#hes supposed to be a lemon quartz

[daily-ron-fnf]

Day 172

[chinchillasinunison]

Would you say that any fusions in your JoJo gem au are on par with Malachite? In emotional toxicity, not extra limbs

I suppose the ones that come the closest are Aventurine, Inca Rose, Yukakoichi/Nephrite, and Kohan/Variscite.

Aventurine is Lemon Quartz + Blue Quartz, formed at the end of Rockdust Crusaders when Cut-D10 gets his hands on the mourning necklace with J0J0's gemstone set inside. Thought J0J0 is inert, some bit of his willpower seems to live on. The fusion is monstrous in appearance and prone to glitching, as if someone wants desperately to not be a part of it but just can't break free...

Inca Rose is Kira + Stray Cat, who hunts Josuke after he and Hayato break the loop of the Glass of Time. As a fusion between a deranged individual and a corrupted gem, it is extremely dangerous and downright bloodthirsty. It acts erratically, its goal of discretion muddled, set to destroy all that gaze upon it but... not being very discreet about it.

And Yukakoichi and Kohan are the most applicable to Malachite's situation because both fusions were also formed to imprison someone (i.e. Koichi).

[scapegrace74-blog]

Ginger Snap

A/N  I was driving down the highway today and saw the license plate “I PieGuy”.  By the time I got home, this story was half-born in my head.  I have no idea where it might go, but it’s taking up valuable shelf space in there, so I’m birthing it onto paper.  Modern AU.  Silly fluff.  Claire POV.  First person, which I never write, so watch out for stray pronouns.

The shriek of the fire alarm was the final straw.  I’d just stepped out of the kitchen for a minute, but that was all it took for calamity to strike.  Opening the oven door in a panic, billows of smoke engulfed me before I slammed it shut again.

“Shit.  Shitshitshit.  Shit!”

Waving a damp dish towel back and forth like a flag of surrender above my head caused the head-splitting siren to finally desist.  I blew a rogue curl off my sweaty brow and gave myself a pep talk.

“Time to woman up,” I sighed before donning the oven gloves and cautiously cracking the door once again.  More smoke escaped, smelling of burnt pastry and ruined hopes.  Once it cleared I could see the charred carcasses of what were supposed to be vol au vent shells.  I carefully extracted them from the oven and dropped the cooking sheet with a clatter onto the quartz countertop.

“Dinner is D.O.A, Doctor Beauchamp.  Now what the fuck am I going to do?”

***

Thirty minutes were spent cleaning the evidence of yet another cooking fiasco and ventilating our flat by opening every available window to let in the moist Edinburgh breeze.  I now had less than four hours before Frank and three other members of the university faculty would be descending, expecting a home-cooked meal and polite chitchat.  I was in no position to offer either.

In a last-ditch effort to salvage the evening, I typed “sophisticated home catering in Edinburgh” and started dialing.  The first four numbers yielded either an answering machine or the news (unsurprising) that at least two days’ advanced notice were required to book their services.  Nearly resigned to ordering in Italian and facing Frank’s wrath, a woman’s voice with a thick Scottish brogue picked up at the fifth business I called.

“Ye’ve reached Ginger Snap, this is Jenny speaking.  How may I help ye t’day?”

I poured out my tale of culinary woe, laying it on a bit thick, but I was truly desperate by this point.

“Aye, we’ve a chef available this afternoon.  What sort of menu were ye planning?” she asked.

“Really?  Oh my god, you’re a lifesaver!”

I gave Jenny the number of guests and a broad idea of what I’d hoped to serve, although I was in no position to be choosy.

“Never ye fear, Ms. Beauchamp.  We’ll pick up the necessary items and our chef will be at yer flat by four.  Tha’ should leave jus’ enough time tae have everything ready fer six.”

Thanking her profusely and not even inquiring about the charge, I stood triumphant in the middle of my immaculate yet useless kitchen.  Why hadn’t I thought of this sooner?

***

The buzzer rang as I was re-arranging the decorative objects atop our sideboard.  I was aiming for the artless sophistication featured in Frank’s favourite design magazines, but instead I lined up each item in order of descending size, or grouped them by historical era.  A second buzz had me trotting to the intercom where a male voice crackled.

“This is James Fraser o’ Ginger Snap Catering.  Can ye let me in?”

I stuck my head into the hallway to find four organic cotton tote bags bursting with produce at my doorstep.  Footsteps pounded down the stairs, where I assumed the chef had retreated to collect more supplies.  I brought the first load into the kitchen where I began to unpack foodstuffs the likes of which I’d never seen.  Not knowing what else to do to be helpful, I began sorting them; green leafy things here, round crispy things there.

“Hallo?” the same voice called from where I’d left the door ajar.  Wiping my hands nervously against my slacks, I went to greet him.

Standing in the doorframe, almost filling it with his immense size, was a young man who seemed more suited to a stag hunt or a rugby pitch than haute cuisine.  He had loose tawny curls, two days’ worth of stubble and wore a faded grey henley, dark wash jeans that clung to his muscular legs and utilitarian workman’s boots.

“Claire Beauchamp?” he interrupted my visual inventory.

“Hmm? Oh, yes.  Sorry.  Pleased to meet you.”

Something funny happened when our hands met in a firm shake.  A tachycardic blip, my internal medicine professor would have called it.  There was no time to analyze this response, however, as he was already on the move.

“James Fraser, at yer service.  I’d normally spend more time getting to know ye and yer style of entertaining, but we’re short on time, so let’s get straight to it, aye?”

I gave the chef a hasty tour of our kitchen, stumbling over the names of various implements and opening the wrong cupboard when looking for my saucepans.  I blushed as he raised an expressive eyebrow, but shook it off.  I was paying for his cooking proficiency, not his opinion on my lack of domestic competence.

“I ken ye spoke tae Jenny about yer menu, but I took a few liberties at the market, based on what looked freshest.  I recommend starting with a simple salad o’ nettle and radish, garnished with a wee round of goat cheese and rye crumbs.  Loin o’ lamb with new potatoes and pancetta fer yer main.  An’ a simple rhubarb custard fer dessert.  There’s none with food allergies, aye?”

“Aye,” I replied, then corrected “umm, no, rather,” at his concerned look.  “Are you sure you can manage all that in only,” I glanced at my wristwatch “ninety minutes?   It seems like an awful lot of work.”

“Och, tis no’ much.  Lamb cooks swiftly, ye ken.  Tis why I choose it over pork or poultry.”

My saviour rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, preparing to wash his hands and get down to work.  There was probably something else I should be doing elsewhere in the flat to prepare, but I didn’t want to appear completely useless to this unflappable man.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

He looked dubious and seemed prepared to politely decline, but then his expression shifted.

“Aye.  Ye can wash the tatties an’ chop the rhubarb while I dress the lamb, if ye dinna mind,” he suggested.

“Scrubbing in and wielding a knife happen to be two of the only transferrable job skills I bring to cooking,” I joked, taking my turn in front of the massive Belfast sink.

He emitted a low Scottish grunt of amusement before we each settled into companionable silence, focusing on our respective duties.  I glanced over at him surreptitiously, envying the ease with which he moved from task to task, lean and nimble hands working alchemy where I only succeeded in producing dross.

“Ye’re a doctor, then?” he asked after my chopped rhubarb had been set on the stovetop to stew and the lamb was marinating in a bath of lemon and fresh herbs.

“Umm, well, I was.  My partner and I moved here from Boston, where I trained as a surgeon.  I haven’t yet obtained my license to practice here in the UK, so I’m afraid I’m just a culinary liability for the moment.”

It was a current source of strife in my relationship with Frank.  He liked the idea of me keeping house, entertaining and eventually settling down to raise a family.  I chaffed at this unfamiliar routine.  But until I passed my licensing exams, it was rather a moot point.

“I’m sure ye’re far more than that,” he replied solemnly, before breaking into a sneaky grin.  “I’ve ne’er seen stalks of rhubarb cut quite sae... uniform.  Ye’d have a fine career in quality control, if ye wished.”

I faked throwing a dish towel at him while we both laughed.

“What about you, Mr. Fraser?  How did you get into the catering business?”  It wasn’t polite conversation.  I was really quite curious to know more about him.

“I’ll tell ye, but only if ye call me Jamie.”  At my nod, he continued, “twas my Mam.  She was always a great cook, but then my Da passed suddenly and she with three bairns under the age of ten tae raise. She needed tae work.  We moved tae Edinburgh an’ she laboured day and night tae save enough tae start her own catering business.  Since I was a lad, when I wasna in school I was in her kitchen, watching and learning all the while.”

His striking face took on a faraway expression, and I knew he was remembering those days with a mixture of wistfulness and love.  I recognized the look from my own reflection, when I thought about my dead parents.  Without realizing it, I lay my palm over his forearm where it had stilled above my butcher’s block.  His eyes were the same hue as midsummer blueberries, and they regarded me with silent inquiry.

A timer made us both jump, my hand falling to my side.  What was I thinking, touching this stranger who I was paying to cook dinner for my boyfriend’s guests?  I really needed to find a hobby, so my mind didn’t latch onto any feeble excuse for stimulation.

Brushing my hands against my thighs, I quickly excused myself and left to get properly dressed for dinner.  Only thirty minutes remained before Frank and his colleagues were due to arrive.  

I spent more time than was strictly necessary away from the kitchen, afraid I’d made things awkward with Jamie.  By the time I finally returned, he was plating the lamb and putting the custard in the refrigerator to set.  I tried to think of something to say that would re-establish the fluent rapport from earlier on.

“I’ve opened the wine tae let it breathe,” Jamie said without looking at me.  I wished there was a similar process for blundering Englishwomen.

“Jamie, I really don’t know how to...”

The sound of the front door opening interrupted me and Frank’s nasal voice rang out from the entryway.

“Claire, we’re here!”

“Fuck!” I exclaimed.  Jamie tipped his head sideways in question.  “I never had time to explain to my partner that I hired your services.  That’s the dean of his faculty out there, and...”  I broke off, looking frantically around the room as though a trap door would suddenly materialize.  Quick on his feet, Jamie understood the situation immediately.   The kitchen windows were still open after my earlier catastrophe.  With surprising grace for one so large, he slid through the opening and onto the fire escape.  

“Bon appetit, Claire Beauchamp,” the ginger chef wished from outside, a mischievous smirk lighting his whole countenance.

I stood, mouth open in shock, as he gave an abbreviated bow before scampering down the metal ladder just as Frank entered the kitchen behind me.

“This smells delicious, darling.  We really are going to make a chef out of you yet.”

[andrewmoocow]

Steven Universe Alternate Future chapter 25: Homeworld Bound (originally posted on September 13, 2021)

AN: Here it is everyone, the beginning of the final part of Steven Universe Alternate Future. Before we proceed, I just want to thank all of you for sticking by my side since December of last year and for all the comments & reviews I've been given. It really means the world to me that I'm getting this much attention. But enough heartfelt thank yous, let's get on with the heartbreak.

Synopsis: Afraid that his out-of-control powers will hurt his friends, Steven sees the Diamonds for help.

Cast:

Zach Callison as Steven

Sarah Stiles as Spinel

Aparna Nancherla as Lemon Jade

Patti LuPone as Yellow Diamond

Lisa Hannigan as Blue Diamond

Christine Ebersole as White Diamond

Estelle as Garnet

Michaela Dietz as Amethyst, Chert

Deedee Magno-Hall as Pearl, Volleyball, Aubergine Pearl

Kimberly Brooks as Jasper, Flint

Olivia Olson as Citrine

Christine Pedi as Holly Blue Agate

Hayley Kiyoko as Morganite

Charlyne Yi as Navy

Casey Lee Williams as Cat's Eye

Amy Sedaris as Blue Zircon

Ron Perlman as Steven's Inner Voice

--

The past few minutes have been some of the worst minutes of Steven's life. Not only did he accidentally take a life, but it was a life he was so sure he'd try to change in the past to little success. And now, the death of Jasper would weigh heavily on his shoulders as he dipped the shattered gem he was holding into the essence-infused bathwater.

"I'm sorry." Steven sobbed quietly while his tears dropped into the bathtub below him. Suddenly, as if the tears began reacting to the water, the Diamonds' essences began to glow at once and were absorbed into Jasper's gem, allowing the Gem warrior to regain her physical form and re-emerge in the bathtub.

"You-you shattered me." Jasper gasped while examining her broken horn and the breaks in her stripes before looking straight at Steven.

"I'm sorry, it was an accident!" Steven tried to apologize to Jasper. "I should've stopped, I just wasn't thinking!"

"No you weren't." a voice echoed in Steven's thoughts as Jasper stepped out of the bathtub and took a knee.

"I bow to your strength," Jasper declared while bowing her head in recognition of Steven's strength. "my Diamond."

"No!" Steven gasped in horror at what he's done.

"Ooh, this should be interesting." Steven's intrusive thoughts purred with intrigue at this new development.

"Are you in there Steven?" Pearl asked for Steven while knocking on the bathroom door.

"What's going on?" Amethyst added. "If you got any urges you want to let out, just don't gross Pearl out and make a mess of things."

"Amethyst, read the room." Garnet scolded the small Quartz. "Steven, please come out. We're sorry if you felt like we were intruding a few days ago, but you still need to talk to us somehow."

Just then, the three Gems heard footsteps as someone approached the other side of the door and hopefully cleared the way. But instead of Steven opening the door like they expected, it was instead Jasper.

"Wait, Jasper?!" Amethyst yelled in shock.

"What were you doing in there?" Pearl asked. "And where is Steven?!"

"Right here." Jasper answered, stepping aside to reveal a despairing Steven behind her as she gave the Diamond salute of old.

"Where have you been Steven?!" Amethyst asked Steven as he silently walked away and went up the stairs.

"You can't just disappear for three days and not tell us where you went!" Pearl cried out. "Words could not describe how absolutely scared we were for you! And now Jasper pops up out of nowhere and we're supposed to be okay with this?!"

"My Diamond can do as he pleases, peons." Jasper barked at the Crystal Gems. "He doesn't need you around anymore, just like how you don't need him around."

"Why are you calling him that?!" Amethyst yelled at Jasper before she began following Steven. "Steven!" she cried before shooting the bigger Gem a glare. "Just because we're sisters doesn't mean you're safe from the verbal thrashing I'm gonna give you soon."

"Like I care." Jasper rolled her eyes while the four Gems tailed Steven to the Warp Pad at the conservatory. "You've spent your lives following a liar yet when my Diamond refuses to reveal the truth, that's when you decide you need answers?"

As Steven was about to step on the Warp Pad, the Gems tried yet again to stop him. "Steven, wait!" Pearl yelled.

"You don't need to go." Garnet stated. When Steven decided to finally make a reply, he just sighed as he turned pink and began to form a barrier that separated him from the four Gems behind him.

"What the heck is going on!?" Amethyst screamed in shock before she, Garnet, and Pearl began banging on the shield.

"You guys, I know you want to help, but this is where it's gotta stop." Steven declared. "This whole time, I've been avoiding the only people in the universe that can help me now, so nobody follow me."

"I was right, he doesn't need you anymore!" Jasper laughed tauntingly before her pride soon turned to shock.

"You should stop following me too, Jasper." Steven said to the big Quartz, breaking her heart as she sorrowfully watched her Diamond abandon her yet again. "Go on and do something better with your life."

"Steven, before you go, please remember." Garnet urged Steven with a hand against the pink barrier. "We will always be your family."

"You never were." Steven growled as his shadow seemed to gain a mind of its own before he teleported away on the Warp Pad, the warp stream giving off a strange black aura before shutting off.

"Of course my Diamond doesn't want me anymore." Jasper bowed her head in shame and strolled off, but the Gems weren't done with her yet.

"Oh no you don't Jasper, you got some explaining to do!" Amethyst shouted while chasing after her Gem sister. "What were you doing in the bathroom, and what made you call Steven your Diamond?"

"Don't even bother asking me." Jasper sighed before she began to sing. "I tried teaching him a little tip, just three little words: get a grip. But thanks to him, I finally see, those words really do apply to me." As Jasper retreated into the bathroom, Amethyst and Pearl could barely hear her beginning to cry.

"Never seen her this emotional before." Garnet remarked. "And we've never heard her sing before either."

"I think we should just give her some space for a bit." Pearl suggested and realized what she just said. "Wow, that's the first time I've ever said that about Jasper, of all Gems."

"You think Steven meant what he said about us not being his family?" Amethyst asked as she sat down on the couch.

"I'm not sure." Garnet answered. "But there was something about him that I felt is taking control at the wrong moments, poisoning his mind even. Hopefully, he doesn't let this go out of control."

--

Far away from the galaxy Steven called home, the Warp Pad took him to the Gem Homeworld, and it was just as wildly different as he had seen it when he came here with the Off-Colors. Walking through the central city, he could see multiple Gems conversing while a propaganda video blared above him.

"Citizens of Homeworld, Black Rutile is still out there!" the familiar voice of Blue Zircon declared to her viewers while playing clips of Black Rutile's evil deeds, from her shattering of a Bismuth to her invasion of Earth. "Friends, lovers, even your own type could be a spy! I want you to report any and all suspicious activity to the nearest authority figure! Remember, Black Rutile will do anything to enslave our race, but my team and I are still working our hardest to find and stop her plans in their tracks!"

As soon as the clips stopped rolling, Blue Zircon herself appeared on screen with her arms folded and turned to the camera. "I'm Blue Zircon, and I approve this message."

The video ended with Blue Zircon striking a dramatic pose and Steven continued on his way, eventually reaching the Diamonds' throne room where a purple-colored Pearl was leading a tour group and a pair of Jaspers were having a conversation.

"I can't believe there are still Gems who think Zircon is a good candidate, even after her approval rating went down hard thanks to Black Rutile." One Jasper said about a poster of Yellow Zircon to her friend before gesturing to one of Blue Zircon. "Now Zircon, that's a face we can still trust!"

"As you can see, this truly was the center of the Great Diamond Authority's empire throughout the first and second eras." The aubergine Pearl stated to her tour group while gesturing to the Diamonds' massive thrones. "When walking through these storied halls, it can be easy to feel like you too are as mighty as a Diamond." As the Pearl began leading her group away, only three stayed behind. "Now then, if you'll follow me to the gift shop."

Steven recognized the three remaining Gems as Spinel, Volleyball, and that one green fusion from the Era 3 ball not too long ago, and they all were happy to see him. "Steven!" Spinel exclaimed with hearts in her eyes before leaping towards the boy and giving him a big, goofy kiss, accidentally setting the boy off.

"Spinel, what is wrong with you!?" Steven yelled angrily as he turned pink and pushed Spinel off of him.

"Oh, you know, the usual with me and my posse here." Spinel answered while gesturing to the other two Gems.

"How have you been since last we met Steven?" Volleyball asked.

"I've just been going through some things lately, especially after Black Rutile. I keep swelling up and turning pink." Steven answered. "Speaking of which, I've heard from Pearl you were forced to spy on us for her. Feeling alright?"

"I've been getting better." Volleyball wiped a tear from her cracked eye. "So what brings you here?"

"I need to see the Diamonds." Steven replied. "Can you take me to them?"

"No kidding!" Spinel exclaimed. "You've barely called or written to them, what gives?"

"He said he's been going through some things." The big green Gem said. "By the way, hi, Lemon Jade. Remember me from the ball when you and your human friend fused?"

"I'm sorry, but I barely remember." Steven admitted to Lemon Jade. "After Connie and I fused, the rest kinda went by so fast before we were thrown in the tower. And I think you were poofed too. Which reminds me, sorry for getting you in trouble."

"It's fine." Lemon Jade said. "Besides, ever since Era 3 began, we've been unbubbled and made a representative of all cross-Gem fusions on Homeworld. So it's been pretty good for me."

"And speaking of big changes." Spinel stated while turning to look at Citrine leading a chain gang of Holly Blue Agate, Morganite, Navy, and Cat's Eye into the throne room, all of them carrying mops.

"Okay you four, I want this floor sparkling by the time the next tour group comes in." Citrine commanded her four prisoners before turning to notice Steven. "Hey Steven, long time no see!"

"YOU!" Holly Blue yelled and tried to lunge towards Steven. "It's all because of you that I'm a criminal to my own kind! Once Black Rutile terminates you, she will set me free and I will finally be loved again!"

"Don't you mean set us free?" Morganite snarked at the Agate.

"Yeah, no need to make everything about you." Cat's Eye agreed with the pink Gem.

"You're one to talk." Navy rolled her eyes with a smirk.

"AAAAAHHHH SHADDUP!" Holly Blue shrieked to her fellow prisoners before Citrine jabbed her in the neck with a punch, causing her to fall over.

"Well, that just happened." Spinel said nervously as she wrapped her three friends with her arm and dragged them away. "So, if you're having issues with your physical form, I know just the Gem to help!"

--

Before long, Steven was dragged to a massive, yellow-colored workshop by Spinel, where Yellow Diamond was sitting down at a desk as big as she was as she reassembled a shattered Gem by plucking some of its pieces from a bubble containing an inactive Cluster Gem, as a nervous dull orange Gem watched.

"Just one last piece and you'll be good as new." Yellow muttered as she extracted one last piece from the bubble and placed it on a damaged gem, allowing the physical form of a bluish Gem to be restored, albeit with very stretched-out limbs. "Hm, needs a little work."

"Hey, it's okay Flint." The orange Gem comfortingly said to her frightened blue friend.

"Yellow, what are you doing?!" Steven cried out, startling the Diamond before she turned to see him.

"Oh Steven, you startled me!" Yellow said. "I was in the middle of reversing one of my experiments here." She demonstrated her work by picking up the Flint she just repaired and holding her in front of Steven and his three guides. "I couldn't put every piece back together, but here. Observe." With a tap on Flint's head, Yellow's lightning powers miraculously returned the smaller Gem's limbs to a more conventional length and she returned Flint to her friend.

"Look Chert, I'm back to normal!" Flint cheered as soon as she was returned to the desktop.

"Welcome back!" Chert replied and hugged Flint.

"After all the damage I've done these past couple thousand years, I believed the best way to use my powers for good was to fix the Gems I've shattered." Yellow explained to Steven. "Oh, that reminds me, I should make a note to patch up all the Gems making up the Cluster at some point! One more thing, if any of your Quartz friends back on Earth need their horns removed, just send them straight to me. I can permanently change their forms."

"Ooh, do me, do me!" Spinel excitedly ran up to Yellow and held out her arms to be altered while the Diamond reclined with her arm propping herself up

"Hey, I-" Steven tried to speak up, but Lemon Jade quickly cut him off.

"I know you want to speak, but I want to see what she does." Lemon Jade said before Yellow made Spinel's arms overly muscular with her powers.

"She can make my arms really big!" Spinel demonstrated with a flex of her temporary muscles, inciting a giggle from Volleyball. "And she can give me teeny little feetsies too!" Spinel tried to take a step with her incredibly small feet, only to fall over and make Volleyball laugh even louder while Steven got angrier at not being listened to.

"Won't any of you listen to me?!" Steven yelled in irritation.

"Oh sorry, I didn't notice you there Steven." Volleyball apologized.

"Then you have the floor." Yellow declared. "Penny for your thoughts, as Earth says?"

"I think something's wrong with my diamond powers." Steven explained his situation. "I've been turning pink whenever I get super mad, and I sometimes get real big, and I don't know what to do."

"Well, I believe I can help with that." Yellow suggested and held out a charged finger. "Hold still!" She then shrank Steven down to the size of a Ruby.

"No, I don't wanna be small!" Steven cried angrily.

"Okay, then I suppose you want to be larger!" Yellow reiterated before doing just that, angering Steven even more.

"I don't want to be smaller or larger," Steven roared while turning pink and creating a small crater beneath him with a stomp. "I WANT TO BE ME!" His roar sent everyone else in the room falling backwards before he was returned to his normal size by Yellow, who picked up Spinel to return her body to normal.

"What has gotten into you?!" Yellow asked in shock. "If anything's out of control, it's your temper!" She then took a quick moment to joke with Spinel. "Remind you of a certain someone?"

"Yeah, kinda." Spinel agreed with Yellow.

"Classic Yellow, so oblivious to the needs of others." Steven's intrusive thoughts butted in again while noticing the banter between the two Gems before him. "Exactly why your mother left them."

"Will you leave me alone already?!" Steven yelled, but to everyone else, it seemed like he was talking to himself.

"Is something else the matter?" Lemon Jade wondered.

"Sorry, I've also been having, well, it's harder to explain." Steven stated nervously.

"Well, you can be as big or as small as you want to, but your attitude tells me your issues aren't physical." Yellow deduced. "It has to be emotional. In fact, I think Blue Diamond might be better suited for this."

"Blue-Blue-Blue-Blue-Blue-BLUE!" Spinel cheered while zipping around Steven, Volleyball, and Lemon Jade in a circle.

--

In Blue Diamond's room, there wasn't much furniture to be found in the large glass dome other than many dark blue clouds that Gems were able to relax on, like Blue for instance.

"Your powers have been giving you dramatic mood swings?" the Diamond wondered soothingly. "That sounds awfully troubling Steven."

"You should've seen him with Yellow." Volleyball said. "She was trying to help, but he got really mad because he thinks she misunderstood what he said."

"But you don't seem that troubled yourself." Steven observed the room around him.

"That's because of Blue's new powers." Lemon Jade answered as she let herself sink into one of the clouds.

"Back before Pink came back into our lives through you Steven, I wanted everyone to feel the pain I had suffered." Blue explained. "But now, I realize that I'd rather bring joy to others."

"Oh please, blech!" Steven's inner self metaphorically rolled its eyes and made a gagging sound while Blue brought Steven closer.

"At that moment, my tears vaporized into these clouds, bringing pure joy to anyone they touch." Blue stated.

"They're certainly bringing me joy!" Volleyball moaned relaxedly as she curled up into a ball on one cloud. At that moment, another cloud brushed up against Steven and brought him the relief he was wanting for so long, if only for a few moments.

"She has ended lives all over for years, and only now she wants to actually be nice instead of looking nice?" the intrusive thoughts kept grumbling. "Though then again, there is no stopping you no matter how horrible the person."

"Trust us, just hang on and you'll be feeling the good vibes in no time!" Spinel eagerly advised Steven while saddling up on a cloud.

"I think you'd like it." Blue smiled before she began to sing. "Cold palace walls and empty, endless halls, haunted by echoes of laughter." While the song began, Steven began using his shields to push clouds away on the ground. "You gave a pull, and suddenly they're full. You've thrown the gates open after you."

Despite Steven's efforts, the clouds surrounded and formed underneath him, pushing the boy up into the sky as he smiled from its effects and was lifted into the air.

"And swept in with the throng, comes this wonderful song!" Blue continued singing as she rose through the clouds and looked up with her arms spread wide. "My little reason why, I'll never make you cry. Oh, I have got the sweetest things to tell you everyday." She then made little cloud hearts for Spinel to grab onto before beginning to swing from Blue's finger and hugging her head, while Steven's cloud floated on over to the pair, allowing Blue to hold it in her hand. "My little reason why, you make me want to try loving you."

Despite Blue's soothing number, Steven still felt sad despite all she tried to do and began turning pink again. "No no no, this isn't right!"

"My thoughts exactly." Steven's darker persona quipped. "Does she really think everything will be made better in an instant with some stupid song?"

Just then, Steven began to fall off his cloud and down towards the ground, but thankfully, someone was there to save him in the nick of time.

"Hang in there sunshine!" Spinel cried, grabbing Steven in her arms while using her legs like a propeller to fly him safely down to the ground.

"What's the matter?" Blue asked Steven as her cloud floated towards Steven and Spinel.

"Did the song not help?" Volleyball pondered while getting off her cloud.

"It thought it was very sweet." Lemon Jade added.

"I'm sorry, all of you." Steven apologized. "I know you all want to help, but you can't just magically make me feel better."

"Yes I can." Blue tried to be as reassuring as possible. "It's my new power. Plus, it's been kind of like your power for a long time now."

"I don't want to FEEL better!" Steven reiterated hotly while Spinel turned her hand into a pinwheel to blow on. "I want to BE better!"

"I found happiness," Blue stated. "If you think it's not something you deserve, then it must be a problem with your self-worth." Then, she got an idea. "In that case, maybe you should go visit White Diamond about it."

"Oh, White." Steven nervously repeated, not wanting to be reminded of one of his many near-death experiences.

"White Diamond, eh?" Steven's inner darkness once again butted in. "The Gem who basically got off scot-free for nearly killing you. I must say, did you ever instantly forgive her for all she's done like all the others?"

"No, none of them were instantly forgiven! Now leave me alone!" Steven shrieked back, leaving the four Gems confused at what's going on.

"Is he supposed to be talking to someone?" Blue wondered.

"This happened when we were with Yellow too." Spinel answered. "Either he's got an imaginary friend he really hates, or something worse."

--

Finally, there was White Diamond, whom Steven found meditating in her quarters when she opened her eyes to find him standing in front of her with Spinel, Volleyball, and Lemon Jade alongside him, and she was delighted to see him again. "Good to see you again Steven, and perfect timing too!" White greeted the son of Pink while standing up straight. "I've just gotten back from my most recent charitable escapades where I gave a voice to the little Gems, got the assistance of other species in repopulating our old colonies, and helped in weeding out Black Rutile's allies."

"Giving a voice?" Steven pondered what the eldest Diamond said.

"She basically lets Gems take control of her now, instead of the other way around!" Spinel explained for White.

"So like, the opposite of what you did to Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Volleyball?" Steven continued asking.

"I think something along those lines." Volleyball concurred.

"Well, why don't I show you?" White suggested before turning to Spinel. "Care to help me demonstrate, Spinel?"

Spinel let out a loud, excited squeal at the prospect of helping White show off for Steven, causing Volleyball to blush and laugh before the stretchy Gem calmed down. "Yes please." Spinel sweetly complied.

The two Gems then shut their eyes while the room began flashing various colors. Steven had no time to comprehend what was happening before White opened her eyes, revealing that her colors had now become just like Spinel's, and she had the playmate's voice too. "GUESS WHO?!"

"Agh, what is this?!" Steven yelped at how unsettling he found Spinel taking over White's body.

"Isn't it great?!" White and Spinel exclaimed in perfect sync. "Instead of taking control of other Gems, we can control her by channeling our thoughts into her body! As a matter of fact, watch this!" The two then launched into a crazy song and dance that began to shake the whole room, annoying and terrifying Steven even more.

"Even I have to admit, this is pretty terrifying." Steven's darker voice remarked in shock at what Steven was seeing.

"You don't like it?" Spinel asked Steven, taking note of his unnerved expression.

"You seem a little creeped out." Volleyball added.

"I-it's fine." Steven muttered before Spinel relinquished her control over White Diamond, allowing the Diamond to regain control of her body.

"Oh, what fun." White said. "Thank you for your time, Spinel. Now, why don't you and your friends leave the room for a moment while I have a word with Steven?"

"Okay then. See you later Steven." Lemon Jade said as she, Spinel, and Volleyball left White's quarters.

"Don't take too long you two." Spinel poked her head back in for a moment before the doors closed on her, while White turned her gaze to Steven.

"Now, what seems to be the problem exactly?" White asked the boy.

"Ever since Spinel first came to Earth, I feel like I've been getting way too powerful for my own good." Steven explained depressingly. "Random new abilities keep coming out of the blue and making a mess of things for me, and it's, it's making me scared."

"Oh Steven, I'm sure many humans of your age would dream to have your abilities, yet it only worries you." White lent a sympathetic ear. "Do tell me more."

"I'm scared that I'm gonna hurt people, though I guess I already have." Steven continued with his plight. "I keep pushing everyone away from me no matter how much they want to help, and I even," He let out a big sniff as he struggled to reveal a recent development to White. "I even shattered a Gem after going mad with power."

"Wait, shattered a Gem?! Seriously?!" White gasped in shock at how Steven of all people could do such a thing. "Which one was it?"

"You remember Jasper, right?" Steven asked.

"Barely, I've only seen her once recently, at the fountain." White answered. "She had her gem on her nose, right?"

"Yeah, I thought she would be a good mentor to help me get a handle on myself, but things only got worse." Steven replied. "After Black Rutile kept on lying to me about how I'll drive Jasper away like I did with everyone else, or something even worse, she kept feeding us more lies to turn us against each other, and then, and then." Steven couldn't compose himself any longer and was about to burst into a crying fit, but a gentle pat on the head from White's massive finger kept him sane for just a little longer.

"Half a Diamond, half an organic." White mused while sitting down and getting closer to Steven. "In all the universe, I don't think anyone else could know what you're going through, except yourself of course." She gave Steven a little poke. "Would you like to take me for a spin?"

"Okay." Steven began to wipe his eyes in agreement.

"Yes, this is what we need!" Steven's evil half declared excitedly. "Perhaps we could give this hag her just desserts."

With another shut of her eyes, White's room began flashing colors again while Steven began to felt himself getting linked to the massive Diamond before she began to turn various shades of pink, symbolizing that Steven was now in control.

"Whoa, this is so weird!" Steven and White exclaimed as they got a grasp on their shared mindset. "I'm, I'm," His excitement soon turned to shock as Steven began to realize what he had become. "I'm a Diamond."

"That's right." Steven's inner voice declared menacingly, symbolized through White's eyes becoming a pitch black. "The very thing you feared for so long. Isn't this what you wanted to see?"

"No, this is the last thing I ever wanted to see!" Steven yelled as he took back control of White. "Why won't you just go away?!" White smashed a pillar behind her with her fist, and the resulting debris nearly crushed Steven. "Don't hurt me!" Steven exclaimed in fear, when he made a haunting discovery. "Wait, she can't hurt me. I'm controlling her."

"Exactly, why are you so afraid?" the darker side of Steven asked as he took back control of White. "She should be afraid of us!"

Suddenly, Steven and White switched heights while the room turned dark and a booming, evil laugh could be heard. Thanks to being under Steven's control, White began cowering in terror.

"Wh-what's going on!?" White yelled in Steven's voice and tried to run, but she was quickly stopped by invisible chains latching onto her wrists and ankles as Steven lifted her up like a puppet.

"You treated your race like puppets for so long, it's time you see how they feel." Steven announced in a deep voice completely unlike his own. "So, what's it like being a mere plaything to the brat you've bullied for ages now?"

"No, stop, I don't like this!" White exclaimed while she was forcibly steered towards another pillar.

"TOO BAD!" the dark side of Steven cackled evilly while forcing the Diamond to grab onto the pillar and hold her head back.

"Let me go please, you're scaring me!" White screamed.

"This is for everything you put me through, and everyone else too!" Steven bellowed as he prepared to smash White's gemstone against the pillar, but there was something in him that held him back.

"Well, what are you waiting for?!" the evil voice within Steven commanded. "END HER MADNESS, END YOUR SUFFERING! DO IT!"

"Neither of you can control me!" the better man within Steven argued against shattering White once and for all. "Just stop this, I'm begging you!"

"Ignorant baby. Your pacifism will be the end of you!" the evil half snarled. "Fine, if no one else does what you want, you have to do it yourself!" Steven's inner voice took full control over Steven once again and prepared to kill White Diamond, letting out a haunting evil laugh as she was about to shatter herself by smashing her gem against the pillar. Unfortunately for him, the link between Steven and White was broken in the nick of time and the two woke back up in her destroyed sanctum.

"Steven, what happened?" White gasped in horror at what Steven seemingly threatened against her. "Who was that voice? And did you just try to-"

"I-I don't know!" Steven gasped just as terrified before swelling up and turning pink, causing him to run out of the room.

"Wait!" White cried out with an outstretched hand. "Please come back!"

--

As the larger, pinker Steven charged away from White Diamond's room, he happened to pass by the other two Diamonds and Spinel & her friends, who were aghast at his current state.

"Is this what he wanted to talk to me about?" Yellow asked Blue.

"I don't think humans can get tall so quickly." Blue commented while Spinel began to give chase, her legs turning into a figure 8 as she ran behind Steven.

"Yo Steven, did White help you?!" Spinel cried out for her half-human friend, causing him to stop and turn to her, giving Spinel a good idea of what happened by his current appearance alone. "Whoa, not cool, right?"

"Wait a second!" Steven realized as he returned to his normal self before shaking Spinel by the shoulders. "You and your friends were hurt by the Diamonds, how are you so calm?!"

"Oh yeah, they hurt us alright, but it's all pretty good." Spinel chuckled.

"How good exactly?" Steven asked.

"Well, it's all good thanks to Steven Universe!" Spinel beamed and she began to sing a familiar song. "That IIII-III-III, I can make a change!"

"Insipid hypocritical brat!" Steven's inner voice bellowed furiously. "Does she think she can make you feel all better with that same idiotic tune?" The inner voice's question immediately changed Steven's perspective of Spinel. Gone was the looney sweetheart, and right before him, Steven began to imagine the psychopath that poofed all his friends and nearly killed all organic life. "She's just like everybody else you've met! They think everything is okay despite all the horrible things they've done, and you just accept it! Go right on ahead, show her how she made you feel!"

"I can make a promise, I can make a plan!" Spinel kept on singing while Steven continued glaring at her for giving him his own advice. "I can make a difference, I can take a stand! I can make an effort, if I only understaa-aaand!" Once again, Steven's darker half began to take control, making Steven curl his hand up into a fist. "That III-III-I, I can make a-"

Spinel's musical reverie was quickly cut short when Steven punched her square in the face and sent her head flying back for a moment before it returned to the rest of her body in tears. "W-why did you do that?" Spinel sniffled and then began to sob loudly.

"No, it wasn't my fault!" Steven tried to defend himself and began blaming the real culprit "You!" he yelled at his inner voice. "Why did you make me hurt her?!"

"Isn't that what you wanted, to get the payback you wanted?" the voice replied with a metaphorical sneer just as Volleyball raced towards the crying Spinel.

"Oh my goodness, are you alright Spinel?!" the Pearl with the damaged eye asked Spinel.

"Steven hit me!" Spinel kept on sobbing as she pointed at Steven while the Diamonds and Lemon Jade joined Volleyball in comforting her.

"Steven did what!?" Yellow shrieked and glared right at Steven, who turned pink yet again as he ran away. "Steven, you get back here this instant and explain yourself! She just wanted to make you feel better!"

"All of you shut up and leave me alone!" Steven screamed while racing out of the palace, unknowingly leaving behind a sandal on the steps as he left.

"Oh crack, this is Pink all over again." White groaned before she, her fellow Diamonds and Spinel's gang followed Steven out of the palace just as he was about to get on a Warp Pad, where they noticed how eerily similar to the late Diamond he has quickly become.

"Please Steven, let us help you!" Yellow cried out.

"We're your family!" Blue added.

"No, you never were!" Steven cried in a raspier voice. "Just stop following me!"

"Steven!" White exclaimed, but they were too late. The former great authority's pleas fell on deaf ears and Steven finally left Homeworld behind, the warp stream once again revealing a formless black shape before disappearing. "Oh, dear."

"What's going on with him?" Lemon Jade nervously asked.

"I have no idea." Volleyball answered as the doors closed behind them.

"Yeah, it's like he's turned into a different person," Spinel added while drying her tears. "and an absolute jerk too."

"This isn't like Steven to hit someone like this." Yellow said while cradling Spinel in her hand. "Something is definitely wrong."

"I concur Yellow." White agreed with the younger Diamond. "When I allowed Steven to take over my body, I felt a strange presence within him that urged him to try and shatter me."

"What?!" Yellow and Blue shouted in unison.

"This has got to be a result of human growth, I'm sure of it!" Blue paced around the halls. "What is it his father called it again, pub-erty?"

"Something along those lines." White said. "While I've been told young humans undergoing this process do have mood swings, I don't think violent urges are among those moods."

--

Meanwhile on Earth, Jasper had returned to lying in the bathtub where she was resurrected, and she was now crying her eyes out after being rejected by Steven. Losing her Diamond in battle was bad enough for her, and learning she was Rose Quartz all along thus making everything she worked for all a lie was even worse, but getting her back only to be abandoned once again was the final straw.

"Why does this planet hate me so?" Jasper quietly sobbed to herself. "I was only following orders, what does the rock I was created on have against me?"

Just then, Jasper could barely hear a Warp Pad go off, signaling that someone had come to the beach house. However, she chose not to bother seeing who it was, even as someone opened the door.

"Hello, anyone in here?" Steven, the boy who had basically ruined Jasper's life, asked while poking his head into the bathroom. It was dark in the room, so he could barely make out the shape of Jasper's hair lying in the tub, and he closed the door again.

--

I apologize in advance for all the heartbreak in this chapter and all chapters going forward. We're gonna get into some intense stuff here, perhaps even more intense than the gaslighting and pet loss of the previous part. And you're all still here for it, you lovable sadists. Anywho, join us next time for Everything's Fine! Oh wait, everything won't be fine.

[jaeminlore]

Amor Libertatis | Mark

summary: the freedom of love.

words: 12.4k+

category: fisherman!mark x princess!reader, FLUFF, angst, a lot of wordbuilding i got carried away

warning(s): death mention, war mention, blood mention, mark smells like fish, repetitive writing

a/n: alternate title is The Multiple Confessions of Two Dumbasses Who Don’t Get It™️

The ballroom is a grand flourish of shiny hardwood floors and high ceilings. The firelight of the chandeliers reflects off of blue quartz stones, sending a blue haze around the room. White roses hang from the doors, leaving every guest with a shoulder of rose petals by the time they enter the room.

It's genuinely beautiful, and it seems to put the staff of the palace in good spirits. The cooks set out fluffy miguelitos and bubbly rosé cava over cream-colored doilies. The servants fake-fight with the leftover rose stems, shrieking in laughter when one of them gets pricked. 

The guests will be here any moment. You, as part of your coronation celebration, invited every fisherman and sailor in the kingdom for a night of repose. Though many of your noble friends were apprehensive about it, you have found favor with the staff, and together, you worked out a special night for the main exporters of your kingdom.

The royal band is rehearsing in the corner; the sound of a bandurria tuning echoes throughout the room. Someone plays a sour note on their guitar, and it sparks a jolt of laughter throughout the room.

The tall windows are unlatched and open wide, sending the sound of waves crashing and fishermen shouting up into the cliffside castle.

You feel elated, amazed at the joy that runs throughout the room. Looking out the window, you can see a bunch of fishermen bringing their boats into the harbor. The men are joking around and laughing, and you can't help but selfishly think they're all excited for tonight.

"Anna," you call one of the servants over. 

She slips her arm around yours and peers out of the window with you. "They look happy."

"Yes," you say, following the form of one small child as he races up and down the docks. "Has the transportation been set out for the families? With outfits from the measurements we took?"

"Yes, Your Highness." Anna sounds almost as excited as you. "By tonight, we'll have a ballroom full of families. The entire west wing has been cleared for the children to sleep in as well, should the parents drink too much calent." 

You giggle at her words. "Yes, that's very smart. Remind me to thank the nannies for all they're preparing for the children. Oh, this is going to be so much fun!"

Anne sighs wistfully, eyes locked on the faraway docks. "Do you think any fishermen our age will come by?"

"Are you on the lookout for a husband, Anne?" You quip with a remarked stare. 

The girl elbows you gently. She lifts her nose into the air indignantly. "I'm of age. It's proper."

"Oh, it's proper alright," you giggle, hastily avoiding Anne's next, not-as-gentle elbowing to the side.

-

The castle looms over the docks like an ominous shadow. Mark peers up at it, wondering why on earth any fisherman would feel welcome there. "We're going to stand out like sore thumbs."

"It's for us, you buzzkill," Jaehyun shoves an empty bucket into Mark's arms. "Take this to the lower deck."

Mark can't help but wonder if Jaehyun ever thinks about how bad they smell. He wonders how many royals will be at this ball, and he wonders how many will laugh at him. He ignores Jaehyun's instructions. "Do you think it's a set up?"

Jaehyun sighs and uses the bottom of his already-dirty shirt to wipe the sweat off his forehead. He's obviously tired of Mark's worrying, but he'll never say it out loud. "I think the princess is doing her best to make allies after what the last monarchs pulled."

Mark still remembers it: the day many fishermen were taken from their homes and forced to fight a war that wasn't theirs. They became a navy of untrained soldiers against pirates and merchants with no morale and a lot of weapons. He remembers the last day he ever saw his father and brother. He remembers wanting to fight, too, but being too young. He remembers becoming a fisherman as young as ten years old, because he had to provide for his grieving mother. Then she couldn't handle it any more, and he had to attend a funeral for three people instead of two.

He remembers that no one ever let him grieve, and the castle feels ominous all over again. "I don't know if I'm going to go."

"Aren't you curious?" Jaehyun asks. "Don't you want to see if the princess is going to apologize? Or if she's just as fake as her parents before her?"

Mark wonders if the princess ever got to mourn. 

"I don't know if I want to find out," Mark admits. He adjusts the heavy bucket and goes to do the job he is getting paid to do. He turns to shout over his shoulder, "But if you go, bring me back some castle food!"

-

Mark, of all people, knows what it feels like to be alone. He must be the only fisherman not excited about the party, and it's not all for shallow reasons. Mostly, he's the only one without a family to take. 

He thinks of Jaehyun, bringing his brothers, and Kun, bringing his family — a wife and two daughters. He thinks of Lucas' little son, who can't stop talking about the outfit he was measured for. 

There is such joy in sharing with others, and Mark knows he'll feel extremely alone if he goes. He'll just burden all of his friends, who want to be with their families. 

He checks all of the boats and makes sure they're secure at the harbor. The night is warm and windy. The party is surely starting soon, or perhaps it has already started. 

He looks up at the castle. Light pours from the large windows. If he listens close enough, he can hear the sound of music and laughing.

He wants to climb on a boat and sail away for the night, just to forget all of it.

"Are you not going to join the festivities?" 

Mark jumps at the noise. He turns around and sees a girl, dressed in turquoise-colored silk. There's a split down each side, so that when she walks, Mark notices the knee-length sandals. That's normally a tell that someone is royal, but then again, he wonders if the princess gave everyone royal-grade clothing.  He wouldn't know.

He realizes he hasn't answered. He's just been staring for an odd amount of time. "Er, no. I'm not exactly a dancer," he lies, thinking it's easier than belting out his own personal sob story.

"I can't either," the girl says. She gives him a bright smile. "Something I think that makes dancing more fun."

Mark shrugs. He feels warm, but he brushes it off as the mugginess of the night. "I have to secure the boats, and I smell like fish."

"The entire ballroom smells like fish," she says, and Mark thinks for a moment that she's being insulting. Then, he receives another bright smile. "It's wonderful! It feels like we're right on the docks, dancing and laughing. One of the lovely fishermen is teaching my– er– the ladies about sea shanties. They're rather dirty in verse, but it's fun to sing them! I'm sure we'll be hearing the words down the corridors for weeks to come."

She says everything nearly out of breath. Her cheeks are red, and she seems to always be on the verge of a laugh. Every word that comes out of her mouth seems spoken in prose, so much so that Mark wonders how anyone could find life so rewarding. 

"I suppose you're a noble, then," he says. 

"I am."

Mark risks another look at her face (though he had never actually looked away) and notices her hair is gathered into a braid. It cascades down her chest and ends with a seashell clipped to the bottom. Her eyes reflect the moonlight.

He feels self conscious all of a sudden. "Well, have fun then."

"Won't you come?" 

Mark stills the moment her hand comes into contact with his. She's close now, clasping his hand like it will change his mind. Maybe it will.

"I don't really belong there."

"Everyone belongs," she says sternly, eyes suddenly hard. "I won't let anyone tell you different. This ball is about coming together as equals and apologizing for past grievances. This is a new start. You should be a part of it."

Mark isn't sure why, but he lets her pull him all the way up the cliffs, straight into the castle.

-

The boy does look out of place, you notice. "Here, let's get you into some regal clothing."

You desperately hope he doesn't ask what type of noble you are, because you would really hate to lose the trust of this young fishermen you've found. Something about his hesitance makes you think he wouldn't want to meet the princess. He wouldn't want to meet you.

You bring him into one of the spare rooms and leaf through the wardrobe. "What's your name, by the way?"

"Uh. Mark." 

You toss a black shirt and trousers at him. "Change into these, Mark. Behind that screen."

The top of his head can be seen over the screen, so you focus on his black locks while you wait. "My name is Y/n. It's a pretty common name, I know."

"I haven't heard it before," Mark comments, struggling with a piece of clothing. 

When he comes out from behind the screen, his shirt is tucked in and rolled up the fisherman way. You find it adorable, because it's how every man showed up this evening. Still, you can't help but want to see what Mark would look like dressed as a noble.

You approach him and pull his sleeves down, clipping the seashell cufflinks where they belong. Then, you grab a turquoise cummerbund and wrap it around the black attire, tying it in the back so that it's the only pop of color on his body. 

You step back and look at him. "Very handsome. Oh! I'll get some oils so you don't feel self-conscious about your smell."

He doesn't smell that bad. Honestly, it's obvious that a fisherman would smell a little funny: it's part of the job. So it's nothing to make fun of, really.

Still, you find some lavender and lemon scented oils in the vanity and sprinkle them onto his shoulder and neck. "Now don't rub it in. Just let it set."

Mark still looks out of place. Not in appearance, he just has this look on his face that says "I don't want to be here."

"I promise you'll have a nice time," you say. "And if not, we can sneak out a jug of cante and get out of here, yeah?"

Mark's face softens with relief and he smiles. "Okay."

"Great! Now let's go!" You grab his hand and pull him down the hallway, into the grand ballroom.

Mark lets out an audible gasp of surprise at the decorations, and the people. "It's... It's really nice."

"Thank you," you say. "It took forever to plan."

"You planned it?" Mark asks, eyeing you confusedly.

The base of your neck feels hot. "I helped, I mean. It's impossible for one person to plan a grand display like this."

"Right. Oh, there's Jaehyun." Mark points to the tall man talking to Anne. "He's my friend."

"He's talking to my friend, Anne. We should go talk to them!"

Jaehyun looks surprised to see Mark at the party. He looks even more surprised to see his hand in yours. "You work fast, don't you, Mark?"

Mark jerks his hand out of your grip. "She uh, she was just helping me find something to wear."

Anne eyes you. "Was she? Were you given no clothes?"

"I found him on the docks," you say quickly, trying to telepathically talk to Anne with your eyes. "I thought he might like to join us."

"I tried to get him to come along," Jaehyun says, smiling. His smile is sweet, soft like fluffy icing. "If I had known all I needed was a pretty girl to convince him, I would've done it sooner."

"Ah, it wasn't like that," Mark says. He fiddles with the cummerbund, hooking his thumb under the seam and running the pad across. "She just said you guys were having fun. So I thought I would try it."

Jaehyun looks like he wants to say more, but he hides his smile behind a gulp of rosé. 

Anne greets Mark. "Is it just you?"

Mark bristles. "Yeah," he says, a warning laced in his voice. "For a long time now."

"No wife?" Anne presses, and you notice Mark keeps tensing.

"Anne, that's enough," you say. "I'm going to show Mark around."

You pull the reluctant boy over to the closest table of food and hand him a fluke of pink liquid. "I'm sorry about her. She doesn't mean to be as invasive as she is."

Mark downs the entire thing in one gulp and stares down at his shoes. "Yeah, it's fine. I just. You know, not all of our families survived the war."

Your heart softens, and your chest burns with the sort of empathy one gets when they've experienced grief. "From the bottom of my heart, I am sorry. If my— if the king and queen had known what they were truly doing—"

"It shouldn't have even crossed their minds," Mark snaps, cutting a cold glare across the room. "Where is the princess anyway? Isn't she supposed to apologize for their mistakes tonight?"

Your voice feels watery in your throat. "She already did. That's how she opened the night."

"Huh," Mark furrows his brows. "What did she say?"

You swallow down your urge to get upset. He's only asking for closure. "She apologized for her parents' actions. Said she hopes to rule better than them, and never have to put the lower class in danger like that again. She reminded everyone that you are just as important as she is, and that you deserve the same rights as her — you should get to choose if you want to fight."

Mark looks torn. "Okay," he says, and drops the subject for the night.

-

Mark goes home pretty quickly after that. He feels pain in the depths of his stomach, and he knows he shouldn't take it out on you, so he leaves.

He walks home, since his home is just a simple shack right under the cliffs near the ocean. He unties the cummerbund and rips the cuff links off of his sleeves. 

With the moon as his only light, he sits on the beach with his feet in the tide. He watches the moon until it becomes hard to keep his eyes open, and then he goes to sleep, the smell of lavender and lemon still on his skin.

He's on net-making duty the next day, so he sits in the same spot on the beach. His hands burn from the amount of times he's pulled on the ropes, making sure they're tight and secure enough to hold hundreds of fish. 

The waves lap at his ankles until midday, when the tide retracts, and he's left hot and sweaty under the sun. 

That's when you arrive.

You look different from last night, dressed down this time in a pair of cotton trousers and a simple white shirt. Your boots crunch over the sand and pebbles as you walk over and hand him a package. "I had your clothes cleaned."

Mark eyes the package for a moment before he sighs, drops his net, and takes it. "Thanks."

"Sure." You point to the net. "Did you make that by yourself?"

Mark accidentally lets out a laugh. "Well, nets don't just appear, you see."

You shove his arm, and Mark finds that your hand feels almost cool against his hot skin. "I know that. I was going to compliment you, but I think I'll take it back now."

"Oh no," Mark says. A teasing smile makes its way to his face before he can stop it. "How will I keep going, now?"

You giggle. It makes Mark feel abnormally proud, as if he's suddenly the funniest person on earth. Which he certainly isn't. He knows it's weird, so he tries to bury it down in the same place he buried the memory of your hand in his. "Shouldn't you get back to the castle?" It comes out more harshly then he intends it to, but he really can't be around you for too long without feeling weird things. Odd things.

"I suppose," you shrug. "I don't want to though. I spent all morning helping clean up and I just want to rest now. 

Mark feels a blister forming under his thumb. "Sounds rough."

"Sorry," you manage to look bashful. "I know I have it good. I shouldn't complain. Hey, maybe I could help you!"

"I don't need help," Mark says. "Besides, you wouldn't know how to tie these knots."

"I would if you'd teach me." You catch Mark's gaze and hold it until he looks away, shaking his head softly. You begin to plead. "Look, I'm a really quick learner! And I don't make my tutors repeat things! I can help!"

"You have a tutor?" Mark scoffs. "Aren't you learning a lot more interesting things than how to tie knots?"

"I'm learning about foreign policies,"  you roll your eyes. "And while it's important, it's tragically boring. I think the life of a sailor must be much more fun."

Mark can agree with that. In fact, he plans on one day having his own boat, and spending his enter life on the water, away from people and families and the castle and any other reminder of his loss. "I'm going to sail away one day. No one will ever see me again."

You stay quiet for a moment, and Mark begins to wonder if he somehow offended you. Surely not. You've only known him for a day; you wouldn't care if he left. Then you say, "You're quite sure no one would miss you, then?"

"Why would they? Everyone has their own lives. Everyone has moved on already."

You sit with Mark in silence while he finishes his net, and then you bid him goodbye just as Jaehyun invites him to his house for supper. 

Mark sort of wishes you would have stayed, and he could've spent the night sitting beside you.

-

The castle feels empty more than full most nights. You suppose it's just your heart, reaching around corners for a parent that no longer exists. You remember when they both came down with tuberculosis. You remember not being able to see them during their last few months. You remember living in a little cottage with your advisor as the castle was inspected and cleaned. 

Sometimes you think the castle is haunted by the souls of your parents. There have been many nights when you feel someone stroking your hair the way your mother used to. Maybe you're just making it up, but you like to think she's still with you, as well as your father.

You love them dearly. Though everyone says the tuberculosis was karma for sending so many innocent people into battle, you can't help but want to ask what other option they had.

The pirates had been closing in on all sides. The castle's knights were already on the sea, fighting, and they needed reinforcements. Who else could've been chosen? No one else knew the sea as well. And in the end, it worked, and many of the fishermen returned home to their families.

You figure Mark is one of the unlucky ones.

If you could, you'd take it all back. No one would fight at all, and you'd fix it some other way, whether diplomatically or not. Definitely not by sending innocent people into battle. That was never the goal.

You kiss your mother's rosary and tuck it against your chest. Maybe she would be proud of the steps you're taking. Maybe she would desperately disagree with getting so close to the lower class.

But they aren't disposable. That had been proven in just one night, when you met every fisherman and their family personally. They are all important. They are all real. They are alive, and they won't be used as pawns ever again.

Your bedroom is just as empty as the halls. But here, the walls don't echo, so you freely recite a prayer to your mother, asking her how to do this. How to make hard decisions and save people at the same time. How to rule a country without losing your heart.

-

You don't see Mark until a week later, when he's seen helping sell fish at the market. 

There's a scarf tied around his head to keep the sweat out of his eyes, and it's rather cute the way his wavy black hair falls over it. You approach the smelly booth and shoot Mark a wide smile. "How have you been?"

"Me?" Mark's eyes widen, and he uses his gloved hand to point to himself.

"Who else? The mackerel?" You point to a random fish.

"Actually, that's a bream." Mark says with a smile. Then he frowns. "I don't know how I've been. My hands are burning from making nets all week, and all I can think about is dipping them in these ice buckets. But there are fish guts in those, so I've been able to contain myself."

You laugh, catching the eye of another fisherman. "Oh, hi, Jaehyun."

"Hey, Y/n. Come to take Mark away from the torturous life of a fisherman?" He rests his hand on his forehead dramatically. 

"Can I do that?" you ask, looking from one boy to the other.

"He always eats at my house anyways," Jaehyun says. "And it's my boat he works for, so sure. Just don't make him use his hands," he winks.

You cough out a laugh, sure your cheeks are just as red as Mark's.

Mark quickly unties his apron and shoves his gloves off of his hands. You notice his palms are pink and raw, and it makes you think of the healers back at the castle. "Hey, I know you're not a big fan of the castle, so I can go by and get it, but I have a balm that can heal your hands a lot quicker."

Mark looks up towards the faraway cliffs, where the castle stands. "Maybe... if we don't take long... I can go back in."

-

Mark kind of wishes his hands weren't messed up. Not because they would hurt less (though that would be nice) but because now you aren't trying at all to hold his hand, and that makes Mark just a tad bit sad. Okay, maybe a lot more than a tad bit.

You bring him into a healer's room, where the walls are draped in herbs and random flowers that probably have some sort of healing properties. He sees a boiling cauldron in the corner, and shelves upon shelves of vials. 

"Ten is quite the hoarder," you say as a way of explanation. 

He sits on the cot while you grab the balm and some bandages. Then, you sit beside him and take his left hand first. You place it upturned on your lap and rub the balm into his skin using small circular motions, the way Ten taught you awhile ago.

He hisses in pain, and it's quite obvious that the blisters are infected. 

"Should I drain them before I bandage them?" you ask, mostly to yourself.

Mark whimpers, and then he huffs like he's heard Lucas' son do many times before. "It's probably better if you do."

"Just don't watch," you say hastily. "It'll hurt less."

Mark keeps his head hidden in your shoulder the entire time, refusing to look until both of his hands are drained and bandaged. He focuses on the way your skin smells like the sea salt, but in a sweet way. Like you've somehow only extracted the good parts of the ocean. 

When you officially announce that your done, Mark looks up. His senses are overwhelmed by both the pain, and the smell of your skin, so when he finds himself nose to nose with you, it's hard not to lean in. 

Just before his lips touch yours, he hears the door open.

It breaks his trance, and he blinks, backing up a short distance. He brings his hands back to his own lap.

A man — Ten, Mark supposes — walks in. "Oh, Your Highness. What's wrong?"

Mark almost laughs. Who would mistake someone for the princess? But then your face pales, and you look like you've just been punched in the gut.

"Your Highness?" He says quietly, hoping he somehow heard wrong. "You told me you were a noble."

"I am," you say, folding in on yourself timidly.

Ten sees that he's made a mistake, so he quickly grabs a bundle of rosemary and runs out of the door. 

"Princess Y/n? That's your name?" Mark asks again, feeling his bones go cold. He can't like the princess. He can't have almost kissed the princess. He can't fall for the girl who's parents inadvertently got his family killed.

He stands up. "I have to go."

"Mark, wait—" you reach for the boy, but he backs away from your touch, reaching for the door. "I'm sorry."

He opens the door. "I have to go," he repeats, shaking his head and escaping the room.

-

Your coronation is in two days, and all you can think about is Mark and his family.

You can guess what happened, as it happened to a lot of families during that time. Of course, Mark is one of the only ones who kept the fishing trade after such a tragedy. 

You want to go see him, but something holds you back. If he blames you and despises you, he wouldn't want to see you under any circumstances.

But you can't help but think about him and all of the others who lost family due to your parents' poor decisions. Sure, you could throw a ball for present-day fishermen, but that doesn't cover the families of the passed.

They could be struggling or alone, and you don't want any of them to feel lost. You want them to find closure apart from a lavish party.

So you set your coronation back, and you get together with a few architects in the kingdom.

And as soon as the plan is set in motion, you head down to the docks, hoping Mark will be the first to know about it. He may reject you, but you want him to know. He deserves to know, as the one who inspired the project.

You find Jaehyun first, untangling a net at the end of his boat, feet hanging over the side, against the hull. "Hey, Jaehyun. Is Mark here? I really need to talk to him."

Jaehyun looks remorseful. "He left a while ago. Took his shabby sailboat and left for who-knows-where. 'Said he might come back. 'Said maybe not."

"Oh," you say. Your mind feels burdened, but you accept it. You have to. "Okay. Well, if he comes back—"

"I'll send him your way," Jaehyun gives you a pity-filled smile, like he knows what you're both thinking.

Mark probably isn't going to come back.

-

You focus on the project. 

One section of the kingdom courtyard is cleared, and now a tree stands, with a sign in front of it. The plaque reads off the names of all the deceased, and all the families affected. It reads off the history of the decision, and the conscious choice not to let history repeat itself.

You invite every family mentioned and offer them enough resources to keep them afloat for the remainder of their lives. You take the money out of the savings your father held aside for war and your mother held aside for your coronation, wedding, and honeymoon.

Surely, this is more important.

You can't think of why a coronation would have to be anything special enough to hold back resources that should have been gifted as soon as the war ended.

You know firsthand that the scars of grief won't heal completely, but this is certainly a start. This is a step in the direction of closure, and you do your best to prove to your people that you are genuine in this decision.

You sign a declaration stating that no one will be forced to fight again, and all procedures to prevent a war will be taken. War will be a last resort, lest anything happen to your people. God forbid.

That night you fall asleep feeling lighter than you have in years. 

You still wish Mark had been there to see it. To see that he has never been alone. 

You want to tell him that there's a room in the castle with his name on it, if he wants it. You want to tell him that he can stay here forever, and you'll do your best not to bother him. 

Most of all, you just want to know that he's safe.

-

Mark finds himself on a small island, and decides to stay for a few days. 

He'll come back, he knows that deep down. But it's only because he has something to come back to. Someone.

It's impossible to deny that he has some kind of feelings towards you. However weak they are, they're there. However platonic or romantic they may be, he wants to be around you. He doesn't want to go a long time without seeing you; talking with you. 

The fact that you're the princess has him at a standstill. Because, yeah, your parents made a horrible decision. But he knows you were only a child when it was made. You were his age. And when the king and queen were overcome by their illness just a few years later, you were left alone to rule.

Mark is beginning to think you know just as much about feeling alone as he does.

He sleeps on the beach beside a campfire. His stomach is only half-full, but he doesn't feel like eating any more of his rations. 

He looks across the vast horizon and imagines that you're in the castle, looking out. Maybe you can see the smoke, or maybe he's simply becoming a vapor in the wind.

Maybe you don't miss him, or care that he's gone. Maybe you're angry for the way he left.

Mark figures he should work on the whole impulse thing.

He'll come back one day, he knows. Just not yet.

-

You are crowned as queen a month later, when the sea is chilly and the air is biting. Your breath turns into frost as often as you breathe, waiting in anticipation for a boat that may never return home.

Days are filled with meetings and discussions over keeping the peace, and while you adore your country, you can't help but wish you were back on the docks that night, meeting Mark again for the first time.

You stay up late, nightmares eating at your mind. Your mother's ghost still lingers around, but she feels less comforting now, and you don't know why. Her presence makes the room cold and dark. Even her rosary doesn't feel as good as it once did.

Still you clutch it, and say a quick prayer to whoever will bring Mark home the fastest.

And when you look up, you can see a small sailboat, making its way towards the light of the lighthouse beam.

You hastily pull pants over your nightgown and throw a jacket over your shoulders before racing out of your bedroom, fingers still clutching your mother's beads.

You forgot to put on shoes. This would be fine, if the cliffs weren't so sharp. So, you slow your pace and pick a smoother path, not wishing to get any serious injuries.

The wood of the dock is cold. It's wet, too. The slimy kind of wet that makes you want to take a bath as soon as you feel it. But still you stand, eyes focused on that little sailboat, hoping it's Mark on his way home.

Your knees are aching, and you're shivering by the time the boat finally docks. But it's all worth it when Mark walks out, his clothes dirty and messed up.

He starts when he notices you, but once he realizes you are not, in fact, a ghost, he quickens his pace until he is right in front of you. "You're not mad at me."

"No," you say. "Are you mad at me?"

"No," Mark breathes. A laugh of relief leaves his lips and he reaches forward to wrap you into a hug. "I'm sorry I did that. I acted impulsively and I shouldn't have."

"No, you shouldn't have," you scold, squeezing him as tightly as you can. "I was afraid for your safety every night."

Mark awkwardly pats your back until you let him go, and then he gives you a crooked smile. "I'm extremely tired. Do you think we could meet up in the morning?"

"You don't sleep in that shack during the winter, do you?"

Mark seems confused. "Yeah, why?"

"You'll get sick," you protest. "Won't you just come to the castle with me? I know you don't like it, but there's a room with your name on it if you want it."

Mark covers his mouth as he yawns. "You know what? I might take you up on your offer. Just for tonight, though." 

He seems set on his decision, and you're just thankful that he's alive, so you grab his hand and pull him up the cliffs, excited to have him with you once again.

-

Mark submerges his head completely under the water. You had a bath drawn for him, and you even filled it with lavender and lemon oils. Though the scents make Mark even drowsier than before, he's thankful that you remembered the scents.

They make him think of that night when he first met you, and that makes his heart warm.

He falls asleep as soon as his head hits the fluffy pillows. After being so used to sleeping on the ground, this feels like a cloud.

He gets the best sleep he's had in ages.

-

You wake up in a cold sweat, visions of Mark caught in a shipwreck wracking your body in waves. Shivers race down your spine, so you sit up and look around, counting the things in your room the way Ten told you to do when you feel on the verge of a panic.

Once the room stops spinning, you get up and begin to dress, excited to show Mark around your home. You want to show him the garden, and the memorial. 

You put on a yellow sundress and race out of the door. You knock incessantly on Mark's door until he finally opens it.

The sight that greets you makes your heart flutter worse than the dream. But it's in a different way. It's a positive and lovely flutter that zips all the way down to your toes. 

Mark is still in his nightclothes. One hand still on the door, the other goes up to rub his eyes. His hair is messy, shooting up in all different directions. His skin has gotten a lot darker since his voyage, and the stark contrast to his white shirt warms the pit of your stomach. "Morning," he mumbles.

You suddenly want to reach over and kiss him, just to capture that innocent look on his face. However, you mask that feeling with a smile. "Do you want to have breakfast? Or, if you're still tired, maybe we could just hang out here."

Mark looks longingly back at his bed. Then, to the still-dark sky outside the window. "Uh, what time is it?"

"Four in the morning," you say, heart skipping a beat.

"Four?" Mark gapes at you. "Shouldn't you be asleep still? Why are you dressed?"

You pout. "I had a nightmare and don't want to go back to sleep." 

Mark rolls his eyes and reaches for your hand. He pulls you into his room. "Get dressed into something comfier and let's go back to sleep."

You find a long nightshirt in his wardrobe, but you don't like the second part of his plan. From behind the dressing screen, you slip the silky fabric over your body. "I don't want to sleep. I'll have bad dreams again."

"What are they about?" Mark questions. He's lying on his bed, arms stretched out behind his head. The shirt he's wearing rides up at the hips the more he stretches, and you nearly get caught staring at the sliver of skin that shows. 

"Um. People I care about in dangerous situations," you say, not wanting to reveal that most of them are about him. It's just that your brain can't seem to catch up to the present. Maybe it hasn't caught on that Mark is here, safe, and not lost out at sea.

"But you have to sleep," Mark says. "We didn't get in until, like, midnight. You need more than that."

"I'll just lay beside you," you say, hoping it appeases him. "And we can get breakfast when you wake up."

Mark looks annoyed, but he doesn't say anything else. He shifts into his side, facing you, and closes his eyes.

You mirror his actions, burying yourself under his covers that already seem to smell like him. Like the sea and lavender and lemons. You take a deep breath and watch him fall asleep. You take note of the way his eyelids begin to flutter, and the noiseless mumbles coming from his lips. He's beautiful (and he falls asleep really fast, you notice.)

You reach out and clasp his shirt, fisting the loose fabric. Anchoring yourself to him makes this feel more real, and you hope your brain is finally catching up to the rest of you.

Sometime within the next thirty minutes, you fall asleep. And there are no nightmares. In fact, there are no dreams at all. 

-

Mark wakes up with his arms around somebody's waist, and for the life of him he can't figure out if he went to bed with anybody last night.

What was last night? His mind floods back to him sailing back to the mainland and finding you waiting for him. 

It's you. He groggily opens his eyes and sees you, curled against his chest, fingers clutched around the front of his shirt. And his arm is only holding you there, keeping you in his embrace until he wants to let go.

Mark loosens up his arm and settles for lying next to you, listening to the sound of your breathing. Soft snores emit every now and again, and a piece of his heart pinches with endearment. 

He's thankful you waited. He can't imagine how upsetting it would have been to come back and not have you greet him. He takes it a step further and wonders how he would have felt if you were betrothed; promised to another. Not that you were ever promised to him, but still. 

There's always a future possibility, he likes to imagine.

Though, to be honest, he has no idea what it means for you to be a queen. He wonders if there are rules against favoring a fisherman. Maybe you'll wake up and tell him that the two of you have to stay six inches apart now that you're queen. He has no idea.

"What are you thinking so hard about?" you snap him out of his thoughts.

Mark watches as a sleepy smile paints your lips. "Just... is this scandalous?"

You cover your mouth with your hand and giggle. Your eyes seem to twinkle at him, and it makes Mark glad that he coaxed you into going back to sleep for a few hours. "Don't you know we're a matriarchy?"

Mark gapes. "The line goes through the women?"

"Essentially, yeah," you say. "I can be around men as much as I please, so long as I one day have a female heir. Though that will not be any time soon, I'm very sure."

Mark remembers Lucas and his son, and he wonders what it'd be like to have a little one of his own. It's a comforting thought, like he might one day be able to find a family again. "Oh. Cool."

"Yeah," you say. "I mean, not that I normally find myself in the bed of different men, just... you know."

Mark clears his throat. "Yeah. Er, yeah."

"I didn't have any nightmares," you say. "So maybe it was good that I went back to sleep."

"You do need your sleep," Mark says. "It's important."

You change the subject. "What should we do after breakfast?"

"Well, I really have to go see Jaehyun and ask for my position on his boat again." Mark feels sheepish for cutting his time with you short, but he needs to make an income. "I can visit you soon, though."

"Maybe we could sail together one day," you say. Mark can tell you're masking your disappointment, and it makes his heart clench. 

"Definitely," he says, if not just to watch your eyes light up.

-

Jaehyun kept Mark's spot open while he was gone, hoping he would return. "Why do you look so nice?"

"Oh," Mark runs his hands through his hair and avoids Jaehyun's gaze. "I spent the night at the castle."

Jaehyun snickers knowingly, and when Mark tries to deny whatever it is he's thinking of, he only gets louder. "I can't believe you spent the night with the queen and you want to be humble about it."

"It wasn't like that," Mark says, defending you. "Don't be weird about it. We're friends."

"Fine," Jaehyun rolls his eyes. "If you don't want to be the future king, fine."

"Actually, it's a matriarchy, so I wouldn't even be king. I'd be like, the consort or something." Mark grunts as he lifts a fishing net onto his back. "Which is kind of cool when you think about it."

"You don't want power?" 

Mark scoffs, looking back at his friend. "Imagine me running a country. I can't count a million ways that would go wrong. Y/n is better suited, obviously."

"Yeah," Jaehyun matches Mark's stride. "I was kind of on the fence about her reigning instead of a regent, but then she set up the monument and signed that treaty. I think that's the most badass thing I've ever seen anybody do."

"What monument?" Mark shifts the weight of the net and dumps it on the deck of Jaehyun's ship. They begin to untangle it and spread it out to get ready for tomorrow's voyage. 

"Are you kidding me? The one inspired by you? I thought Y/n would've told you as soon as she saw you."

"I kind of left as soon as I woke up. And last night we were both so tired..." Mark fiddles with his sleeves. "What is the monument about?"

"It's a memorial," Jaehyun's voice carries a more somber tone. He lost his father in that war, too. "It's literally engraved in stone, the mistakes her parents made, and the promise not to repeat it. And it has the names of the deceased and the affected. It's basically a shrine; people leave things for their loved ones who have passed. It's a great sentiment. Oh, and the treaty. She signed a treaty with the people that she'd never force anyone to fight in a war. She's essentially risking the entire country for the lower class. It's amazing."

Mark's heart softens towards you. "She did all that?"

"Held back her coronation to finish it," Jaehyun confirms. "Then, each family of the deceased got compensated. You know, like her parents promised they would do, and then never did?"

Mark does remember, but he also remembers that being the year both monarchs died. They never had the chance to fulfill their promise. "Wait, so we both got compensation?"

"Yeah," Jaehyun said, dimples showing. "The bookkeeper has yours. I put most of mine into savings, since I don't mind the business I have right now. But I figured you'd want a new boat to take out and live on."

Mark eyes the water, and remembers how lonely he felt being the only one for miles. No one had been there for him, and he wasn't sure he wanted to agree to that again. "I'll put mine into savings, too. For now."

"You could take Y/n on a trip," Jaehyun suggests.

Mark shakes his head. "She wants me to take her sailing, but how do you charm a girl who has everything?"

"Give her the one thing she's never had," Jaehyun says, as if the answer is obvious. "Freedom."

-

Mark doesn't ask you to, but you bring a picnic basket with you the day the two of you go sailing.

You figure Mark probably only knows how to prepare a small number of things, and it might be nice to bring him something of a royal caliber to snack on. Besides, you have to bring something to thank him for taking you out with him.

Mark's boat is extremely small: just big enough for a crew of maybe six people, but small enough to be controlled by one man alone.

You watch Mark hoist the sails and set the boat towards the horizon, the wind doing most of the work.

The wind plays with Mark's hair, as well as his shirt, and you aren't sure which is nicer to look at. He's smiling towards the sun, the sharp rays casting somewhat of a halo around his face and you realize this is exactly where Mark belongs. He belongs with the wind and the sea.

Mark belongs where he can be free.

He anchors the boat once the two of you sail out far enough. You lay the picnic blanket out and extract the miscellaneous food items you thought Mark might like. 

He tastes the watermelon first, and nurses the fruit throughout the meal. "So, uh, Jaehyun told me about the memorial. And the compensation."

"Oh," you say. "Well, I thought they deserved to be remembered."

Mark nods. "Thanks. It meant a lot to visit it and find my family's names. I felt a lot of closure. As if they were finally at rest."

"Good," you take a sip of water. "That's good."

"You know," Mark pauses like he's about to say something troublesome, "your parents deserved to be remembered, too. They deserve to rest."

You glance up, and your head all of a sudden feels heavy on your neck. It's as if Mark said the words you so desperately needed to hear, whether you knew it or not. Heat pricks the backs of your eyes and you feel both a headache and tears coming up. "Thanks, Mark. I think so too."

"I thought we could do a small memorial service here. Just a little one. We can burn a candle and forgive your parents together. Then they can rest."

"Yeah," you sniffle, feeling an unbearable amount of gratitude in your heart for the boy sitting across from you. "Okay."

-

"We should go swimming," you say, just as Mark blows out the candle. 

"It's freezing out here," he says, looking at you like you're crazy.

"I'm going in," you say, backing up towards the edge of the boat.

Mark watches you jump off of his boat, then he hears a splash, and then a joyful shriek. He sighs and rolls his sleeves up to his elbows. He toes off his shoes and socks and stands at the edge of the boat. "How cold is it?" He calls down to you.

"It's super chilly," you yell back, teeth chattering as you smile in satisfaction. "But it feels good."

Mark takes your word for it and dives in head first. His bones chill immeasurably and he feels every muscle in his body wake up for what seems like the first time today. When he reaches the surface, the wind bites at his ears, and he begins chattering, too. "This is a terrible idea," he laughs.

"I know," you say gleefully. You swim over to him, and Mark catches that familiar glint in your eyes. It looks like you're truly happy, and he thinks in this moment that he'd freeze himself a thousand times over again if it kept that stupid smile on your face. "Also, how do we get back onto the boat?"

"There's a ladder on the other side," Mark says. "We're good."

"Okay," you wrap your arms around his shoulders from behind, and hook your ankles together at the front of his navel. "Carry me there?"

Mark dips at the sudden new weight, but it isn't unwelcome. He swims to the other side of the boat, a bit lazy because he really likes the way you're clinging onto him.

He lets you go up the ladder first, and he keeps his eyes on the ocean so he won't accidentally look up your skirt. As soon as you yell that you're clear, he begins to climb as well.

When the two of you return to the castle, you're placed in front of the fireplace in Mark's room by a very angry Ten. The two of you take whatever soup he made to warm your insides, and snicker at the obvious annoyance in the man's face.

"To be fair, it's only because he doesn't want us getting hurt," Mark supplies. He wraps the wool blanket tighter around his now-dry shoulders. The two of you are wearing new sets of clothes, having washed up in lukewarm water like Ten advised you to.

"I know," you giggle, scooting closer to him. "He's just so funny when he starts complaining." You shiver as you speak.

"C'mere," Mark mumbles. He wraps his arm around your shoulder and pulls you close to him, against the warmth of his body. "This is why I said we shouldn't go swimming."

"I'm fine," you say, shivering in his hold. "I'm getting warmer."

Mark runs his hand up and down your arms to try and create some kind of extra heat. Once you finally stop shivering, he checks on you, only to find that you've fallen asleep against his chest.

His heartbeat quickens — for absolutely no reason — as he gathers you in his arms and places you on the side of the bed closest to the fireplace. 

You let out a sigh of contentment and curl into the sheets. When Mark tucks you in, he swears he hears you mumble a quiet thanks.

He wonders if he should sleep in here or try to find another room to sleep in. Obviously he's slept beside you before, but he wonders if it's weird now because of how much he likes you. He wouldn't want you to think he's taking advantage.

But then Ten comes in and quite literally shoves him into the bed. "The two of you are getting a lot of sleep, because tomorrow I will have you both up drinking a very disgusting brew that prevents serious sickness. It'll be ready in the morning. So, get to sleep."

Mark obeys, too afraid to explain his predicament to Ten. It's a bit stupid anyway, he figures.

So he climbs into bed and falls asleep under the warm covers. 

-

Mark is untangling nets on the beach, toes buried in the sand. The wind has been picking up, causing his hair to annoyingly waft into his eyes every now and again.

He can hear the shrieks of laughter from Lucas' son as the boy runs up and down the dock. A moment passes where he pictures having a son of his own to teach at the docks. But maybe that isn't the life for him.

He's been spending his nights at the castle, staying up to talk to you. The majority of the time, you both fall asleep together, either intertwined or just in each other's presence.

Mark doesn't want to admit that he's falling for you, because that would mean he's falling for the queen. And while that doesn't sound too bad, Mark wonders how much of his freedom he'll have to give up. He wonders if he'd have to pay a price to be officially wed to you, when he likes the way things are now. He likes just being around you, as a friend, safe at a distance.

But he can't deny that there are times when he would love to kiss you and touch you in ways friends are not supposed to. He tries to keep these thoughts buried with the rest of them. In the things-that-will-never-happen pile.

He wonders if you like him too, and just as much. You certainly seem to enjoy every moment you're with him, but you're also just a generally joyful person, so Mark isn't sure he could differentiate the two if he tried.

He focuses on the net, hoping to keep you out of his mind for at least a day.

The universe has other plans. 

"Hey," you sit beside him. You wiggle your toes into the sand and grin at him. "Whatcha doing?"

"Working," Mark says, bumping his shoulder with yours. "I'm untangling nets."

Your face suddenly softens. "Are you going to get hurt again? Maybe you should wear gloves."

"I'm used to it," Mark says, shrugging off your worry. When he can sense that you aren't appeased, he swings his head to the side and gives you a long glance. "I'm serious."

You huff. "Just because you're used to it doesn't mean it has to keep happening."

In the end, you win. Mark begrudgingly puts on the pair of work gloves that you steal from Jaehyun. He has to admit that it feels a lot better, and he untangles the net a lot faster when he isn't trying to avoid getting any cuts. "Thanks, Y/n."

You grin. You follow him as he drags the net up to Jaehyun's boat and help him lay it out. Mark notices the bottom of your dress is soggy with whatever grossness dresses the dock. He also notices that you don't seem to mind, and you do your best to keep up with him as he works.

Eventually, the two of you get into a small rhythm of Mark briefly teaching you, and you picking up the trade rather easily. You help him pack bait, secure knots, and clean the deck of Jaehyun's ship.

By nightfall, the two of you are covered in a thin layer of sweat. Mark is suddenly extremely thankful that you've given him a room in the castle, and he can take a proper bath tonight. 

Jaehyun and his brothers are going on a trip for a few weeks, so he won't have much to do on the docks as far as working goes. He wonders if he'll stay at the castle, or feel more comfortable by the sea.

-

Mark tucks the light brown cotton vest into his pants. It covers the white dress shirt he took out of the wardrobe, and matches the dark brown belt fastened around his waist. He slips his sock-clad feet into his worn leather boots. He sits on his bed and fastens the straps of the boots. 

It's raining, hard. There's no way anyone is going down to the docks today, and since Jaehyun isn't going to be there anyway, Mark refuses to brave the harsh rain. Instead, he makes his way to your bedroom door and knocks.

You call for him to enter. He walks in to see you hunched over your writing desk, reading some kind of letter. Your eyebrows are knitted together and your lips are pursed. An upset sigh escapes them. "It's from my aunt."

"What does she want?" Mark takes slow, hesitant steps towards the desk. "Is it bad?"

You rub your temples, looking more stressed than Mark has ever seen. "She wants me to have an heir. A daughter. Which is fine, but I don't need one now. I'm young and I'm unmarried. But she's talking about sending a few suitors over."

Mark's blood runs cold. "Oh? Um, did you agree to it?" 

"It wasn't a choice," you say, slamming the parchment down onto the desk. You reach up and grab fistfuls of your hair, resting your elbows on the wooden surface. "I just... I made so much progress, you know? And she assumes it's not enough. She assumes I'm nothing without an heir."

"What happens if you don't get married and have a daughter?" Mark asks, wincing more with every word.

You sigh. Your smile is extremely forced as you look at him. "Well, then she would have to take the throne, as apparently I wouldn't be fit enough to rule."

Mark can see the beginnings of tears in your eyes. "She can't do that, right? She can't keep you off the throne?"

"Technically, since she's the only female on my mom's side with a daughter of her own, she can." You begin to crumple up the letter. "She wouldn't be able to rule this country like I can. She won't have empathy for my people. She won't be gentle or kind. She won't throw parties for the lower class... Mark, what am I going to do?"

Mark wants to remind you that he is only a fisherman who has no idea how royalty works. However, all he can do is look into your eyes and realize that you're all alone. You're all alone and you're looking to him for help; for an anchor; for something to cling to so that you won't drown.

"Mark, please..." and immediately, he pulls you into his embrace. He tucks your head under his chin and holds you close, doing his best to still the violent shivers that run through your body. "I don't want to marry someone I don't love. I don't want to be forced into a union."

"Shh..." Mark runs his palms up and down your back. "We'll figure it out, right? You'll prove that you can rule without an heir, right?"

"I don't know," you sob into Mark's chest. "But I have to do it because she can't be on the throne. I won't do that to you. I can't. Not to my people—"

"Okay, okay, okay," Mark shushes you. "Alright. You do what you have to do. But tonight, let's just rest. Let's just pretend nothing is happening. Can we do that for tonight?"

You look at Mark and nod. You use the ends of your sleeve to wipe at your nose, leaving the skin red and raw. "Can you stay with me?"

Mark sits on your bed, and you crawl into his lap. He feels your forehead press against the side of his neck. Your hands clutch at his now-untucked shirt. You're still crying — he can feel a few stray tears slip beneath his collar — but you're quieter now. Your heart isn't racing as fast.

"Mark," you whisper, almost sleepily. "I love you."

Mark's breath hitches in his throat at your words. He finds that now he's the one with tears, pricking the back of his head like the painful reminder that this is all he'll ever be able to be to you. "I love you, too."

The rain continues to pour outside. Mark runs his fingers through your hair, and tells you quiet tales of the sea until you fall asleep, looking far too small and vulnerable in his arms.

He wonders just how much a queen has to sacrifice. He wonders if he would ever be able to steal the weight off of your shoulders. 

For a quick moment, Mark closes his eyes and imagines a world where it's just the two of you, and you mean it when you say you love him. It's not just fever-fueled words.

He kisses the top of you head. "So much."

-

The coffee is bitter on your tongue, but it's a lot sweeter than your aunt's arrival.

She comes in a carriage far too large for a single person. Her dress is too thick for Ora's climate, and yet she walks with her head held high, as if she can't feel the drops of sweat along her hairline.

Her hair is hidden beneath a large bonnet made of wire and something else. The atrociousness of it all just makes you want to laugh. Though the reality of the situation isn't funny in the least.

Mark is at the docks today, but you take comfort in knowing that he's on your side. Part of you wishes he would confess to you, and the two of you could get married. Wouldn't that be everything you've ever wanted?

Mark is, however, your dearest friend, and you doubt his affections towards you are romantic. He's never really been that affectionate anyway, save when the two of you are sleeping.

Sometimes you wonder how it would feel if he just decided to kiss you one day. If he decided that he loved you, truly. That he is in love with you, and the two of you can carry on in life together.

That's another thing you despise about this decision. What will happen to you and Mark if you wed another? Surely you'll have to stop sleeping in each other's beds. You'll have to spend more time with your husband. The thought breaks your heart. 

What a tender and vulnerable love you have for the fisherman at the docks. It's something no one could replace. 

And that's when you decide to lie to your aunt. You can't stand a life without Mark. Not now. So you pretend you don't have to. "Actually, I'm betrothed to someone. His name is Mark."

Your aunt purses her lips. Her entire face is puckered like she just ate something sour, and yet she somehow still looks beautiful. It irks you. "Is he of noble birth?"

"No," you say, straightening your shoulders. "but that isn't important, is it?"

Your aunt meets your daring gaze. She sighs. "No, I suppose it doesn't. Will you have an heir, though?"

"I do hope you aren't suggesting infidelity before marriage," you quip.

Your aunt balks. "Now you're just putting words into my mouth, Y/n—"

"Your Majesty," you correct, clasping your hands together. "and I do believe I am asking the appropriate questions. You wanted me to get betrothed, and I am."

There's a fire in your aunt's eyes. She blinks, settles for a calculated grin, and leans on her palm. "Of course. I only think it's peculiar that your people do not know of the engagement yet. Are the two of you waiting to announce it?"

"Well..." You clench your fists beneath the table, "I have been waiting for the right time..."

"I will host a ball." If you didn't know any better, you'd say your aunt is calling your bluff. And if you say no, she's got you right where she wants you.

You aren't letting her have any say in ruling your people. "Wonderful! I'll tell Mark right away!"

The look on your aunt's face is almost enough to make up for the bile that creeps up your throat.

-

When Mark comes into his room that night, hair still wet from his bath, you're pacing back and forth in front of his bed.

You're already in your nightgown, and your hair is braided with that familiar seashell pendant tied to the bottom. "I did something bad."

Mark watches the way you take your ring on and off of your finger. "I'm sure it's not that bad, right?"

You stop and face him. "We're getting married, Mark."

The air knocks out of his lungs, and he feels as if someone just punched him in the gut. He clears his throat; blinks. "Pardon?"

You laugh incredulously. "I just– she was getting under my skin, and I thought about how if I get married, we won't be the same, and I couldn't let that be a reality, so I just blurted it out thinking she'd drop it but now she wants to throw a ball and announce it to the people and I can't say no because she'll call my bluff—" you pause to take a deep breath. "Mark, I'm so sorry."

Mark thinks the worst part of this entire ordeal must be you thinking he wouldn't want to marry you. He wants to know when his life got so confusing. He manages a smile. "I guess I should learn how to dance, then, huh?"

"Yeah," you manage a giggle, the worry lines evening out in your forehead. "Yeah, but I can teach you."

"Good," Mark says, catching his bottom lip between his teeth. He wonders if you'd be opposed to this being a real thing. He's too much of a coward to ask. "Good."

-

You've figured out why Mark tied the knots so many times that he received blisters, and why he's always the last one to leave the docks. He's a perfectionist, and he needs everything he does to be done without a single flaw.

This is what it feels like teaching him how to dance. The two of you repeat the same routine over and over again, sometimes seriously, and other times with laughter stopping you in the middle. But each time, Mark insists that he made a mistake. No matter how many times you assure him that he's perfect, he asks to try again.

In the end, it's nearly midnight when he feels somewhat satisfied. The two of you are just swaying back and forth, letting the rest of the record play on. "Are you always so diligent in your tasks?" you ask.

Mark laughs nervously, his shoulders tensing as he shrugs. "I don't like making mistakes."

"You make a lot of them to get where you are, though," you remind him. "You're determined, I'll give you that."

"You have to remember that I'm going to be dancing with the queen in front of everyone," Mark says, eyes searching yours. "They're going to be waiting for me to make a mistake."

"Maybe my aunt," you stick your tongue out in disgust, "but her opinion doesn't matter. As long as we get her out of here, everything can go back to normal."

Mark focuses on your intertwined fingers. He looks solemn, his doe eyes peering. "What exactly is normal? I mean, after we announce a marriage, we can't just take it back. The people will think you're impulsive. It'll ruin your reputation."

Part of you wishes you were back on the docks, the night of that party, meeting Mark for the first time. You still feel the same way; enamored with the innocence of him. An innocence you're ruining with your royal blood. "I don't know, Mark. But I got us in this mess, so I'll deal with the consequences. If you need to break it, I'll help you leave."

Mark dips down and presses his forehead against yours. "Would it be so crazy if we got married for real? Would it be much different than what we're doing now?"

You feel heat rush to your face. Your heartbeat thrums in your ears like the sound of a bongo drum. "I suppose married people do a bit more," you manage to joke.

Mark laughs; shakes his head, and with his face this close, his eyes look like little galaxies. "I mean it. I'm all in if you are."

You nod, liking the way your nose brushes against his. "I want to marry you, Mark."

-

The night comes and goes; a huge celebration not unlike the one you threw so many months ago.

When it's over, you feel relieved and happy. Your aunt is leaving in the morning, and you're going to marry your best friend. It's sort of a blessing in disguise.

You take off your sandals and get dressed in your pajamas. You step out onto your balcony and feel the wind hit your skin. You sigh. Nothing feels easy anymore, and every decision seems out of your hands. It's enough to make anyone mad, but you hope to hold on to the blessings you've been given.

Specifically, Mark.

You head into his room, hoping to sneak under his covers as usual. Instead of a ready-for-bed Mark, you're greeted with a shirtless Mark.

Time seems frozen as you realize he's just unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it upwards, so that his pants and cummerbund are still intact. He unties the thick sash, and when it falls, you can see the lean outline of his abdomen. 

You blink. "Um. Hi."

"Oh!" Mark covers his chest with his hands, which would be quite comical if it weren't for the already-thick tension in the air.

You grab a shirt off of his desk chair and walk over to him. "Here."

Mark's fingers brush against yours when he takes the shirt. Heat radiates off of his naked torso, and you wish he would just put on the stupid shirt already so you can stop thinking things you aren't supposed to think.

Maybe Mark knows what you're thinking. Maybe he's punishing you for getting him into this mess. Whatever the reason, his expression shifts. He takes on a devilish grin and hands the shirt back to you. "Actually, I'm going to keep it off. It's kind of hot in here, isn't it?"

Because he's half naked, you want to scream in frustration. Mark has always been extremely handsome, with his wavy black hair and brown doe eyes. And of course, you've always been curious about what he hides under his shirts, but right now you can't stop staring at him, and things aren't going as you planned at all.

"Should we–" you clear your throat. "Should we sleep?"

Mark hums. He leans his shoulder against the bedpost and looks you up and down, slowly enough for the tension to charge. "Alright," he says abruptly. "Goodnight."

You burrow under the covers and decide not to ever come out again.

-

The tension is extremely palpable. It feels like a coil, wrapped around the two of you. Neither of you know when, or even if, it's gonna snap.

Mark has tried to focus on his work at the docks, but then Jaehyun is congratulating him, and he's reminded of everything all over again. He wants to ask Jaehyun for help, but he knows he'll sound crazy if he asks how to win his betrothed's heart.

So he tries to do it himself. He attempts to read your expressions when he talks to you for any indication that you're falling in love with him. 

Because tension or not, he can't do this if your feelings aren't real. He can't put his heart on the line like that.

Right now, you're safe. Even if the two of you get married, it's still a friend thing. No lines have been crossed, and Mark is afraid that's going to change soon.

But what if it's for all of the wrong reasons?

He ends up sitting on his windowsill, eyeing the lighthouse beam as it shines over the calm sea. He unhinges the latch and opens the window, allowing the ocean air to fill his senses. It's been so long since he sailed away on his boat. Everything has changed.

Mark lets his head fall back against the wall. He closes his eyes tightly and emits a frustrated sigh. Maybe he should just tell you. Maybe it's time to put everything on the line, and if you get weirded out, he can just leave on his sailboat again. Right?

He chuckles to himself. Truthfully, when it comes down to it, he wouldn't change a thing about his predicament. He's thankful for your friendship and love, and he's content enough. After all, your happiness comes first.

You storm in, startling him out of his thoughts. "Someone destroyed the memorial," you say, eyes red from apparent tears.

"What?" Mark manages to stand up. "Who would do that? Why?"

"Noble rebels who don't want me marrying a man of lower class," you hiss, rubbing at your nose. "As if any of that matters when I'm in love with you."

Mark's heart stutters in his chest. Did he hear you correctly? "We— Uh— What do we do?"

"Ugh, nothing," you groan. "Not tonight. Tomorrow I'll address everyone and we'll begin looking for suspects. I'm just... I don't want anyone against us."

"Your aunt is against us," Mark points out.

"Screw her," you mutter. "I wish people saw you the way I did. They wouldn't doubt my decision for a second."

Mark stills when you close the distance with him and rest your palms against his chest. "W-What are you doing?"

"I mentioned that I'm in love with you and you haven't said anything. Does that mean you want to forget it?" A pout forms on your lips, and it takes everything within Mark not to just kiss it off right then and there. 

Instead, like an idiot, he stumbles over his words. "I... uh... well..." 

"What?" Your eyes are wide and beautiful, but Mark can see the hesitancy in them. 

He can see the vulnerability and nakedness. He can feel the coil in his stomach warm when he finally finds his voice. "I've been in love with you since the blisters."

"Ew," you giggle. But still, you drag Mark's face down to meet your own.  

He feels your lips on his before he can actually register what's happening. Once his brain catches up, he furrows his brows, determined to give you the best kiss you've ever had.

He cups your jaw and tilts your head just slightly, allowing him better access to your mouth. He feels your fingers trail down his chest and rest atop his hips. The coil in his stomach burns hot, and when you gasp against his mouth, it snaps.

He takes your bottom lip between his teeth and drags it out, ears ringing at the way you whine his name and clutch his hips more tightly than before. He chuckles and goes back to slower, sensual kisses, focusing on the way you feel and taste and sound. When you smile against his lips, he thinks he's found true freedom.

[ask-blue-mom-and-steven]

Steven wakes up screaming from his sleep. At firts he has no idea where he is, but then he realizes that he’s back into the temple. Shortly after Rose, Greg and Pearl enters the room.

Steven: (panicking) Hessonite!... She...

Rose Quartz: (hugs Steven) Don’t worry, we’re safe right now. And all thanks to you.

Steven: What?

Pearl: Turns out that Sapphire was right about the fact that you would have saved us. Your scream caused all the Gems that heard that to poof, thus stopping the army and allowing us to bubble them, so that they won’t harm us anymore!

Steven gets sad.

Greg: What’s the matter Steven?

Steven: it’s just that if I used my powers before Hessonite attacked Lemon Jade, Pearl and Spinel then they wouldn’t have been shattered...

Spinel: Who said that we were shattered?

Spinel flops from the ceiling. She looks mostly like before, but her outfit has more shades of dark pink and she looks pointier than before.

Steven: Spinel, you’re alive!

Lemon Jade: She’s not the only one who’s alive.

Lemon Jade and Blue Pearl appear. Steven runs towars them but falls on the ground. The two Gems lift him up and he hugs them. Spinel soon wraps her arms around them and lift them up with a bone crunching hug.

Steven: I thought you were gone! How is possible?

Rose: I fixed their gems while you were recovering.

Steven: YOU CAN DO THAT??? THAT’S AWESOME!

Rhodonite: I don’t want to be a jerk but can someone help us remove the remains of the starship?

Amethyst: Dude! Leave them alone! Three of them got shattered and the other three were terrorized that Steven couldn’t make it!

Rhodonite: And I’m happy that they’re all fine, but we REALLY need some help here!

Rose: Sigh... We’re coming to help you!

Pearl: Don’t worry Rose. You can stay here with Steven. I’ll go help them.

Blue Pearl: We’ll help you too.

Spinel: Awww... But I want to stay here with Steven too!

Lemon Jade: Spinel...

Spinel: Jeez, fine.

Spinel, Lemon Jade and Blue Pearl go outside the temple and start helping with the cleaning.

Meanwhile, two small Gems are walking in silence on the beach.

Sapphire: ...

Ruby: ...

Sapphire: ... I suppose you’re angry for having endangered Steven with my vision.

Ruby: ...

Sapphire: If it can make you feel better, Rose forbid me to use my future vision on Steven.

Ruby: I’m not angry for that!

Sapphire is surprised.

Sapphire: ... Wha-

Ruby: Ok, maybe I’m angry for that too, but I’m more angry by the fact that you ran away years ago! Have you even idea how much you hurt US? Have you idea how much you hurt ME?

Sapphire: ... I know. It’s just that I trusted Rose a lot, and the reveal of her real identity devasteted me...

Ruby: That was the exact same thing I felt.

Sapphire: Really?

Ruby: Yes.

Sapphire: ...

Ruby: ...

Both Ruby and Sapphire stay silent for a while.

Ruby: Will you go back to Ocean Town now?

Sapphire: Since I’m the only thing that prevents that town to get destroyed then yes.

Ruby: Oh.

Sapphire: But I think I’ll come visit Steven and his friends often in the future.

Ruby: Good... Before you go, can you help us clean up the beach?

Sapphire: Okay.

Ruby and Sapphire go back to the temple. While they walk Sapphire asks her why she’s dressed like a cowboy, and Ruby starts telling her about her career as a rodeo cowboy. Sapphire laughs when Ruby tells her of a mishap involving a very angry bull and a fat member of the audience that thought to be able to ride it.

END OF ACT 3

[millennium-thejiaqiverse]

Chapter 3: One Unusual Paper

Summary: What does the birth of revolutionary technology bring along with it? It certainly has a big impact on the world and the the ones whom brought this technology to everyone. Let’s introduce the center stage technology in this chapter—the chips. Find out how they changed Miles’s home world. Hey, I don’t only cover the magic topic, behold as civilizations develop technology-wise.

“This is the first time I take my exam at another school, ever! So exciting!” Phillip is ultra-excited. “Calm down dude, haven’t you been at our school already on Orientation Day? I mean, we checked out the exam hall together.” Adele pets Phillip’s back, “besides, you’re from Dawn City Academy, probably the coolest school ever.” “Meh, pretty sure that’s just our schools reputation,” Philip snickers, “I don’t see what the fuss is about.”

Miles is sitting next to the windows of the shuttle, looking out to the cityscape. Sitting right next to him is Nick, who’s focused on his tablet.

“Remember that one past paper in which life literally gives you lemons?” Rose starts the topic. “Yes, that’s a good one. What do you do with a crate of 30 lemons in one and a half hours?” Elly asks with a laugh. “Start small businesses like everybody did in that one particular group we studied—every one of them was an inner entrepreneur, they used the weather, what’s trending, blah blah blah; plus each of them could really think out of the box. Hey do you think our exam group would also coincidentally take the same approach like they did? We all have the same paper and we prepared as a group, it’s possible.” “That’d still be too much of a coincidence, as we’ll be separated into individual cubicles.” Ryan shakes her head.

“Hatch Station 50,” an announcement sounds as the shuttle makes its stop, “welcome to our SCI (Suspended & Concealed Islands, the “sky” above the ground-level city parts), you may switch to the Gate’s shuttles at this station.”

Looking at the Gate’s giant ever changing spherical hologram logo, Miles sighs a light sigh.

Ever since the great idea of the tech company Quartz took off (tiny chips connected with the brain, which serve a main function of allowing users to quickly and effectively research and access information with their minds), society changed drastically; and now, there is the Gate—Dr. Mary Millward, Miles’s mom, one of the most prominent Inventors ever, founded this company with her team. She brought forth a tech revolution, largely increasing the reliability and security of the chips and the internet system. Through this competition, Quartz is now obsolete, the Gate takes over and keeps on growing, building the SCI and who knows what next.

“Yo Philip, the animator guy’s from your school right?” Tinaye asks. “The animator guy?” Philip repeats while thinking. “You know, the guy who made a short animation to express how mankind’s coexistence and co-development with Mother Nature is important, in 1 hour 30 minutes?” “Oh you meant Ian!” Philip snaps his fingers, “that guy’s legendary. He’s not from our branch though, our branch is the one with the infamous ‘party kids’.” He winks. “Sounds like fun!” Rose says. “Hey I think we’re here.” Elly tells everyone. “Station Sky Secondary School. Dear passengers, may I have your attention please,” an announcement comes up, “we are now on school ground; midterm exams are in progress, please do not disturb. Station Sky Secondary School.”

Philip, Adele, Miles, Nick, Rose, Elly, Ryan and Tinaye all get off the shuttle after it makes its stop, Tyler is already there, waiting at the front entrance of the school.

School is open for students to do their assignments from 0:00 to 23:50 every day of the week, except Orientation Days. With the chips being long implanted in everyone by now, teaching students time management, how to utilize knowledge and work as a team becomes the main focus of all schools. Before their midterms, each student must complete all 9 personal assignments and 3 group assignments they have relating to the subjects they pick, with help from their class tutors. Students are allowed to do their assignments at anytime they wish to. Some finish their assignments lightning fast, days or even weeks before midterms, like Lisa, the girl who arrives last with a shuttle going a different route.

Rose happily greets her, “Lisa, you made it!” “Of course,” Lisa smiles charmingly, “we are one of the 11:00 groups, shall we head inside?” “Great idea,” Rose agrees.

“Welcome to the 11:00 midterm exams. Please go to your corresponding cubicles. Note that you may no longer enter the exam hall after the start of an exam, or leave the exam less than half-an-hour before the end; you must not have any unauthorized material or equipment with you; any attempt of tempering with the examination programs will result in immediate disqualification...”

There are two 11:00 papers (paper A and B) assigned to the students. The 10-student-study-groups will be mixed together when assigning their cubicles so the students next to every student would be working on a different paper. Everyone is suited up in their gear and logged in to the VR system to do the 5 minutes pre-exam warmup. After making sure everything’s fine, the invigilators start the exam. “Good luck!” Nick says last minute before their individual cubicles are sealed off. “Good luck guys!” Rose follows suit.

For this exam, Miles enters a small brightly lit room, which appears to have only a desk in the middle. The door vanishes after he shuts it. A piece of blank A3 paper lies on this desk, with a pen on top of it. Miles waits for a few minutes, only to realize the usual bell followed by an announcement of what he needs to do to complete this exam never came. This is new. Miles turns over the paper only to confirm both sides of it are indeed completely blank, holding the paper to the light reveals no hidden messages. He looks around the room to find nothing, then inspects the lone desk and finds no details that deserve attention; he then looks at the pen, and notices a small dial with numbers 1 to 9 at the end of it, the little red pin currently pointing at the word “off”. Miles doesn’t want to rush to work on the blank paper or do anything else in the room, a girl failed her exam and had to repeat a year in the past, just because she didn’t pay much attention to what was required by the exam that had been announced to her, resulting in her misusing her provided materials big times.

After waiting for another few minutes and still no bell or announcement, Miles starts to be worried. He decides to just turn the dial on the pen, as soon as the pin points to “1”, a screen in front of him that he previously thought was a wall turns on. Miles is very surprised to find himself looking at Nick, flying a swarm of drones, looks like he’s fixing some pretty broken light panels under one piece of the SCI. It looks like some aircraft has bumped into the panels. Nick seems to be getting on pretty well with his exam. Miles smiles a little, thinking about how Nick always says he wanted to be a SCI engineer or beyond after he graduates from school, this exam must be easy for him; but what about the others in their group when faced with the same problem? Miles knows for sure not all of them enjoys this line of work. Wait... This study group is supposed to be working on the same exam, judging by what Miles’s doing now, at least he doesn’t have the same exam as Nick. Does everyone have different exams now? This hypothesis is (kind of) proven as Miles turns the dial to “2”, he sees Rose on screen, trying to cheer up this old man who looks worried and angry with something.

After turning the dial and seeing all others in his study group doing completely different things, and still no bell or announcement to tell him about his exam, Miles is needless to say stressing out. What does he have to do? Is he supposed to observe his group and note things down? Is he even supposed to be working with that piece of paper? Reviewing the past papers Miles finds not one is quite like this one! So many aspects are different and new. Miles considers hard. Another thought comes up, perhaps his hypothesis is wrong, perhaps everyone in the group does have the same exam taking place in identical small rooms, they would just think the others don’t when they see what’s on screen. If that’s so, this exam is an unexpected mindf*ck situation. More importantly, should he write these guesses down when he still doesn’t know what the exam’s about? Miles is astonished to find out he’d actually be more certain of what to do when faced with magic stuff, i.e. time travel, etc. than now, when faced with this unusual midterm exam.

“Well I’m definitely not expecting this from school!” Miles can’t help but murmurs. “What was that?” Adele, currently on screen, stops her work with the blue palo verde beans and says, “could you please repeat? I didn’t catch that.” “Adele?” Miles asks, “is that really you? Can you hear me?” “Yes I can, is this Miles?” Adele says back, “how are you making the announcements?” “I am?” Miles gasps. “Yeah, the announcement bell rings every time you talk... kinda annoying.” Adele explains. “Hold on a sec,” Miles requests and dials to “1”, “Nick, can you hear me?” Nick jumps a little, turns his head and has this weirded out look on his face. Miles bursts out laughing at this, “wow, I don’t know if I’m supposed to be doing this...” “D... did you hack the program?” Nick stammers then calms down, “but you don’t seem to be disqualified, that means you probably didn’t. What’s up?”

Poking around, Miles learns that he can not only observe but also talk to everyone in his group through announcement (but he can only talk them one at a time when they’re brought on screen); the others cannot hear or talk to each other though. As he asks on, he learns that same as him, no one has heard an actual announcement about this exam, they’re just doing what their “friends, coworkers or bosses” from the VR asked them to do and assuming that’s how they’ll be given the exam tasks now. Then he also learns about some specifics on what everyone’s doing.

It is quite clear now that no announcement would indicate to Miles what tasks he’ll have. It is around this time Miles notices the dates and time in the lower right corner of the screen, he checks with everyone and now knows in this simulation everyone is working on different tasks on 9 different days, spanning 2 weeks. Miles goes through all nine work environments one by one and inspects everything closely.

Tyler has the earliest date of all, he is in a great mood, happily setting up a drip irrigation system for this huge garden and getting ready to have some planting drones plant flowers when he’s done. “I see you’re doing very well with the garden,” Miles watches the drones place the plants down one by one orderly, “who’s garden is this?” “It’s the Wales family’s,” finishing with the irrigation system, Tyler starts to check the little garden maintenance drones’ condition, “they have an awesome house. I still find it strange they have no surveillance drones flying.” Temporarily, Miles forgets about his blank A3 paper as he starts thinking about this clue. He remembers hearing Rose say she’s helping with a Mr. Wales with his charity, and she noticed the guy’s father was unhappy.

“Well, keep up the good work.” Miles says to Tyler then connects with Rose, “Rose, how’s the charity going?” “So-so,” Rose shrugs, “I’ve came up with some fresh ideas though. How’s your assignment.” “I can’t say because I’m not sure what it is.” Miles says, “say, did Mr. Wales or his dad tell you why they were upset?” “Not really, guess it’s too personal,” Rose shakes her head, “but the dad was super ticked off about their home surveillance system, he says someone shut it off? Wouldn’t say who.” “That could be why there are no surveillance drones!” Miles exclaims, “I just have a feeling Tyler worked for the same Wales family as yours, if so he worked on their garden on March 3rd.” “Could be,” Rose nods. Miles keeps on connecting the dots, Ryan and Tinaye work at the same hospital, and they had this guy who swallowed a large diamond pendant with a ‘W’ engraved on it, and his last name is Kirkland, definitely not W-something. Did this guy steal the pendant? Rose continues with her job in the background. “I’ll leave you alone,” Miles hops onto someone else, “I wonder... does this ‘W’ stand for yet again the same Wales...”

“Did you say ‘Wales’?” Philip is now on screen, currently letting the tour group he takes care of roam around and shop, “this lady from our tour is telling everyone that she knew all about how some burglar stole a diamond family heirloom from a Wales family—her friends; she gossips that because old Mr. Wales weren’t happy to go public or see his son go to the authorities with this, only very few people’s heard of the incident.” “Ohhh shouldn’t have trusted information with that lady,” Miles teases. “Yea some people thrive on gossip. By the way, have you noticed this nice process bar that tells you the percentage you’ve completed on your exam? It’s a new feature.” Philip comments. “Well, I don’t see one,” Miles denies, “my interface is pretty bare.”

Miles next has a question for Adele, “Adele, where are these beans you’ve been testing found?” “The back of this dude’s pickup truck,” Adele quickly spits out her words as she hands in the DNA analysis and comparison reports she’s completed, “I heard this Pete Watt allowed a search of his home and truck without thinking when the police got him. Probably being arrogant because he’s one of the criminals we’ve learnt of who thinks as long as they don’t have a chip in their head the police will have nothing on them. Guess what, I’ve just proved he was near the Wales family’s house with some old-fashioned plant DNA testing. Totally inspiring.”

Nick has the latest date of all. Miles chats him up and learns from him that the broken panels he fixed was caused by police chasing the burglar Kirkland when he knocked into them with a helicopter; not causing a major damage to the SCI. At this point, Miles has a pretty good image of the sub-storyline of the 9 days simulated for this exam. Amongst it all, it seems irrelevant at first sight but Lisa’s been working on Kirkland’s older son’s braces, he does appear to be a little disrespectful; Elly’s watched Kirkland’s angel of a younger son at a daycare. Returning to what he has to do for his exam, although still not sure if what he’s seeing on screen is what everyone’s really doing, he feels that maybe that’s not the point here—maybe the purpose of his exam is to find out the connection that links everyone’s work, and appreciate how by simply doing their parts, they are pushing this simulated society forward. Some past papers had indicated ambiguous themes like this for students to find, Miles thinks this might be it. If that’s the case then this exam is quite easy but still fascinating in some ways.

Just as he decides on taking that approach, the screen Miles has been looking at divides into nine portions that shows everyone along with their progress bars. Miles finally hears the announcement bell ring, followed by a “students, you have 10 minutes left” announcement. A previously not so obvious pandemonium has now really broken out. “What the heck, how come the progress meter says I’ve only got 43% for all the work I’ve done?” Adele breaks down, “what have I been missing?” “Miles, are you there?” Nick only has a 48% up till now, “how’s it going with your part? I hope your doing alright.” Miles quickly checks everyone’s progress bars: everyone is stuck with 40-something-percents, no one has a score above 50%. It’s like everyone’s missing half their scores.

Watching everyone trying to boost their scores (a minimum of 60% is needed to pass the midterms), Miles falls silent, but not for long. “Can you all still hear me?” Miles clears his throat and reaches out. Everyone confirms. “I can see thus tell from your scores that it seems you’re missing parts of your exams, but don’t worry, I have an idea,” he proposes, “the reason I have a blank paper and a pen—as you all know—could be suggesting that I can come up with something to help you all. Maybe that is it!” Is this actually what he needs to do? Observe and help, instead of playing detective? Confusing! “What do we do?” Adele asks desperately. Miles proceeds to command the group, “Please work on the tasks given by the simulation, then clap your hands 3 times.” “What? Clap our hands 3 times?” Adele repeats. “I made my announcement, that could count as an exam task.” Miles hints. “Hey this might work!” Elly says then claps 3 times.

Everyone does what Miles asked and waits for their scores to go up, and of course, nothing happens. Miles face palms, ok, maybe that is a bit too far fetched... and too easy. “What now?!!” Everyone resumes panicking. This sucks, Miles thinks to himself, my plan failed, that means I’m still not getting what my exam is, in that case what if the approach of finding what connects everyone’s work is also false? There isn’t even a process/percentage bar for me to check on.

“5 minutes remaining.” Time flies when you’re trying to work things out. Not wanting his friends to keep losing their minds, Miles starts talking, trying out the theories he has is better than just waiting, “here goes nothing... All your parts have something to do with a stolen diamond pendant, a crime orchestrated by at least 3 people, that comes from what I’ve learnt from you. It started with someone in the Wales house disabling their surveillance system, and from the looks of it, Rose’s boss’s father, old mr. Wales had an idea of who it was or there’s family drama involved, hence he doesn’t want to get others involved; the family member probably handed the pendant to someone who’s driven Pete Watt’s vehicle to the Wales house then with the pendant in hand away from the Wales house. Watt himself, or Willy Kirkland could both be the driver. Kirkland was captured attempting to go somewhere with the pendant. He swallows it in an attempt to get away, only to be rushed into the ICU and have the pendant removed from his body. Taking on your tasks as you see them and completing them kept the story moving.”

Seeing no difference in the grades, and now everyone’s silent, Miles decides to calm his group more and go on trying different approaches, “to be honest with you all, I have no idea what to do with my part yet, I doubt my ever approach—this whole time I kept getting different ideas only to doubt and end up scratching them. Everything is so new on this exam, we are all doing different things, it’s just that I didn’t really take part in the big story you’re in, I have no process bar. All I can do is observe...” Miles pauses to think, then starts again, “Guys, I’ve seen how hard you’ve worked on your parts, there’s no way you can squeeze in any more tasks in this amount of time. We prepared well; if this is all real, seeing your excellent work today, these percentages seem fishy to me, they are likely fake or tempered with—not your real scores, maybe it’s just there to see if we’ll panic over them, we are in a simulation after all all this could be a trick; the point is, this whole exam could be messing with us. With all the new and different stuff, it’s trying to blast us with what we’ve never seen before, we have to take control by ourselves along with working on the more specific exam tasks. I think the key here is certainty, something I didn’t have up until now, something we have to decide to let into our minds. We’re encouraged to work on problems in our own ways on all the past papers we’ve done before this one, maybe this paper demands us to explore a new concept on top of that, a state of mind—believing that what we’ve done for this exam is sufficient, not doubting how you play your part. We have to beat the exam in a sense.” The group appears pretty convinced by him.

Guess this is the true stressful part of an unstandardized exam—anything can be accepted or not accepted as answers, you don’t know for sure if your efforts are enough. Miles clears his doubts and places the pen back onto the desk, on top of the blank A3 paper. The exam ends.

Leaving the exam hall, the group quickly meets up. “You guys ok?” Nick asks the group. “I never thought the percentages could be a hoax.” Lisa says. Miles doesn’t need to ask if the group was working on different papers anymore, what Nick and Lisa said and the rest’s silence were enough of an answer. “What percentages?” Bob approaches their group. “Your group had the easier paper Bob. So how did you guys do? I think I did fantastic this time.” Pete jumps into the conversation. “Our paper’s unique...” Miles looks at the two newcomers, realizing it. “Hey Pete... wouldn’t you know, this villain guy we had has the same first name as you, right guys?” Nick tries to lighten the mood for their group, “guys?”

Well, at least he tried.

“Dr. Mary,” a grader calls, “I have to inform you that Miles did not write a thing on that A3 paper...” he pauses, “well, this is unexpected, you tailored this exam just for him and it appears...” “He failed? No.” Mary rewatches the recorded exam for the third time, “no, his performance exceeded my expectations.”

Miles’s phone is blowing up with texts of excitement and congratulations from the group chat. “Turns out our scores were halved, Miles, you know you are a genius for noticing the percentages were fake right?” Nick calls him. “Well I did not feel like one during the exam...” Miles laughs. “Can’t wait to go to your late bday party and bowl!” Nick says. “Of course,” Miles says back, “and I appreciate how you tried to cheer everyone up enough to remind them of my bowling party back at school.” “More proof that you’re a genius,” Nick puts his thumbs up. “Not really, that’s just because we’ve know each other for more than 10 years.” Miles puts his thumbs up too.

@cadewrites

[monkey-network]

Steven Universe is Anime Garbage (And That’s Okay)

WARNING: This is gonna be a very weebish brain fart. I didn't come into writing it for any purpose, I just decided to write out my general stream of thoughts to see where it took me. This was the result. Thank you, take care out there, and enjoy.

A key to enlightenment is the severance of attachment

Can’t deny it. Steven Universe is a cartoon practically on the boundary with its many fans. Some find it engaging and wonderful, others find it wasted potential and struggling, and others are terrible fans with no sense of control or integrity, like most fandoms really. But I, a fan since its beginnings, wish to make a case that could potentially bring everything and everyone together in somewhat reasonable understanding (a stretch, somewhat). Steven Universe is a trash anime....and it is the best trash out here. Now I’m not saying this because it has an anime look, or that Jasper is a tsundere, or especially...

“Hey it’s a reference to that one anime that’s also very aesthetic™ and sad with lesbians and allegories!”

Nah, I’ll be real with you here. Now we really can’t deny that Steven Universe has its major flaws, not a hard pill to swallow way I see it. Wishy washy in tone, seldom in world building, basic animation, off putting character models, and so forth (though the last point is a malleable nitpick tbh). Furthermore, we can’t deny that the “plot” is up in the air and really not in the mood on coming down with anything truly shaking yet (putting a pin in that). But, I won’t deny that it looks good, some characters are worth my investment, and there is some development to be had in all this, for better or for worse. You could say it’s down the middle, so where am I going with this? Well, I think I found something that may be able to bring this together: Sword Art Online

*imitating Austin Powers* YEAH, BABY!

For those unaware, Sword Art Online is a light novel turned RPG Game turned full series anime about thousands of people getting trapped in a VR game with one seeking to escape by beating the 100 levels of the game. It has action, death, good game feel, wonky gameplay, and fanservice.... I do not and will not recommend this to anyone, nor am I just comparing this to Steven U because both have OP protagonists, a myriad of female characters, and how one character is generally Lars if a better person initially. To repeat, I’m not saying these shows are the same in plot and such. Though the similarities certainly come in their perceptions and reactions.

Also dual wielding

Let me sidetrack a bit and do understand, at the time SAO premiered, otakus, anime fans, and even esports fans were hyped! This was before My Hero Academy blew millions away, before Attack on Titan throttled its theme music onto people, many were stoked and kept up that stokeness for this for quite a bit. This was SAO’s keepsake: Mass Appeal and timing. Then people started seeing the cracks of the show’s true faults, and now we’re at the point where more of the franchise is coming and the fandom is dragging between people that find it sucks or never should’ve been invested in the first place, people that continue to make the lemons into lemonade regardless, and the creeps (you know who they are). Sound familiar?

I mean we could say the same thing for the current Star Wars fandom, but that’s a tad more complicated

But this isn’t enough to say this is trash anime. No, like SAO, there is one thing that can tie everything together to implode into an enveloping infinite wormhole of foolishness and cleverness. One moment that just brought everything together and is gonna put everything together in the end. The definitive proof that...

Rose Quartz was the Origami Killer all along!!

But seriously, this was a twist that certainly cemented itself into being on par in writing with SAO and similar trash series. I mean, from a meta perspective, it’s pretty hilarious that the biggest twist the show presented was mostly considered a joke in the same way people thought The Simpsons could predict the future with the absurdist jokes they made. And really, all the symbolism and foreshadowing from every episode previously doesn’t excuse the blue balls I felt with the recent two seasons. I’m sorry guys, the eye opening revelation can go so far with someone who was only glad something actually came together after so long (even if the episode leading up to it lacked that “special shit”).

But as for Pink Diamond being the real Rose Quartz, the twist admittedly lack that impactful-ness and really shows how they’re twanging a string in the efforts to make you take the story seriously. For one thing, it’s pretty stupid to believe that nobody questioned the abilities the one Rose had compared to a typical quartz, not to mention that it felt pretty convenient that she never lost her form revealing her gem to anyone beside Pearl. Secondly, it kinda bait and switches not just the ideal, but a reasonable idea of Rose Quartz for just being the ambitious dictator turned anti-villain bent on liberating the Earth from her bigger than thou parents and more or less her own armada. Like, “Ha ha, you thought Rose Quartz was an ordinary gem that had to make genuine sacrifices in her efforts to best the higher ups and liberate her kind. But in reality, she had the abilities to win all along and generally did everything for the sake of not being a dictator anymore. MWAHAHAHAAAA” We can examine the complexities behind her motivations all we’d like, but that just feels like rewriting the already stupefying concept to make it sound more sensible.

Funny enough, Rose could’ve definitely working as the Charles Xavier of this series but they never delve into that reasonably valuable concept*

Lastly, it sort of--lack of a better term--irons out the whole show up with Steven being Pink Diamond, if that makes sense. In the back of my mind, I’ve generally lost my suspension of disbelief in believing that a fourteen year old child is not only the reformation of a failed rebel leader, but said failed rebel leader actually being the supposed antagonist and jumpstarting source behind everyone’s frustrations, ambitions, and tragedies. As if Steven wasn’t special enough on the fact that he can revive the dead, like Sword Art Online, it’s already apparent that he’ll generally win in the end due to him being the Special, the Ninetail, the Last Jedi, the Hollow, and the Fullbring all in one. It’s kinda hard getting invested in your story when I can’t care about your protagonists! Maybe he might actually suffer long term consequences, but I don’t have much in the future since it now feels hard to relate to the protagonist, who by the way is the central protagonist meaning no episode can go without his presence apparently.

He’ll enter your dreams if he must

And I’m afraid that Steven Universe has officially sunk to trash tier anime. And frankly, it’s always been anchored to this. I mean with SAO, as much as I saw before quitting, there was plot variety, not plot flips. It is one thing to have your series shift from light villain of the week slice of life to something like Oedipus Rex, but to get this far, nose diving into this belly flop of a reveal, to then ask to be taken with a modicum of seriousness, what? To put so much ambition into your work, that you’re essentially believing your own hype, barely exploring a big handful of your own ideas, until now, trying to make sympathy and reason coincide with the villain(s) instead of making them somewhat real. One could say “Monkey, it’s not about taking on villains, it’s about achieving resolve within the group’s personal struggles.” And while that is a reasonable and pathetic way of saying violence can’t resolve things, it doesn’t bear the fact that the Crystal Gems were essentially fighting villains beforehand while achieving resolve, so why change things up now? Especially when the villains before don’t bear any quirk of their own besides being relative to the plot. Or a plot, since again, it wants to be taken seriously with the “story” it has, but juggles way too many things that it can feel hilariously jarring when the show actually gets somewhere.

And as a character drama, the establishment of its world and idealogies don’t feel as valuable when the importance and passion to them are continuously muddled or dull

And this is the way of trash anime. People shouldn’t have to continuously think of how things could’ve been better, why plotlines and characters don’t mesh well, why it can just feel so contrived. Yeah it’s unfortunate that an SU Critical community exists, and yeah sometimes they deserve scrutiny because some try to make it deeper than it is, but we can’t deny that this all appeared from a vacuum. With criticisms can come a consistent string of logic that some things have turned up wrong, something that the series failed to grasp previously. Like SAO, most Shonen works, and “those” shows that I won’t speak of, this series was and has become a glorified gamble on your interests and the anticipation to see where it lands, how cathartic it’ll be, and what’s to look forward to and look back on.... has somewhat slimmed. While it is most certainly its own thing, it doesn’t bear that evolutionary yet timeless nuance Avatar and Adventure Time has, nor the continually captivating hook the best anime can have with its episodes and characters. This series has gotten stupid...and I say it’s not wrong to think that way.

Anime isn’t that big of a mistake, you guys. Come on.

If there’s anything I learned as one of the smartest idiots around, it’s that stupidity can be enjoyable; trust me, I know. So while I say SU’s anime garbage, I’m not saying it’s the bad kind that kills your mood/investment like the shit I found. it’s the Rocket Raccoon of Cartoon Network (and if you’ve seen Guardians 2 and get where I’m coming from, I love you for it). It’s still enjoyable, for the most part, and I’m not gonna ignore the influence it had on its fans. Hell, Black Panther is a movie I find flawed as fuck, but I and the millions (and the millions) still recognize and appreciate it for what it provided, for black people especially. While it can be predictable, there are some good moments to think over, for better or for worse, like how the Rose Quartz was subtly hinted at throughout the seasons. It’s still competent in some aspects, there are a few characters I still love and, to unpin, things look like they’re finally heating up. It still has that “Fuck yeah” spirit buried underneath, like many anime good and trash. It’s certainly better than Star vs th- Point I’m getting at is that this series sure as hell ain’t bulletproof, but I’ll gladly bandage it up and see it through to the end. Not as some guilty pleasure, but as a series that staggers constantly and consistently but makes up in keeping it compelling (in a way). That’s a quality only the best trash anime achieves, shooting itself in the foot while proudly making that run to the finish line. I’m not just blatantly criticizing it or supporting all the hype it makes, I’m embracing it for going this long with this many bruises, willing to take more hits, all the while never really losing sight of what it set out to do. I’ll still smack it upside the head for the stupid shit it might pull, because I know it can and will, but that smack is delivered with love. And really, is that not a reasonable feeling to have?

Steven U is anime garbage... and I’m fine with that.

[starmanleo]

Deep Axiom

Chapter 1. Catalyst.

(2 men are sitting at a table. The room is cafeteria-esque with people eating food of middling quality. They are wearing lab coats with the initials U.N.S.T.F on the back. One is a Caucasian male with two birthmark dots on his neck. His hair is combed to the right and by looking at him, you wouldn't be able to tell his age at any one observation. Next to him is a male who seems younger than him, his hair is combed up at the front and skin is the color of store-bought honey. The younger male starts to speak, his leg bouncing under the table and his face somewhat confused and lightly frustrated.)

"Eli. What are we gonna do here? The results are just... uneven. There's no consistency in each result. We put in an apple and it comes out a glass statue. You put in another and it turns into a fucking orange. And now we're supposed to be doing Human Testing? You saw what happened to that poor man. We're being rushed and they know it."

(The older man seems calmer. His words come out with less stress.)

"Theodore. We can't focus on what we don't know just yet nor focus on the failures. And we've reached certain setbacks yes, but-"

(Theodore's face turns from simple frustration to shock)

"Setbacks? 5 people have died and sixth was about to until we got a sudden break for 'stress reasons'. Nothing we do here is working, and we've made screw all progress."

"Again, what happens happens. There is nothing we can do now but push forward. What we do now before the next session is to go over what we know and what constants there are. First, whatever substance we put in comes out in a different substance but always the same amount of mass. A normal 12-pound rat comes out as 12 pounds of orange flesh. Second, liquids are put under the same scrutiny. Lemon goes in, grape comes out. Third, quartz is safe for it to touch without it starting a reaction."

"So what do we do now, huh? Everything we have is coming up bunk and I don't think we can go back and say that we have nothing."

"We try something different. Think outside the box. My current thinking is to electrocute it."

"...Electrocution? Seriously?"

"If we can put in solid material then it stands to reason that something would happen with the reaction of energy."

(Theodore slants back in his chair and lets out a long breath.)

"This isn't science, it's throwing balls at the wall and hoping it doesn't fuse with it. Your theory seems sounds but let's not start shocking things yet though. I don't wanna turn electricity into a nuclear force."

(Another sigh)

(Eli grins and leans over to tussle Theo's hair)

"When have I steered you wrong huh?"

(Theo grins back and swats away his hand)

"When you got me this job."

(A few hours later)

"Ok Eli, what's the plan?"

"Simple, we point a concentrated laser into the device after we activate it. If the rules still apply to energy then something should come out. At least we'll have something to show to the board if nothing comes out of it."

(Theodore comes out with a compact laser pointer, his face looks as if he's pondering something.)

"Yeah about that Eli, don't you wonder why we're doing this for them? All our information is coming from that spokesman girl, we're required to live on base 24 hours a day, and we rarely get a direct update except those stupid emails like we're cubicle men."

"I've worked with these people before Theo. And as far as I know, you don't need to know everything. You do your job, then you cash out and never look back."

"Then why did you look back?"

"Same reason you did my dear colleague, cause what we have here."

(Eli points at the device.)

"Is something no one else will ever get the chance to. You know these government types, as soon as we figure this stuff out, we'll have everything we'll ever want. You'll get your cash out and I'll get what I want."

"And that is?"

"Same thing as my motto Theo. An even deeper look into the depths of the unknown. And what we have is as unknown as you get. "

"Seems hypocritical to your motto to let yourself be that in the dark."

"Oh, I don't think you're one to talk about hypocrites. Now fire it up, Theo.

(Theodore lets down the laser pointer and prepares to exit the room. Eli takes a look back at the device and its position. His head feels... unsteady. He quickly shakes off this emotion and follows after Theo. Theodore lets down his goggles and in his hands holds a remote. Eli coughs into his sleeve.)

"Do you think Leif would've enjoyed something like this? This sort of 'new frontier' levels of experimen-"

"Let's... not talk about Leif. Please."

".... I understand. Hit the switch, Theo."

(Theo moves to hit the switch, something is hanging above the device, containing some sort of liquid, a mix of quartz and water. A giant ring of sorts. seems to be centered in the room and as Theodore flips the switch , a liquid starts to drip onto it. As soon as a few drops hit the ring, the ring starts to glow. First into a harsh orange into a glaring blue. Eli starts to crack a smile.)

"Alright, Theo. Let it fly!"

"Yes, sir!"

(Theo clicks the remote in his hand. The laser immediately focuses its red glare into the Ring. The Ring starts to rotate. A swirl of the green starts to envelop the device. Eli's smile grows wider.)

"Something great is about to happen, Theo! Absolutely Amazo! Keep your ey-!

(The ring starts to destabilize. The light inside starts to move away from the rim. The Strange markings decorating it start to glow on and off. The light starts to center towards the laser pointer, the blue luminescence traveling towards the laser.  Eli's smile soon is wiped off and Theo starts to furiously turn off the device.)

"It's not turning off sir! The heating system isn't affecting it! The goddamn thing isn't evaporating"

(The liquid seems to be dripping faster, as if the ring is drawing it out)

"Then turn off the laser Theodore!"

(Theo starts to fumble around with the remote.)

"What the hell's happening Theodore?"

"It won't turn off either!"

"Damn, I'll just do it myself then!"

"Eli no!"

(Eli rushes towards the door and as soon as he opens it, a bright Blue light envelopes the room. It consumes Eli in an instant and as it rushes towards Theo, all he can do is contort his face into a scream, but his face is gone before he can let out a sound.)

https://ko-fi.com/reinerthingmuns

[sangsanghaebwa]

Moonstones -ONE-

Genre: Fantasy!AU Word count: 2k Description: JiminxOC Author’s note: As I had planned ever since I wrote the prologue, I have finally started writing this again. This is an AU that I personally would love to read if someone else wrote it so I really hope I won’t fuck it up. And I really hope I’ll be able to update like a normal person again... :D Anyways, nothing too exciting yet, but I want to take my time with this one.

Rose Quartz - healing; attracting and keeping love; healing one’s heart from pain and disappointment.

Days blurred into weeks and you barely even noticed when you stopped being the newest shy employee of ‘Black Cat’ and became (still the newest) lively part of the three member crew -comfortably joking around with Rose and even your boss, on the rare occasions she visited. When it came to your job though, while you did become better and faster at your assigned tasks, you were still disappointed with yourself while helping (or more like trying to help) Rose with actual magic. There was only so much she could teach you as a witch, since the magic in you didn’t work the same way as hers, and as frustrated as you’d get some days, you just couldn’t even begin to figure out your powers. Neither Rose, nor your boss expected you to help them with spells yet – it was way out of your league for now – but you had heard them whispering behind your back, how activating magical stones and crystals, or even just feeling magic, was something other seers could usually do right from the moment the magic within them awakened, and you couldn’t stop thinking about it every night before sleep.

On the other hand, there was a part of your powers that had been acting up almost every day – or night – lately. Your boss, Miss Black – a middle aged witch who owned the magical trinkets store and didn’t look a day over thirty – was telling Rose a funny story from the time when she had just opened her store. They were both sitting in a sunlit corner of the back yard of the store, enjoying the lunch break, while you spent your free time a few feet away from them, bent over the pots with magical plants, studying them. Miss Black had just reached a point in the story, where her regular customer, who had betrayed her and started getting supplies in another store, came back and was too embarrassed to admit why, because-

“They sold him black glass instead of Onyx and he couldn’t tell,” the words left your mouth at the same time as your bosses and both her and Rose were now staring at you wide eyed.

“Have I told you this story before?” The older witch asked just to make sure, though you had a feeling she already knew by now – these episodes were getting frequent, especially at work, since you spent most of your time there.

“No, I dreamt about this conversation before…” You went back to examining a pot of wolfsbane, struggling to survive outside of its natural environment. You already knew the question that would follow and it left a bitter taste in your mouth even before you could answer.

“You didn’t remember the dream until now?”

“No.”

“Strange… I mean it’s perfectly normal to not remember all the dreams about future, but usually they should leave a bigger impression on you than the usual ones and you should at least-“ You stopped listening to her monologue, all of it already heard a million times. You should start differentiating between regular dreams and magical ones by now. At least some of them. You should also remember your dreams before they came true. At least some of them. You didn’t. At least not to an extent where you could say you had some control over the magic within you. Like this your power was pretty much useless and you knew it – what was the use of dreaming future if you couldn’t remember it. Even when situations like this, where you’d suddenly remember a few seconds of what will happen next, happened daily, a few times a day even, you didn’t feel like it was much of an improvement. Every time you would feel like you were a traveler, who had finally found the city he’s been looking for, only for it to burn down to the ashes the next second, meanwhile if you were actually able to control your power, you could have enjoyed that city from the beginning, instead of wasting time searching.

You needed a teacher. Desperately. However there was one major problem – only another seer could really understand your power and teach you anything, and you didn’t know any other seers. In fact you had never met another one before. Even Miss Black had only met a couple in her lifetime, and it has already been years since the last one. All kinds of witches, wizards, mages and other magic users lived in your town, beings like fairies and faes, veelas and nymphs and even some shapeshifters hid in the forests and mountains around, and if you were unlucky enough to wander into the darker parts of said forests, you could even meet some magical creatures usually reserved for your nightmares. The fact that there wasn’t a single other seer in town was as inconvenient to you as it was a mystery. And an even bigger mystery was the fact that the only kind of magic users who could help you search for a seer – mediums – were also only but rare passing guests in this area. The moment you had moved there, you were excited to find a local medium and ask them to talk to some ghosts and spirits – see whether they knew any seers around. It was a disappointment, to say the least, when your searches for both a seer and a medium turned out to be fruitless, leaving you no other choice than to try and figure everything out on your own.

“They’ll be coming to town tomorrow,” Yoongi grumbled while entering the library where Namjoon and Jimin were hunched over some old book, discussing something.

“Tomorrow? What for? Where exactly? Should we disappear?” Yoongi’s increasingly annoyed face didn’t help Namjoon shut up as he poured questions one after another, amusing the youngest one in the room.

“They aren’t coming for us, they’re just visiting that magic trinkets store in town – ‘Black Cat’ or something?” The last part got Jimin’s attention, for reasons unknown to himself. “In fact it’s just Sunggyu and Sungjong coming so they’re probably just doing some regular check up. If they got a whiff of us being here the whole squad would be coming, if not more.”

“Still, why visit that one store? You sure there wasn’t anything more to your dream?” Yoongi’s annoyed grumble was enough to answer Namjoon’s question, so the latter turned to Jimin instead. “Are you sure you took care of the employee’s memories?”

“Positive. There were only the two girls working - the witch and the seer, and I took care of both of their memo-“

“A SEER?” Yoongi’s explosive reaction cut Jimin short and Namjoon’s exasperated sigh told him he was missing something. “You mean to tell me you found a seer in town and neglected to mention it to me?!”

“Umm, was I supposed to? I mean she’s quite new, I haven’t even seen her yet, but I’ve smelt her working in the back room…” Jimin looked around confused, very much unlike his usual confident self. Namjoon was the one kind enough to explain while Yoongi seemed to be seething in disbelief.

“Jimin, it’s very much unlikely that a seer would get affected by my memory charms. She’s probably the reason they’re visiting, they know that if any of us happened to show up, she’d know.”

“But… she hasn’t even seen me? And she’s not local, even if she saw me, how would she know anything about who I am?” Jimin tried to convince himself more than his friends.

“She’s a seer, dumbass, she could possibly know more than you can ever imagine. Maybe it’s not even a coincidence, maybe they’re the ones who put her here to spy? It would make more sense than a random seer stumbling into this little town. After all, they are controlling most of the seers that are still alive...” Yoongi’s words made Jimin’s blood run cold as he got his usual alfa demeanor back on.

“I’ll take care of her, one way or another.” He said, making his way out of the library.

“I hope you realize what one way or another means in this situation?” Yoongi mumbled behind him.

“I’m aware.”

The little bell above the door chimed signaling two seemingly young men entering the shop. You caught a glimpse of them before taking your exit to the back yard intending to water the lemon balms, but soon enough Rose emerged after you.

“Come to the front, the men are here for you,” the confusion was written all over your face while you put down the water and hesitantly followed Rose back inside. Except for Rose and Miss Black you didn’t really know anyone around here, why would anyone ask for you? Were you in some kind of trouble? But the only kind of trouble you could think of is an unhappy customer, and you couldn’t remember seeing those two men before.

The older looking of the two was leaning against the counter, looking confident yet stern, while the younger looking skinny one was walking around the store, his hands gloved and held in each other as if avoiding any sort of touch. You couldn’t help thinking that he looked arrogant, and the both of them oozed authority.

“How may I help you?”

“My name is Sunggyu and over there is my partner Sungjong. We’re from a special magical investigation squad and we just wanted to ask some questions regarding a customer.” Sunggyu explained monotonically, the manner of a man of law now obviously written all over his manners.

“Umm, sure, but Rose is the one who usually serves the customers, maybe she’ll remember better?” You desperately wished to escape and call Rose back but the skinny man – Sungjong – scoffed, while Sunggyu smirked.

“Oh, I’m sure your co-worker doesn’t remember.” The way he said it rang all the bells in your head and suddenly you remembered the weird encounter with the forgotten customer and that hand full of rings. An unexplainable feeling came over you and, as if some sixth sense was whispering in your ear, you suddenly knew you shouldn’t tell those men anything. Why would you even hide something about a possibly dangerous customer? You had no idea and it scared you, but you went on nonetheless.

“Well, in that case, you sirs will have to be more specific.”

“Was there ever a customer that your co-worker didn’t seem to remember?” Sunggyu pressed on.

“There was a situation where I thought so, but later I realized I was just dozing off.” You lied smoothly, deciding to not deny it all – if they had come here to find you, they must have already known something.

“Is that so? Could you elaborate?” He didn’t let go that easy.

“Like I said, I believe I was just dozing off and heard someone speaking, but I don’t remember anything else. Maybe it was one of the magical stones or herbs in the storage room affecting me. Anyways, when I came out there was no one there, and Rose hadn’t seen anyone, so there couldn’t have been a customer. Other than that I don’t remember anything strange. Why, is there a problem, sirs?” You hoped you sounded as innocent to them as you did to yourself. The lies came to you easier than they ever did before and you would have pondered how strange it was if you weren’t under the scrutinizing gaze of Sunggyu, who was eyeing your Rose Quartz pendant as if it had personally insulted him.

“No there’s no problem, just following up on an investigation, but it seems there’s nothing to be found here.” Sunggyu squeezed out a small polite smile and turned on his heel, motioning for Sungjong to follow along, which he did, without a second glance in your direction.

Why did you lie?

[vamporchid]

Just for fun!

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk? I can’t use milk...or dairy...so almond or soy, so more cereal...but I hardly ever eat cereal so yeah...

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day? I’m Canadian, it’s a given lol

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books? Uhm, bookmarks oh and business cards LOL

4: how do you take your coffee/tea? coffee, two sugar and cream, tea all on its own or with honey

5: are you self-conscious of your smile? Yup, thanks mom...I has a huge mouth lol

6: do you keep plants? Ahahahaha yeah. Sorry laughing to a friends response as I’m doing. Yes I do, all kinds and I have a garden and flower garden.

7: do you name your plants? K not that crazy...

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings? Uhm, I do traditional drawing, paintings, crafts, tattoo and now I’m venturing into airbrushing. Oh and I can’t forget writing.

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself? Who doesn’t?

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach? My right side. Stupid spine.

11: what's an inner joke you have with your friends? Squirrels. Ahahaha. Bucky and Squirrels.

12: what's your favorite planet? Other than earth? Pluto. It’s neglected.

13: what's something that made you smile today? My two year old son, getting excited when his sisters let him play with their stuff. He’s funny.

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like? Farm house chic with chickens!

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is! In the late 1950′s, by way of something labeled Project A119 the United States decided it would be a good idea to launch a nuclear missile at the moon. Why? Evidently they felt it would give them a leg up in the Space Race. Fortunately, however, the plan was never executed.

16: what's your favorite pasta dish? Lasagna, but I can’t eat it no more...

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair?  Fire engine red!!

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up.  I grab a cop by the collar once to try and drag him to my friend that was in trouble. That ladies and gentlemen is not the correct way to get an officers attention.

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it? I used to, not anymore.

20: what's your favorite eye color? Green

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that's been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces. My black and pink school bag. I actually used to live out of in College. I refuse to get rid of it even though my husband hates it.

22: are you a morning person? No!

23: what's your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations?  Write, read or draw!! Oh and crafts.

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets? @amethystflame, she’s my witness, muahahha. Squirrels.

25: what's the weirdest place you've ever broken into? Mayor’s office LOL.

26: what are the shoes you've had for forever and wear with every single outfit? None, I’m always getting new footwear.

27: what's your favorite bubblegum flavor? Uhm Bubblegum.

28: sunrise or sunset? Sunset. Sunrise means I’ve been up all night, again. Ugh.

29: what's something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing? @amethystflame, every morning we always text each other good morning lol

30: think of it: have you ever been  truly scared? Hells yes. One of my kids almost died. Scary.

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks. No socks in bed, but other than that I like them lol. But not in the summer.

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends. Broke into the mayors office, that is where I’ll end that LOL

33: what's your fave pastry? Apple turnovers are underrated.

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it? A pink seal, Nicky. My kids use it now.

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often? They are pretty, I’ll use them, but it’s not like that’s all I use. I use whatever is on hand.

36: which band's sound would fit your mood right now? Green Day

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean? Clean! Major OCD!!

38: tell us about your pet peeves!  Oh there’s not enough time for this!

39: what color do you wear the most? Blue or green, black as a shade.

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what's it's story? does it have any meaning to you? Like random jewelry? Well I have a Lapus Lazuli pendant I ordered from Egypt with a clear quartz stone on it. It’s suppose to help with all kinds of things. And I love things that have to do with Egypt. So yeah.

41: what's the last book you remember really, really loving? Gail Z Martin’s The Summoner Chronicles.

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it! Timmies, I am Canadian. That is all.

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with? My husband lol.

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything? Is never a good answer?

45: do you trust your instincts a lot?  Hellz Yes!

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of.  Can’t think of any

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe?  Span and Klik! Nasty!!

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today?  Zombies and yes I’m still terrified.

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought? I haven’t bought either in years.

50: what's an odd thing you collect?Knives, I guess. Because I collect a bunch of things.

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them? Person, uhm my husband, True Love by Pink. Fictional Character, Winter Soldier, Simple man by Shinedown

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far? Anything Marvel or cats lol

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them? Rocky Horror picture show, beetlejuice and pulp fiction.

54: who's the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face? My Two year old, when his dad left for work this morning.

55: what's the most dramatic thing you've ever done to prove a point? My ex was driving me nuts. I kept telling him if he kept claiming I was nuts, that I would start to act like a psycho. I was decorating an Xmas tree and hit him in the face with around 25 Xmas glass ball decorations. That night we got to spend the night at the hospital getting his eyes washed.

56: what are some things you find endearing in people? Random acts of generosity or kindness.

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics?  I always do and I love Queen, still sends shivers down my spine when I listen to them.

58: who's the wine mom and who's the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why?  At this very moment. Well I’m into the wine and @amethystflame is into the vodka ahahahaha.

59: what's your favorite myth? I was gonna write good men aahahahahaha. Shut up you laughed. I don’t believe in myths. They are stories that probably happened that got some pazzazz at some point.

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves? Yup. Edgar Allen Poe. The Pit and The Pendulum.

61: what's the stupidest gift you've ever given? the stupidest one you've ever received? The dumbest gift I’ve ever given was probably to my sister, a grow a man and some stress ‘balls’ ahahaha. Received...spongebob square pants season two...I don’t watch that cartoon...

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind? No. But I do have a glass of hot lemon water every morning.

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be? I have OCD, everything organized lol.

64: what color is the sky where you are right now? Black, it’s night and it’s not a clear night.

65: is there anyone you haven't seen in a long time who you'd love to hang out with?  My old work friends, but I actually just got to go visit them this past weekend after not seeing the for 14 years. Woot.

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like? Daffodils, sunflowers, cat tails and fall leaves!!

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel? Uhm, gloomy lol

68: what's winter like where you live? I live in Northern Ontario Canada, cold, long and tons of snow. TONS OF SNOW.

69: what are your favorite board games? Monopoly and anything that makes you think, like clue.

70: have you ever used a ouija board? Why yes I have, I own one, it’s on my bookshelf.

71: what's your favorite kind of tea? Chai Tea!!

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you'll forget it? Nope, not usually.

73: what are some of your worst habits?  I crack my joints, a lot.

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns. Pink-ish hair. American, Yank. Cap obsessed ish. Naps. Squirrels. Kids. NO MARK!

75: tell us about your pets! Three cats. One is old and dying. One’s a bitch. And the last one well he’s young and huge. I think he’s part lion. Who knows.

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren't? Working out.

77: pink or yellow lemonade? BOTH!

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub? There are ppl that hate them? WTF?!

79: what's one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you? My husband proposed to my twice. And I got two engagement rings out of the deal lol.

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why? Olive green. Was like that when we bought the house. I’m ok with it, so it’ll stay for now.

81: describe one of your friend's eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of. Skip! LOL

82: are/were you good in school?  Yup. Like at the subjects. 90s. Was I a good kid...well my parents threaten to put me into military school lol

83: what's some of your favorite album art? Rob Zombies stuff is always great and so it Tool’s

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones?  I have a forever growing list. But my next one is a comic book sleeve with all my fave characters and quotes.

85: do you read comics? what are your faves? Yes, Mostly marvel.

86: do you like concept albums? which ones?  Concept albums? HUH?

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives?  Boondock saints for sure and The Crow.

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy? I don’t think I understand this question lol.

89: are you close to your parents?  Ish I think. LOL. They’re all good and stuff. I am a lot more now then when I was younger that‘s for sure.

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities. Uhm. Cities? I’m not a city fan. I did really like Mexico when I visited though.

91: where do you plan on traveling this year? NYC @amethystflame Comiccon is happening!

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch? I can’t eat dairy...

93: what's the hairstyle you wear the most? Curly Mohawk.

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday? My twin girls, big 11.

95: what are your plans for this weekend?  So far watching Marvel Movies with my friend lol

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot?  Mine are on auto update.

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house? ENFJ, Aquarius, Raven Claw

98: when's the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it? Pfff Can’t remember. Probably lol.

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them. Full Circle by Aerosmith. Simple Man by Shine down. Had Enough and Firefly by Breaking Benjamin. And many more...

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why?  Five years into the future so that I can see what I can fix before it happens lol.

Ok. @amethystflame, @chenria, @r2smuse, @mellorian-j if you want!

[imnopulitzerwinner]

Intact Broken Things

There existed a flea market beside a cheerful pond, that sold everything Dia could think of, in all shapes and sizes; Dead people’s clothing with intentionally fashionable flaws, lemonade by the glass from an 8 year old boy with sun-kissed golden curls who was dreaming of his soon-to-be bike as he grabbed Dia’s money from her outstretched hand, two gentlemen in turtlenecks who were arguing over the artistic value of a painting while the painter looked into the distance desperately trying to remember the curve of the right hip of a woman he met in Salerno 50 years ago. There is a woman who claims (in a cigarette-rusted voice) that her rose quartz stones will make Dia’s non-existent lover want to screw her more. There are gluten-free churros because human beings don’t deserve regular churros anymore. As Dia made her way down the sunlit path, she could taste the sense of purpose: People desperately trying to get money, people desperately trying to give money away, people enjoying beautiful days, people dreaming of things that once were or will be, burning oil mixed with soil from freshly picked carrots that stand horizontally like spikes in case you get too close. Pseudo art aficionados walk away with rectangular canvases that (they are sure) will increase in market value by 64.7% in a year (as opposed to the shameful 38.9% that the other pseudo art aficionado thought it might). Their wives giggle as if they know what market value means. Dia saw the glint in the little golden-haired boy’s eyes as he realised that he had just about collected enough money for the bike that was soon-to-be his. She saw him turn around and yell to his mama that she could stop squeezing lemons because he had accomplished what he had set out to do. She heard mama say that it’s just as well because the lemons were finished. Dia watched mama walk up to her son (with one hand on her aching hip as if to keep it from popping out of place) and take half of his hard-earned money for the materials and her labour, and she watched as mama pulled the curtains over the glinting eyes.

As she walked, she saw an unattended table full of…well…things; broken things. Not broken in the sense that they were physically shattered into a million pieces; just broken in the sense that they could no longer do what they were supposed to do. A kettle filled with dry flowers, two chairs that each had one missing arm rest. A lawnmower with a grocery basket on it. A factory-rejected pair of binoculars that made things seem further away when you looked through it. This was certainly not a table full of things that would increase in market value, nor had any market value in the first place. It might as well have been invisible because this table attracted nobody. It appeared that even the seller eventually abandoned his or her table of Intact Broken Things. Dia thought that these were the kind of things that made you love what they had become more than what they once were. She imagined the one time when she desperately wanted the desolately large space between her and the human sitting next to her to disappear. That space that forces hands and shoulders to be so close and yet so far. Their atoms vibrated, and the hair on her hands tingled with the sense of intimacy. She imagined all those times when she was given a bouquet of flowers and needed something to put them in so much more than she needed a cup of tea. In her mind were vivid flashbacks of all the things that happened to her, and people that were in front/on top of/behind her against her will, and wished that she had a way of making the trauma seem further away. She thought, how lucky the lawnmower was to find a new purpose, after spending most of its life feeling dreadfully sorry for what it did in the past. She looked at all the items on the table and thought simultaneously of what was, what is and what could be. Perhaps the rectangular canvas would be sold at a loss. Perhaps someone would choke on a gluten-free churro and die. Perhaps the little boy might get his bike after all, but even if he doesn’t, he had learnt a painful lesson about how the world works. Perhaps there is a bridge to cross between what is and what can be, but this table showed her that it exists. Perhaps our purpose changes. Perhaps the past can be left in the past. Perhaps part of the value of a thing lies in what it can be. Perhaps there is more to seeing than just looking. Perhaps seeing is the start of the story.

She found an empty spot on the table and sat on it and watched the sun sink beneath the birch trees and felt its waning warmth on her face. She watched the people drift past and pause briefly with puzzled looks on their faces, because they couldn’t tell if she was trader or merchandise. In her mind she was both.

[diannaphantomfiction]

Steven Universe

Doctor Who/Steven Universe: Not Started

Former DoctorDonna.

The Doctor has lost the love of his life. Grieving and with no one else to turn to, he goes to see one of his oldest friends. The universe’s foremost love expect, the fusion and leader of the Crystal Gems, Garnet.

A Single Lost Pearl: Not Started

Mom Swap AU. Steven/Connie. Pearl/OC. Pearl/Lapis. Garnet. Pearl working through centuries of brainwashing. Ex-Slave Pearl. Steven is the catalyst for healing, not Pearl’s therapist.

Once upon a time, Pearl served a good hearted Sapphire. Then, she fell in love with a Lemon Quartz. The two of them make plans to run away to join the Crystal Gems, so they can live together as the fusion Yellow Opal. For her own safety, Pearl was supposed to meet with the Crystal Gem’s squad of runaway Pearls. But, on her way, Pearl gets caught up in a battle and mistaken for a fully initiated Crystal Gem. Homeworld places her in a mirror, spending ages interrogating her until they learn she knows nothing. So, there she stays for centuries, trapped in a mirror and unable to call out for help or show that she is still a conscious Gem. Until one day, she is given to a little human boy and something stirs inside her. This little Steven needs a caretaker, someone who can care for him in ways that a burly protective Jasper or a creative Lapis Lazuli cannot. Would it really be so bad if she found a new role in caring for a sweet little boy in a world with only two other gems?