a safe area of the stadium will cost you around $15. This is definitely one of the coolest things to do in Medellín!

Most locals will recommend that you don’t stay in the south area (Popular Sur) as that is where the crazy fans are and it can get a bit wild.

We had seats in the Oriental Alta section and it was close to the loud fans, but far enough away that we could still enjoy the game without getting stomped by loco locals.

Read More: Canadians in Colombia – Experiencing our First Football Match

When you enter the stadium, you’ll get searched. This slows down the lines considerably (especially for women) so it’s best to arrive at the stadium an hour or two early.

There is no alcohol served in the stadium, but after the game, you can stay for a beer at one of the surrounding bars.

If the home team loses, it may be a better idea to get out of dodge because there have been known to be fights, riots and even stabbings after competitive matches.

If all of this sounds a bit too crazy for you to fathom doing on your own, or if you’d like to have a local there with you who can tell you about the teams and what’s going on, then I recommend checking out this tour. It’s affordable, fun, and includes game tickets, guide, a pick-up and drop off from your accommodation, a drink and more. Get more details here.  

Getting There:

Hop on the metro at Poblado Station and take the A-Line north to San Antonio. Switch to the B-Line heading west towards San Javier. Get off at Estadio Station and walk with the crowd to the stadium. Alternatively, a taxi from Poblado area won’t cost you more than 20,000 COP ($6.66).

Planning a trip to Medellín? Don’t forget to purchase travel insurance – it’s the one thing you should always pack. World Nomads is a popular choice for backpackers and travellers. Enter your information below and get a free quote.

  9. Learn Salsa

There are countless places to Learn Salsa in Medellín, but one of the most popular is DanceFree in El Poblado. Here you can enjoy private or group classes weekly. On the weekends, this turns into a bit of a bar with awesome dancing.

If you want to simply go out and watch, or try to practice what you’ve learned, Laureles, Estadio and Suramericana are modern, middle-class neighbourhoods where you’ll find some of the best salsa dancing bars in the city.

10. Take a Spanish Class

Medellín is home to one of the most highly recommended Spanish schools in Latin America called Toucan Spanish School. Taking a Spanish class (or two) is one of the recommended things to do in Medellin when you first arrive. 

Knowing some Spanish is essential for getting by in Colombia (and most parts of South America). Check out Toucan’s “Quick & Dirty” class which helps you learn the essentials fast, without having to focus too much on confusing grammar.

11. Day Trip To Guatape

The beautiful colonial town of Guatape and the towering granite rock shouldn’t be missed.

I recommend climbing up the 700 or so stairs to reach the top of the Piedra del Peñol (Rock of Guatape). Once you reach the top of the granite monolith, enjoy the fantastic view over the surrounding manmade lake country before descending back down into the valley. 

After conquering the rock, make sure to head into Guatape. This tiny town is super colorful and is worth a couple of hours lazily walking around before heading back to Medellín.

Guatape is a pretty easy day trip from Medellín — especially if you join this small-group tour. The tour includes all transportation, two meals, a boat trip, numerous sites, a knowledgable guide, and your own free time to explore. 

With the affordable price and what’s included with the day trip, joining the tour is a no-brainer. Click here for details.

For a more in-depth guide to day-tripping to Guatape, click here.

Check out our video of Guatape here:

12. Learn About Coffee

Colombian coffee is famous worldwide, so it’s no surprise that one of the top things to do in Medellín is to visit a coffee plantation and learn about coffee production. 

Take a day trip out to San Sebastián de Palmitas, which is about 45 minutes from the city. Visit a coffee-making farm and learn a brief history of the origin of coffee (including how it was brought to Colombia), and see the process that the coffee bean goes through before it reaches your cup. 

Of course, you’ll sample coffee, and you’ll also receive food on this trip. Check out this highly-rated, affordable tour which includes return transport, guide, food, coffee tastings and coffee for you to take home with you. Alternatively, click the image below for details.

If you’re heading to Salento after Medellín, don’t miss the coffee farms there.

Now You Know What To Do in Medellín!

While there are quite a few things to see and places to visit, Medellín isn’t really a place for sightseeing, it’s more about exploring, feeling and simply enjoying the vibe. Travellers and expats love the amenities, friendly locals and the glorious year-round springtime climate.

The city might not immediately seduce you with romantic plazas, colourful balconies and colonial architecture, but Medellín has a vibe that is undeniable.

The city is alive, bustling and in the middle of a miraculous transformation. Come and see for yourself. With so many things to do in Medellín, you may never want to leave…

Check out our video of our time spent in Medellín!

Images in this article are courtesy of Shutterstock — a website for sourcing royalty-free images and videos.

Read more about Medellín:

Backpacking Medellín Colombia, a Beginner’s Guide

Travelling to Medellín Colombia: Our First Impressions and Experiences 

Why You Shouldn’t Miss The Medellín Walking Tour

Canadians in Colombia: Experiencing our First Football Game in Medellín

Digital Nomad Guide to Living in Medellin 

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  The post 12 Best Things To Do in Medellín, Colombia appeared first on Goats On The Road.

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[botnika1]

150 Funny and Witty Answers to the Question "How Are You?" 1. Somewhere between better and best. 2. All the better now that you asked. 3. I'm still sucking air. 4. I love you. (This is a good response to catch them off-guard and fluster them.) 5. I feel much better now that you are with me. 6. At minding my own business? Better than most people. 7. I am as happy as a tick on a big, fat dog. 8. Somewhere between blah and meh. 9. Armed and ready! 10. My lawyer says I don’t have to answer that question. 11.What do you want? (Hahaha. This might across as rude especially that you are assuming that they’re greeting you because they need something from you.) 12. I’ve been going through some crests and troughs in my life. Is everything stable at your end? 13. Better than nothing. 14. Well, I'm still alive. 15. “Could be better," then pause and continue with "Could be worse." 16. Like you, but better. 17. I could really go for a massage. 18. They told me you would ask me that. 19. Do you really care? 20. I’m all set up for the end of the world. 21. I'd say I'm a [insert number here] out of 10. 22. I was fine until you asked. 23. If I were doing any better, I'd have to hire you to enjoy it with me. 24. As fine as the maiden’s flaxen hair. 25. Oh stop it, you. (Say it like you’re receiving a compliment even though you are actually not. LOL 26. Overworked and underpaid. 27. Nothing much. (This is one of the most basic reply. It is very overused that it comes across as really funny whenever you hear it.) 28. I don't know, you tell me. How am I right now? 29. Navigating through the twists and turns of life. I hope yours is a straight road. 30. Can't complain. Nobody listens to me anyway. 31. Good enough. (This one will definitely keep them guessing.) 32. I’ll let you know when I figure it all out. 33. If I were any better, I'd be you. 34. Quite how, thank you. (This makes no sense, but funny.) 35. Not so well, does it bother you? 36. Nice and dandy like cotton candy. (Dandy rhymes with cotton candy!) 37. Do you want an honest answer or the answer you were expecting? 38. Hunting some dragons, you? 39. Average. Not terrific, not terrible, just average. 40. If I were any better, I'd be illegal. 41. So far, so good! 42. How dare you! (If you don’t have an immediate reply in mind, just say this automatically. LOL) 43. I'm vertical and breathing. 44. I’m better now that I'm talking to you. 45. Well, I haven't had my morning coffee yet and no one has gotten hurt, so I'd say "pretty good" at this point in time. 46. Different day. Same existence. 47. Trying to get on with life. Thanks. What about you? 48. I have been doing well. However, that is unless the weather has different plans in store. 49. Maybe one day you'll be lucky enough to find out. 50. Trying not to burst into tears. I get an “A” for effort, right 51. I have no way of knowing. 52. Yes. (Woah there, it looks like you weren’t paying attention.) 53. Living a dream. Please don't wake me up. 54. *speaks gibberish* 55. Your attempt at social interaction is hereby acknowledged. 56. Dying. 57. Happy and content, thank you. 58. Just hug me and leave it at that. 59. Compared to who? 60. Well enough to chat with you if you wish to. 61. Going is great. Hope this status quo persists for rest of the day. 62.Do I have to answer? 63. Physically? Mentally? Spiritually? Socioeconomically? Financially? I'm not sure how to answer that!?! 64. Strange, and getting stranger. 65.Not so good, but I plan on lying at my press conference. 66. If I had a tail, I would wag it. 67. I've heard various opinions, what's yours?" 68.How am I...what? 69. Thank you for asking, though you can judge yourself. 70. Why do you ask, are you a doctor? 71. Word on the street is that I'm really good. 72. My psychiatrist told me not to discuss it with strangers. 73. Rolling with the punches. 74. Medium Well. (What are you, a steak?) 75. All right so far, but there's still time for everything to go horribly wrong. (Ah, the forever pessimist.) 76. I'm sure you have that information on your screen. 77. Will you give me money if I tell you? 78. Doing good unless you have an air borne disease and infect me with some pathogens. 79. I'm pretty standard right now. 80. I can't complain! It's against the Company Policy. 81. I'm better than I was, but not nearly as good as I'm going to be. 82. I think I'm doing OK. How do you think I'm doing? 83. I can’t complain, but sometimes I still do. 84. Living the dream! 85. WHY!? WHAT ARE THEY SAYING ABOUT ME? (Hahaha! Way to act suspicious of everything!) 86. I'm taking over the world. 87. Well, there’s plenty of room for improvement! 88. Doing good unless you have intentions of shooting me. 89. Better than some, not as good as others. 90.I promised myself I would kill the next person who asked me that question, but I like you so I will let you live. 91. Incredibly handsome (or beautiful). 92."I'm doing really well" then pause and say "Of course, that could be my anti-depressants prescription talking." 93. I am blessed! 94. Way better than I deserve! 95. Oh, you know... every day is better than the next. 96. Shhh...It's too early to tell. 97. I dunno...is it Friday yet? 98.I don’t feel that great but my hair looks awesome, right? 99. I have a pulse. Therefore, I must be OK. 100. Not today, Satan! 101. In order to answer the question, I need to take you back about 10 years. Do you have a moment? 102. Living a life of denial and suppressed rage. 103. Slowly but surely dying. 104. Fair to partly cloudy. 105. "Hey look over there!" *punches person quick in the throat* (Remember kids, do not try this at home.) 106. Groovy! 107. Well, I've got this rash on my left butt... (Way to make the conversation a bit awkward!) 108. Not bad. Could be better. Could be payday. 109. I'm better on the inside than I look on the outside 110. Okay. I'd be better if you asked me out. 111. Okay, since my name wasn't in today's obituaries, that means... 112. Oh terrible, but I'm used to it. (I feel you, friend.) 113. What's with all the questions? You a cop? 114. As opposed to what? 115. Sunshine all day long! 116. You go first so we can compare. 117. I'm not sure yet. 118. Living the dream but half the time it's a nightmare. 119. Not quite there yet. (Where is there?) 120. Dangerously close to fabulous. 121. You're lookin' at it. 122. Real terrible, thanks for asking. 123. I am high quality. 124. The doctor said I'd live. 125. Great, stellar, fantastic, but dead inside. 126. I’m trying really hard to avoid ambiguous questions at the moment. 127. Wondering how you are. 128. How do you think I am? 129. I’ll leave that up to your imagination. 130. Secret. 131. Do you want the short version, or the long version? 132. I would be lying if I said I’m fine. 133. I’m pretty sure I am not obligated to tell you. 134. I’m ready for a nap. (I’m sure you do.) 135. I’m surviving, I guess. 136. Not as good as you. 137. Holy sh*t, you can see me?! (This never fails in bringing on the chuckles.) 138. In need of some peace and quiet. 139. Under renovation. 140. Remembering to stay patient. 141. I'm sober! (Congratulations!) 142. On a scale of one to punching someone in the face. 143. I'm keeping up with dancing to the rhythm of life. 144. Imagining myself having a fabulous vacation. 145. Horrible now that I've met you. 146. You do not want to know. 147. *just stare* 148. That is a really wonderful question. Ummm... 149. Happy and you know it. *clap your hands* 150. Next question, please.

[je4sse]

1-64 65. What is your zodiac sign?

well okay then, i’ll assume it’s the same person... as before it’s all under the cut to save your dashes from being super long 

1. Do you ever doubt the existence of others than you? Unfortunately yes but that should be fixed soon

2. On a scale of 1-5, how afraid of the dark are you? 0 i’m not afraid of the dark i’m afraid of what’s lurking in the dark that i can’t see (of which would be a 3)

3. The person you would never want to meet? Can’t think of anyone other than like jack the ripper just cause i’d prefer not to die 

4. What is your favorite word? Guacamole it’s fun to say even though i never eat it 

5. If you were a type of tree, what would you be? not sure, i’d want to be a fruit tree but idk what kind of fruit tree

6. When you looked in the mirror this morning what was the first thing you thought? “geez i need to get a haircut and redye my hair”

7. What shirt are you wearing? My slytherin shirt hell yeah 

8. What do you label yourself as? not entirely sure what this means because i label myself as a million things, book lover, shitty artist, dreamer like there’s a lot of labels

9. Bright room or dark room? lived in dark rooms all my life plus brightness hurts my eyes even if it’s probably better for them in the long run

10. What were you doing at midnight last night? either watching scooby doo or talking to my friend (i need to fix my circadian rhythm) 

11. Favorite age you’ve been so far? probably 20 even though it can be stressful

12. Who told you they loved you last? still my best friend

13. Your worst enemy? don’t think i have any official enemies, unofficially? i will have my revenge on the middle school bullies by getting rich af and having them work for me

14. What is your current desktop picture? a still of the waterfall from the gravity falls opening, can’t remember where it’s from though

15. Do you like someone? No crushes sorry no juicy gossip for anyone 

16. The last song you listened to? just watched diamond jack so... i think it’s called the villain i appear to be but idk the artist 

17. You can press a button that will make any one person explode. Who would you blow up? i’d probably save it for if someone i knew was in danger tbh

18. Who would you really like to just punch in the face? no one i’m a wimp it’d break my hand probably, i’d love to learn how to take peoples momentum and use it against them instead

19. If anyone could be your slave for a day, who would it be and what would they have to do? i should read through these more thoroughly, thinking through it though anyone i’d pick i’d probably forget the whole slave thing and just accidentally command them like “hey mind getting me a drink too?” 

20. What is your best physical attribute? (showing said attribute is optional) uhh... none? wait no my eyes they’re the thing i have the least amount of a problem with

21. If you were the opposite sex for one day, what would you look like and what would you do? wait i get to choose what i look like too? honestly i don’t think i’d do much different except actually go out. i guess i’d be unrecognizable long hair new eye color taller in better shape, tbh i don’t think i’ve thought through that scenario enough

22. Do you have a secret talent? If yes, what is it? i mean not really, i can still put my leg behind my head but that’s not really a talent

23. What is one unique thing you’re afraid of? unique thing i fear? are there any unique fears? i guess one would be being alone like those last man on earth stories being alone in general is fine but entirely? no thanks

24. You can only have one kind of sandwich. Every sandwich ingredient known to humankind is at your disposal. i pick grilled cheese and ham

25. You just found $100! How are you going to spend it? honestly this’ll be boring i’ll spend it on school books probably (too expensive)

26. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere in the world, but you have to leave immediately. Where are you going to go? even though i don’t speak the language i’d go to Germany

27. An angel appears out of Heaven and offers you a lifetime supply of the alcoholic beverage of your choice. “Be brand-specific” it says. Man! What are you gonna say about that? Even if you don’t drink booze there’s something you can figure out… so what’s it gonna be? i like this angel hmm i pick peach Smirnoff vodka it was the first one i could stomach

28. You discover a beautiful island upon which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What is the first rule you put into place? the first rule is “Be excellent to each other” 

29. What is your favorite expletive? Fuck (i know how original)

30. Your house is on fire, holy shit! You have just enough time to run in there and grab ONE inanimate object. Don’t worry, your loved ones and pets have already made it out safely. So what’s the one thing you’re going to save from that blazing inferno? assuming this happened after i got back home i’d run in and grab my laptop since i’d already have my phone and wallet on me

31. You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be? the time that i nearly fell to my death

32. You got kicked out of the country for being a time-traveling heathen who sleeps with celebrities and has super-powers. But check out this cool shit… you can move to anywhere else in the world!  their loss guess i’ll travel to Spain then

33. The Celestial Gates Of Beyond have opened, much to your surprise because you didn’t think such a thing existed. Death appears. As it turns out, Death is actually a pretty cool entity, and happens to be in a fantastic mood. Death offers to return the friend/family-member/person/etc. of your choice to the living world. Who will you bring back? myself after i die if i can’t do that then no one that would devastate the families of the person i lost

34. What was your last dream about? wish i could remember unfortunately this will be a repeat of last time; nuclear annihilation 

35. Are you a good….[insert anything you’d like here]? no i’m not a good anything

36. Have you ever been admitted to the hospital? i mean yeah isn’t everyone at birth? i haven’t gotten into any accidents serious enough to warrant a hospital visit though

37. Have you ever built a snowman? yes and snow dogs and igloos (stereotypical Canadian that i am)

38. What is the color of your socks? i have rocket raccoon on my socks! it’s great lol

39. What type of music do you like? cop out answer but everything yes including country and other languages i just listen to what fits my mood

40. Do you prefer sunrises or sunsets? sunsets i’d be too tired to enjoy a sunrise

41. What is your favorite milkshake flavor? chocolate but i like strawberry too

42. What football team do you support? (I will answer in terms of American football as well as soccer) honestly i just don’t much care about sports unless i’m playing them so i don’t know of any teams (again i really need to thoroughly read these)

43. Do you have any scars? only the small ones you wake up with not knowing where they came from 

44. What do you want to be when you graduate? not a clue i just plan on being who i’ve always been cause idk what i’ll end up as in the future although i’m hoping by that time my business has taken off and i’m rich (it won’t but i can dream ok)

45. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? only one thing really? aw uhh my face

46. Are you reliable? yes when i say i’ll do something i will and if its for another person i’ll actually do it instead fo procrastinating

47. If you could ask your future self one question, what would it be? “so.... whats my S.O.’s name?”

48. Do you hold grudges? i mean i do but it’s kinda rare 

49. If you could breed two animals together to defy the laws of nature, what new animal would you create? gryphons i’d make gryphons so lions and eagles (would a human and bat make vampires?) 

50. What is the most unusual conversation you’ve ever had? i had a two hour conversation about murder with two classmates once, we weren’t even in law or criminology...

51. Are you a good liar? i can be but if i have to come up with it on the spot sometimes i’ll end up laughing so.... depends on the situation

52. How long could you go without talking? little over a day then i’d start talking to my self

53. What has been you worst haircut/style? i asked for an inch off the top and the hairdresser interpreted that as buzzing off my hair

54. Have you ever baked your own cake? yes it was delicious 

55. Can you do any accents other than your own? no although the voice in peoples heads that they use for thinking, that voice will change accents from time to time, atm it prefers a scottish accent

56. What do you like on your toast? strawberry jam 

57. What is the last thing you drew a picture of? i can’t remember but probably satan (from satan and me)

58. What would be you dream car? a self driving car

59. Do you sing in the shower? Or do anything unusual in the shower? Explain. actually i’m boring i just stand in the shower and think don’t even put on music

60. Do you believe in aliens? yes just due to the probability of it

61. Do you often read your horoscope? not really unless you mean the horoscope meme that was on here for a while

62. What is your favorite letter of the alphabet? C cause it steals K and S’s jobs

63. Which is cooler: dinosaurs or dragons?

64. What do you think about babies? they’re adorable when they’re someone elses kid

65. i’d be the rat of the zodiac

let me know if i got zodiac and horoscope backwards promise i’ll fix it

have a great day!