#however. where is spinel i miss him already

[chocokano]

SANGOOOO her disguise is so cutie

[arithecreatorsstuff]

Random Encounters

It was supposed to be a routine job, the cryomancer mused. Sneak into a secret facility, break out a few residents, leave with whichever ones were willing, report back to the Grandmaster. Security seemed lax on the exterior, he had already dispatched the twelve guards on the perimeter. However, the fence was still quite electrified. He sighed, and teleported to the other side.

Their efforts at keeping him out had been laughable. The guards never even noticed him. He reached a huge metal gate, still drawn. Okay, the inside man had clearly been captured or he was betrayed by him. Either way, that man was as good as dead. He froze a section of concrete wall instead, trying the gate would only result in triggering an alarm, he was sure. He summoned an ice hammer, swung, and the wall crumbled into dust and rubble. He stepped into the concrete and steel interior.

"I was told this was a prison, this is some kind of medical facility. What is going on here?" He mused to himself. There was medical equipment scattered around the hall, plaques bearing numbers and symbols with no meaning to him. He could see some of the... things being held here. Some of them were human, but most were not. From down the hall, there was one lone cell. A young woman was pounding on the glass within, trying to get his attention. Due to the poor interior lighting, and the thickness of the glass, it was hard to make out what she was trying to tell him. As he approached, she began frantically striking the glass with a shard of sharp black stone. With a final hard swing, the glass shattered, and the young woman tumbled out in front of him. The cryomancer was surprised to see she didn't have a single scratch from the glass around her. She picked up a large fragment, running forward. She ran past him, driving the shard into the throat of a man in tactical gear. She turned back to the cryomancer, smiling.

"Sorry about that. I tried to warn you, but it didn't work. I'm Spinel, run for your life before more goons show up." She then took off down the hall. The cryomancer gave chase. She ducked into a locker room upon encountering three more armed guards, he followed suit, running into her back. She jumped.

"Apologies. I did not mean to alarm you, miss." Spinel placed a slender finger to her lips, hushing him. After a few minutes, she quietly crept to the door, poked her head out, then closed it in silence. She turned back to the cryomancer.

"First, whomever you are, thank you. Second, what are you thinking breaking into a top secret testing facility?"

"I was ordered to do so. What is this place? Who is holding you here? For what reason?"

"Some government experimental program for supersoldiers is my guess. No idea who's in charge if anyone, nor why me, aside from my abilities." She sighed. "Sure, just because a girl can create near unbreakable stone items and has almost invulnerable skin, let's try brainwashing her into becoming a government hit woman. What could possibly go wrong, right? Sodding idiots."

"You do not like it here." It was a statement, not a question.

"Nope. I'd very much like to leave." She poked her head out of the door once more. "And... now is the time to do it. Let's go." She slipped out the door, running down the corridor. She stabbed a few guards here and there, mostly nonlethal strikes meant to slow pursuit. One shot at her, and she punched him. He crumpled to the ground, never getting up.

The cryomancer caught up to her outside of another wing. She had stopped, and was thinking.

"This is where the really dangerous guys are kept. Bet if we let them all out at once, those morons will be so busy trying to not die while recapturing them, we can slip out unnoticed. There's probably a control panel here someplace." But the cryomancer had already frozen a panel in a nearby wall, smashed it with an icy fist, and ripped the remains from the wall. A brief cacophony of heavy steel doors opening, sirens... then everything went red. The cryomancer grabbed Spinel by her arm.

"We are leaving. Now." Spinel wasn't about to argue with the icy death grip on her left. The two ran down the hallway, stopping only to let a horde of rather angry and rabid hellhound like creatures out after encountering some alert guards. They turned left, and Spinel came to a dead stop.

"So... she IS here." She half-mumbled. She tapped on the glass of an enclosure dripping with vines and flowers. A blonde woman tapped back in some sort of code.

"Who is she?" The cryomancer asked.

"My best friend, Ember. I'm not leaving her here." Spinel tapped something on a keypad, and the cell opened. The blonde girl stepped out. She was clad in green vines, and the scent of the flowers in her hair was... intoxicating, to say the least. The two women hugged, a quick embrace. Then, once more on the run.

An ill-chosen turn down a hallway brought them face to face with a figure in a leering porcelain mask, holding a hatchet. The figure approached the trio, blood red ooze and malice dripping from it. The cryomancer quickly froze it in place, hatchet midstrike. To confirm the figure wouldn't give chase, he shattered it with a kick.

"You know, I never liked that guy much." Ember mused. She turned to the other two. "Lousy time for introductions, I know, but... who exactly are you? I'm sure this is the first time we've seen you."

"How do you know I'm not another inmate here?"

"Believe me, good sir... you're hard to forget. Name, please? Or at least call sign?"

"I am Sub-Zero."

"Nice to meet you. Now that that's over, we should probably try and get a vehicle to facilitate escape."

"Good idea, Ember. I picked a doctor's pockets in the hall before we found you. Hope no one minds escaping in a Toyota." Spinel holds up a set of car keys.

"You clever girl. I knew I liked you for a reason."

The three pass a map of the facility, and formulate a plan. Through the lower testing levels, turn right at the commissary, through residential to the parking garage. Then, into Dr. Ramirez's Toyota and out to wherever.

"What about bringing Jonah?"

"The old man would never stop whining about how he'd rather be swallowed by a whale than listen to women. No."

"Goliath?"

"Too heavy. We cannot rescue everybody, Ember."

"And the longer we remain, the more likely our capture."

"Grrr. Fine. Let's get on with it." They made their way to the lower levels. The whole place is a jumble of broken equipment, dead bodies, scattered papers, and crumbling walls. Whatever happened in here, it was not peaceful. Ember is trembling as the trio weaves their path through the rubble.

They reach the commissary, and the girls load up bags with supplies while Sub-Zero rests for a moment. No one noticed the frightened figure in tactical gear hiding in a storage closet loaded with pots until Spinel opened the door. He tumbled out, immediately assumed a defensive huddle, and shook.

"Please, don't hurt me. I'll do whatever you ask, just don't hurt me, and take me with you. I hate it here too, and I want to go home."

Sub-Zero hauls the man up to his feet. "You will help us leave this place. In exchange, we will not harm you."

"Fair deal, sir." The group left, their new recruit in the lead. Between attacks by various monsters, a few guards shooting at them, some very surprising traps including a nasty gate that shocked the former guard into near unconsciousness, and some very angry lizards in the garage, they made it. The guard pointed out a beat up SUV, they piled in and took off. They crashed the main gates, chased by a rather large and anomalously malicious casowary. The guards were too busy shooting the bird to try and stop one nondescript Jeep.

"I bloody hate this place. Name's Owen, by the way."

"Thanks, Owen. Guess we really gave those blighters the bird on the way out all right."

[starscheme]

Change My World

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Wake Up Little Mermaid 

Spinel awoke with a painful groan. It felt as if rocks were tumbling around in her head. She placed her hand against her forehead, her vision a bit blurry as she opened her eyes. Once she was able to focus on the scene around her, Spinel's heart jumped to her throat as she gasped. She was in the water.

Spinel had woken up in an underwater home. One that she didn't recognize. She looked down at her hands and noticed the bright pink scales that laced her skin. She was no longer wearing the dress that Steven had bought for her, but the Gem at her chest was still there. However, the heart-shaped Gem was no longer upside down. Wasn't it supposed to be this way? For some reason, she thought it should've been upside down, but it always right side up, wasn't it?

"...my dress..." she mumbled to herself, wondering why she had worried about wearing one. For a moment, she had a fleeting feeling that she had lost something given to her, but that wasn't the case. Why would she be wearing a dress unless she needed to go on land?

"Spinel?" came an upbeat, husky voice from behind.

"Oh...Amethyst..." greeted Spinel absently.

A purple mermaid swam around Spinel with a smile, her long hair flowing behind her as she did so.

"What's the matter," she asked, "you seem out of it."

Spinel stared at the mermaid in silence, as if she hadn't seen her in quite some time. Her eyes drifted to the Gem at Amethysts chest and it was like a flash of light went off in her head. Spinel hunched over, covering her stomach as she closed her eyes tight, trying to suppress the pain that shot through her head. A fogged over image of Amethysts Gem covered in blood and Amethyst shouting out for her to run.

"Spinel!" Amethyst shouted, grabbing the pink mermaid's shoulders to get her attention. "What happened?! You okay?!"

The pain in Spinel's head subsided rather quickly as she opened her eyes and focused on Amethyst's face. What was that? It couldn't have been a memory. Nothing like that had ever happened before. She forced a smile and shook her head, "Ah...I'm fine. ...just a little...out of sorts I guess."

Amethyst seemed unconvinced, but she released Spinels shoulders and sighed.

"I guess I would be too if I were you. ...I came to cheer you up, but I guess that was doomed from the start."

"Cheer me up?" repeated Spinel curiously. Why would she need that?

"Yeah. I heard about what happened. I'm sure they wanted to keep it under wraps, but some of my clan was part of the guard when it happened. So of course I would hear about it."

Spinel felt lost. It was like she stuck in a strange fog. She could hardly remember anything important and for some reason, she felt as if she shouldn't be here.

"...what do you...?"

Amethyst frowned and leaned in, staring hard at Spinels Gem.

"It doesn't look like they cast anything on you. ...maybe you're just in shock?"

"Th-that must be it..." replied Spinel, relieved to have an excuse for her confusion. She didn't want to admit that her head was such a mess.

"It's going to be okay," insisted Amethyst, taking Spinel's hands into her own with a determined expression in her eyes. "We can find a way to sneak you in."

"How will we do that?" asked Spinel, deciding it was best to simply go along with the strange conversation rather than ask Amethyst what was going on.

Amethyst looked around to make sure no one was swimming by before she leaned in a bit more.

"The other Amethyst guards can help. When they rotate the shifts in a couple of days, they can allow you into the garden. It won't be a problem since I heard that Steven turned away the new playmate they gave to him."

The fog around Spinel seemed to lift slightly when she heard Steven's name. She knew who that was. Someone important. Someone that was taken from her. Was he in danger? Suddenly, she felt an overwhelming urge to find him.

"He's okay?! He's not hurt or anything?!" Spinel asked desperately.

Amethyst seemed taken aback by Spinels sudden change, but she gripped her friend's hands.

"Calm down. He's fine. Just because they can punish you, doesn't mean they would punish him."

Spinel shook her head. That wasn't right. Steven was taken. Wasn't he? She didn't know where he was and had to go and get him.

"No! They took him and I have to find him!"

As Spinel started to struggle to rip her hands from Amethyst, the purple Mermaid panicked and held tighter.

"Spinel! Calm down! No one took him! He's fine!"

"No! You're wrong! This is all wrong!" Spinel shouted. "Those humans-they took him for protecting me! I-I saw it! It was..." Spinel trailed off during the struggle, trying to remember these events she was raving about, but honestly, it seemed like a dream now. She ceased her fighting and took a few deep breaths. Is that what happened? Did she just have a bad dream? Now that she thought on it harder, there was no way that human guards would come and take Steven. They couldn't. "...no...you're right. ...I...I must've had a nightmare..."

Amethyst sighed in relief and slowly released Spinel's hands, "...I figured this would be hard on you...but it's worse than I thought. They must have punished you pretty harshly..." The purple mermaid growled through gritted teeth and a spiked whip appeared in her hand. She swung it at once, striking a stone pillar that immediately crumbled. "Those bastards! What did you do that was so terrible!? Just because they don't like it-"

Spinel watched her friend get angry for her and she felt a bit more grounded. Perhaps Amethyst was right. Perhaps she had been punished too severely and it messed with her head. Even if she couldn't fully recall why she had been punished.

"...I'll be fine. You don't have to worry too much."

"But you were locked up for weeks! Who knows what that crazy Agate did to you! You and I both know that she takes pleasure in causing pain..."

"Will you quiet down!" insisted a strong, commanding voice as Bismuth swam over with an unamused expression. "You'll alert the entire reef."

Amethyst huffed and her whip vanished before she crossed her arms over her chest.

"As if you can lecture me about being quiet."

Bismuth rolled her eyes but turned to Spinel with a compassionate smile. "Sorry it took so long, but we had to make sure that Sapphire wasn't watching our movements."

"What's going on?" Amethyst asked suspiciously.

"Mind your own Bismuth," joked the shark-tailed Mermaid with a wink before she took out a small pink orb and placed it into Spinels hands.

"What's thi-" Spinel began to ask, only to be silenced as Bismuth pressed a finger to her lips.

"Hold it to your Gem and think about who you want to see. It won't last too long, but we can cover for you in the meantime. I know it's not much, but it's all we can do for now. Just remember to tell Steven that everything is going as planned."

Spinel was a bit confused, but it wasn't any worse than she had been already. At least she understood that this was supposed to help her see Steven in some way. Without waiting another moment, she held the orb to her Gem and closed her eyes. Whether her memories were in place or not, the only sure thing was her concern for Steven. even if she didn't quite know why. A warm light washed over her and when Spinel opened her eyes again, she was floating above a beautiful garden.

"...Wasn't this place..." Spinel mumbled to herself, swimming slowly down towards the lovely flowers, stopping at the top of a small stone platform that at in the middle of the garden.

"Spinel!"

The voice that called out her name was one that no matter how muddled her memory was, she wouldn't forget. Spinning around, her heart jumped against her chest when she saw Steven dashing up the stone steps. Though she was happy to see him, her smile faded slightly as she stared at him. The Steven in her memory had dark eyes and ebony hair, but the Steven that was rushing towards her had light pink curls and his eyes were a bright pink hue with pupils the shape of diamonds. What was even more strange was that he was somehow breathing under water. How was that possible? Could he do that before and why was he wearing some sort of hospital gown?

"...Steven?" Spinel questioned aloud, trying to piece her thoughts together.

Before Spinel could figure out what was going on, Steven finally made his way to her and without hesitation, wrapped his arms around her to pull her into a tight embrace.

"I missed you so much," he exclaimed happily.

"W-wait a sec," stammered Spinel as her cheeks began to burn.

"Sorry, Sorry," chuckled Steven as he pulled back, but leaning back in to plant kisses along her cheek. "I didn't mean to surprise you."

His gentle kisses caused Spinel to freeze up, her heart pounding rapidly as his breath hit her skin. She knew he was affectionate, but she still wasn't entirely used to all this. Mostly she was just happy to see that he was safe. "Well I-"

"What's the matter?" Steven asked, pressing his forehead against hers with a playful smile. "Didn't you miss me too?"

This man didn't look like the Steven that she remembered, but they certainly acted the same, even if this one was a little braver about it. “St-Steven...something is wrong...” she admitted. From the moment she opened her eyes, Spinel felt that things were warped. Now that she was face to face with Steven, her head was a bit clearer. None of this was right. She placed her hands on Stevens shoulders and pushed him back, trying to piece things together. “I...I was on the surface. We fell and you protected me. Those humans...you sent me away and I need to find you...”

“What’re you talking about?” Steven asked, genuinely confused.

“It wasn’t a dream. It happened!” Spinel exclaimed adamantly. “I don’t know what this is, but it’s not right!”

Steven smiled sadly at Spinel and the Mermaid felt a twinge of guilt. This was just a strange dream, wasn’t it? Steven couldn’t breath under water and he didn’t look like this. So why did she feel bad for rejecting this place?

Steven reached over and placed his hand over the Gem that sat over Spinels chest. “You’re not my Spinel?”

Shifting back, Spinel covered her Gem with her hands and shook her head, “this is a dream. Just some weird dream caused by that-that weird pink illusion. I need to wake up and find Steven. My Steven.”

“You’re Steven?” He repeated with a renewed smile, seemingly relieved. “...I guess that means i kept my promise.”

Spinels confusion quickly turned to frustration. She was tired of all the vague conversations. Even in her dreams everyone seemed to talk in circles so that she wouldn’t fully grasp what was going on. However, it wasn’t as if she wanted many answers either. The closer she got to the truth, the more terrified she was. She opened her mouth as if she was about to shout at Steven, but he shook his head and stopped her cold.

“It’s okay,” he began gently. “You don’t have to remember anything.”

“...what does that mean?” Spinel asked despite her defiance in diving any further into this.

“It means...that you can forget everything. Just let it all go. I know why you’re here...but I never wanted you to look back.”

Stevens words led Spinel to believe that this was some sort of memory, but it couldn’t have been. She’d never met Steven before being captured and he didn’t look like this. So why did she feel so miserable? As if she were saying goodbye. “...I don’t...know you...” she mumbled, mostly trying to convince herself not to feel bad. Still, her eyes burned and warm tears slipped from her eyes, mixing into the water around her.

“Don’t worry,” Steven said as he stepped forward, reaching over to place his hand against her cheek. “I know this isn’t goodbye. Not really. Find your Steven and be happy. That’s all I wanted. That’s what we promised...”

“I don’t understand,” choked out Spinel as she held back the remainder of her tears.

“You don’t need to,” insisted Steven, with a sympathetic smile. “The only thing you ever needed to remember, is that no matter how this world changes...I will always find you.”

His words stung. Why did this hurt so much? This never happened. It was a stupid dream that she couldn’t get out of. So than why couldn’t she stop the tears? “You’re the one that lost, you idiot...” sobbed Spinel, rubbing her eyes defiantly in an attempt to stifle the tears.

“Heh, well than I guess you’d better go and find me,” chuckled Steven, grabbing her wrists and gently pulling her hands away from her face so that he could meet her eyes. “Don’t ever look back,” he whispered, leaning forward to kiss her forehead. “Be happy...my beautiful Spinel.”

The pink mermaids tears finally stopped. She may not have completely understood all this, but his words warmed her heart somehow. “Once I wake up...I can go and find my Steven.”

“That’s right,” he replied, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against hers. “This is just a dream. It’s time to wake up now...”

Spinel closed her eyes as well, feeling a sense of peace like this. She wanted to say goodbye, but a warm, pink light washed over her before she could say a word and the Steven in front of her faded into that light, vanishing from her sight. When the light faded out, Spinel was staring up at star filled sky. She was back in the forest, laying on her back against the ground amongst the fallen leaves. Tear stains marked her her cheeks as she stared silently at the night sky. “...I woke up...” she whispered to no one, placing her hand over the Gem beneath her dress. It was time to wake up and head forward. It was time to find her Steven.

[wiltingpierrot]

Gem Glow: Part 1

Welcome! Well, this isn’t really made to entertain. I’m just doing this to recover from trauma and get a good grasp of the show’s lore while having my girls react with me. Feel free to tag along.

We’ll be watching four episodes a day and react only to the major events as tackling all of them is a toughie.

 Sharpie: “I want to see real tears, Wilt.”

Wilt: “Tears? At the very first episode?”

Sharpie: “Yes. Otherwise I’ll make you cry by some other means.”

Wilt: “I have these tear marks. Those count, yes?”

Sharpie: “Real tears, I said.”

Wilt: “Ahh, how iconic.”

Spinel: “The area around the lighthouse is lacking a lot of flowers. That’ll change someday!”

Sharpie: “Yes, after a lot of blood, ink and tears had been shed first.”

Spinel: “Here we have a shot of the show’s hero, lamenting the discontinuation of a certain ice cream snack brand.”

Sharpie: “Is this triggering your PTSD yet?”

Wilt: “Not really. I thought it would but surprisingly I’m still okay.”

Lars: “Well, if you miss your wimpy ice cream so much, why don’t you make some with your MAGIC BELLY BUTTON?”

Spinel: “Hey Sharpie, let’s make foodstuff with just the energy in our gem.”

Sharpie: “And you still owe me 86 years’ worth of happiness.”

Wilt: “What is this civil conversation you’re having? That’s not how I wrote you two.”

Sadie: “Uhh Steven? Do you want to take the freezer with you?”

Spinel: “Think what would’ve happened if Sadie didn’t let him take that freezer home.”

Sharpie: “Does… does the cat’s face looked different to you?”

Spinel: “I love the lighthouse. The view up the top is always so breathtaking.”

Sharpie: “I’m not so happy with our roommate though.”

Wilt: “…I might have to draw this someday.”

Spinel: “Don’t you just love it when your pets greet you as you enter your house? I wish you would greet me whenever I fall asleep.”

Sharpie: “You’re just my nightmare.”

Amethyst: “’Sup, Steven.”

Spinel: “AME!!!!”

Spinel: “I AM IN LOVE.”

Sharpie: “You can stop replaying this 5 seconds worth of Pearl now.”

Spinel: “It’s 4 seconds worth of Pearl, you heathen.”

Spinel: “HOOO MAMA. Remember when Garnet kicked our ass?”

Sharpie: “She kicked your ass. She kicked your ass so much I had to start a switch to intervene. Now that I think of it, I shouldn’t have done that.”

Sharpie: “Being sliced open is one thing. Being pulled apart is another.”

Spinel: “It’s good that we’re stretchy.”

Sharpie: “I can disable that function and tear you apart like that, actually. Ever wondered why it doesn’t hurt when others pull at you like taffy but I can?”

Spinel: “I can do the same and prevent you from escaping my hugs.”

Sharpie: “*sigh*… I hate you.”

Spinel: “Ahaha! Pearl is so cute!”

Sharpie: “Ahaha! I love this technique.”

Wilt: “It’s good for breaking a hole through walls in maximum security prisons, yeah.”

Amethyst: “Uhh you guys, these things don’t have gems.”

Garnet: “That means there must be a mother somewhere nearby.”

Sharpie: “That’s a fascinating thought.”

Wilt: “It’s similar to how Pearl can project figures that can maintain itself while independent of the source. In this case, the main centipeedle can project independent but smaller versions of itself.”

Sharpie: “How come 2nd Projections aren’t like that, I wonder. Like we can’t have separate bodies or anything…”

Wilt: “Probably because the 2nd Projection has a personality of its own and it stems from the original gem, while Pearl Projections and mini-centipeedles are pre-programmed projections that would act accordingly to the original’s commands. Like, if Spinel makes a projection separate from her, it wouldn’t be you.”

Sharpie: “Fair enough.”

Spinel: “Speaking of Pearl Projections…”

Sharpie: “No.”

Pearl: “Steven, until you learned to control the powers in your gem, we’ll take care of protecting humanity. Okay?”

Spinel: “I want Pearl to snap my neck like that.”

Sharpie: “As if impaling you wasn’t enough.”

Spinel: “PFFFTT-“

Amethyst: “We went out and stole a bunch!”

Spinel: “That’s my Ame.”

Pearl: “I went back and paid for that.”

Sharpie: “That’s…. that’s very Pearl of her.”

Steven: “He left his family behind!”

Spinel: “AHAHAHAHAHA”

Sharpie: “What’s so funny about that?”

Sharpie: “Oh my stars. I hope we don’t have to bear another one of those.”

Wilt: “It’s catchy. I like it.”

Sharpie: “What a happy little family. It’s a shame that they’re doomed to a life of madness onwards.”

Amethyst: “Quick! Try and summon your weapon!”

“Awww, no weapon.”

Wilt: “He’s struggling. A sign of a well-rounded character. The progress is dramatic if we compare this episode to the last ones. And it only took him a few Earth years.”

Sharpie: “And it took us like what, 86 years to get this far and we’re still inferior to most we meet in our travels.”

Spinel: “God I love Pearl.”

Sharpie: “Can you even pay attention to anything that isn’t Pearl?”

Spinel: “I’m capable of paying attention to a lot of things and to nothing at the same time, Sharpie. Be amazed.”

Steven: “Can one of you just explain how to summon a weapon?”

Pearl: “Oh! I’ll go first.”

Wilt: “I love Pearl.”

Spinel: “I love Pearl.”

Sharpie: “…”

Spinel: “AUUGH! Pearl is so beautiful.”

Wilt: “This is so anime.”

Spinel: “This scene makes me wanna stand underneath a cherry blossom tree with her in a Friday afternoon and confess my love.”

Sharpie: “God both of you disgust me.”

Pearl: “Pay attention to these petals, Steven.”

Pearl: “The petal’s dance seems improvised, but it is being calculated in real-time based on the physical properties of this planet.”

Wilt: “HELL YEAH, I LOVE PEARL.”

Pearl: “With hard work and dedication, you can master the magical properties of your gem, and perform your own dance.”

Pearl: “Like so.”

Spinel: “HELL YEAH, I LOVE PEARL”

Sharpie: “So… Pearl’s approach is tuning into the technical reality of the universe to tap into her gem’s energy,”

Amethyst: “Listen Steven. All that practice stuff is no fun. Whenever I need to summon my weapon, it just happens.”

Sharpie: “And Amethyst’s approach is just winging it. Considering Ame is a gem made for war, of course summoning a weapon is natural instinct. Pearl however… She had to learn serious fighting, something most Pearls aren’t made for.”

Spinel: “We’re the same, ain’t we? Spinels ain’t made for violence but we can whoop butt just fine.”

Sharpie: “We just got lucky… and incredibly unfortunate at the same time.”

Sharpie: “Gems are such nuisances. So much that in other places of the world, a group of humans actually built little Distortion Bombs capable of disorienting corrupted gems to a point of repelling them away. Unfortunately those things are powered by tiny bits of gem shards, which is obviously not an easily obtainable source of power. The project was discontinued.”

Spinel: “The invention worked on us, too, which is kind of impressive!”

Sharpie: “The best those little bombs done to us were to irritate us, or temporarily disable our senses. Corrupted gems have warped sentience I think, so they would rely more on instincts and run away from the source of irritation as much as possible.”

Sharpie: “They say if enough energy is given into the device, it’ll have high enough amplitude to potentially dissipate a gem’s physical form. But this is just a fever dream. There’s no way they have access to that amount of energy without slaughtering a Diamond first. Still, props to the engineer who thought that was a good idea.”

Spinel: “So instead of using gem shards, he decided to use us by writing the function into Springy. If we poof, we can give bad gems nearby a head ache and make them go away. We can protect people even if we die in battle! He basically turned us into heroic suicide bombers against corrupted gems.”

Sharpie: “Necessary, considering every time we poof we somehow cause part of a building to catch on fire, killing the people we’re supposed to protect in the process.”

Spinel: “Uh huh… yeaaahh….. I mean, where else is the excess energy supposed to go?”

Sharpie: “I dunno. Some other harmless form of energy apart from heat? The sparkly dust clouds were already perfect and you just had to change it into something deadlier. Thanks to you, seven people that stood close to us turned into soup.”

Spinel: “Well, there was that one time where the fire storm actually saved us from a meanie who wanted to crush us. We can’t just ignore that.”

Sharpie: “Seven people died, Spinel. Seven people that happened to be our allies.”

 Wilt: “Please stop. We have to finish this episode.”

Steven: “So I’m supposed to work really hard and not try at all at the same time?”

Garnet: “Yes.”

Garnet: “Or…”

Garnet: “You can link your mind with the energy of all existing matter, channeling the collective power of the universe through your gem.”

Garnet: “At least that’s my way of doing it.

Spinel: “C’mon, kiddo. It’s not that hard to understand. It’s how Springy lived for the past 40 years. If she can do it, so can you.”

Sharpie: “I bet this makes the most sense to you, huh Wilt?”

Wilt: “It does. Considering we are all just ripples of energy on the surface of the large lasagna we call the observable universe.”

Sharpie: “What a nerd. Also we’re half-way through the episode. You better cry, Wilt.”

Wilt: “I’m saving this shot for reference.”

[fallen-stars-au]

Any Kind of Freedom (Chapter 2)

Steven's been missing for over a month now.

Well, okay, he's not missing if they know he's on Homeworld, but he wasn't the sort to just go zero-contact for this long.

And it's officially been long enough.

They would find him and bring him home or get shattered trying.

(Ao3 Version)

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Pearl was… distressed. Her It’s Steven had been away for so very long now—longer than she could ever remember him being gone since she’d first emerged. And now she was disobeying a direct order from him! What in the stars was she even thinking?

She wasn’t supposed to be thinking at all! Stars, she was doing everything wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, she should be replaced, she- 

Didn’t have much time to continue the train of thought as she was pulled off the warp pad on Homeworld by Peridot. So she listened instead because she shouldn’t be thinking even to berate herself on how disobedient she was being.

“We go to his room. If he’s not there, we find Zircon.”

Lapis nodded sharply, and Pearl would have hardly been going this fast on her own. But the two were practically running and kept her up to speed with them. It was hardly appropriate for any of them to be running in the palace halls… but she was already indecent for breaking the one rule she’d ever been given. And it wouldn’t do if she were caught alone unless ordered so by her Diamond.

The route from the Galaxy Warp over to Steven’s room—Steven’s tower, actually—was an easy one but the longest it could take to get to any of the Diamonds’ chambers which meant time had creeped past Steven’s usual wake-up point by the time they made it there. Lo and behold, when they hurried in (Pearl was pleasantly surprised she was able to open the door but confused because she’d never done the calibration to be able to do as much), no Steven.

Lapis gave an exasperated groan and promptly started to rush off again, and Pearl made to follow her before Peridot called out to them both. “Wait! … Something’s not right here…” After a moment of looking around and thinking, she pointed to a duffle bag by his bed. A closed one. “Steven’s bag is packed.”

Lapis hurried back in the room past Pearl who stepped closer after her again, rather befuddled but unquestioning. She couldn’t help be worried still, though. “What…? So he’s coming home soon? What the hell’s he been doing here so long?”

“No… Lapis, I don’t think he ever unpacked it. Look-” Pearl watched as Peridot picked up the bag, struggling somewhat. “It’s too heavy and too full. He always puts his dirty clothes in another bag—I see him carry both home every time.” She went to pull the zipper, but that was enough for Pearl to speak up with an automatic response.

“My Diamond would not be pleased with anyone rifling through his personal belongings.”

It was difficult to smile obediently and patiently at the glare Lapis gave her and exasperation from Peridot as she dropped the zipper. “Right. Well, I don’t think Steven’s opened his duffle bag since he got here…”

Lapis’s expression screwed up at the implications of that and took the bag from Peridot, having an easier time with the weight of it. “We’ll bring it home with him, then.”

And with that, they were on the move again, straight from Steven’s tower to the building next door and through to a pink closed door. Pearl jumped sharply as Lapis’s abrupt banging on the door frightened her, and she regained her composure and pleasant smile as the door slid open. She also promptly saluted then.

“What did I say about-“ Zircon cut off, taking in the sight of the three gems in front of her and grimacing. “The two of you are trouble when you want to be. He’s not here. And I’m under direct orders to tell no one where he is, so you’re going to have to find someone other than me.”

“Well then tell us who put the gag order on you, and we’ll go ask them,” Lapis shot back, impatient and unwilling to jump through hoops. Something about the way she phrased it, though… upset Pearl. She couldn’t place why, though, so she focused on the conversation again instead— forcing the smile back to her face. She was thinking too much still.

“One of the only four gems who can give me orders. That should be enough for you to determine it. Now, please leave my office. I am incredibly busy at this moment.” Zircon eyed each of them shortly before she turned on her heel and went back into her office, the door sliding closed behind her. Peridot and Lapis gave one another a look that Pearl couldn’t quite grasp before they started walking again, and she dutifully followed them.

“Would you like me to carry my It’s Steven’s bag, Lapis Lazuli?” She asked as they left the building.

“No, Pearl, just keep up with us.” Curt and short, but Pearl did as she was told.

The walk to Blue Diamond’s quarter of the palace was rather short, but the wait once they were there was less so. She nodded her head politely as Blue’s Pearl greeted them, informing them of her Diamond’s presence in a meeting. And from there, they just had to wait. There were hushed discussions between Peridot and Lapis, but Pearl hardly snooped and listened. She was already breaking so very many rules.

When the door they waited outside of finally slid open, Pearl snapped to absolute attention and saluted immediately as the lustrous Blue Diamond stepped out. And she couldn’t help be more than a little appalled as Peridot and Lapis failed to do the same. 

“Oh. You two… are some of Steven’s court, yes? My Pearl informed me I had been requested. What ever might this be about?”

Lapis truly did not pull punches as she lacked any hesitation. “Where is Steven? We know you know where he is. We know he hasn’t been to his room since he got here over a month ago, and we know something’s up.”

Pearl watched fearfully as Blue Diamond’s face flickered through anger then annoyance then settled on sadness. The massive leader looked around at the other gems in the room then took the small group by surprise as she bent over and extended her hand out towards them—offering a place for her to hold them. Lapis, however, ignored it, drew out her water wings, and flew up to Blue Diamond’s usual eye-level instead. The Diamond straightened out and whispered directly to Lapis for a moment.

It was… odd. In a sense. To see another Diamond speaking so secretly and so sadly to a member of another Diamond’s court. Pearl wasn’t sure to make of it still even as Lapis flew back to the ground rapidly, her expression contorted with rage (the likes of which Pearl doubted she’d seen since she’d first emerged—when her It’s Steven fought that awful Spinel).

And her language as she returned to them was hardly filled with words befitting the presence of a Diamond. Pearl found no time to object to it, however, as Lapis set off again without another word to any of them. Instead, she did as she was supposed to.

She bowed to Blue Diamond with her salute still perfectly in place and a soft apology for Lapis’s unsavory speech, and then gracefully followed the two of them again.

Pearl had to properly run in order to catch up and even to keep up once she was behind them again as Peridot had jumped onto her human metal can lid and floated to keep speed with Lapis. Pearl was grateful she could at least hear them still as she tried to stay below them without disrupting anyone else.

“Where is he? What did she say?”

“It’s no wonder he’s been gone! They- I-“ But Lapis was too angry to finish her sentence as she cut it off with an enraged cry and just continued to lead the way.

Past the rest of Blue Diamond’s quarter.

Past most of White Diamond’s quarter until they’d reached almost the back of the area of Homeworld considered the palace where a lone, gray tower stood high above the surrounding ones. Stars, it stood almost as tall as White Diamond’s ship. Wordlessly, Lapis picked her up beneath the arms suddenly—surprising and somewhat frightening her as she took off towards the top of it with Peridot following them closely.

“Where the hell’s the entrance to this thing anyways?”

“There should be an elevator that rises from the ground somewhere—look for where that would connect!”

Just as Pearl started to feel very uneasy at dangling in the air from Lapis’s arms as she was, there was a shout of success from Peridot, and a section of one wall slid open. Once they were inside, Lapis let her back down to the floor and instead approached a vast sealed door in front of them. They were unlike any others Pearl had seen on Homeworld or Earth. There was no visible scanner to open them, no handles, no hinges. The only way to determine it was a door was from the crack running down the middle that was so tightly closed, it was barely visible either.

“Can we even do this…?” Peridot questioned, gazing up at the immense size of the doors.

“Whatever it takes—we’re not leaving until Steven is free,” Lapis affirmed, ready at any moment for a fight should anyone disagree with them.

Pearl froze in her tracks, not noticing anything around for a moment as Peridot and Lapis began to struggle with the door. That word resonated through her. That last word.

Something… wasn’t right. In her.

Or… was it?

No…. Yes?

…. Yes. Yes, something was right. Very right.

She’d disobeyed orders. From her diamond, from the other diamonds, from everyone who had ever given her one… And it felt good… A Pearl disobeying…? But what was she supposed to do when she felt she’d lost the person she looked up to most?

She was just a Pearl—who was she to question-  

But… but she was… she was more than a Pearl. Wasn’t she…?

She was. She… she was… She is.

Something snapped. Or broke free or something, but a flood of memories rushed through her. Memories of rebelling. Memories of Steven… Of helping him. Teaching him. Fighting with him. Fighting for him. Things she couldn’t recognize, but she knew immediately they were real.

More came. Steven wasn’t the first she’d fought to protect. Pearl remembered her. She remembered fighting for her. Protecting her. Devoting everything to her. Loving her… losing her.

Something changed. And she started to reform.

“It’s not going to work, Lapis! There’s nothing to hack into, no weak points to destroy. It’s just too-“ Peridot’s words cut off sharply as she looked towards her friend who was desperately slashing at the tower door with harsh streams of water as a physical offense, but her gaze drifted back behind them from a familiar sort of light brightening up the short hallway. Her eyes widened, and she couldn’t help it as a grin spread across her face just as much. “Lapis- Lapis, look!”

Thankfully, the blue gem did look before she started cursing as Pearl—the real version of Pearl—landed gracefully to her feet, freshly reformed and seeming a bit dazed.

“You’re back!” Pearl stumbled back a bit as Peridot’s arms were slung around her legs, and she looked between her and Lapis confused.

“Wha- what in the Stars has gotten into the two of you?” Not that Pearl could even tell entirely what was wrong with herself at the moment. Her mind was fuzzy, and she was disoriented as she tried to remember where they were and why even as she was hugged tight enough to hurt.

Peridot let go to surreptitiously wipe away a tear under her vizor. “Right. It’s sure to be a struggle to recalibrate yourself for a time. You were rejuvenated for nearly a year. Garnet and Amethyst still are. Steven, Lapis, and I have been trying to bring you all ba-“

“Steven…” The mere mention of him jogged something in Pearl’s gem. Steven… Steven was locked up in the tower. The one Pink had been locked in so often before she’d been created. That’s where they were now. Meaning the door right in front of them was the only thing in their way of bringing him home.

It was almost scary how drastically and rapidly Pearl’s expression changed from confusion to recognition to anger, and Peridot was completely willing to step back out of the way as Pearl gently pushed Lapis off, pulled out two metal swords from her gem, and stepped forward with a look that made it clear how the rebels had won the war with her amongst the leaders.

[mylittlegemlins]

STEVINEL IS NOT PEDOPHILE (AND IS BAD SAY IT)

Hello everyone 💖

Index:

introduction

inspiration

-pedophilia

- biological age

- mental age

- age of gems

-case spinel

-conclusion.

Today I finally got the inspiration from multiple publications stating that stevinel is in fact a pedophile ship and therefore we should not support it. Since I am a multishiper and I am very much in love with spinel I could not miss the opportunity to defend this ship to cloak and dagger.

Many of these comments I saw in the English fandom and the truth is that the debate did not seem to go anywhere like:

-is a pedophile ship one has 6000 and 17

-the gems are ageless.

[And I didn't really see that they would get anywhere, especially with a lot of immature people insulting most of the time and let's admit that comments from networks like Instagram or Twitter are not the best place to debate

Let's start by getting some concepts straight: Pedophilia :

Sexual attraction of an adult to a child of either sex. (google dictionary) This means that there must be a crush on a person who is (usually) considered an adult at 18 years of age or older and a minor who can be a baby from 5 years old to a puberty of about 14 years old, and between an adult + 20 years old and a teenager - 18 years old. Pedophilia does not occur among people who are at the same stage of life. Like two teenagers or two adults even if their ages seem far apart, see the case of two adults whose age difference is between 30 and 50 years.

Biological age

Biological age is marked by the number of years since your birth that your body and mind develop and change. We human beings have clear concepts of life stages, we know when childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age begin. There are even approximate ages where one has to consider oneself an adult. Like 18 or 21 years old.

And a number of behaviors are expected depending on your age, for example if you've had a brother or a cousin and you've seen it since you were a baby you may have seen one of these little brochures of what a healthy child should do depending on his age. Mental age Mental age is measured by a person's intellect and knowledge, which may or may not coincide with biological age.

Since biological age is expected to coincide with mental age and healthy development is usually measured only by the time a person has lived. Now, how does this work for gems? According to the concepts of the series a gem is literally a stone with a physical form of light, like a hologram with mass, these share many characteristics of humans such as being able to think, feel emotions and imitate some actions that naturally do not need to do like eating and sleeping. In humans it is very easy to measure age only by the amount of time since birth, because they change, and as the pink diamond itself showed. Gems can change but they don't need to.

The gems society is characterized by having a defined and static role and if you don't comply with it you are dead. Let's start with the mental age: In the diamond society everything worked in a very simple way, if you were born and you had to be a mechanic, you will be one for the rest of your life, since you are born with the necessary knowledge to fulfill this role. You don't need to learn new things unless it is about mechanics since you will not dedicate yourself to anything else, you don't need to alter your physical form since you are not allowed to, you don't need to change since you must fulfill your work and nothing else.

Your mental age remains completely stagnant because it does not have the need to mature just to fulfill your work, the gems are born with the ability to speak, communicate and interpret ideas, as is the case of Ruby Leggy, who was born one day when he left for his first mission.

Biological age :

The same Pearl confirmed that the gems cannot be babies, nor to age, reason why the babys and the old age do not exist for the gems. To the being its body only a projection of light the form that can acquire is very varied and changes of radical way in some occasions, although the form that represents an adult woman, this form changes radically depending on the class of gems, lapis lazuli and pearl have a body formed of a young woman, the quartz gems have a much more muscular and robust body that is made much to a physical-culturalist man.

The clearest example of a male gem is Topaz, since anyone would think he was a man until the moment they heard his voice, and even though the rutile twins use the female pronouns have a masculine appearance.

Gems like Fluorite are represented as a much older woman, even though their components may all be young.

She speaks very slowly due to the amount of gems that have to process the information within her mind.

And gems like Padparadcha have a much younger and smaller appearance, like some girls, compared to Sapphire because of her behavior Not to mention gems that are literally rocks and walls that are impossible to classify. All of these exaggeratedly different shapes make people interpret gems with different ages based on their behavior and appearance.

amethyst is the example of a growing gem, perhaps the fact that it is defective has a lot to do with it, she crawls in her first seconds of life during the film and imitates everyone like an infant trying to form her personality from others, she had a much sweeter and smaller appearance in Greg and Rose's flashbacks, being carried by Perla and hiding behind Rose's lack, Rebecca confirms on a podcast that Rose was like a mother to amethyst, if the gems were adults without exception, why would an adult need a mother figure of another adult?

Her outfit accompanies her as she has comfortable clothes and a skirt, she behaves like a teenage big sister figure for Steven during the series by accompanying him, at the same time that he allows himself to mock and fight with him, having that love / hate relationship that many people with brothers can understand and as an adult when reaching the future.

Peridot is represented in a very childish way too, the people who ship stevidot did it because they saw a kid, suddenly she was the same size as Steven, she behaved childishly and Mr. Smile called her kid, so far it was only confirmed that It was from era 2, so it could be both 5000 and 5 years old.

Probably the gems need to get along as a team, if they have to coexist with many other gems, but in theory this does not go beyond a coexistence or friendship of work colleagues since dependence or romance leads to sentimentality, which for the mother planet is useless and even harmful. In short, from birth all their social and intellectual development is truncated and they cannot mature So for most gems on homeworld their mental age is almost the same from birth to destruction.

This was demonstrated with Peridot and lapis in the episode "The New Crystal Gems" Both are gems from the mother planet, one knew how to terraform planets and the other had extensive knowledge of engineering, however they fought over who was to blame for their failure using insults like "foolish" and comparing themselves with other people, a very childish behaviour. So much so that a human thousands of years younger had to correct them. Within the series we were unable to confirm if peridot and lapis had a team to socialize with. So it is likely that throughout their lives they have not had the need to socialize and live together, or even accept their mistakes. Peridot seemed like a child prodigy with so many scenes of childish behavior and her high knowledge of what she was assigned, while other gems like pink diamond were born as immature children and it took her millennia to reach maturity.

With the case of spinel it is completely different. In her introduction stanza she says "her cut is perfect and she is pink too, she will give you endless entertainment, your new spinel best friend" that and together with what later says pearl "she was the little pink diamond playmate". It gives us an idea of what spinel used to look like.

It even strikes me that pearl refers to her as "little playmate" giving the impression that some gems are considered bigger than others based on their rank/trade or size.

First, let's remember that Spinel is literally based on a cuddly toy that Rebecca loved but forgot in a garden and when she returned after a year her belly was black from the fading sun, the doll was in the same place but had already been permanently damaged. Rebecca wanted her character to feel old as "stuck in time" that's why she uses Ruben Hose style animation from the 30's and later in future she uses references to 90's video games to give the feeling that she grew up since she left the earth but she still keeps an old and animated essence.

Spinel is a gem that was born perfectly fine and flawless, besides being literally a living cartoon like a lonnytoon, was created only with knowledge of gameplay and fun to eternally entertain its owner, and that was all she cared about, making her best friend happy .

She was practically a child, all she cared about was playing and being happy with her best friend, something that a neuro-typical adult would not do. She spends most of the movie without leaving Steven's side, even when she sees that he is depressed she can't think of a way to comfort him and just tries to make him laugh, instead of asking him about the problem and trying to provide him with a solution. I can't help but think that she was playing the whole time, from her fight in her evil form and the time she was in her friendly form with the rest of the gems, since almost every battle consists of dodging the attacks as if she were playing tag, and using the gems as dolls or balls. He even says he doesn't want to play anymore when he's done with Steven 💔

And after being stuck in the garden doing nothing but waiting without moving, the phrase "stuck in time" becomes more literal since by doing absolutely nothing but thinking there is no change or maturity. It is not until after the trauma that she goes into a fit of thinking she has changed for the worse, but she was not thinking reasonably at that time. Her best friend left her and she wanted to kill a whole planet. What was she going to do after she succeeded? How would she get back to the mother planet where we had killed a new diamond?

After the film she goes on with her life with the diamonds, the series did not deepen much in her development so she seems to be better, even after her scars manifested in tears and dark circles she still maintains an energetic personality, excited and wanting to help even if it is with a stupid song. Spinel is certainly not close to looking like a mature adult for her 6000 years of age, like many other gems.

As for her physical form I am not 100% sure what age she is approaching as the designs of the gems are very varied and extravagant. She has an adorable and childish design, like a cuddly toy, her height is in fact almost the same as Steven's (17 years old) and she also has good hips in some scenes. I would say that her shape resembles that of a young girl.

Even people who are not very familiar with the series might classify her as a child or a teenager, but not as an adult. Because the logic of the human body and biological age cannot be applied to gemstones, this is the reason why many ships Stevenx gem are so popular, but adult human x Steven don't exist at all. Because they know that age only applies to humans.

I know I've focused a lot on Spinel but because of Steven being half human there's not much mystery.

His physical form literally fits his mental age. Let's also remember that Steven is not 14 anymore, he was 16 at the time of the movie and 17 in the middle of the Future series, there were many time jumps within this series and I think the longest one was right at the end, where it had been months since the collapse and since he started therapy, when he finally decided to move he could perfectly have been 18, which is the age to become independent, at least in the USA, he is not a child, he is starting his young adult stage, just 4 years old from the age Greg was when he fell in love with Rose.

Conclusion.

Even if he were 17, he can drive, he can move, he can be independent and choose his own path, he had just left the nest and that is called being a conscious adult. Besides the fact that the separation of 18 years is used only for consent to sexual relationships before the law, but in practice it is the approximate age at which a person should already mark his maturity, that you like ships with minors is not a justification for drawing nsfw with minor characters, and it is not intended to defend that in any way in this blog, ships like the conniverse can work without +18 content in the same way that stevinel can have content without +18.

The gems can have an age but it is not at all similar to that of humans, since by the circumstances you are can remain stagnant during millennia or change in few years, the same for their physical form since you are not able to acquire a form of baby or old people, and its body remains of the same size throughout all its life, except for cases like the one of Rose/Pink.

I know that there are many people who don't like stevinel because it is toxic or because there is conniverse and I won't say that it isn't because the blog is not about that.

I know some will say that "but they are adults, no matter how they look, act and be like children." Well, it does matter, since we are talking about immortal aliens who are not born, grow, reproduce, or die.

The cartoons do not always represent human beings realistically, much less immortal characters. In fantasy a child can have a highly developed body or a PhD, and an adult can transform into a child with time machines and grow twice.

The fact that Steven falls in love with a gem whose shape resembles that of his age is as healthy as Greg, who fell in love with a gem in a physical form similar to women of his age, Who should have the appearance and maturity of an elderly woman for her millions of years, but the fact that she acts and looks like an adult is what makes her an adult character. His cousin Andy confirmed that he has always liked big women, so he could have fallen in love with Rose 4 years earlier too.

Spinel does not have to exercise a power relationship over Steven, her dependence arises from the fear of being abandoned and not because she is jealous of her other friends, when she leaves with the diamonds, it is seen that she is not attached to them all the time. He gives himself the freedom to meet new people through the halls of the palace and leave the diamonds alone when requested, proving that he is capable of changing for the better just as Steven told him.

So the relationship could work if the right circumstances are given, such as in the AU where fans give themselves the freedom to invent scenarios where the spinel does not try to kill him, where Steven is of legal age, where both are human, etc. And so with many other ships that can go from toxic to healthy in a few fanfic chapters.

We must not forget that it is a caricature and that everyone can have fun shiping characters. Unfortunately this age argument has become a bad excuse to hate a shipp or the people behind it.

And it's wrong to say this because reducing such a strong theme to something childish, fictional and fantasy can be considered an offense to the victims that exist in real life, this myth has given rise to what real people who cannot enjoy their tastes and what others find a perfect excuse to be haters without measuring their words.

Both children and adults do not perceive an adult and a child in relationships involving immortal characters even after knowing the series, this was never the first thought of someone who saw the characters together, in fact it was 5 months from the release of the film before I found out that someone was calling the relationship "pedophilia".

Because they don't grow linearly like humans do. Unlike relationships between human characters of a more realistic appearance as happened with Danny PantomxVlad where they can see first sight who is the adult and who is the child.

What they can see with the naked eye is how well accepted it is to insult the likes of others, that it's okay to be made to feel bad for making the terrible mistake of liking a ship, and that you have the right to insult the likes of others. if they do the same with yours. Which is too present in the Steven Universe fandom.

So no, they are not protecting children from pedophilia in the SU fandom, they are harming real children at the cost of trying to protect a fictional young man, making them insecure of their tastes, giving them the tools necessary to hate someone to death, and making them accept that their tastes are terrible and they must swallow them even if they are not doing anything wrong.

Accusing innocent people of pedophiles, liking or promoting pedophilia is not something you can take so lightly, also it should be illegal if everyone can be a pedophile for simple and innocent things, the word loses its meaning and the subject is taken too lightly, reducing the severity of actual pedophilia and causing serios problems for people who ate wrongfully accused.

They both look good together to me and I can still enjoy comics and pictures of them together, and those who don't, live with it, and enjoy your favorite ship.

Well I really hope you liked this, I can't believe it's 14 thousand characters, remember that insulting comments will be deleted or blocked. Thank you so much for watching :3

[allet-art]

Forgiveness (SUF fanfic)

Word Count: ~5.4k

Summary: The weight of Steven’s ‘accident’ begins to weigh on the gems after his corruption is dealt with... and there is time to be mad and to forgive.

Characters: Steven Universe, Connie Maheswaren, Pearl, Amethyst, Garnet, Jasper

Tags: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Forgiveness, Individual dealing with emotional problems, Coping

Read on AO3

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Pearl wraps her arms around her middle, fingers clutching into her thin frame. “I just… How? Why? I still… Can’t believe it.”

She shakes her head into the tension. Connie, Garnet and Amethyst are in the living room as well, sharing her emotions.

Steven was staying with Greg in the van while he was still cooling down from his ‘meltdown’. On the morning of the next day, the diamonds and Spinel felt safe enough to leave, and everything else settled into it’s place. 

And yet, some questions remain unanswered. 

Pearl shakes her head again. “Is it selfish of me? I mean… Rose never… Did anything like this. Not even as Pink, I spoke to Volly, even as a diamond she never… and he...” She sighs, tired, closing her eyes. “We should be there for him right now. I should be there for him, but… how?”

Garnet, still processing silently, places her hand on Pearl’s shoulder to steady her. Pearl gives her a small, but grateful smile.

Amethyst shrugs, clutching her knees to her chest with her arms wrapped around them, staring into one of the wood walls.

Connie speaks up, carefully. “I’m sure it’s… it wasn’t that bad. He said it was an accident, right?” 

Pearl nods a little, and Connie goes on. “Well, come on. This is Steven we’re talking about.” 

Connie’s gears are turning as she tries to figure something out, think of some way to fit this information into the world in a way that makes sense.

“If he jumped over a river to show off to her, and Jasper decided to one-up him by jumping off a cliff and getting herself hurt, he’d still say it was entirely his fault, you know?”

Connie’s voice tries to be perhaps a little too humorous for the situation, trying to ease the tension, but the other gems don’t seem to mind that. Pearl nods a little again, but Amethyst looks ready to growl at anyone who came close to her. Garnet remains stiff.

Pearl tries to partially unwrap herself from her own arms. “You’re… you’re right, maybe we’re all just… spinning this into something worse than it really is. He did say it was an accident.”

Her voice is only a tad calmer, but she tries desperately to sound casual. Connie tries to smile, never good at the fake smiles, and goes on.

“Yeah, yeah! It was just an accident. That’s what he said, and he’s just, blaming himself for everything again.”

Everything falls quiet again for a few moments. That sounds nice. That, however, still doesn’t quite cover all of his reactions, all of his breakdown that they saw, the crazed, darting eyes while he spat out everything he’d done. 

There was something more, and they knew. It was nice to hold on to that hope, but if Jasper really had just done something stupid, he wouldn’t have reacted that way. It wouldn’t have broken him that much.

“Or,” Connie speaks up into the quiet again, feeling doubt creeping into the air, knowing that the gems felt more like they were lying to themselves if they tried to believe just that. “Or he tried to show something to her, and… missed?” She pauses, then quickly adds, “he’s not very proficient in precise strikes. He probably didn’t want to hurt her, just, show off or something?”

Connie doesn’t quite believe herself. But the thought that Steven would shatter someone, while wanting to hurt them... it didn’t fit. That’s not the Steven they know, that’s not something he would do. They trust him more than that. He never wants to hurt anyone.

And yet, another unspoken problem was what he said about White Diamond. The way he said it. Connie still shivers thinking of it, of the motion he made with his hands to demonstrate, like he’d done it before, like he knew exactly what he was doing. Like he’d been thinking about it, in that intense, late-night overthinking way until you know every detail, until you’re just a tiny step away from executing it.

Connie feels the pressure on her shoulders. She’s supposed to look after his human side. She’s supposed to be the one who knew him the best, who knew what he needed and how to help him. Of course they still love him. Of course they’ll still take care of him.

That fact could fully co-exist with the desire to know exactly what happened, with the thought that maybe, they had a right to know. This shed a different light on him, one way or another.

---

“You…” Connie starts, voice more confused and uncertain than anything else “you killed her.” 

He cringes a little. “I didn’t mean to! I just wanted…”, he pauses, breathes out in defeat that there is no way this is going to sound any less bad than it already does, “to win.”

Deafening silence hangs between them, before Connie’s soft whisper carries into the breeze. “Why?”

“I don’t know.” He closes his eyes. No. He does know. “To prove I’m… not weak.”

He knows how that sounds, knows that he has no possible explanation that could soothen any of this. The deeper they dug, the worse it got.

“To whom?”

“I don’t know!” Frustration seeps into his voice, making him stop and breathe for a moment before continuing. “To her. But also… to me.”

“You’re not weak.” She murmurs, looking over him.

He lets out a small, dry laugh, like one would have to a sarcastic joke. 

Suddenly she sits up. “You’re not weak! You’re really, really strong. Steven, you’re literally half diamond!”

He doesn’t look over to her, just keeps staring at the sky. “Does me a lot of good, doesn’t it? I cry over dropping my lunch.”

“That’s not weakness.” She says firmly, looking down at him.

He jerks up as well now, annoyed. “It’s not? Really? Standing alone in the middle of nowhere crying over a mistake I made, that just proves how little I actually amount to on my own?”

Connie goes on in a similar tone. “Never crying isn’t strength! Strength is being patient and fair to others, and you are. You are because you know how bad it can feel to not have that!”

He shakes his head, letting a thought he usually keeps to himself spill out. “I’m just a pushover.”

“You’re not. You can fight!”

“Connie, what’s the point in being able to fight if I can’t hurt a fly!”

She goes quiet, looking out to the ocean. “But you can.” She ignores the twinge of guilt she feels at what she’s about to say. “And you did.”

He goes quiet, staring down at his own hands.

Connie lays her palm on his knee carefully. “Strength isn’t being able to hurt people. You know that. Nobody thinks you’re weak.”

“Jasper did.”

“And you proved her wrong. And now she thinks you’re strong.”

He looks up, unsure where she’s going with this.

“Does it feel better? Now that you proved it?”

He stares back down at his hands, clenches them to fists. His voice is suddenly barely audible, tension making it come out breathless, pressed out with a deep kinda of anger, frustration.

“Why are you so sure the answer is no?”

Connie frowns, only growing more worried. She pulls her hand back, an uncertainty spreading through her.

He releases his hands but doesn’t lift his gaze. “You think I’m some kind of perfect star child, don’t you? Like I would die to do the right thing in a heartbeat, and not even feel bad about it!” He lifts his gaze, gesturing, a mixture of pained humor and anger. “Like it would be my wish to break myself to pieces for everyone and then be happy about it!”

Connie goes quiet for a while before speaking up again, her hand going over the grass between them. “So how does it feel?”

His posture relaxes a little in defeat. “Not as horrible as it should.”

He finishes, he expects her to be angry, to be mad, to tell him he’s not the person she thought he was, or that he’s grown colder, or lost his heart, but she doesn’t.

“But how does it?”

He keeps his voice flat, too loud to be soft. “Why do you want to know?”

“Because… because I know you.” Something akin to hurt seeps into her voice, quiet and unsure. “Because we’ve always told eachother everything.”

He looks at her, hopeful eyes looking up at his in search for the truth. He feels something in his chest melt when her voice sounds like she’s close to crying, not over what he’s done but over the fact that he won’t tell her.

His shoulders relax and his face softens, and he feels the need to take her hands in his and soothe her and wish he wouldn’t be causing her this much hurt.

“I’m not… sure?” His voice is softer now, gentler, even if he doesn’t know what to say.

Finally he gives in to the feeling, deciding if she doesn’t want it she can just pull away. So he takes her hand off the grass softly and wraps both his soft, smooth hands around hers, her skin tougher, rougher from the sword fighting and sports and hard work, his protected always by his shield, his magic.

She moves her other hand to the bundle as well, and Steven’s hands hold both of them as if he’s holding the most important thing in the world, as if a wrong move could scare her away or hurt her.

Steven starts, talking softer now. “I don’t know if there’s… anything I can say to make this right. I don’t think there’s anything there to make it right at all. So I don’t understand why you’re still here.”

He presses his hands together over hers gently, emotion filling his chest. “I want to- I mean, it’s hard. The truth. But if you want to know, then… I want to tell you. But it’s not pretty.” Then, like a realization, as if it’s something new, “I’m… not perfect.”.

“Of course you’re not perfect.” She turns her hands, holding him back but still comforted by the feeling of their heavy warmth around hers. “People… make mistakes. Of course you’re determined by which ones you make and don’t make. But you’re also determined in how you deal with them.”

He wants to be honest, so he pushes the feeling out of his chest and to his throat. “It was something I could have avoided,” he murmurs, “but I didn’t. I… I don’t have good reasons for why it happened, I was pent up, and angry, and curious.” He looks up at her again. “Isn’t that horrible? Curious what my powers would do to her? Tell me.” He presses their hands together a bit more. “Tell me that it’s horrible. I know it is.”

“Steven...” Connie has to collect her thoughts, weigh them. She shouldn’t excuse what happened. But the person cradling her hands already knows that.

“What happened isn’t good, but… you’re willing to make up for it, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am! But I can’t always fix everything. We were lucky to have the diamonds on our side. If this had happened sooner, then...” He shakes his head. “This is bad. The fact that I can… lose myself like that.” He takes a deep breath. “But it was still me. I think that’s… hardest to grasp.”

“You were powered up though, right?”

“Yeah, but… powering up doesn’t make me someone else. It’s still me. I can still hold back. That’s the worst part.” Pushing the words out hurts, makes him want to curl up and hide and wait for it all to cool down instead, but he can’t. He wants to be honest. If anybody deserves to know, it’s Connie. “I chose to...” He gulps down the rest of the sentence, unable to bring it over his tongue.

She lets out a small sigh. “I know.”

They sit in silence, hands still wrapped, the roar of the ocean waves accompanying them.

Steven’s thoughts run in circles, over and over, until he finally speaks up again. “Connie?”

“Hm?”

“Do you… still like me?”

She smiles. “Of course I still like you.”

“But I’m dangerous. I hurt someone. Badly.”

“You also brought peace to the galaxy, and your family consists mostly of people who are dangerous and have hurt others.” Her more cheerful tone fades as she goes on. “Don’t get me wrong, this is… new. I mean, you didn’t change the moment it happened, I think we just… found out something new about you, that came to light because life changes around you. Because you’ve been changing gradually, for a long time.”

He sits quietly as she continues.

“And I don’t mean to say that this is you, or something that you do now! Or that you changed for the worse. I think growing up the way you did, and all these new powers… you were left directionless, more so than any of us thought you were. I had no idea Jasper and you could end up this toxic. And you can still change. It’s your choice to never let it get that way again, but...”

“But what?”

“But not becoming that way again means changing.”

“Of course. I just have to avoid Jasper, and avoid using my powers-”

“No.” Her firm tone cuts him off. “That’s exactly what you were doing before. That’s not changing, that’s reusing your old strategy.”

“But then how do I-?”

“It happened, because you felt weak. So maybe you can work on feeling strong, in a way that doesn’t base itself on hurting others. I’m sure the gems can help with that.”

“I don’t know if they can.”

Connie finally gets her hands out of the warm wrap and intertwines hers with his. “They can support you, and I can support you. But the changing part will have to be your choice, and will involve you working for that goal. You don’t want what happened with Jasper to happen again, do you?”

“Well, no, but…”

“But?”

“But nothing has made me feel better other than what I did with Jasper in… in months! Maybe years.”

“There’s other things that will make you feel better. Like talking about it. We can help you find something, but only if you work on it too.” She grows a bit more stern. “And continue therapy.”

He looks up from their hands, and Connie goes on. “You don’t have to sacrifice feeling better for moral rightness. You just need to find something else to feel good with. Healing is hard. But at the end, you’ll hopefully feel better, even better than you did when fighting. Much better.”

His voice is nothing more than a gentle, hopeful breath. “You think so?”

“Mhm.”

They sit quietly before Steven speaks up again. “Thanks, Connie.”

She looks up to him even though he’s looking away.

“I think just this helped already.”

---

Pearl stands silent and relaxed in the midst of her room. With a precise pose, a collection of shields she once kept for Rose rise to the surface.

She opens her eyes, cold white fingertips going over the rough and rusted metal. She sees her own reflection, ice blue eyes staring back at her.

Calculated, is what new gems of the rebellion would call her. Certainly they believed Rose to be in charge and struggled to understand Pearl wasn’t just an accessory for their leader, but once they saw her in battle, that changed. She made sure of it. She proved herself, to every single one.

Unlike everyone else, she knew Rose. Knew Pink. She could have never shattered gems of her own court, of the other diamond’s courts. Pearl thought she understood at the time, because they were to return once Earth was free.

She remembered Rose’s silent musing long after they’d met Garnet, remembers the day she came up to Pearl and told her all gems are precious. Of course they were, Pearl knew that. No, she said, it’s different. How could it be different? Each gem had a purpose, so they were precious in their own way, like metal rings of a chain. 

Jasper came so close to poofing Rose. Pearl knew what she had to do. She fought, she dodged, she cried and yelled and screamed and reformed so fast it was painful, knowing Rose’s form was trembeling behind her. She could not last long.

She remembered how distant Pink had been to Jasper. Yellow’s favorite, but not Pink’s. Pearl could figure why. Of all gems, she thought at the time, Jasper least resembeled her in every way. 

She didn’t seem good in her court. She was rough. She’d caused the fall of many rebelling gems, caused many of Rose’s tears, and Pearl lived to fight and hate her, for the pain she put Rose through, for the pain she forced Pearl through.

It was in her luck that Rose managed to catch her off guard while the quartz was getting increasingly annoyed at taking so long to defeat a pearl. Poofed, and Pearl thought, finally. They both collapsed.

Pearl rose first and moved quickly. She was doing Rose a favor, after all. Preventing her tears, her sadness, and with that lighting up her own world in color. And yet Rose stopped her, and despite all her efforts, it took Pearl a human lifespan to fully understand why.

Even now she doubts whether her strength at the time could have been enough to break a gem. Would Rose have asked it at the time, though, she knew her form would have somehow learned to adjust, for her, no matter how.

She never asked such a thing. She was proud of Pearl’s increasing strength, certainly, but that could not match the way her face light up, brighter than the core of this galaxy, when she found out Pearl had learned how to bubble.

She valued each gem. She never once slipped, never once got destructive. 

But after how many tries?

At least once she exploded and hurt Pink Pearl. How many other times? Pearl never saw her shatter anyone, but as a new diamond building her court, could she have avoided it even if she wanted to? Even then, she burst to life into a world that expected such cruelty of her, with no way to understand what is cruel and what isn’t. 

In the end, Pearl still found it a bit of a miracle, how a diamond with such power and status - even dissatisfied with her superiors - would make such a step, such a conclusion.

Pearl was there, and at the same time she wasn’t, watching Rose contemplate from afar as she strolled through forests and over beaches or watched the stars and clouds for nights and days.

How many times did Rose try and fail? Wasn’t she still learning even after the rebellion, when she had to learn respect beyond curiosity and play, beyond the world she knew, beyond every habit ever taught to her?

Pearl breathes out, adjusting, and the shields sink back into the water, deep into the temple. The water rushes quietly and evenly, a soft song humming along to Pearl’s graceful movements and steps.

A weight in her gem settled and seemed to roll off of her like raindroplets, following the shields down into the darkness. 

She stops, and stands firmly. Rose did things her way, with her own practice, and Pearl never would have even begun to imagine abandoning her for mistakes, for accidents. She’s older now, different, no longer as blindly loyal. 

But with that age and new understanding, she’s only all the more sure that Steven needs her to be there for him right now.

---

Amethyst kicks a metal plate hard. It gives a resistant clank and lays still. She lets out a loud graon, continuing to stomp through her room.

She kicks a solid rock, watching it break apart with a dull pain in her foot, and it only makes her madder. Fists on the dusty ground and loud yells and screams fill the room. 

Amethyst turns over to lay on her back, stubbornly staring upwards. She breathes.

With every breath, the silence seemed to pressure her more and more. She rolls over.

She sighs, giving up, laying flat on the ground. Who is she to say anything, really? To bother? Why does it matter?

Why? Why did they never notice, why did they never even think about this? Why is she so focused on this? Why does she feel fucking sorry for that cruel quartz?

She sighs again, grumbeling. She remembers the first day of uncorruption, where for just a moment it felt like she could imagine what Jasper felt. Sure, she’s the worst, and turned out to leave off there and head straight into that forest. She’s mean, with no semblance of change. She doesn’t even try, and here she is, screaming into her empty room just so the others don’t see her break down.

Jasper decided to leave. She decided to ignore the whole thing and pull back, isolate herself so she could break alone. Amethyst groans again. It all feels too complicated, too tangled and hard to understand. She sees herself in Jasper. She hates Jasper.

Connie told her Jasper egged him into it, kept pushing, kept pulling and encouraging without second thought. And that only makes it worse, because she knows what that’s like: Pushing Steven out of his comfort zone, finally, from the quiet kind kid to someone people listen to, because if anyone should get to to what they want for once, it should be Steven, right?

There’s no way Jasper feels anything but some desperate aggression at her life, right? She wanted him to give it his all so badly, and any rational explanations make Amethyst feel bad. Make her feel uncomfortably similar to the orange gem. The desperate attempts. The fighting, the pushing.

She knows, distantly, that she’ll lay here and let things suck until she eventually crawls back outside. She looks over the piles of trash, having decreased with time. It’s been a while since she last tossed herself to the ground like that.

She stands up to her full, short stature, not bothering to dust herself off. Steven is strong, isn’t he? She knew that. She walks up to a pile of semi-organized metal scrap. He’s stronger than her. Which isn’t a surprise in of itself, but having seen it now, her insides seem to sink. He didn’t get his aggression from her, did he?

She kicks one of the metal pieces, and the pile bulges before falling back down. She picks something up, just to hold it, to accupy her hands. She lifts it up, and with a start, tries to snap it over her knee. 

The alien metal bends unsatisfyingly, and leaves Ametyhst panting and with her gem regenerating some of her knee. She lets the scrap fall back to the floor.

He’s not a kid anymore, either. 

The thought of Steven hurting someone always felt so ridiculous. She’d push him, tease him for being too caring or tell him to try harder. Hell, they both fought, and he survived all that while barely even trying. And while trying to make her feel better. 

And she never even noticed how he changed, did she?

Since when could he have been pushed to do that? To really, really hurt someone?

She groans again. It’s all so much. It’s all so complicated. Sure, she can deal with it in time, but that doesn’t make any of this any less stupid.

Change. He changed. She kicks another piece of scrap, sending it flying. 

If she sits on her thoughts any longer, she’ll never come out, so she heads for the temple door. 

Her fault or not, he was there when she changed, even for the worse. For every horrid reformation or desperate fight. She looks glumly at the door, and it opens.

At least she can imagine what he’s going through, even if she doesn’t know what to do.

---

Garnet meditates.

Dozens of blue paths glow blue in the darkness. Millions of spectral droplets drip down from the platform she hovers above. With every single one, a fiery burst illuminates her. She sits unmoving.

A large, pearly waterdroplet rolls off the platform, and the flames briefly lick over the blue paths, threatening to disrupt them. She focuses, the flames die down.

The round glass platform hovers beneath her idly.

Another droplet falls, the flames rise, and the platform cracks. 

Garnet grits her teeth, clenches her fists. It’s all going fine. Breathe. She breathes. Crack.

Just breathe, she thinks, Steven is just- Crack. 

Just the mere thought causes her to stir. A voice tells her that she isn’t dealing with the problem at all. 

Garnet tenses, trembeling while a droplet begins to roll down her face. When it lands on the platform, it shatters, pieces scattering in the darkness.

She twists out of her meditative position, fire rising to meet her so she can stand. It whirls around, obscuring her vision, obscuring her thoughts. She punches into the flames, but that only sends her off-balance, falling.

She lands on her feet just barely, steadying herself. She takes off her visor and stands, staring at the blue landscape set in red flames, the break between adorned with purple-pink flowers. There is no wind. It all stands eerily still.

Pink butterflies swirl around the bushes and abstract shapes.

At the end, the landscape fades into pitch black. She doesn’t know. She looks down. She doesn’t know anymore.

A butterfly lands on her shoulder. She was wrong, again. Of course she saw into the future, thought she finally understood him to at least give an estimate. There were so many ways. This was not one of them, and now she has no idea what lies beyond.

Her fists clench again, shoulders rising as the butterfly leaves. Breathe. Another swishes by, ethereal wings brushing past her arm.

She failed. Her fists clench tighter, shoulders higher, hunching over. He hurt someone, he’s terrified, he turned into a monster, and she wasn’t there for him. 

The butterfly swirls, contemplating whether to return or not. Garnet stops, freezes, and releases a breath. Her shoulders sink down, and she watches the butterfly leave and fade into the blue.

It’s okay. Just a butterfly. Just a thought. 

Another approaches her from the back, finding place between her shoulderblades. She remembers the terror she felt, standing before Blue Diamond, loyal devotion and blindness suddenly twisted into betrayal. A Diamond. A Diamond that wanted her shattered, a Diamond she had belonged to so dearly, even if she hates the thought now.

Glowing wings pass by her vision. She believed Diamonds existed to shatter for so long. Bismuth proved her wrong. Rose proved her wrong. Steven proved her… wrong.

Her arms go around herself as she closes her eyes shut. Rose let wonder, love, light grow in a place of devouring fear. Little did Garnet know at the time, she let it grow from the same place the fear came from.

And then she trusted them. Knelt down, blindly, with everything to fear and nothing to prove. She held out her hand, and Garnet took it. 

Without a second thought, without a single question, with nothing but a sad smile and those soft hands. She always thought Rose took her in and held her tight, but no. She let Garnet go, to do as she would, and trusted her with every secret, every move, every fight.

Garnet breathes out, and three butterflies swirl off and into the darkness. She opens her eyes, watches them leave. She blinks. They’re pretty. She smiles to herself.

Rose believed in her. Rose believed in change. Rose believed in a lot of things, really.

And Garnet?, she asks herself, a question from both her halves. She opens her palms to see her gems side by side.

Garnet believes in change. She believes in letting others grow. She believes in Steven.

She closes her hands, and the butterflies pass her by peacefully.

---

The sun is setting, coating the world in dusty hues of orange and red. Long shadows stretch over the forest ground, the trees mere black silhouettes against the paling sky. Last stretches of clouds seem to hurry home.

Steven stops near his destination. He carefully pulls some leaves aside to see the gem in question. The red stripes and messy hair make her blend into her surroundings well, coated with warm, fading light and rounded by harsh shadows.

She turns to him with sharp, attentive eyes, eyeing him. Steven opens his mouth, then closes it again. She turns to him fully, leaning against a nearby rock. 

She crosses her arms over her chest. He long told her to drop the salute, and that he can’t possibly be what she wants him to be. Something wants to tell him she’s probably more mad about the salute than about what happened, but he suspects that’s also exactly what she wants him to believe.

He sticks his hands in the pockets of his jacket and clears his throat.

“Jasper, I’m sorry.”

She huffs. “For what.”

“For being out of control. For using all of my power-”

She cuts him off. “For what? Doing what you were made for? Being who you are? No.”

“This isn’t about that! I hurt you.”

“Because you were doing what you were made for.”

He sighs. They’re going in circles already. “Look, I came here to say I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry for coming here, and then bothering you, and then not knowing better and-”

He’s cut off by the sound of a fist smashing a rock to bits as he has to shield his face.

“Jasper, let me finish-”

“You.” She walks up to him, pointing a finger into his chest. “Are apologizing. For the wrong. Things! I don’t want you to come here and apologize for, I don’t know, existing!”

“I’m not!”

She groans. “You can’t apologize for having powers! That’s dumb!”

He’s about to toss an annoyed retort, but he stops himself. Think, Steven. Getting mad isn’t going to make this any better. You can’t apologize for having powers. For existing.

He groans and looks up to her in defeat. “I guess you have a point… But I’m sorry for-”

“No.”

“But-”

“NO!”

He goes quiet, crossing his arms in front of his chest himself now. Jasper turns back to her rocks, but keeps talking. “Is your memory faulty? Did you like, forget everything we did? Everything I did?”

“But you were trying to help. And having powers and being out of control doesn’t excuse what I did.”

“Fine. Listen here. You really wanna apologize for, I don’t know, doing what I told you to?”

“Well, yes? I should have been thinking with my own head, too. And I’m sorry for not using my senses, either.”

He finishes, and they both stand in silent. Jasper gives an annoyed exhale and then sits down on the ground with a thud. She looks at him, groans, looks away, crosses her arms again.

“Fine. Then I’m… ergh, I’m sorry for making you, do that.”

Steven looks at her with a bit of surprise, but she quickly gets up and straightens herself as if nothing happened. “Good. Now we’re even. Don’t force me to do it again.”

She squints at him. “And stop smiling like that.”

He can’t help a small laugh. “Okay, okay! Well, this went, better than I thought it would.”

“Hrm.” Jasper kicks one of the rocks to the side, starting to mind her own business. He stands there, unsure whether to leave or not, until she turns to him again.

“What.”

Steven looks over into the forest. “I was thinking… Would you mind if I dropped by again, maybe? I mean, it would go better than before, of course, I don’t want to pressure or anything and-”

“Yeah.”

He stops his rant, breathing out. This did go a lot better than he thought it would.

He turned to the woods, the sounds of Jasper working away following him the first few steps. It’s almost night, the sky a pale, gray blue and the trees mostly mingled dark shapes. He still has some apologies to say to the Crystal Gems. Well, he already has, but he feels they should at least be something firm. Like a favor, or something to eat, or a gift. Something.

You can’t apologize for existing.

Who knew Jasper could give out decent advice sometimes, too.

[solavillain]

Pas de Deux Ch. 1: A New Visitor

+pairing: Spinel x fem!Reader +genre: Drama, romance, angst +warnings: None (for now) +word count: 3.1K +Chapter 1 / ? next chapter

Read on AO3!

Summary: You love spending your summers in Beach City. You’ve come here since you were young, and have since befriended Steven and the Crystal Gems. You thought all Gem conflict had ended, and could finally spend a summer relaxing with your friends. However, your world flips upside down when a new Gem enters into the mix.

“Shit, I’m so fired!“

This is the only thought racing through your head as you bold down the boardwalk on the way to your café job. It’s not glamorous, or particularly well-paying, but you’d been coming to Beach City every summer since you were a child, and you weren’t about to stop that tradition now that you were in you final year of college. You figured out a way to stay in town and earn some pocket money, so you were good to go.

“Not if I get fired for being late again...” you groan internally and pick up the pace. Finally, you round a corner and bolt through the door, and behind the counter of the café, glancing at the time on the register.  

“20 minutes late, y/n...” your manager warns, giving you a side look as you head to the back of the store to get yourself collected. “How do you manage to be late when you live, like, 5 minutes away?” “It’s a talent?” You say, chuckling nervously before ducking to the back. At least it doesn’t seem like firing is on the table for today.

Once you’re up front and working, the day passes by like any other. You’d had an early shift, so when you break for lunch it’s right around 1 o’clock, a perfect time to sit outside and admire the beachfront view while sipping on your drink of choice. You glance down the boardwalk, past The Big Donut, to where Steven and the Crystal Gems live. You hadn’t really interacted with them much when you’d visited with your family as a child, but once you started coming over the summers by yourself, you’d slowly gotten to know them all.  

Steven had started off like a typical kid, but very quickly came to be a mature and thoughtful young adult, someone whom you looked up to. You didn’t know the full details of what had been happening out in space the past few years, but from what the Gems told you, he was doing amazing work. He was always so candid with his thoughts and feelings, and you found yourself wanting to spend time with him every summer you were working in Beach City.  

Garnet had intimidated you quite a bit at first; since you had mostly seen her around when the Gems were fighting something in town. But she seemed to come out of her shell as Steven got more involved in Gem goings-on, and every so often she stopped in the café with Steven and you found yourself at ease around her, content to talk about everything or nothing. She was a true leader.

Amethyst was your go-to for nights out, especially since Little Homeworld had popped up and more and more gems had begun moving in- Amethyst seemed to get along with all of them. You were a bit shy the first time she’d brought you over, especially since she already seemed pretty close with some of them. You had met Lapis, Bismuth and Peridot a couple times, but they hadn’t really left the countryside until Little Homeworld, and they’d been so busy building the past two summers you’d been in Beach City that you hadn’t gotten the chance to know them as well as you’d liked.  But Amethyst had promised to change that soon, since construction was almost done and she’d have time for hanging out again. You were really looking forward to that.

Pearl was, arguably, the gem you were closest to. You had a lot in common- a love of music and the arts, a very strong need to be clean and organized, and you were both rather emotionally open with each other, which was nice and refreshing. Even if there was a bit of a disconnect, with her being less familiar with human affairs, she was still your favorite person to see whenever you went over to the Temple. She had even agreed to start training you in self-defense this summer, just for fun- she knew you probably wouldn’t need it against any gem threats, but you thought it might be useful for human matters, at least.  

You smiled warmly down the boardwalk, as a peculiar sight pulled you from your reminiscing- Steven emerging from a newly pink Lars’ head. You sat up straight and leaned forward, trying to get a better look. You hadn’t seen Steven in a very long time, as he’d been traveling the universe with the diamonds, as Pearl had told you when you arrived this summer and found him gone.   Garnet had arrived at the shop a few minutes earlier, and she pulled out a chair for Steven at the table of gems. You smiled warmly at the group, wishing you could go over and join them. But just as you thought that, the 2-minute warning you’d set on your phone went off, signaling that it was almost the end of your break time.

You sighed and stood up slowly, taking one last glance at the group by the Big Donut, where Steven was heading to the newly installed warp that connected Beach City to Little Homeworld. You hoped you could meet up with him later and catch up on all that had been going on the past couple years.  

The rest of your shift passed by without much happening. You saw a couple new gems walk by outside the shop, but they didn’t come in, reminding you that not all gems ate everything in sight like Amethyst. You smiled to yourself at the thought, and glanced at the clock, eager to get off work and go visit everyone.  

Finally, it was time to go, clocking out once your replacement mid-day shift arrived. You said a quick goodbye to your coworkers and gathered your things, walking out the door into the hot sun. You took a deep breath of the salty sea air, and smiled to yourself. Finally it was time to go catch up with everyone. You had seen them all rush down the boardwalk towards the temple a little while ago, from your position in the café, so you turned left and began to head over.

As you approached the beach, you glanced up towards the lighthouse, and a smile broke out on your face. Laying on the hill were your four favorite people- Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Steven, and they all looked totally contented and relaxed. You started the trek up the rather large hill, but suddenly the sky darkened.  

All four of the Gems suddenly sat up, and from what little you could see of their facial expressions from this far away, they did not look relaxed any longer. In fact, they were all looking towards the sky...

Glancing up, your stomach dropped and you scrambled back towards the base of Lighthouse Park, trying to put some distance between you and the very, very large object that was currently descending from the clouds. You knew that, at the very least, it couldn’t be any of the Diamonds Pearl had told you about- Steven had been helping them, teaching them to be good...there was no way they would attack the Earth now, especially after all he’s done. So who...?

As the giant object neared the ground, a drill head emerged from the bottom of it, and with a thunderous boom, it inserted into the hill, right in front of your eyes. You stood in shock for a moment, until you realized you couldn’t see where Steven and the Gems were anymore.

“Oh my god. What if...?”

You shook your head, willing away the burning sensation beginning in your eyes. “No,” you thought, “they’re fine. I’ll just...”

You glanced anxiously back towards Beach City, torn between wanting to get somewhere safe, and wanting to make sure your friends were okay. You turned back towards the hill and the giant injector, and started making your way up the hill, mentally preparing yourself to help in any way possible.

“This damn hill is a lot steeper than I remember it being,” you think, as you push even faster, racing to try to get to them in time. Not that you even know what’s going on- you can’t hear or see anything, which worries you more than if you had heard fighting sounds.

Finally, you reach the injector, and you make your way around it. Just in time to see a menacing, stretchy pink Gem poof Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl.

You gasp quietly, still unsure if you should get involved. You know Steven is just as strong, if not stronger, than a lot of the Gems you’ve met. And you’re full human, you can’t poof and come back...you decide to wait until you’re sure Steven needs your help.

“That’s enough!” You hear him cry as he pulls his shield from his gem.  

“Aw, miss your friends already, Steven?” A sickly sweet voice asks, prompting you to come out from behind cover to glance once again at the pink Gem.

“Well, don’t worry- you're right behind ‘em!”

She leaps forward, spinning towards Steven in an acrobatic display, the scythe-like weapon in her hand glowing menacingly. The weapon breaks through Steven’s shield and passes through him- he shudders and trembles, but you can see that he’s ultimately fine.  

“Hah! That was nothing!” He says triumphantly. You relax a little- he's half human, gem weapons don’t really effect him. He could handle this on his own.

The other Gem chuckles menacingly, “Then I guess you won’t mind if I do it again!” She slices through him, laughing a high pitched maniacal laugh all the while. Though you know Steven is usually safe from...what was it they had called them? Gem destabilizers? You knew he was safe from those, but still...it couldn’t feel pleasant.   “Cut it out!” Steven cried out, finally seeing a break in the attacks, and grabbed the scythe.  

The pink Gem narrowed her eyes, “You don’t poof, do you? Hmm. Figured as much. Just wait! Your human half won’t stand a chance against my injector...not after what I just did to your gem!”

With that, your eyes widened. Was she going to do something to him right now? What happened to Steven’s gem? You couldn’t just stand by and watch her hurt Steven.

“Hey!” You called out, trying to mask the wariness in your voice. “Get away from him!”  

You stepped out from behind the injector, tried to remember every bit of training Pearl had given you thus far, and began to make your way over to them.

“Y/n, don’t!” Steven cried out, still struggling with his hold on the other gems’ weapon. “Well now, who is this, Steven? You didn’t introduce me to your little...ah, a human friend!” She grinned at you, her eyes going wide and bright pink. “Sadly, you’ll have to wait a little while to reap the benefits of my lovely new toys. This ol’ thing here won’t do much to ya...but that will.”   She gazed up at the giant pink injector that you had just walked out from. You had no idea what it did, but you really didn’t like what she was insinuating.  

With her focus momentarily elsewhere, Steven saw an opening and wrenched the scythe away from the invading gem.   “Just...stop!” He yelled, and passed the weapon through her. She cackled manically, one half her body sliding down the other almost grotesquely- even though you knew she was only projected light, the sight still made your stomach turn. Finally, she poofed, and with a soft thud, fell to the ground.

“Ugh...” Steven groaned, falling to his knees. “Guess I should bubble her...” He tried to form his pink bubble, and failed. You furrowed your brows- you had never seen his powers do that in recent years, he’d had very good control over them for a while now. He tried once more and couldn’t even get anything to form this time.   “What...?” he whispered softly, staring at his hands, and then looked over to the scythe. “Y/n, whatever that is...I think it did something to my gem. That’s not a gem destabilizer, it’s...something else.”  

You put a comforting hand on his back, and held out the other to help him stand.   “No use worrying about it now... let’s just get everyone back to a safe area, and we can figure everything out when they all...come back. Maybe we could call Greg?” “Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. Let’s go back to my house,” he said softly, standing up and heading back down the hill.  

You threw a passing glance at the injector, tilting your head back to see the very top of it. It was full with bright pink...stuff. Whatever that was, it wasn’t gonna be good.

Back at Steven’s house, you stood in the kitchen, watching Steven silently fret over his friends poofed gems. You could tell he was extremely worried, and wanted to give him some space. He was looking more and more anxious by the minute. Maybe you should say something... “Steven, I-” “Steven!”   Just then, Greg burst through the door, and both you and Steven visibly relaxed. You may be older than Steven, but this Gem stuff is still fairly new to you, and Greg has been dealing with it for years. He would at least be able to comfort Steven more than you could.  

“I came as fast as I could. Are you guys ok?” He asked, glancing between you and Steven. If he was surprised to see you there, his expression didn’t show it.

Greg notices the Gems lying on the table, and his eyes widen. “Holy sh...she really got everybody! Is that her?”   His gaze landed on the pink heart-shaped gem. You walked over to get a better look, now that the atmosphere was a bit less tense. The gem itself really was quite striking- multi faceted, very shiny, and very pink.  

“Yeah,” Steven answered his father.

“Who-?”

“No idea.”

“Why?!”

“No idea!” Steven sighed and sunk into the couch. You moved to sit next to him silently, wanting to offer your support, but not wanting to interject too much. “How?” Greg asked, seemingly too restricted by shock to ask more than one-worded questions.

“She hit all of us with this,” Steven answered, pulling the retracted scythe from his pocket.  

“Hey, I mean...at least it only poofed them, right?” You chimed in, giving them both a halfhearted smile.

Steven shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s all it did to them... It did something extra weird to me, my powers aren’t working right. Look at this!” He tries to summon his shield, and it blinks in and out a few times, before vanishing completely.

You furrow your brow, the pit of your stomach dropping. That’s definitely different. If it did that to Steven, what could it have done to the Gems...? Steven puts the weapon away, and puts his head in his hands. “I just have no idea what’s going on!”  

“Well son...now you know how I feel almost all the time.” You stifle a giggle- you can totally relate, and while it was an amusing comment...it makes you wonder if you might be truly in over your head here.

“Hey, guys...” You start to say, and clasp your hands in your lap, avoiding their gaze. “I’m sorry if I’m making things harder or weirder by being here. I know there’s not a whole lot I can do with what limited training I have, especially not if she reforms and tries to attack us again...” You trail off, chancing a look at Steven and Greg.  

“No, I want you here!” Steven exclaims, startling both you and Greg. “Honestly, without you I don’t know if I would have been able to get the scythe away from her. Even if it was on accident, you arrived at just the right time and distracted her for me. And you’re better at fighting than you give yourself credit for!”

“Hah...thanks, Steven,” you say, letting out a sigh. As long as he wanted you here and you weren’t getting in the way, you would stay to support your friends.  

The relaxed atmosphere didn’t last long. Surprisingly, Pearl- who, you had been told in the past, was often the last one to reform after being poofed- was the first Gem to begin glowing and floating in the air.

“Ah, good ol’ Pearl! She’ll know what to do!” Greg exclaimed, looking relieved. You were relieved as well; Pearl was your rock when things got tough in your personal life, and she always kept a level head during a crisis, for the most part. Once the other Crystal Gems reformed, they would be able to fight off the invading Gem easily. You smiled up at Pearl’s glowing Gem, waiting for her to reemerge.  

Instead, the sight that greeted you was rather...different. Instead of a glowing outline of Pearl, taking form to her normal self, a holographic oyster shone around the gem and began to speak.

“Please, identify yourself.”

“Um...Greg Universe?”

You glanced warily between Pearl and the Universes. As far as you knew, this had never happened before.   “What’s going on?” You whispered to Steven, gazing back up at Pearl’s gem.

“I’m not sure,” he murmurs, “this...isn’t normal at all.”   You gave him a sympathetic look, as Pearl continued speaking. “Greetings, Um-Greg Universe! Please state preferred customization options.”

Greg blanches, and looks to you and Steven for help. “Uh, what am I supposed to say here?”

“I don’t know,” Steven exclaims.   “This is so weird,” you mutter, still staring at the floating holo-oyster.

“Default settings selected,” the gem says, “please stand by.”  

All three of you go wide-eyed as the gem flies to the middle of the room, and finally, Pearl emerges. Except...she looks different. Well, you knew they often changed their forms after being poofed, so maybe she just wanted to try something new. Though, you had never really known her to be the puffy sleeves and skirt type...

“Pearl!” Steven exclaims, ecstatic to have his friend back. “Pearl, thank goodness you’re back!”

But Pearl says nothing to Steven, seemingly not even noticing him, or you for that matter. She only has eyes for...

“How do you do? My Um-Greg Universe? Thank you for bringing me into the world.” Pearl takes Greg’s hand, and gazes up at him with what could only be described as devotion. She kneels in front of him and continues, “I am at your eternal service! Welcome to your new Pearl.”

You look over at Steven, who is staring at Pearl and his father in shock.  

“Well,” you think, “this is certainly going to be interesting.”  

[spinelwritings]

Ooooo boi I got an angsty one!!!! Spinel losing her sanity over the fact that her fem lover y\n had been missing for months after being kidnapped by a creepy dude. Spinel is determined to save her babydoll but is slowly losing her sanity. But when she finds the one responsible, oh boy...... Spinel finds where y/n had been held captive and it turns out that she had been starved and tortured every day, barely alive. The dude got his hands on gem tech and forced spinel to watch him torture y/n.

… I can do some of that. TW for the above mentioned things like torture, kidnapping, starvation, blood and gore, and character death. If you can’t handle any of that or if you think it’ll be too much, I encourage you to skip this one. I’ll put the rest under “keep reading”. On to the angst!!

—————————————-

Spinel was quick to realize something was wrong. It wasn’t that she didn’t see Y/N all day, they could go several days without seeing each other. However, it was not like Y/N to not even call or text, even something little or stupid. But no, Spinel hadn’t heard a word from her Doll in two days, and that was enough to start the panic bubbling deep inside.

So she went to the only other human she knew, Steven. He listened to what she had to say for some time before making a suggestion.

“Let’s go to her apartment and see if she’s there before we get to panicked, okay?”

It was a bit too late for that, but she nodded and let him lead her through the town and to the apartment building. She knew the way by heart, had walked this path so many times before. 

Steven knocked on the door and waited but, just as Spinel expected and dreaded, there was no answer. She rushed in front of Steven, shoving the door open and frantically searching through the apartment, Her chest tightening with panic the longer she went without finding any sign of Y/N.

Steven called the police.

There were so many people, so many questions, and Spinel didn’t have any answers. It all felt like a nightmare, everything moving too fast and too slow at the same time. Things only got worse and worse and it seemed like the police didn’t do anything. She knew it wasn’t their fault, there were no clues, no leads, nothing to tell them where the woman had gone. 

Spinel couldn’t take it. She went off on her own, searched the town top to bottom, over and over. She grew more panicked, more twitchy, more erratic. Everyone could see it, see just how much this was messing with her mind, was driving her so completely insane.

And all she could think about was Y/N. Where was she? Was she okay? Was she hurt? Did someone take her away? Did she leave on her alone? Did she leave her alone? The thoughts became too much, crashing down on her while she was searching the town. The breaths she didn’t need came quick and shallow and she had to stop walking, in the middle of some empty alleyway. She was shaking so bad, felt like her whole being was about to fall apart, shake itself into nothingness. She fell to her knees, a heartbreaking sob tearing its way out of her throat. 

She didn’t want to cry, didn’t want to collapse like this. She needed to keep looking, needed to find her Y/N. She could be lost or hurt or worse and here she was, having a meltdown. How worthless she was, a stupid broken Spinel, no good at anything, not even able to help anyone around her. A hand went up to her hair, pulling hard, harder, harder, anything to clear her mind. But it didn’t work, even when she began to tear the strands out.

The sun was setting before she had managed to calm down, mind numb but finally clear. She had to get back to work, had to keep looking. But she couldn’t get up, couldn’t bring herself to move after hours of leaning there. So, she tried to think, a mental map of the town in her head. She crossed off everywhere she had looked, everywhere she had been. She had to have missed something, overlooked a house or shack, somewhere no one would think to look.

Then Spinel remembered something. There was one spot, a little house in the woods. She had stumbled upon it once with Y/N while they were out on a walk. It was a long shot. They place had looked deserted when they saw it, but she was running out of options. 

She stumbled to her feet, finally leaving the alley and turning to the woods. 

It was a long walk and she wasn’t even sure she was going the right way, but she kept going. She couldn’t stop, not now. 

And she did find it, the rundown little house surrounded by trees and shadows, her last hope of finding her Doll. She probably should’ve been more carefully, should’ve thought things over before just barging in, but she wasn’t thinking. The only thing on her mind was finally finding Y/N.

She burst through the front door, eyes frantically scanning the dark for any sign of … well, anything! And for one heartbreaking second, she saw nothing, just the remains of a decrepit building. Then she noticed it. There was a door and a light shone from underneath it, a flickering light like that from a candle. Before she could start hoping, before her emotions got the better of her and she froze up, she rushed for the door, almost slamming it open.

Behind the doors was a set of stairs, leading down into what must have been the basement. Her every footstep creaked against the old wood.

Spinel’s eyes widened at what she saw, the tears already pooling.

It was Y/N! She found her! But the joy only lasted for a split second. 

Against the far wall, chained up and limp on the ground, was Y/N sure enough. She looked absolutely terrible. Her clothes were nothing but scraps now, cut to shreds. She was covered in dried blood, wounds covering her pale skin, some old and scabbed others fresh and still bleeding. Her hair was matted with dried blood, hanging limp and lifeless around her face, a face that looked sunken in and lifeless like she hadn’t eaten in a month, which could have been completely possible. She had been waiting for at least that long. Spinel would have thought she was dead if she didn’t see the rise and fall of her chest. 

“Y/N?”

Her voice echoed in the cement room and she took a step forward, then she was running. It would only take a few steps to reach her.

Spinel yelped, her body hit with a sudden shock, her form fizzing around the edges before calming down and falling to the ground. She looked around, instantly spotting what had stopped her. She was surrounded on all sides by a yellow barrier, one she recognized as being used in the cells to contain rogue gems. But what was a barrier like that doing in some falling apart human building?

“S-spinel?”

The gem’s attention snapped back to the weak human. Her eyes were open, sunken into her head but still sparkling with life as they gazed up at her. Her voice sounded feeble, wavering with that one word and so incredibly quiet like she didn’t have the energy to speak any louder. 

“Y/N! I’m right here, Doll, I’m here.”

The human smiled, but that smile quickly vanished, her eyes fixing on something behind the gem and filling with fear. Spinel heard the footsteps on the stairs, spinning on the spot with an animalistic growl at what she knew must have caused all this mess and hurt her Y/N. 

It was a human man, tall and greasy looking, a frown plastered onto his face and a crazy glint in his eyes. Spinel wanted to see him dead, especially when he smiled at her.

“And here I thought you wouldn’t make it in time.” His voice sounded just as slimy as he looked. Spinel snarled at him, whole body tense as anger flooded through her. He just smirked and walked past her to the back of the room and the chained woman. The gem felt something inside her ache at how she weakly attempted to get up and away from the man, only succeeding in curling herself into a tighter ball against the wall. The man grabbed her arm.

“Leave her alone!” Spinel tried to grab for him, only for her hand to ram into the barrier with a painful shock. The man ignored her, unlocked the chain and throwing the weakened woman onto the ground in front of the gem’s cell. She let out a whimper, trying to get up only for her arms to give out. The man laughed at the sight, a laugh that made something in the gem’s gut churn. He grabbed the woman’s hair, yanked her head back and forcing her onto her knees.

“Put her down!”

The man finally looked at Spinel, something dark in his eyes. 

“You got yourself a really pretty girl here.” He said, giving a yank to Y/N’s hair and making her whimper, her hands prying at his in a vain attempt to make him let go. “I had quite a bit of fun with her.”

Spinel froze when he took out a vicious looking knife from his belt and brought it far too close to Y/N’s face, making her flinch away.

“Doesn’t look like she’s going to last much longer, though. I was hoping you’d get here before she kicked it. I couldn’t wait to see the look on your face when I carved her up in front of you.” He laughed, the knife sinking into the woman’s cheek, a thick line of blood dripping down her face.

Spinel felt something like ice run through her, eyes wide and terrified. Her mind refused to work, refused to comprehend what was happening as that evil man cackled, admiring the red on his blade. It flashed as he drew it down the woman’s side, drawing a hoarse cry from her, her arms falling to her sides.

“No, stop it!”

That laugh sounded again, cold and cruel as he sliced through Y/N again and again till her cries turned to quiet whimpers and his hands were soaked in her blood, the smell heavy in the air. He was so caught up in what he was doing, in the pleasure he got from torturing the woman that he didn’t notice the shift in Spinel, didn’t notice how she stilled, the fear leaving her eyes only to be replaced with a silent, intense fury, didn’t notice her looking around before her eyes trained on him once more.

“As fun as this is, I think playtime’s over, wouldn’t you say?” He looked up, then froze. The cell he made was empty. He stumbled back, dropping Y/N on the ground as he frantically searched for the escaped gem. When he turned to look behind him a hand shot out of the shadows, slamming him against the wall with a grunt, the knife clattering out of his hands. The last thing he saw before that hand crushed his neck was magenta eyes, glowing with fury and pain.

Spinel snarled, letting the man’s body fall to the ground in a limp pile of flesh and bones, eyes glazed and staring into nothing.

All the anger left her body at once and she almost stumbled when she turned around and fell to her knees next to Y/N’s still body. The gem ignored the tears that fell from her eyes, choosing instead to focus on carefully lifting the woman of the ground and holding her close, blood soaking through her clothes. The woman felt cold, far too cold for a human, and her breaths were shallow and labored. Still, she looked up at the gem, the smallest of smiles spreading over her bleeding face. 

“S-spins…”

“I’m here, Doll. I’ve got you. It’s over.”

A look of relief crossed her face, a few tears escaping before her eyes closed. Spinel sobbed, holding the woman close. She wanted to just sit there, hold her love close and have everything be okay, but she knew she couldn’t. If she didn’t get her help, the human could still die. She lost a lot of blood and the wound on her side was still bleeding.

Ever so gently, Spinel got to her feet, Y/N in her arms, held tight and secure. 

Then Spinel ran.

She ran into town as fast as her legs could carry her, Y/N’s head tucked under her chin where she could feel every breath the human took. It was reassuring, at least until they got to the hospital.

The lights were almost blinding after the dark.

“Help! I need help!”

And in an instant a group of nurses and doctors surrounded the gem, looking the human over and leading Spinel to a cot of some sort. Then they took Y/N out of her arms and rushed her away. Spinel was left standing alone, gazing blindly at where they left. It was only then that she let herself break down.

——————————————————-

The police came and went, collecting their information. Spinel hardly noticed, let Steven handle them. She just didn’t care. All she cared about was in the bed in front of her, covered in bandages, surrounded by wires, and not waking up. Everything else passed like a blur, nothing but a jumbled mess of sound and shapes.

When Y/N opened her eyes Spinel cried, let the ugliest of sobs escape without caring, clinging to the human. 

It took several weeks for her to heal properly, at least physically. She hadn’t eaten the whole month she was gone and was on the verge of starving to death. The doctors said it was a miracle that she survived. Spinel was just happy she did make it. 

Things returned to normal, or as close to it as they could get. They knew they never would forget what happened, not when the scars still covered Y/N’s body and mind. For the longest time, she would wake up in the middle of the night, screaming from the nightmares that would take years to lessen but never truly go away. Spinel was always there for her, comforting her every time, cuddling her and murmuring calming words in her ear till she fell back to sleep. 

It never left, but they did get better. They healed and were happy again. That’s what mattered. 

[spins-ter]

Maybe Spinel during the song other friends fighting getting stopped by a human reader and they brawl. Reader surprisingly holding out until they fall over together typical clumsy anime style, accidentally kissing and it's just weird flustered tension xDDD

hgHG- I like your style, Anon. Changed it up to be after Other Friends, but ya should like this ;)!!

--

Quite the Slip Up

You had known about the Crystal Gems for as long as you could remember. Being born and raised in Beach City, how could you not? And after a while, you even got to know Steven. Enough to where you walking over to his beach house would not have been odd. But something was off.

As you walked to his beach house, you first noticed the large injector planted in the hillside. Next, you saw Steven and the Crystal Gems’ in the middle of a fight with an oddly stretchy foe. You picked up the pace, knowing you could hold your own in a fight and could help. When you got there, however, you had to pause behind an injector leg and stare in horror as the pink Gem slices all of the Crystal Gems with her scythe, causing them to poof.

“That’s enough!” You turn your head as soon as you hear Steven yell. He has his shield pulled out and you can tell he’s furious.

“N’aww,” You hear the Gem being through a small giggle, “what’s the matter Steven? Miss your friends already?” She was leaning over, putting weight on the scythe. Despite the threat she posed, you had to admit it was a little attractive. “Well you’re right behind ‘em!” she yelled, jumping in the air to strike Steven with the scythe.

You run out from your hiding spot and yell at the Gem. She hits Steven once but is distracted by you. Steven, seemingly unaffected by the weapon, immediately goes to grab it. Your distraction wasn’t enough, however, and the Gem kicks him hard enough that he’s knocked out by the time he hits the floor.

“Well well well, who do we got here? A human?” She looks you up and down for a moment. “Pity that I have to take you out too, you were kinda cute.” As soon as she finished, she swung the scythe at you. Not wanting to know what could happen, you jump out of the way just in time and look around for anything to defend yourself. She swings a few more times and you dodge each.

“Ah, so you’re gonna be difficult huh?” She smirked, glaring at you menacingly. “I love a good game. Thanks for bein’ so entertainin’, doll, but it’s getting frustrating.” She sprung up and whirled at you, seemingly desperate to hit you at least once. Luckily, you find a thick enough sliver of metal on the ground and block the incoming blow. You hear her grunt, clearly getting more mad at you with each missed attack.

You push the scythe off of the metal and away from you, causing the Gem to fall back with it. She gets up and is visibly livid at you, making her way back to you and ready to swing again. You got up and prepared to defend yourself more. Fate, however, had other plans.

Deciding to at least try and fight back with what you had, you began sprinting towards her. Seeing what was happening, she stopped raised her scythe as giggles flowed from her. You misplaced a foot and tumbled down onto her, causing her to lose the scythe. Your eyes had closed instinctively and a groan escaped from you as the metal sliver got trapped between the two of you and hit you in the stomach.

Your face got hot as you opened your eyes to see the Gem’s face up close. She was a deep shade of pink and that’s when you finally noticed your lips were on hers. You jump off of her and she slowly gets up while cackling. She clearly did not expect that any more than you did.

“Aw, was that ‘cha plan all along?” She was staring wildly at you, the blush on her face not calming. “Put up a fight and then give ol’ Spinsy a kiss?” She gestured at her face. “That’s no way to win a fight, babe. But I’m flattered.” Despite being flustered, the Gem was keeping an air of confidence.

“As if!” You shout back, trying to gather words. You were clearly embarrassed and didn’t want the Gem to take advantage of it. “You just attacked my friends! You knocked Steven out!” The Gem chuckled.

“Humans are strange! Kissing the bad guy after they take out your friends?” she walked closer to you and leaned a bit so her face was only an inch from yours. “I bet’cha that trip was just a coverup.”

You quickly grab onto the metal sliver and shove it at the Gem, but her torso stretches to dodge it. “There ya do, doll!” She says as she leans onto the metal. “But ya don’t have the weapon to take me out. Points for tryin’, though!” the two of you turn your attention to behind the Gem, as you both hear Steven groan. As he starts to get up you feel the metal drop from your hand and the Gem’s arms wrap around you. A hand slinks over your mouth.

“This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.” She groans, pulling you close to her. Her head turns back to you and she gives a smirk. “But I had fun playin’ with ya. Say, why don’t I take ya with me?” Panic floods through you as she finishes her sentence.

She jumps all the way up to the top of the injector and lands on it, setting you down gently. “Be still, dear.” A cone is formed with her pinkie and she tightens her grip on you so you can’t move. As she blows into her pinkie-horn, you hear the injector break from the Earth and the legs go back to the body.

“Take a deep breath. I’ll have it go as fast as possible.” She sounds genuinely concerned for your safety, which is surprising coming from someone who was possibly about to kill you not even a minute ago. You take a deep breath and as soon as you do, the injector flies through space.

[moonlightstars16]

Chapter 8 ~ Inner Voice

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The light of the warp pad lit up and soon the trio returned. Immediately Steven began to quickly stride out of the room. Connie still in his arms as she felt and heard him lowly growling, almost like an animal. His grip, even tighter than before, slightly starting to ache from the little blood flow.

"Steven?"

"Dismissed Pearl!" He spoke while bursting through the doors, the sound echoing through the rest of the castle.

"S-Steven I-I can-"

"Shut up!" Flinching slightly she gulped and bit her lip. They finally stopped when we came to a waiting room of sorts. Setting herself down on the couch before gripping a nearby chair, tossing it to the ground, letting out a loud yell as he did so. She gulped and bit her lip watching him breathe deeply and running his hands through his black curly hair. Though she was annoyed by him carrying her and the scene in the meeting before that, Connie couldn't help but feel a sort of empathy towards him. Remembering the few tears he cried from Blue's power. It was obvious he suffered a great deal.

"You were right...about the Diamonds. I shouldn't have doubted you...I'm sorry" She began, as empathy for him grew more and more. However she couldn't fathom why exactly. Especially with how he treated her. Steven's eyes shot up immediately, not expecting any sort of apology like this. With a deep sigh and eyes closed he regained a more calmer state.

"You heard him. Didn't you?" Stating less of a question and more of a statement. Connie turned her head slightly in confusion until she remembered what he meant. The voice that spoke when they were in close contact. She nodded while he opened up his suit jacket, unbuttoned his vest and shirt. 'What. The. F-' Just enough to reveal a hidden gem embedded in his abdomen. Around it was patches of pinkish red scales against his skin. "He was the one communicating with you."

"I-I don't understand-"

"Of course you don't" He said harshly, adjusting his clothing before looking back up at her. Closing his eyes briefly he breathed a deep sigh. Calming his tone to something more gentler. "This gem belonged to my mother, now it's mine. And so formed half of myself. Sort of like my other half so to speak. We co-exist together, in ways he's still me. Two halves of one full person." Connie blinked, trying to grasp what he was saying. Learning a bit of this from Pearl under the "forbidden rules" of gem-kind.'Talk about Jekyll and Hyde. ...And over explaining a tad. How can he be explaining and yet still make it sound confusing.' Running her hand through her hair, she cleared her throat.

"So are you two a fusion?" He laughed for a brief moment before shaking his head.

"I see you've learned much from Pearls teachings. However you are mistaken. For fusion to work you need two full gems- two complete beings in order to fuse. Not two halves like he and I." He paused before looking at the lit fireplace. "You heard him because when you touched my gem, he connected with you."

"You mean when you grabbed your pet back there?" Her bitter tone apparent, standing up, as her brows furrowed and hands formed fists at her sides. Though she did feel his gem (through the fabric separating them) when she was pressed up against him. It wasn't hard to miss, however not uncomfortable.

"I only did that, for you're protection."

"My protection?" Steven rolled his eyes and faced Connie completely, his cape swishing behind him for a moment.

"You're not an idiot, Connie. You heard the implying dislike of you being a member of my court from White's tone. To her you had no purpose, deal or not humans serve no function in there world." His words suddenly gained much more depth. He wasn't doing it out of spite, but to make sure she wasn't...disposed of. Appearing that his words affected her, he continued. "You have done well for the first meeting." Connie was surprised by his sudden compliment, nodding her head quickly when she realized the silence went on for too long.

"Thank you" Walking to her side he gently touched her cheek. Connie inhaled sharply as they froze momentarily while he put his hand down.

"It was a miracle she didn't harm you." His words spoke volumes as the closeness between them became more and more apparent. Then putting a hand behind her head and waist, he pulled her close. Stroking her hair as she felt her head and hands and rest upon his chest. Her arms enveloped between his. Confusion blurred the lines of what she already knew about him. He had blood on his hands... Murderous blood! And yet there he was willing to give it all up for humanity- no for her? His actions were conflicting as much as what she felt for him.

"Bring him back to the light...."

Suddenly he let go, backing up a tad, gripping his gem slightly bending over in pain. The glow coming from his gem was evident. Connie also heard the voice, but for now it wasn't important as the apparent pain he was feeling. Stepping towards him she was about to lay her hand upon his shoulder.

"No...!" He said gripping her wrist slightly, though not as tight. Hearing her gasp from the shock. He then saw what he had done and slid his hand down into hers. Shaking slightly from being in pain. "Leave...me..." She wanted to ask more, wanting to help him. But this seemed much deeper than a gem problem. No matter his past actions, she couldn't leave his side like this.

"You're in pain-"

"I'm fine!" He shouted at her whilst letting go. Catching her gaze his eyes bore into hers as if begging for her to comply. Connie never saw this side of him before. Nodding she backed away, heading towards the entrance. Once the door shut behind her, she leaned against it and slid to the floor. Thinking about what she had just heard and witnessed. 'If what he is saying is true....could it be that he's crying out for help? His gem half is still a part of himself.' She then remembered the look  in his eyes before he hugged her...before she left. 'Those pleading eyes....'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That night Steven sat in his chair right in front of the fireplace. His mask laying on the small table beside him. His eyes watching the flames dance before him; rubbing his temple as his inner self, his gem side, raged war beneath the surface.

'You're beginning to like her more than you think.'

'Shut up!'

'She can help us, bring both of us out of despair.'

'We are perfectly fine!'

'No we are not'

Flashes of blood upon his hands haunted his memories. They we're prominent in his nightmares no matter how much he tried to repress it. Once again they came as he groaned in frustration, trying to make it stop and failing to do so.

A beam of white pure light aimed for him as he was paralyzed in fear. Suddenly the image of one fused gem, from a Sapphire and a Ruby, jumped right in front of his line of vision. He barley had time to call out before it hit her. She cried out in pain, her visors vanished as her three eyes looked at Steven with love and sadness.

"Garnet!!!!!" he cried out but it was too late. Suddenly a hit to the back of his head caused him to see nothing but darkness. When he came too, he was in a bed of sorts, and standing next to it, a certain heart-shaped gem.

"S-Spinel...w-what happened?" her eyes were downcast as she revealed two...shattered gems of a Sapphire and Ruby. Steven gasped and began to cry out in pain. Spinel pulled him close and held him as he continued to cry out in pain. Once he had physically stopped from dehydration, Spinel gave him a small glass vile filled with a green liquid.

"Shh, here this will return your strength. You will need it soon I promise." Without any hesitation he shakingly took the glass vile, lifting it to his lips and drank every last drop. The room began to spin as Spinel began to sing softly, running her fingers through his hair, as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Steven reached up and touched his huge scar, as the vision of White making him bleed for the first time right before he let Garnet... Then the beast from his past appeared. The images where too much to bear as he began to scratch his scar. His hands, normally covered by gloves, bore a similar corrupted scaly pattern with fingernails sharp and black. He scratched so much until fresh blood appeared.

'STOP! We can fight this!'

'The Pain...it's too much!'

'I know! I can feel it too! But we can't do this anymore! We have to let her help us...'

Soon he slowed down to a stop and took his hand away from his face. Seeing the blood drop from his fingers down to his skin.

"Oh Steven, you hurt yourself again huh?" Spinel's voice spoke as she stepped out of the shadows with a tray of the same elixir from his memory. The look in Steven's eyes conveyed almost no emotion as fresh blood dripped from the side of his face.

'Don't. Drink. That.'

'I- I need it....'

'NO we don't!'

Spinel put the tray down next to his mask. Letting him grab the drink as he downed it all. While she got a wash cloth and a bowl of water to clean his wounds.

'NO!!! Please! I can't take it-'

But it was too late as the elixir took it's affect and silencing the gem within himself. Spinel by his side cleaning up the blood that spilt from his face.

"There there, all cleaned up, now how about we take that anger and use it against some one else, oh say perhaps the human zoo?" Her suggestive and manipulative tone were strong and evident in her voice. But he knew the games she was playing. Even if he was in this state.

"Nice try Spinel" he spoke making her smirk disappear. "Now leave me alone before I call lion upon you." Sighing she got up and did so, still the elixir she gave him had weakened his powers considerably, it wouldn't be long before the Diamonds would realize that she is stronger than him and more deserving of being a ruler and not a toy.

After all, her gem is a perfect cut and in this world, perfection matters. Besides he couldn't resist his hidden desires for long. Each little dose was another step in bringing his true self out. Tonight was the final push over the fine line of an edge he walked. Smirking she walked out. hid amongst the shadows and awaited with baited breath.

'The truth from within you will come out... you'll remind yourself just how much of a monster you are.'

Steven groaned in pain as he walked towards his bed. A more comfortable position to be in than the chair. No matter the pain, he had a bet to win. He wasn't going to go down without a fight. But then his nightmares began again.

~~~~~~~~

A scream...a plea for help....a yearning for freedom......

Steven heard it all and yet couldn't care less. I'm fact caring was hardly in his veins. Not even a hint of mercy was there as he raised the weapon in hand. Watching and listening to the sweet sounds of a cracked whip. Unfortunately, gems don't bleed.

But humans do.

Lion couldn't have all the fun now right? That would be selfish of him. Especially since he wanted so much to see the suffering in their eyes. Drops trickled down skin into a pool on the cold stone floor. The site of blood is what he craved, and yet despised at the same time. It was almost as if he was a vampire. He certainly had the sharp fangs, well more monstrous than vampiric, yet he wasn't dead. Nor had the power to actually suck blood among other things. However the matter he loved it all.

A few strides closer, biting his glove and pulling out his beastly hand, he scraped the back with his index, middle and ring finger. Bringing it up to lick against his contradicting tongue. You see he can control his healing powers. But if he could heal, he certainly can destroy.

The smirk of ecstasy he felt when the taste of blood flooded his senses. He took sharp and deep breaths, smirking as he listening to the whimpers and painful moans of his victim. The sounds were glorious.

Chuckling darkly, he stepped back and raised his whip once again. Only stopping briefly in between so his victim couldn't be numb to it. Red was all he saw, red was all he desired to see. His victim spewed blood from his mouth, scratches became gashes and consciousnesses was something lost.

Was there a bet he desired to win? Oh yes of course. But where was the fun in breaking the rules a little? Besides this human was already here, it didn't count. At least not to him.

But Steven didn't care, all he saw was the blood. All he saw was his desires unfold before his eyes. After awhile he let the whip drop to the floor, seeing that the victim was nearing death. 'Oh we can't have that now can we.' So with a smirk he licked his hand, pressed it against the poor human and watched as they were revived like new.

Only to restart his sick game.

Over and over

And why stop there? For a gem their fate wasn't so satisfying to watch, but he craved it all. Picking up a few amethyst gems from the human zoo, he began to squeeze them. Tighter and tighter, hearing the cracks brush against the shards until they snapped like a rope. Steven began to laugh, inwardly until it became louder and louder.

Maniacal and full of twisted joy. No longer was he feeling the emotions of man, but a beast. The scars of his past grew more and more around him as he blacked out. Eyes shining and a full on red glow surrounded his aura. Not reddish-pink, not pink, red like the blood of his victims.

Hours passed, blood washed away from his hands, and a hungover type feeling rang in his head. Aimlessly wandering the halls as if the past few minutes were blacking out of his mind. Looking down he saw the scars, of what appeared to be gem shards and a whip handle, on his uncovered hand. Quickly putting his gloves back on before anyone could see. Not wanting to relive the shame White forced down his soul.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Early the next morning, Connie was awoken by a loud roar outside her balcony double door window. Looking out towards the window she gasped upon seeing Steven's head lion. Gulping she froze not knowing what to do. Lion tilted his head and soon pawed at the doors making it wiggle and squeak. Connie couldn't help but be amused at the situation. 'Why your just like a cat aren't you?' she thought giggling. Deciding against fear to open the door. Lion almost knocked her down as he licked her face. A much friendlier look than he had previously shown. Laughing she gently pushed him away.

"Okay okay boy down." Lion then walked away and came back with clothes in his mouth. A blouse, a corset/bustier that is worn over a top, leggings and a midsize skirt along with knee length boots(and socks). 'So your a lion with fashion sense.... Why am I not surprised?' He dropped them in front of her then nudged it closer with his nose. The begging look in his eyes made her sigh and laugh. "Okay okay, since you are such a fashion expert." she whispered a bit more knowing others would be asleep. Going into the bathroom she quickly changed and stepped out. Lion then gestured for her to get on his back.

"Where are we going?" Lion growled in annoyance than fear. "Okay geeze hold in a minute Mr grumpy" she said sighing climbing onto him and gently grasping his mane. "Now where are we going?" Lion pushed the door open and began to walk down the halls until he reached another more hidden in the shadows door. When they went through and the door slammed shut, Lion began to leap down the winding staircase. Connie yelped and leaned forward trying to keep her balance.

Soon they found themselves in a large room filled with lit candles. The light revealed some sort of hidden armory filled with weapons. Some which hung on the walls looking worn down from battles long ago. As she looked around a faint sound of clashing swords and someone grunting echoed from a large room. As they hid behind pillars and shadows, she gasped before quickly covering her mouth at the site.

Pearl was dueling a hologram of herself. Her battle moves were strong yet elegant as she came head to head with her opponent. She left no room for anyone to take her down(which only confirmed she was doing it with the purple gem, Amethyst, on purpose). Once again she was mesmerized by her sword-fighting. Her stamina, strength and intelligence to outwit her opponent was beyond any level of skill Connie had ever seen before.

She got off Lion to get an even closer look amidst the shadows, still behind a pillar. Her eyes glued to the duel that commenced. It was as if she was apart of a great battle from long ago. The ghost of a great warrior seemed to have overtaken her. Her look and body posture so intense and focused. Soon she swung her sword as it pierced her hologram self, watching as it lowered the sword in hand.

"Defeat accepted! Do you wish to battle again?" Pearl removed the sword, taking deep breaths before shaking her head.

"Not today"

"Very well then" with that she was gone leaving just the real Pearl alone.

"You can come out now Connie." She gulped and stepped out of the shadows facing her with a mixture of guilt and wonder.

"How did you know it was me?"

"I can tell by how you were breathing." She said before putting her sword in her scabbard. "I see a certain lion has brought you here?" one glance at lion made him blink and then put his head down slightly in shame; though he still tried to look fierce(and failing since he only looked really annoyed).

"He didn't mean any harm." Connie defended as Lion stepped out beside her nudging her arm. Making her gently pet his mane.

"I know, he does things like this from time to time." Gentling her voice as she recalled some not so nice memories. "It's his way of coping from obeying Steven's orders... Before the incident Steven endured, he and lion were almost inseparable. Like trying to redeem himself from the horrible things he has to do..." Connie's heart sank and hugged lion tight.

"What incident?" Pearl snapped out of it immediately upon hearing her question. Shaking her head out of her daze.

"It's...in the past..." waving her hand she cleared her throat and stood up straighter. "Now you know where I train. I imagine you must have a lot of questions." Connie nodded eagerly, wanting to know more as her curiosity sprang back up. "Well it's a long story but in short, thousands of years ago, I was apart of a the great gem war that began era two. Which was on earth so I knew how to sense the difference between gems and humans. hence why I was able to know it was you behind the pillar."

She paused before continuing while looking around the room. "I suppose I continue to train like I do for sentimental reasons. My way from coping from the war and what happened after...." Painful memories and tears formed in her eyes threatening to spill. She blinked them away and took a deep breathe felling the handle of her sword against her fingers. "Now you know why I do this."

"Could you teach me?" Connie asked with a hope in her voice. Pearl shot her head straight up as she looked at her.

"You want me to do what?! Why?"

"Listen, Pearl I'm so sorry of what you had to go through. I can never understand that kind of pain." She paused in a way to give silent respect before continuing. "But you have an amazing skill! I've never seen anyone so talented in this than you, well anyone that is real."

"Well thank you, Connie, but I still don't see why-"

"Pearl, I'm light years away from home. In a place where I am quite literally out of my element and while I can learn all about this world; if I don't have a way to defend myself, then I'm a sitting duck!" She then lowered her voice. "I know I can handle myself Pearl. I can do this. If you became my teacher I can do more than just take notes. I can show I have a purpose in Steven's court. That I'm worth more than what they think. If I am supposed to be representing for Earth, I have to show that I'm willing to defend it! It's still my home after all. I want to protect it until it's final moments, with all my heart. And be there to defend humanity as we move to a new era for us. Please, let me prove it to you."

With a smile and tears filling her eyes, and one hand over her chest, the other wiping away her tears that had fallen from her touching declaration and desire to help. Sighing she pulled out another sword and scabbard, handing it to Connie. Just a temporary fix to see if she can really hold up to her word. If so she, then she will be on her way to earning her own sword. She accepted eagerly as she attached the scabbard to her body.

"Show me your potential in your actions. Prove your worth." With that said Connie's eyes transformed into a determined look as she faintly remembered her fencing lessons. Pearl looked her over and smirked slightly. There it was. The untapped, yet undisciplined potential.

"Good but remember everything begins with your stance"

[cardcaptorcoconut]

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc Chapter 32 Translation

Hi guys!  Long time, no see.  I’d first like to apologize for the long absence on here and for missing several chapters.  But I also want to offer my sincere thanks to those of you who have supported me and been there for me through the past few difficult months.  I’m not quite back to 100%, but I’m trying little by little everyday. :)  And I’ve really missed being part of the community.

So with that, here’s my translation for chapter 32!  If I can get up to it, I would like to try and catch up on the chapters I missed as well, but I also don’t want to be overly ambitious again.  However, I’m going to try to pick up from here and stick to translating the new chapters monthly as best I can.  I hope I can stick to it!

Special thanks to @meimi-haneoka​ as always for proofreading!

☆★Translations Notes Reminder★☆

Disclaimer: These are just fan translations. Please support the official release.

Chapter 32

Cover Page: “The most wonderful of dreams for you.” [Alt: (Sending) the most wonderful dreams to you.]

P1 Nakuru:  And so, that means… Nakuru:  I’ll be staying here while I’m in Japan.

[Note:  Possibly “We’ll be here while we’re in Japan” because Suppie is there too, but since they’re still pretending that Touya doesn’t know anything about magic – including Suppie – “I’ll” and “I’m” would fit better.]

Yukito:  Wha? Nakuru:  You have a lot of (spare) rooms right? Yukito:  <nods> Yeah. Nakuru:  And so (I’ll) be staying here. Yukito:  Okay??

P2 Touya:  Nah, it’s not “okay.” Suppie: … Nakuru:  I wanna eat oden tonight!

[Note:  This link describes what Oden is. It’s found a lot more often in winter, particularly in convenience stores.]

Yukito:  Oh yeah, oden’s delicious in the summer too! Touya:  What?

[Note: Touya’s already saying this with a “wtf” sort of annoyance.]

Nakuru:  Tsukishiro-kun, do you cook? Yukito:  Yeah, but Touya’s better at it. Touya:  (The hell)!?

[Lit:  What!?]

P3 Nakuru:  Well then, Touya-kun, (thanks in advance for) the oden tonight.

[Alt:  Well then, Touya-kun, (we’d like you to make) oden tonight!]

Yukito: <quietly and starry-eyed> Oden… Touya:  WHAT THE HELL!? Nakuru:  Go buy the ingredients! Oh and make sure you add those!  Fish cake and (mochi tofu pockets……)

[Note:  I translated 餅巾着 (mochikinchaku) as “mochi tofu pockets”, but to see a clearer explanation of what they are and how to make them, check this link for a recipe.]

Touya:  Why (are you being) that specific!! Nakuru:  I saw it in a recipe online!  I’m so excited! Nakuru:  Hurry up ♬ Hurry up♪ Yukito:  I’ll (go) with (you). <Nakuru grabs Yukito’s arm>

P4 Yukito:  <quietly> Whoa! Nakuru:  Tsukishiro-kun, could I please get a refill on the tea? Yukito:  Sure. Touya:  I’ll be making it from scratch when I get back, so it’ll be (ready pretty late).

[Lit:  …so it’ll be late when you can eat.]

Nakuru:  (You’d better get a move on then).

[Note:  The text is そこはまきまきでー which is a short, casual version of 巻きでお願いします – a phrase used to urge someone to hurry up when they’re pressed for time.]

Touya:  And you’re gunna help out. Nakuru:  Whaaa!?

P5 Suppie:  What’s with this (weird) sequence of events.

[Alt:  Unnatural flow of events]

Nakuru:  Wasn’t this as natural as could be?

Suppie:  <casually looking at the sweets>  It seems Touya Kinomoto has taken notice of (a lot of things). Yue:   So?  (Why) have you come here?

[Lit:  What’s the reason you’ve come here?]

P6 Nakuru:  Eriol said it was okay to come to Tomoeda. Eriol:  If our methods of communication have been cut off, then (you) should (head there) firsthand. Eriol:  Yuna D. Kaito doesn’t have it in him to crash a plane bearing someone he doesn’t want to come. Kaho:  (He) doesn’t have the power…? Eriol:  No. He does.

P7 Eriol:  However, there would be too many people (caught in the crossfire) and an investigation would be carried out to find a realistic cause of the accident.

[Lit:  ...too many people wrapped up in it…]

Eriol:  He wouldn’t risk a hazard like that.

[Alt:  He wouldn’t risk something dangerous like that.]

Eriol:  Not me, but… Nakuru: …if Suppie and I (were to come), {*he’d be even less likely to do it.*}

P8 Suppie:  It’s Spinel. Nakuru:  So what?  It’s cute! And Kaho is calling you that too recently. Suppie:  It’s (disappointing)!

[Note:  不本意 (fuhoni) literally means “involuntarily” or against one’s will.  I think the nuance is that it’s against Suppie’s will, rather than Kaho doing it against her will.]

Yue:  What did he tell you to do? Nakuru:  He said “Stay close by.” Yue:  To (our) mistresses’?

P9 Nakuru:  By yours’… Suppie:  …and Kerobero’s (sides). Yue:  …… Nakuru:  Tsukishiro-kun has (been falling) asleep a lot recently, right? Suppie:  As has Keroberos, hasn’t he?

P10 Nakuru:  Sakura-chan is certainly Yue and Keroberos’ master and the contract is being (upheld), but the cards you protect are currently in the hands of Li Syaoran.

[Alt:  …but Li Syaoran currently holds the cards that you protect.]

P11 Nakuru:  It’s reckless to take and use cards originally belonging to someone else without (first) passing them over through a formal magic ritual. Nakuru:  {*And to actually be able to do it is even more reckless.*} Nakuru:  But as expected, even the successor of the Li Clan has his hands full with the cards. Suppie:  In other words…

P12 Suppie:  The reason you’ve (been) drowsy, is because (your) magic isn’t enough.

[Note:  The implication being there isn’t enough magic to support them, so it could alternately be “…because her magic isn’t enough”.]

Nakuru:  Just like when Touya-kun was so sleepy-weepy in high school. Suppie:  In that state, when the time comes that your mistress needs you… Nakuru:  …you won’t be able to (do anything) because you’ll be sleepy-weepy too.

[Alt:  …won’t be able to move because…]

P13 Yue:  Even though her magic is strengthening to the point that she’s unconsciously creating new cards? Suppie:  She can’t control her magic to the point that she’s unconsciously creating new cards. Suppie:  You could say that as well, couldn’t you?

[Alt:  We could also say that, right?]

Yue:  ……

P14 Nakuru:  And that’s why… Nakuru:  I’ll (stick with) Yue and Suppie will (stick with) Keroberos. Suppie:  So we can split the magic (we have) from Eriol (to share) with you. Suppie:  The Sakura Cards are formerly Clow Cards.  Clow Reed is the one who made the Clow Cards.  And Eriol is half of Clow. Suppie:  (As he put it), the root of the magic is the same, so it (will be) alright. Suppie:  Of course, those (would be considered) emergency measures.

[Lit:  Of course, these would be emergency measures.]

P15 Yue:  …… Yue:  Understood.  In other words, Ruby Moon and Spinel Sun, (you) are… Yue:  …“Batteries.” Nakuru:  Ahahaha! Suppie:  What the hell!?

P16 Nakuru:  <cracking up to herself> Ahahaha!! Yue said batteries!! Suppie:  That’s so incredibly rude!! Nakuru:  <shoves sweets in Suppie’s mouth> Suppie, if you get too angry, you’ll (make yourself) hungry.

[Alt:  …you’ll get hungry.]

P17 Suppie:  <bounces everywhere> DE-LI-CIOUS!!! ❤ Nakuru:  <recording it on her phone> When I get back, I’ve gotta show this to Eriol and Kaho. Yue:  Keroberos.  Get over here now and (get control of) your battery.

[Lit:  Get over here now and stop your battery.]

P18 <Scene changes to Akiho’s> Kaito:  I see.  So they’ve come. Momo:  Quite the schemer, that Hiiragizawa Eriol. Kaito:  It’s for Sakura-san’s sake that they’ve gone this far, right?

P19 Kaito:  She is dearly loved by (all of) those around her. Momo:  …Akiho loves (her) too.

[Alt:  …Akiho loves that girl too.]

Kaito:  …… <Doorbell rings>

P20 Akiho:  I’m home! Kaito:  Welcome home! <Text around Momo reads “Pretending to be a stuffed animal”> Akiho:  I’m home, Momo. Kaito:  I’ve just put on some milk tea.  Would you like to have some with a snack? Akiho:  (I’d love some!)  I’ll go wash my hands.

P21 Akiho:  Whenever I come home, you always have tea and snacks prepared for me. How do you know?

[Note:  The nuances is “How do you know when I’ll be home?”]

Kaito:  Because (I know you).

[Alt:  Because (I know) about you. / Note: Nuance is he knows everything where she’s concerned.]

Akiho:  <blushing> I-I-I-I-I’ll go wash my hands!!!

P22 <Momo falls over> Momo:  …… Momo:  Ahh… Momo:  Yuna D. Kaito, I want to jump kick (you) when I return to my original form. <Scene changes to Syaoran’s apartment> Syaoran:  Are you alright?

P23 Sakura:  Yeah.  Thanks for the cool towel.

[Lit:  Thanks for cooling the towel for me.]

Syaoran:  …… Sakura:  (We’ve) made all of the cards worry too. Syaoran:  (It’s because) my power still isn’t enough to support all of the cards materializing for so long...

P24 Sakura:  So even though your letters said it would take time, the reason you came back from Hong Kong was for this… Syaoran:  That’s not the only reason! Syaoran:  I…

P25 Syaoran:  …wanted to see you (as soon as I possibly could).

[Lit:  I wanted to see you even a day sooner (if possible).]

Sakura:  …Thank you.

P26 Sakura:  I’m really happy we’ve been together like we’ve been since you came to Tomoeda in the 4th grade. Sakura:  But if we’d met when we were even younger, I would’ve been able to see (even) more sides of you.  And we (would have made) more and more memories with each other… <Suddenly Syaoran is engulfed in light>

P27 Sakura:  Syaoran-kun!? Narration:  Syaoran has somehow (become) a child…!? The new development (you) can’t peel (your) eyes from!!

<To be continued in the May issue of Nakayoshi, on sale in April>

[starscheme]

Only You

Chapter Twenty-One: A Hopeful Game

Steven stood completely still, staring at the empty space where Sodalite had been. After she purified him, he did feel a little better, but he was stuck on what she said before she vanished. Spinel. Why did she say her name? 

“Hey!!” Lars shouted as he ran down to the beach, “where’d Sodalite go?” 

“Sodalite?” Repeated White Diamond. 

“...she...she just left.” Steven muttered. 

“What?!” Lars exclaimed in a slight panic, 

Garnet stepped forward and placed her hand at Stevens shoulder, shaking him from his inner thoughts. 

“Steven, you should take Lars and go look for Sodalite,” she instructed. 

“Yeah, well I don’t suppose you’d know a good place to start?” Asked Lars with an already tired sigh. It had been a while since she just ran off like this and he didn’t miss how difficult it was to find her. 

“Who is this Sodalite? A friend of yours?” Yellow asked with a raised brow. “The name sounds familiar.” 

“Ah, I believe I made a Sodalite Gem for Pink long ago,” recalled Blue, “...but I was certain that we destroyed the Gem when she proved to be useless...” 

Lars flinched, but Garnet caught his attention by placing a hand on his shoulder as well. “...boys, you’ll really want to go and look for Sodalite. Trust me. I think you’ll have some luck near the Arcade.” 

Steven glanced at Garnet and then back towards the Spinel that the Diamonds had brought for him. He quickly turned away in disgust, “yeah, I really should get out of here. Come on, Lars.” 

“I still don’t like those giant ladies,” Lars muttered as he and Steven turned to walk away. 

“Steven, wouldn’t you like-“ White tried as she leaned forward, but the Crystal Gems stood in front of her defiantly.

While the Gems dealt with the Diamond intrusion, Steven and Lars rushed the docks, glancing around amongst the small summer crowds that were enjoying their day.  

“Why would Sodalite come here?” Asked Lars once they neared the arcade. “She hates crowded places and loud noises. The Arcade is gonna be her worst nightmare.” 

“Garnet must have seen her here, or she wouldn’t have mentioned it,” replied Steven with a shrug. After that encounter, he wanted to break something, but thought it better to keep these emotions to himself. 

“Hey! Sodalite! You out here?” Lars called out, walking with Steven until they reached the Arcades entrance. 

They glanced around the area in silence, waiting for a reply that never came. 

“Maybe she ran off because of all the noise here...” sighed Lars. 

Steven wasn’t so sure. Garnet wouldn’t have sent them here for no reason and he was eager to ask Sodalite why she said Spinels name. He continued to search the crowd, only to spot a familiar blue color, surrounded by a small group of young men. With a closer look, he could see Sodalite, obviously anxious as she spoke with the strangers. 

“Lars, there she is,” Steven informed his friend before making a bee line through the tourists to reach her. 

“Are you sure we can’t help you? I know this town pretty well, you know.” One of the men said with a smile. 

Sodalite shook her head frantically, “n-no! I-I was just-um-I need to find-“ 

The men loomed over Sodalite as she sank nervously, they didn’t notice Steven approaching until his large shadow stretched out from behind them. 

The men quickly turned around with a start, staring up nervously at the now much larger Steven who practically towered over them. He had been in such a bad mood that his Gem was causing his body to grow slowly ever since they left for the arcade. 

“You guys have some business with her?” He asked irately. 

“Wha?! N-no! I just-she looked troubled so we offered to help. We weren’t hitting on your girlfriend, honest.” answered one of the men frantically. 

“She’s not his girlfriend,” Lars announced in a huff as he caught up to Steven. Upon seeing him, Sodalite immediately rushed over to the Pink human, hugging his arm and hiding herself between him and Steven. 

Without another word, the men dashed off and once they were out of sight, Lars turned to Sodalite. “They didn’t do anything did they?” 

Sodalite shook her head in silence. 

“What are you doing out here. You hate the boardwalk...” asked Lars. 

“Spinel...she-“ 

Steven quickly turned to Sodalite and placed his hands on her shoulders, forcing the nervous Gem to look his way, “did you feel something?! You said her name before as well! Why?” 

Sodalite panicked a little when she felt pressured to answer, but she did her best. “I-I heard a voice. It-it was small but-but I’m sure. She-Spinel called me...she-she wanted to play a game...” 

“A game...?” Repeated Steven, feeling his heart start to pound against his chest. “...but...Spinel...” he placed his hand over the shards he kept over his heart with a frown, “...she couldn’t have...” 

“I-I heard it! I-I know I did!” Sodalite insisted as bravely as she could. 

“But why’d you run off alone?” Asked Lars. 

“...I-I messed up last time...” admitted Sodalite as she held her hands anxiously over her chest. “I-I didn’t react fast enough and-and it caused so much trouble. So I...I thought if I...didn’t hesitate this time...I could...maybe...” 

“Why did you come to the arcade,” Steven asked, trying to make sense of this. 

“I-isn’t this where you play games...?” 

Lars and Steven glanced at one another, both coming to the same conclusion. It’s not that Spinel was actually here, Sodalite just jumped to conclusions. 

Steven didn’t want to get his hopes up. It hurt so much having to remind himself that Spinel wasn’t coming back. “...it’s okay, Sodalite. ...I’m sure you just got confused...” 

“N-no! I-My Steven, I know what I heard. I-I was connected to Spinel for a time wh-when I was broken. Remember? Her-her fear...was very strong. I can still...I still feel it. I know what it feels like. She’s here. ...I think-I think...she’s trying to reach us...by p-playing a game...” 

Lars gasped lightly, recalling how it felt when that thing took over his body. That creature had merged with Spinels personality, so no wonder it treated this whole scenario like a game. Even when he was attacking the others, it regarded the situation like a game of tag. 

“...hide and seek...” Steven mumbled to himself. Was it possible? “...b-but she’s...” 

“Are we sure?” Asked Lars pointedly. “...I mean...you and Connie saw the shards and assumed...but how do we know those shards really belong to Spinel? Doesn’t that thing know everything Spinel knows?” 

As much as Steven didn’t want to get his hopes up only to have them dashed, he would rather bet everything he had on the notion that Spinel was still out there. He’d been so focused on getting revenge that he never considered the shattering was staged. Just like Pearl and Spinel had done for Pink in the past. He could have been holding onto someone else’s shards, or even fake ones. “I...I want her back...” Steven choked out as tears filled his eyes. This hurt so much. Too much. If there was any small chance that Spinel was out there, he wanted to believe it. Even if it meant that he’d fall further into despair if it turned out to be a lie.

Lars pat Stevens back a bit and offered a sympathetic smile, “then let’s play the stupid game.” 

“I-I’m not good at games...but I-I’ll do my best.” Insisted Sodalite, trying to appear brave despite her trembling shoulders. “As long as Lars is with me...” she added. 

Steven smiled a bit, touched by his friends willingness to go along with this small shred of hope. They had no proof that these shards around his neck weren’t Spinels, but just for now, he wanted to hope they weren’t. “Thanks you guys. ...but let’s keep this to ourselves for now. ...okay?” The last thing he needed was for the Gems to try and convince him that he was deluding himself. Especially since they didn’t put much faith in Sodalite due to her history of overreactions and panic. 

“Does that mean we’re gonna be the only ones playing? I think we should at least give my crew a chance to volunteer some help.” Suggested Lars, sure that the Off Colors could provide sufficient back up in case something went wrong. 

Though a bit apprehensive, Steven nodded his head, “okay, but if that thing is still inside of Spinel...it will be really dangerous. ...I don’t want anyone else getting hurt or...or worse. ...so the fewer players...the better.” 

“We should meet up after dark,” Lars thought aloud, “if she’s playing hide and seek, she won’t be out in the open during the day.” 

Steven was reminded of the games he played with Spinel when he was younger. Hide and Seek was one of her favorites and after he learned to use the warp, the game became more elaborate. However, there was one game he recalled right away. 

Spinel had warped away in order to hide, but unfortunately, an earthquake had occurred while she was hiding and cracked the wrap pad, rendering it useless. It took the Gems more than a week to find her and Steven was beside himself the entire time. He felt like it was his fault for not being able to find her. As if he should have known better. After that, he and Spinel didn’t the play the game much anymore. He was scared of losing her for so long again. 

“...Spinel...promised I wouldn’t lose her. She said we didn’t have to play that game anymore so that...we’d never be separated for that long again...” mumbled Steven. 

Lars stared at Steven curiously, unsure what he was getting at. 

“If she’s playing this game again...I think...she’s doing it so I know where to look. At least...I hope so.” Steven added, still worried that he was just making connections where there were none because he wanted it to be true. “Let’s go back to the house. ...we’re gonna need to take the warp.” 

[silyabeeodess]

FusionFall Writing Prompts: Oct. 2019, Prompt #2:

Dexter and Mandark are getting help from… Albedo?  That doesn’t bode well… But a new upgrade to your Spinal-ARCH sounds amazing.  If you help with testing, you’ll be one of the first to try the device’s improved ability to mimic certain alien species.  Will it be worth it?

I have ideas for both prompts this month, but I’m starting with this one since it’s the longer of the two and there’s some ideas I’m eager to explore in it.  Should be divided into four or five parts total, depending on whether or not I’ll keep the middle ones shorter.  Enjoy!

It wasn't normal.  The summons had been sent out to nearly every research participant shared between Dexlabs and Mandark Industries—and the rivaling boy geniuses that ran each company may very well have called everyone to Tech Square if it wasn't for the war keeping so many of them busy. Summoning this many research participants at once meant only one of two things: A disaster or a breakthrough.

Silya's muscles tensed as her Spinal-ARCH reconnected. For not the first time she was glad that she had missed most of the device's initial testing phases, before a salve had been developed to numb the flesh as it attached itself to a person's back—adhesive plates of a strong, but flexible alien alloy pressing against skin and thin needles piercing through it to reach bone.  It wasn't quite as painful as it sounded, but she released a habitual, baited breath all the same.  Then she stretched to make sure it had locked on properly, rolling her shoulders and shrugging on a plain tank.

Outside of routine inspections and repairs, she wasn't used to taking the device off.  She probably should have more often than she did, but once it was on it was comfortable enough to forget about easily.  Her Spinal-ARCH may as well have been a part of her own body. A sidelong glance at the other young women in the locker room—curled lips, terse shoulders, and faint shudders all reflecting a distinct unfamiliarity—hinted that the lax sense of protocol was mutually shared.

Every research participant's Spinel-ARCH had been updated: Increased data, improved storage, and a new program developed to better filter Imaginary Energy.  It had been a long while since the last large update and Spinel-ARCHs were already widely distributed among Fusion Fighters as a part of their standard gear.  After a day with them off as the alterations were made, everyone was curious about the two-week long tests that awaited them.  

Which would begin immediately.  Walls of blue-tinted steel surrounded the research participants from every angle as they followed one another out of the locker rooms and into a wide gymnasium. A fenced walkway two stories above wrapped around its perimeter.  There, Dexter looked over the crowd with Computress at his side and a tablet in hand. A few minutes passed as the last stragglers entered, then the boy-genius waved them all to attention:

“Greetings, everyone! Thank you for coming on such short notice,” he began, examining data as he spoke, “By now, you all should have received and reattached your Spinal-ARCHs.  I will be brief: This latest update to the device should allow you take on full transformations of certain alien species.”

After he typed some control onto the tablet, two tiny drones hovered close to the wall to project a sequence of holographic models that were recognizable to almost everyone present, nicknames given by a certain hero reciting in their minds: Big Chill, Way Bad, Ghostfreak, Ampfibian—alien forms all somewhat altered to better fit a humanoid frame.  An excited murmur fell over the crowd.  

Dexter noticeably stood a little straighter as he continued, “You will note that these are not perfect transformations.  As these forms will encase around your physical bodies, they will mimic your physical limits.  However, I am pleased to announce that—in each form—you may experience different enhancements through the manipulation of imaginary energy.  Testing these enhancements will be the primary objective for this week’s experiments. Today, you are free to explore each of the transformations for yourselves as my scientists and I monitor your progress.”

The quiet chatter between the research participants increased.  Silya looked away from the holograms still flashing through the different alien forms to her own hands.  Nearly every Fusion Fighter wanted to explore the limits of their imaginary energy: She was no different.  There were a few, rare full transformations in the Spinal-ARCHS datalogs, but for the most part transformations were restricted to minor extensions from their bodies—tentacles that lacked complete coordination or wings that couldn’t actually support them because they simply weren’t strong enough.  If Dexter and Mandark had really found a way to expand on their current abilities…

All of a sudden, Computress tapped Dexter on the shoulder, giving him a slight, reprimanding look.  The redhead blinked at the android before his proud expression somewhat hardened.  He raised a hand to silence the crowd once more. “I feel I should mention,” he frowned, “that this update is—in part—thanks to the cooperation of the Galvan scientist Albedo, whose specialization in alien technology benefited our research for these new transformations.  Given his history with Ben Tennyson, however, I understand should anyone have their reservations.  You may leave the experiments at any time with your Spinal-ARCH redacted to its previous update, but if you do so now please exit outside before we begin momentarily.”

Saying that some of them had ‘reservations’ was putting it lightly.  The very mention of the false Ben’s name sent many into a bewildered, bitter chatter of suspicion.  Even most those who weren’t major fans of the teenage hero had heard of the Galvan: He was slated along with all the other large reports of villains who had sided with the Fusion Fighters for one reason or another.  Some even had the displeasure of meeting him in-person. Why Dexter or Mandark would team up with him was beyond them.

However, for all of their wariness against Albedo, they did trust Dexter.  There was no telling what was happening over at Mandark Industries—where Mandark’s own group of lab rats was likely receiving the same kind of speech—but only a handful of people squirmed through the crowd to exit the gym from the right.  As the doors opened, they could see a small group of Dexbots waiting for them. Luckily for Dexter, their numbers were shockingly about the same.  

Silya was surprised that she herself stayed rooted were she stood, her fists gripped tightly to her sides. The more reserved, rational side of her mind cursed her, but she wanted this.  She became a research participant at Dexlabs for two reasons: The pay was great and the potential to explore groundbreaking territory all too tempting. It came with big risks, but just as big rewards.  For her own ambitions, she hopes one of those rewards would include gaining better mastery over her own imaginary energy.

Whatever their reasons—loyalty, curiosity, insanity—the bulk of the research participants stayed behind. Most all of them weren’t new to questionable or unorthodox tests: Their bosses had already weeded out anyone who would shrink back at their mad science several times over.  Some of them had handled prototype explosives, dipped in vats of fusion matter, and travelled through time.  They weren’t the sort anyone could chase away easily.

Dexter knew that all too well, and once again grinned at those who remained.  He pressed a few more controls on his tablet and the gymnasium slowly began to alter while the group watched on, unphased.  On the left side of the gym, platforms and poles rose from the floor in a kind of miniature obstacle course; targets popped out from behind hidden panels along the wall; the sliding door to the storage closet unlocked, giving them access to everything contained within.

“Take each of the transformations slowly,” he instructed, “and take note of any physical changes that may occur.  Each of you will need to submit a full report of your experiences before you leave the lab. You may use any of the equipment, but should you experience any pain or discomfort at any point, speak to one of the Dexbots present immediately.”

With that, the research participants split up.  Silya glanced at the still-looping hologram footage.  The Big Chill form was the closest to her usual transformations: All types of wings—while difficult for those without experience to summon—were popular among most Fusion Fighters.  To this day no one could actually fly with them, but they could give a bit of a lift and added protection when one had to jump from extreme heights.

A faint tingle dully thrummed along the slope of her back as the Spinal-ARCH activated, already hijacking messages from her brain to her spine and throughout her nerve fibers. She envisioned a set of wings fluttering gently behind her; softer than what she was used to, lighter, moth-like. Sure enough, they emerged from a split-second spectacle of light as her imaginary energy concentrated into a solid form—fitted on top of her clothes and the device, but mentally cabled to her nervous system like any other part of her body.  If it weren’t for the way they fit over the fabric, it’d be impossible to tell that they weren’t a true part of her.  

She was surprised by how dense the wings felt though, especially compared to what she was used to. The lack of true substance was what made their instability so frustratingly obvious her.  For the moment, Silya tried to brush it from her mind: She wanted to complete the transformation before anything.

It took a few minutes. She watched in fascination as her imaginary energy continued to materialize, black and blue plates shifting over her like a thin, flexible suit of armor. They ran over her arms, her legs, her torso until they lastly began to fit along the more subtle angles of her face.  She held her breath—this part was new, and she had to clasp onto the vision of a helmet to keep her concentration from breaking.  A strange filter that barely stained everything a faint green settled over her eyes as the ‘mask’ finished constructing itself.

To ensure a complete, stable transformation it was often better for Fusion Fighters to watch them take shape whenever they experimented with something new.  Fortunately, the gym had a series of wide mirrors along part of one wall, where a crowd had already gathered.  Not everyone went ahead with the full transformations, but nearly everyone who had was over there.  Silya jogged the short distance to them, brushing shoulders to reach an empty frame, and stared at her own reflection.  The sight of the apparition before her was jarring, but besides a few mistakes—which quickly patched over themselves to match each of her mental corrections—it seemed perfect.  There she was, a strange, human copy of the Necrofriggian race; shorter, with a more feminine waist and eyes dipped closer to their true peridot color instead of the bold lime or malachite the species was better known for.

Her heart leapt. There were a few other ‘whole’ transformations within the datalogs, but most of them seemed off in some way or another to her so she rarely used them.  This was the sort of big step she wanted to take…

Again though, she noticed something strange.  In her excitement, her wings gave an instinctual flap.  Silya felt her body actually rock in place at the motion, not expecting the subtle force behind it.  Reaching back across her shoulder, her fingertips gently traced the edge of one wing.  She actually felt as though there were nerves under it, twitching at the new sensation. It did feel more real than any of her past attempts, but she couldn’t pinpoint exactly how that was the case.

Startled shouts rose over the casual ambience of the gym.  Although at different phases, around a third of the research participants who had activated their Spinal-ARCHs also started out with the Big Chill transformation. One of the other girls who had only summoned her wings thus far tested them out with a few, powerful flaps—and was apparently just as unprepared for the force behind them.  It threw her body forward and the people around her moved away to avoid a near collision.  She stumbled, but caught herself.

Or rather, her wings did.  Clumsily, yes, but they clearly pulled her back, dragging her a few centimeters with her toes lightly grazing the floor.  Those nearby looked at her in astonishment, the girl hardly able to make sense of what happened herself.

It took seconds for the others to begin to test out the strengths of their wings.  Silya gently moved her own and smiled along to the excited chatter that picked up once again as each person made little discoveries to their new transformations. The awkward, uncoordinated handling could easily be blamed on a lack of practice, but they did feel like they truly were a part of her—the product of a second skin.  She looked up to where Dexter still stood watching them over the walkway railing to find the boy-genius practically grinning from ear to ear with pride. Enhancements… she shook her head, That’s the understatement of the year.

It was times like these when she loved her employer’s mad science.

Silya didn’t even bother touching the equipment for now.  She just found a relatively empty, little corner of the gym to continue practicing her dexterity with her new ‘body.’  She only wished she could practice longer with it, but she didn’t want to risk straining the device or herself yet and she’d need to make time to test out the other forms before the day’s experiments ended.  Guess the third scientist’s the charm—even if Albedo’s a crook.  

All-in-all, things were looking up.  

END OF PART ONE

Continue: https://silyabeeodess.tumblr.com/post/188177587074/fusionfall-writing-prompts-oct-2019-prompt-2

[starscheme]

Change My World

Chapter Twenty-Two: Into The City

Though the morning sun had risen some time ago, Steven and Spinel were still fast asleep. At least, until Spinel felt Steven begin to stir. Even before she opened her eyes, Spinel could hear the beating of Stevens heart. She quickly opened her eyes to find that they had moved in their sleep. No longer sitting up, they were lying on their sides, the blanket nearly removed from their bodies. It wouldn't have been a problem if Steven wasn't still holding onto her. Her body was pressed against his, their legs nearly entangled as he held her close with his face almost covered by her hair.

"Steven, wake up!" Spinel pleaded, her face nearly buried against his neck. Why was he so strong even in his sleep? "Steven!"

"...I'm sorry...! ...I—I-didn't...!" Steven mumbled in his sleep through stifled sobs.

Spinel stopped calling out when she heard him speak. Was he having a bad dream? Why would he dream about anything he would have to apologize for? Steven was too kind to have done anything bad. "H-hey..." she began softly, staying perfectly still now. "It's okay, Steven. Just...relax."

It took a moment or two, but as his hold on her loosened a bit, Spinel slid her body up in order to see his face. His arms were still around her, but his embrace wasn't as intense. Face to face now, she saw tears slipping down the side of his face. It must have been a terrible dream. She reached over and gently grazed her fingers along the trail of tears to wipe his face. The only other times she had seen him cry was for her sake so far. What sort of dream could hurt him like this? Whatever it might be, she didn't like seeing him sad. Without realizing it, her fingers trailed along his cheek slowly, stopping just before she reached his lips.

The kiss they shared last night was fresh in her mind. Recalling it so clearly, she could still feel the pressure of his lips on hers. This man that was bound to her, the more he said he loved her, the more he held and kissed her, it chipped away at her resolve.

All of a sudden, she felt a little guilty. Wouldn't this seem weird to him if he woke up and saw her now? Her cheeks flushed and now she wasn't sure what to do. There was more room to wriggle out of his hold, but it still seemed like an awkward thing to do. What's more, she actually liked seeing his sleeping face now that he appeared to have calmed down. He looked so peaceful. The more she thought it, the more her cheeks burned. Spinel silently covered her face with her hands, trying suppress the embarrassed scream she wanted to belt out.

As Spinel panicked internally, Steven opened his eyes and wondered if he was still dreaming for a second. Spinel was laying in front of him and for some reason, covering her face. He could feel his arms around her waist while she wriggled anxiously. Honestly, he was relieved to have woken up. These dreams were bad for his heart. "...Spinel?"

"STARS!" Spinel gasped, removing her hands to see Steven staring blankly at her reddened face. "H-how long have you been awake...?!"

"Not so loud..." groaned Steven softly, "we're too close."

"Oh! S-sorry. I forgot..." replied Spinel, lowering her voice as she shrunk a little.

Steven smiled, feeling tears start to burn his eyes again. How many times was he going to have to watch Spinel bleed? It really wasn't something he wanted to think about, but when he saw her face, the image flooded back to him. Without a word, Steven gently tightened his hold on her, squeezing Spinel to his chest once again.

"Steven," began Spinel curiously. However, when she felt him tremble slightly, she decided to stay quiet. His dream was probably still fresh in his mind. "...did you have a bed dream...?" Spinel asked quietly.

"The worst..." Steven breathed out before planting a kiss on the top of her head. "...could we stay like this for a moment?"

"Sure," answered Spinel.

He was grateful that he woke up beside her. Those dreams would drive him crazy if he didn't get to see her face once he opened his eyes. Seeing her die was one thing, but to hurt her with his own hands? He couldn't even imagine doing something so horrible. How could he possibly hurt someone he loved?

It took him a little while to calm down, but eventually he loosened his hold on Spinel. "...thanks..."

Spinel offered him a warm smile. She was just glad to help him somehow. If he needed comfort, she didn't mind being a little embarrassed.

Her smile truly eased his heart. It's no wonder that he would fall for someone like her twice. Yet, it was clear the first time ended terribly. That woman's voice said he could make a happier ending. Hopefully that was true. "...I'll never let anything happen to you."

Spinel blushed, but noticed Stevens eyes change as he spoke. They had turned pink again. She wriggled free of his embrace and sat up, cupping his face in her hands as she stared into his eyes. "What are you feeling right now?" she asked seriously, trying to figure out what was causing these changes in him. This was the first time it happened when he wasn't in danger or really upset.

A little bewildered, Steven wasn't sure how to answer her. It was rather rare for Spinel to meet his eyes without shying away. Was something wrong? "I'm...feeling confused?"

"No," Spinel insisted as she shook her head. "When you said that you wouldn't let anything happen to me. How did you feel right then?"

Now it was Stevens turn to shy away a bit. "Uh...I...was feeling that...I wanted to keep you safe. That...you're...precious to me." He didn't usually have trouble expressing his feelings, but it felt a bit awkward while she was holding his face and staring so intently.

Spinel would have been embarrassed if she weren't so focused on figuring this out. To keep her safe. Was that what it was? She released his face and let her hands rest in her lap as she thought back to the other incidents. Whenever it happened, she assumed it was because Stevens life was in danger, but looking back, her life had been in danger too. When his eyes changed back in the Garden, Volley had said something about her dying. Now, he was only thinking about protecting her and it happened again.

"Spinel...what's going on?" He asked, sitting himself up as well and placing the blanket over her shoulders. Though he was curious, he was trying not to look at her. She was after all, still simply wearing his shirt to cover up. He felt guilty for staring while she sat there, but she looked absolutely stunning.

Still thinking, Spinel wrapped the blanket around herself absentmindedly. She'd heard his question, but how was she supposed to answer without revealing too much. She still didn't want him to know he was responsible for the soldiers deaths and she wasn't sure how to properly explain the power anyway. Even she didn't know what was going on. Either way, she'd promised Steven that they would face all this head on and that they would face it together. She couldn't just keep this to herself after that. "...I think we should get ready to go, but before that...we probably have a lot to talk about."

Steven nodded his head with a sigh, "we do," he agreed. "...why don't you get dressed and I'll scout the area a bit to see if I can figure out where we are."

Before Spinel could answer, Steven was already on his feet and heading for the caves entrance. He instructed Lion to stay behind and watch Spinel as he left to look around. She watched his back until the light of the sun glared back at her, forcing Spinel to look away. "...this...is far more complicated than I ever thought it would be..." sighed Spinel.

Lion did as he was told and stayed behind to watch over Spinel, earning an amused giggle from her when he planted himself at the entrance to the cave with his back to her, as if granting her some cover and privacy from leering eyes that may pass by. She quickly changed back into her black dress, not wanting to dirty the second dress that Steven had bought for her. They were the first gifts she had received from him after all.

Once she was dressed, Spinel shook out the blanket and placed it back into the bag. It was only now that she realized her shoes were missing. Spinel sighed miserably, "being human is convenient, but such a pain."

She had just started to put her hair back into pigtails when Steven came back from his scouting mission. She smiled, but Steven looked a bit unsettled, as if he had something unpleasant to tell her. "Did something happen? Are we far off from the Capital?"

"We are actually a few towns away. I guess Lion brought us pretty close..."

"Well, that's good isn't it?"

"Not really. The closer we are, the bigger the cities and that means more people and more security. We can't exactly walk through the city gates with a large pink Lion."

Glancing towards the beast, Spinel felt a little lonely thinking they would have to leave him behind. "...but..."

"Don't worry. I think he'll just linger around the borders. If we need him, he'll come for us."

Spinel frowned. Of course she wanted to ask how he might know this, but didn't that mean opening a can of worms? She wasn't ready to hear what Steven knew just yet. Every time she thought about that inevitable conversation, a terrible pit formed in her stomach. "...why can't Lion just bring us straight to the Capital?"

"There are way too many people from this point on. We have to be more careful. We don't know where he would bring us...so it's too risky. We have to go on foot from here. I think the city is having some sort of celebration today, so we can just blend into the large crowd. ...we just can't do anything to draw attention. We don't know what kind of magic they use here..."

Admittedly, Spinel was a little nervous to be heading into such a large city. She would have felt better having Lion with them. Sure, he would attract attention, but people would most likely avoid them because of it. Spinel just wasn't sure she could handle the crowds. Besides Steven, humans disgusted her. What if they met more people like Elaine? She certainly wasn't fond of the idea that they might be surrounded by more human females trying to seduce Steven.

After the two said goodbye to Lion, Steven grabbed their bag and they set off towards the city. Though Spinel insisted she was fine without her shoes, Steven refused to let her walk through the forest barefoot. Even if she was used to Steven carrying her by now, she couldn't help being embarrassed each time.

"What's the point of having legs if you won't let me walk?" Spinel pouted as Steven carried her like a princess to the main road.

"When we get you some shoes, you can walk all you want." Steven replied adamantly.

Spinel huffed a bit and crossed her arms over her chest. Steven could be terribly stubborn about these things. However, once they reached the main road into the city, Spinel flinched and quickly wrapped her arms around Stevens neck, hiding her face in his shoulder. He was confused at first, until he saw all the other people traveling along the main road.

There were decorated coaches and lots of villagers heading into the city by foot. Spinel must have been nervous with such a big crowd. Steven knew the bigger cities would be mean more people, but this was a little excessive.

"Excuse me," Steven called out to a passing young lady. "Was the nearby town evacuated or something?"

The young woman stopped, curiously glancing at Spinel before answering Steven. "Nothing like that. Ilya is just having its annual celebration and there's a special ceremony this year, so a lot more merchants and people from all around are coming to see."

"Special ceremony? What could draw such a crowd?"

"I'm not sure," the girl answered. "It wasn't announced in the flyers and I'm not a merchant or anything. I've just been hired as extra help. ...if you'll excuse me, I have to go and help set up. I hope you and your partner enjoy the celebration, please come and buy lots of flowers for your lady from the stalls!" She called out before running off to catch up with her small caravan.

"Hm, a celebration sounds fun don't you think?" Steven asked Spinel with a smile.

Spinel looked out at the crowd of people waiting to get into the gates of the walled off city. "So...it's like a party?"

"Mmhm. We had festivals and stuff back home, but I've never been to one in such a big place. I bet they'll have lots of fun things to do. Besides, they will be so many strangers from other towns, no one will notice two more. This will work out well for us."

Spinel wasn't so sure it would be any fun with all these humans around, but Steven did seem a little excited. As they joined the crowd, the gate to the city opened wide, several guards stationed at the entrance as people began to pile into the city. Spinel tried not to seem nervous while they passed the guards, but she couldn't help feeling a little stiff. Even at least once they inside the city walls, the crowd spread apart.

Though Spinel didn't like the thought of being around so humans, she had to admit that the city certainly looked fun. Streamers of blue and yellow lined the street lamps, flowers decorated every house that surrounded the large city center. Jugglers, dancers, musicians, and fortune tellers were set up all over alongside merchant and food stalls. Many people were dressed in blue or yellow, which Spinel assumed by now to be the city's banner colors.

"Oh! Here we go," Steven exclaimed as he finally let Spinel down. "There's a little boutique right here."

Spinel simply stared in silence while allowing Steven to take her hand and pull her into the small clothing store. There were a few other girls inside, gushing over a pink summer dress with white laced long sleeves.

"May I help you?" asked a young sales woman once Steven and Spinel walked in. Once she got a good look at them, it was clear that she didn't think they should be in here.

"Yes, thank you," Steven began, stepping towards the sales woman to speak with her.

Spinel wasn't paying much attention to their conversation. She was much more interested in all the clothes they had here. Why did humans need so many? Though she did wonder why the girls were so interested in the pink dress.

One of the girls had noticed Spinel staring at them and she informed the other two with a whisper before they all turned around.

"My, are you interested in this dress as well?" One of the girls asked with a clearly feigned smile.

"...not really. I just saw-"

"Well of course she would be," announced another girl, "even the lower class can appreciate something lovely. Even if they can't afford it."

Spinel frowned at once, "lower class?"

"Oh, please don't listen to my friend. She doesn't have much tact. ...however, perhaps you would have better luck in another shop. This one is quite expensive and...well...it's usually preferred if people wear shoes inside."

The other two girls giggled, but Spinel wasn't very amused. Mermaid or Human, there were always mean spirited minds. Personally, she would have liked to toss each one across the floor, but she didn't want to cause trouble for Steven or draw attention to herself with so many guards out on the streets.

However, as the girls snickered to one another, the sales woman rushed by them and took the pink dress down, surprising them all.

"Shall we get you changed, miss?" She asked Spinel.

"Huh? I didn't-"

"I told her you were gonna wear everything out," announced Steven when he stepped up behind her with a smile. "You were looking at it, so I thought you wanted it. Was I wrong?"

Spinel looked at the dress before glancing back at the girls who all seemed mortified by this. "No, you were right. I like it very much," answered Spinel.

Steven let the sales girl lead Spinel to a changing room, showing her several shoes she had picked out as well. He did notice the small group of girls, however, their shocked and angry faces confused him. Why did they look so upset on such a festive day?

[starscheme]

Only You

Chapter Twelve: Let Me Help You

Sodalite ran Lars to the Beach house, with Greg following frantically behind.

“My Steven!!” Sodalite shouted as she ran up the stairs. “Please help!”

“Sodalite? What on earth—-?” Pearl exclaimed as she swung open the door to keep the blue Gem from crashing through it. She’d heard her yelling, but only just arrived in time to let her inside.

“Where is My Steven?! Lars has broken!”

Greg panted for breath once he finally caught up with them. “St—Steven isn’t here,” wheezed Mr. Universe. “I was...I was trying to tell you!”

“B-but someone has to fix him!! He—he stopped working,” pleaded Sodalite desperately.

“I-okay, just calm down. Lars is a human. He needs to go to a human hospital,” explained Pearl as evenly as possible.

“I’ll get the van,” Greg panted, turning to rush out the door.

Though Pearl did assume a human hospital would be best, she was a little concerned that they might not be able to help. Lars had been healed by Steven after all. “...Sodalite, what happened?”

The skittish Gem shook her head hysterically, tears trickling from her cheeks down to the floor. “I-I don’t know! He-he just stopped working! I didn’t know what to do! I-I don’t know enough about humans to help him! I-I’m scared...”

“I know everything scares you, but Lars will—“

“No! This isn’t the same,” insisted Sodalite, making sure to keep her eyes on the ground. If she looked at Pearl she would would see the black smoke around her and get anxious on top of all this. “I-I’m scared that he’s broken for good. He is always helping me, yet I can do nothing for him even now.”

“...well this kind of fear is understandable,” replied Pearl. It was one she’d certainly felt many times. Feeling frightened and helpless to help the people you loved. “...I’ll call Steven and when he and Spinel return—-“

“—-Don’t let her near him!!” Sodalite pleaded in a panic. “Sh-she’ll only make things worse!”

Though Pearl was taken aback by Sodalite’s words, she would hardly have time to address them before Lars’ eyes shot open without warning.

“Lars!” Sodalite exclaimed happily at first, but the relieved smile she was forming quickly faded once she saw that the whites of his eyes had been blacked out.

“Sodalite, stand back!” Pearl shouted, pushing off on her heel at once to separate the two, forcing Sodalite to release Lars.

“W-Wait! He’s still—“ Sodalite tried to protest, but it soon became clear that Lars no longer needed any help.

The pink human was standing on his own now, but his movements seemed almost robotic as he adjusted himself, staring at the Gems with a twisted smile and empty eyes.

“Let’s play a game,” suggested Lars, his voice mixed with another’s. A woman from the faint sound of it.

Swiftly summoning her spear, Pearl stepped in front of Sodalite and stood her ground. “What have you done to Lars? I demand that you release the human!”

“Demand?” Repeated Lars with an almost amused smile. “I just want to play a game with you. Come on, I’ll even let you choose.”

Sodalite wasn’t quite sure what was happening. This clearly wasn’t the Lars that she knew and from the all the black smoke that surrounded Pearl now, she could see that the Gem was getting anxious.

“L-Lars,” began Sodalite cautiously, “...what...what do you mean?”

“It’s a game,” he repeated, “I think it’s going to be lots of fun. At least until it’s over.”

“Oh? And what happens if we don’t play your game?” asked Pearl defiantly.

“Well that wouldn’t be any fun, but you shouldn’t decide anything until you’ve heard the rules. You see, this game has a time limit. If you can last before the time runs out, you win. The timer, is this young mans heart.” He pointed out, placing a hand at his chest. “I can’t stay inside this body too long. I’m stretched too thin, but his blood pumps much slower than an average human. So my poison won’t reach his heart right away. Until then, we’re going to play. If you can last until his heart gives out, you win!”

The Gems were horrified. Whatever held Lars captive was surely out of its mind. Using his body as some timer for a game. No matter how they thought on it, win or lose, Lars would die anyway.

“You can’t do this!!” Sodalite shouted, her attempt to step forward thwarted by Pearl who blocked her way.

Lars shrugged his shoulders and his empty eyes fixed on Pearl. “Why don’t we start with a game of tag?” He asked shortly before launching himself at the Gems, much faster than the average human.

Pearl readied herself, but in her panic, Sodalite shoved the thin Gem to the ground, barely dodging Lars’ attack, forcing him to slam his now blackened hand against the kitchen table, breaking it into pieces.

“What are you doing?!” Pearl demanded in a huff as she pushed Sodalite aside and got to her feet.

“You can’t hurt him!”

“I’ll do the best I can, but something is inside of him! If we can’t find a way to get it out, he’s going to hurt us. We have to defend ourselves.”

“He’s a human! If you fight him, you’ll break him!”

Pearl didn’t have time to argue anymore since Lars was coming after them again. Both of his hands had turned dark as if rotting away somehow. Pearl swung her spear to swipe at his feet, but Lars jumped into the air to avoid the blade and lunged after Sodalite.

Pearl turned on her heel and swiftly twirled her weapon back around, shooting the light from its blade in an attempt to stun the human before he reached the blue Gem. When the light hit his side, it burned his skin and he cried out, the woman’s voice inside of him screeching in pain.

“STOP!!!” Sodalite screamed in a panic as she watched Lars double back and hold his side, his pink skin turning black where the light had hit him. Finally, it was too much for the nervous Gem and all light was ripped from the room, leaving all three in complete darkness as she shouted once again, “STOP IT!!!”

Without missing a beat, Pearls gem flashed a light to help her see, searching in the dark frantically for Lars. The human was nowhere to be found and what’s more, she couldn’t seem to locate Sodalite. “Sodalite! Bring the light back! Hurry!”

Waiting anxiously in the dark for just a moment, Pearl was relieved when the darkness returned to Sodalite’s body. The freckled Gem was holding her head at both sides, her eyes closed tight as she painted for breath.

Lars was lying on the floor, his hands and wound no longer black, but badly burned. Pearl wasn’t sure what had happened, but at least he was unconscious and wouldn’t cause any more trouble for the moment. Pearl rushed over to check on him just as Garnet warped into the house.

“Garnet! I need some help over here!” Pearl exclaimed.

Garnet wasted no time in dashing over to the scene, kneeling down to examine the human and the frantic Gem. “What happened?” She asked at once.

“I-I took it!” Sodalite choked out as quickly as she could. “So do-don’t hurt him anymore!”

“Took what?” Pearl and Garnet asked together, both equally lost. However, it didn’t take long for Pearl to connect the dots once she thought about it. Sodalite’s ability allowed her to take in negative emotion and purify it inside of herself. Perhaps she was able to take in whatever had been controlling Lars. However, could she purify such a poison? What would happen now that it was inside of her if she couldn’t?

While the other Gems were trying to figure out the situation back home, Steven had a problem of his own. Back at the Hotel, Steven sat on the bed, staring at the crushed phone in Spinels hand. “Spinel?” began Steven cautiously, “why did you...?”

Spinel seemed calm at first, but when she saw the concern on Steven’s face, her smiled faded at once. She tossed the broken device to the floor and leaned over to cup his face in her hands. “I don’t like it when others try to speak with you while you’re with me,” whispered Spinel. “It makes me very unhappy.”

“Are you...are you feeling okay?” Asked Steven now, unable to shake this feeling of dread as he looked into her changed eyes.

“Was the phone that important to you? You didn’t seem to care about speaking with others while you were touching me.”

Steven brought his hands up and gently pulled Spinels own hands down from his face. “Spinel, you don’t sound like yourself. ...and your eyes...”

“What’s the matter?” Spinel asked, confused and upset now. “I don’t understand. You said...you loved me. That you’d do anything to make me happy.”

“I do love you,” he insisted while gripping her hands tight, “but something is wrong. I think we should get you back home so Peridot can take a look at you. At least before something bad happens. I don’t want you to pass out again.”

Spinel smiled, “you’re sweet to worry, but I feel fine. For once...I have you all to myself. As long as you stay with me, I’ll be happy.”

Steven wasn’t sure what to do now. The conversation was going in circles and Spinel refused to acknowledge the change that had clearly overcome her. Glancing down at her Gem, he could see the black color start to fade in once again. Releasing her hands, Steven slipped from the bed and proceeded to locate his clothes. “Spinel, we’re going home.” he insisted while putting on his pants.

Sitting on the bed alone, Spinel watched Steven with a blank stare. “I don’t want to go home. I want to stay with you.”

“I’ll be there the entire time, but you need to get looked at by Peridot or something. I just want to make sure you’re okay,” insisted Steven once again.

“NO!” Spinel screeched, a growl in her throat as she stretched out her hand, wrapping her fingers tight around Steven’s neck. “Nothing is wrong with me! Why don’t you like me like this?!?!”

Steven’s breath was almost immediately cut off, quickly taking in a hoarse breath as Spinels fingers pressed down to grip around his throat. “Sp—-!!?”

Suddenly, Spinel gasped and her arm went limp, letting it lay loose at Stevens feet while the young man took a few desperate breaths. Tears began to slip from Spinels eyes as she stared in silent shock at the bruising already beginning to color Steven’s skin. She didn’t remember doing it, but by the time she realized what was happening, her hand was around his neck. She was hurting him. “St-Steven...” whimpered Spinel pathetically.

“It-it’s fine,” he choked out before licking his hand and placing it against the bruising. “S-see?! I’m fine!” Steven exclaimed with a forced smile once the pain had vanished. “Let’s just get home so we can find out what’s going on.”

The moment Steven stepped forward towards the bed, Spinel panicked and extended her arms once again to stop him. “STAY AWAY!!”

Steven stumbled back just a little, unable to determine the right thing to do. Spinel now had her hands over her gem, muttering to herself in a desperate panic as tears flooded down her cheeks.

“Spinel, let me help you! Let’s go home.” He tried again, but this time making no attempt to get to her. Instead, he held out his hand, silently pleading with his lover to come to him.

Spinel stopped whispering to herself, turning her head to glance at Steven. “...I didn’t mean it...”

“I-I know...” Steven replied, just trying to keep her calm. Something was terribly wrong. He had to get her home where they could get some help. “So come home with me.”

“We can’t go home—we can’t—I can’t! I’ll—-I’ll hurt you! I’m-I can’t think-!” Spinel cried out, feeling completely unhinged. It was as if something inside of her was screaming, pulling her down into that horrible dark mass that threatened to consume her before.

“Spinel...please...” pleaded Steven, nearly in tears as he watched Spinel panic.

Suddenly, Spinel went silent and stared down at the sheets as if she had just realized something. Her Gem began to glow and she pulled out one of Pearls swords that she had stored there.

“Spinel?” began Steven, his heart jumping in his chest when he saw the blade.

“I’m sorry, Steven. ...but I’ll fix this! You have to bubble me!” Spinel exclaimed before quickly thrusting the sword through her stomach, twisting the blade for good measure to make sure it did the job she intended.

All breath left Steven’s lungs as he watched his lover plunge a sword into herself. He barely had a moment to register what was happening before she turned to a cloud of smoke before his eyes, leaving nothing but the Heart shaped Gem behind on the bed. The pink color of her Gem was still struggling to shine through the darkness that attempted to cover it. Without thinking, Steven dashed forward and bubbled Spinel as she’d asked, holding the bubble in his hands without a word. He didn’t know what was happening. His mind was a jumbled mess as he stared down at Spinels Gem. Why was this happening? Who was doing this? Someone was clearly targeting Spinel for some reason and whoever it was, Steven was not going to let it slide. Bitter tears dropped against the bubble he’d made, his his body slowly glowing pink as his anger continued to grow. Someone was responsible for this and he was going to make them pay for it.