#same way how amethyst and jasper are sisters

[acinomthecat]

Tigress and Tai Lung are so Amethyst and Jasper coded

[thousandyearphantombunker]

how the fuck was Steven supposed to kill the diamonds? With the crystal gems a team consisting of like 8 people? One is a human girl with a sword, another is a random technician and another is a disabled soldier? With the breaking point? The diamonds are huge and have insane powers they could use to protect themselves with ease so...and if somehow he did find a way to kill them- what would the aftermath be? What would happen to the corrupted gems? The system on homeworld wouldn't have changed, they'd still kill the off colors, they'd still be colonizing planets etc. would spinel still be waiting never knowing anything about what happened to her friend? Like what would have happened- 'oh the diamonds will probably go right back to killing people if Steven let them live and therefore Steven will be responsible for all the blood on their handa when that eventually happens, it's also unjust and toxic that Steven forgives other peoples abusers on their behalf we always let the colonizers have redemption arcs and portray the people they hurt as villains for fighting back' yeah okay, you cop Steven is a moral failure who is guilty of colonization and hes an abuse apologist who ignore the victims and demonizes them(where we watching the same show? Did we not see Steven try to help centipetle? Did we not see him break down over the cluster- could Steven had forgiven the diamonds for the sake of the victims? I do give some shit to Steven for how he acts about rose but even then he's a teenage with PTSD)-The situation also changed from 'homeworld gems are coming back to earth after the war to create a geo-weapon, they thought they won the war and didn't care about colonizing the earth anymore' to 'now they want rose quartz to hang for as justice for what happened to pink diamond' to 'pink diamond faked her death and her attempt to escape the abuse and evils of her home ended up turning her friends into monsters and her deciding to die to create Steven has led her sisters trying to drag her back to homeworld to uphold the horrible caste system' no more going after earth the way they used too, now the conflict was personal.

su's ending was bad- it felt hollow rushed and like so much happened but also like not enough was happening- it was a mess but also, su is about restorative justice and changing unhealthy family dynamics, and that's actually great. I get pissy about Steven Universe's ending-lapis, peridot, lars and bismuth were completely irrelevant the complaints i have about white diamond are the exact same ones i have about the collector (i hate them both) the movie piled more shit onto rose's bad rep sheet when it was really unnecessary and the show only portrays the perspective she was a brat which was great at the start but once you see how internalized she was and that shes an abuse victim the show should have portrayed her more empathetically, and if we wanna talk about the show as a whole- i hate that shattering can be reversed fully now and that jasper didn't stay dead as much as i love her, i hate that the show never acknowledged how toxic sadie was toward lars (kidnapping him and steven the donut prank- lars was a dick but sadie was a psycho) or how its hard to defend pearl after they made her a total creep (even if you don't read fusion as sexual its still super uncomfortable to see pearl lie to garnet like that and take advantage of something that meant so much to garnet) and i dislike that peridot lost her edge and the episode "too far" pissed me off (amethyst you encouraged peridot to be mean and call garnet a slur, pearl a braindead slave and Steven an affront to nature but when she made an accidentally ableist remark while trying to compliment you that's when it became a problem?). Su botched a fuckton of its messages and the filler was hit or miss in terms of quality and a lot the hate was Deserved (it did get uncomfortably sexual when it came to certain fusions- and rebecca sugar being Jewish bi, nonbinary etc doesn't exempt them from criticism- it felt perverted in several parts and rocknaldo was a worthless episode though if I hear another anti-Semitic take on this show im gonna flip- y'all don't know what Nazism is please stop using that word without understanding it) but I while I have my complaints about the ending I think Steven changing the diamonds minds was the only appropriate way for the show to end, the show always was about making amends or living life after the carnage had settled without focusing on vengeance/perpetuating the cycle of violence it was always about seeing nuance and not seeing you people you come into conflict with as enemies. I'm not angry at the diamonds being redeemed, I hate how it was handled, I'm not angry at the show for saying bismuth was wrong I hate how it was handled she deserved better but Jesus christ can we stop acting like the only appropriate way the show could have ended is with Steven 'realizing pacifism is bad and killing the abusers/colonizers is the only answer' because fuck diplomacy and systemic change-

also Steven is fully willing to use violence, Steven would pick up a gun and shoot to before batman or aang would ever if it meant saving his world (this isn't me shitting on those characters just pointing out Steven isn't that extreme of a pacifist) and Steven carries a lot of anger as we see in su future (whether or not you think it's a hot mess it's canon) while i don't think he hates the diamonds he definitely resents them and is afraid of then but holds back (until he ya now gats... Way worse mentally), he wants to fix the system not get justice or vengeance or make huge moral judgements where he is in the right when he hurts others- steven isn't an abuse apologist who believes him self morally superior (he actually kind of is afraid of that) he isn't afraid to use violence if he seems it necessary (he's a diplomat and his skills lie in talking things out- of course he'd go to that first) he cares a lot of about the victims of the diamonds and people who have been hurt- even if they hurt him. Steven is deeply flawed his martyr complex reveals him to be incredibly entitled and desperate to be in control and for others to be hurt or bad so he can fix their problems so he can feel good about himself and deals with a lot of guilt and by future he has developed anger issues- but he always cared about others that's why he did what he did and does what he does

[introvert-celeste]

Jasper headcanons bc I've thinking about this all day:

1) You'd think she's an extrovert based on the way she acts, but she's actually quite introverted. Social situations are overstimulating to her--esp the mushy-touchy-feely type you get from Steven and the CGs--and her immediate response is aggression.

2) The only social situation she really enjoys is sparring but most gems aren't willing or able to spar with her, so she ends a lot of pent up energy that she doesn't get to release until it's spilling over.

3)She's basically in a constant state of overstimulated and understimulated, to the point where she's always lashing out in frustration. That's why she seemed almost happy to have found a worthy opponent in Steven, as unhealthy as their dynamic was.

4) In general, Jasper has very specific needs that haven't been met and boundaries that aren't easily respected by the gems at Little Homeworld. She's been been through a war, lost her Diamond, separated from the closest beings to family for who knows how long, idolized and feared by those beneath her, (probably) hated by her equals, and pressured by her superiors. She's been poorly socialized throughout her life, to day the least.

5) If she can't have someone who can match her physically, she needs someone who will respect her boundaries. Luckily, she manages to find both in Bismuth, who matches her in strength, pushes her buttons in just the right way to make their sparring a satisfying experience, and backs off when Jasper's had enough. She responds best frank, blunt conversation and smack talk, which is Bismuth's specialty.

6) Amethyst was the only gem to really go and check on her after the whole Steven situation. She was resistant at first, but she has begun to realize how alone she really was after Steven essentially abandoned her. So, she started to accept Ame's attention and eventually regarded her as a sister. She still isn't at all affectionate, but they spend a lot of time together nonetheless.

7) Skinny and Carnelian were the absolute closest things to family Jasper ever had prior to Amethyst and they were the first gems she ever cared about, before the gems in charge filled her head with their own prejudices. She actually wasn't a piece of shit in the beginning and openly cared about them, but the war changed her. This drove a rift between them that Ame encouraged them to bridge, now that Jasper was a little more approachable. Now they're closer than ever and they tease Jasper relentlessly to keep her humble. She tolerates it because she missed them.

Okay enough of the deep shit, here's some fun headcanons:

1) Amethyst starts a club/hang out spot of sorts for quartzes and other ex-soldiers to hang, spar, and generally let loose. Sometimes (often) it gets a little too rowdy and it's difficult to break it up. She invites Jasper in to check the place or and maybe make friends. Jasper surprisingly shows up and is an amazing deterrent. One look from her is sobering enough to stop the rowdiest gems. That's how she became an unofficial bouncer.

2) She and Amethyst eventually started an underground gem wrestling tournament by accident as the new and improved "Purple Puma" and "Tiger Millionaire" (with Steven's blessing). She thought a millionaire was too weak and a philanthropist was too sappy ( once she learned what those were) and became "Tiger Shark" instead (still maintaining the business gimmick, like an investor, but she also has sweet fucking serrated teeth).

3) When the Betas heard Amethyst calling her "Sis" they immediately started calling her that, too, much to Jasper's irritation. That didn't last long, however, bc once they heard about her wrestling persona, "Tiger" was just too good a name to pass up.

4) Skinny pinches Jasper's gem nose and shakes it gently (in the same way you would pinch someone's cheek) as an affectionate gesture. She's literally the only gem allowed to do this to her, although she acts like she doesn't like it.

5) Bismuth likes Jasper but has an ongoing feud with her over Jasper's complete disregard for other's property. When asked why she does this, Jasper shrugs and punches a hole through another wall. What wacky and destructive thing will she do next? No one knows.

6) Bismuth also enlists her for some heavy work gathering resources for some building projects, along with some other heavy lifters. Freckles--or "Nice Lapis"-- is over of the gems on this team. The others, having heard vague rumors about the Malachite situation, were a bit weary of these two being around each other, but they hit it off surprisingly well. They don't hang out at all otherwise, but they like to team up on the job.

[peachie5000]

What I would give to be able to experience SU blind again-

Despite that, I wouldn’t give away the experience of being able to rewatch it from different points in its air-time - I honestly think the reason I love it so much is because I got to watch it evolve over years and see how my opinions on characters changed depending on how much we knew about them.

Certain scenes in the series don’t even rely on a big twist to be good - often it comes from a subversion of audience expectations that work because the characters are written to do unlikable things sometimes. Pearl is allowed to mess up and put Steven in danger because of her grief. Jasper is allowed a place to grow even when she rejects the help that is offered to her. Amethyst can be a loving sister and simultaneously be massively irresponsible around steven sometimes. Peridot learns to be well-meaning and kind but she still struggles with social awareness and often comes off as tone-deaf, to the point of hurting others feelings or making a situation worse. I could keep going, there’s so many examples.

I’m always surprised when I hear people talk about how they don’t like the rose/pink twist - That’s an example of subversion of expectations + a massive twist payoff that feels incredibly game-changing simultaneously - Getting rose and showing her to be responsible for really amazing, life changing events and also horrifically terrible ones is a great example of how SU believes in the flaws of its characters and trusts its audience to make their own opinion on them. I like that the show lets us try and piece together who she was, with the same amount of information that Steven has.

That isn’t even getting into how much of a surprise it’d be to tune in for a new episode and get hit by so much. queerness. Like. So many characters written in a way where even if they weren’t explicitly confirmed LGBT, there was an aspect to the way they were written that felt so inherent to the gay experience. I feel thats something thats often left out in talks about modern LGBT representation. SU isn’t just groundbreaking in its very obvious, flashy moments. Its subtle stuff like Greg, a massive loving heart within the cast, talking about freedom and expression and being like. somewhat bisexual coded? (I dont know how else to explain he just HAS the vibes). The way Peridot felt very aro-ace coded even before crew confirmation? Just. all of the gems having very interesting designs and presentation when compared to a lot of female/femme coded designs in media that have to look a certain way? Sections of Steven’s story being a trans allegory and also just super GNC?? Steven Universe is still operating on its own level in terms of representation as far as I’m concerned honestly.

The way SU was written makes it so hard for me to get into other media in that demographic too - I feel spoiled lmao. There are some anime/certain cartoons that are exceptions but a lot of the popular ones rn specifically aren’t really clicking for me :((

[picturejasper20]

One thing that has always interested me about Jasper is how despite being connected to the other Earth gems such as the Famethysts and the gems who were born in Beta Kindergarten, she never seems to mention them at all.

Which begs the question: What happened to Jasper after the Gem war finished?

To answer this, i think it would be a good idea to start from the beginning: the Beta Kindergarten.

According to Peridot in the episode Beta, the Beta Kindergarten was a ¨rush job¨, a process that was a mess from the start, she described how the angles made a terrible place to make a Kindergarten, she mentions how a few gems came out sideways. 

But why was a rush job?

Well, Peridot explained to Amethyst and Steven that it was build during the rebellion: Halfway through the rebellion, Homeworld scrambled to generate extra soldiers on the ground. Look at this! The holes don't even line up! It's like they just threw Injectors down wherever!

This means that Homeworld rushed the Kindergarten to get an army to stop the Rebellion, they didn´t care that the project was executed correctly, they needed more quartz soldiers and it didn´t matter that the gems came out wrong, what was important is how fast the came out of the ground.

@introvert-celeste​ Has made a few posts about this in the past, she explained how this was probably the same place in which Lapis was caught in the middle of a battle in the flashback she showed Steven in ¨Same old world¨

Remember that this scene was not imagined by Steven,is based of Lapis´s memories.

If one pays attention to the gem soldiers´ design in this flashback, it´s easy to see that they resemble Jasper a lot. That means that´s is very likely they were gems who were born in the Beta Kindergarten. 

Another detail in Lapis´s flashback is how easily the gems poof, this is not surprising since most of the gems from Beta were considered defective.

One of the few exceptions to that rule was Jasper

Peridot described Jasper´s hole as ¨perfect¨ in Beta. This made Jasper one of the strongest quartz soldiers ever made. In a way, she was the ¨Ultimate Quartz¨ for Homeworld. She was considered a role model for other quartz soldiers. She was described by Eyeball as the ¨The kindergarten quartz that could¨ in Back to the moon.

¨I was on the ground in Facet 6 when I heard the tale of the Facet 9 kindergarten quartz that could. They said you popped out of the ground with your helmet on, and took out 80 Crystal Gems before the sun went down.¨ 

Jasper was considered a champion warrior, a gem that came out of the ground prepared for battle and ready for her role.

But.. what happened to Jasper after the war ended?

I think is easy to assume she was separated from the rest of the Earth gems, because even though she was a gem who came from Earth, she was still considered an excellent quartz by Homeworld´s standards. Her ¨sisters¨ were sent to the Zoo while she stayed on Homeworld.  

The problem for Jasper was that despite being respected by many gems, she still felt like an outcast, in her mind, she was a Earth gem, and that meant that there was something wrong with her. No matter how strong she was, it was not enough for her. She still felt she needed to prove to other gems (and herself) that she wasn´t a defective gem.

¨Jasper is a bully in the truest sense. Deep down, she's afraid there's something wrong with her, so she has to feed her ego. She has to put other Gems down to stay on top. Who she is and where she's from gnaws at her all the time. She has a fantastic reputation, she's considered the greatest Quartz soldier produced on Earth, and that might impress other Gems, but it will never be good enough for her. She will always feel held back, and she'll always feel the need to go further to get ahead.¨ -Steven Universe: Art & Origins

Jasper is also very different in comparison to the Famethysts and the rest of the Earth gems.

The gems who live in the Zoo seem to be very social, laid-back and like making jokes like Amethyst. They are friendly and are expressive as well, unlike Jasper, who usually tries to hide her emotions and doesn´t want to let anyone in.

By being a Earth gem on Homeworld, Jasper became obsessed with never showing any weakness or anything that made her look vunerable. She wanted to prove to everyone that she wasn´t weak like the rest of the gems who came from a ¨garbage planet¨. She was different, she was special and she wanted to keep things that way.

Jasper might have thought of the Famethysts as ¨lesser gems¨ who didn´t deserve to live on Homeworld as they were ¨defective¨ and ¨wrong¨. She didn´t want to be be associated with them. 

The downside was that she never had someone who could understand what she was going through. 

During the series Jasper is potrayed as a character who lacks friends or companions. She´s usually seen alone in the episodes she appears, this lack of support system contributed to her self-destruction, as she didn´t have someone who could her help her or at least talk to about her problems.

This along with her inferiority complex and her obsession to getting revenge on Rose Quartz is what finally led to her own corruption.

[creamsodaprince]

White not being shattered was an escapist fantasy for people who want to see a world where everyone can change if they want to, not the ones who want to see the abusers get punished

I actually wasn’t the one who send this ask.

But I can see their points, in a way you can say that it’s a form of escapism in which everyone can change , it’s not the traditional “abuser gets killed or punished or gets a bad life because of their actions” and this may be just me, but I actually liked their approach, the way I interpret it It’s not like the series said “you have to forgive them” is anything Greg and Pink distance themselves from their abusive family and grew happier and healthier lives because of it.

And speaking from personal experience as someone who abuse came from family members (unhealthy dynamics with my mother and my sisters) , I actually could relate a lot to Pink’s and Steven’s situation, their dynamic was so much like my own (both Pink and Steven’s) in a way the diamonds and the Crystal gems represented aspects of my own family (we even lost a very important member of the family and it was so difficult to go through) and although I did resented them for what they did and for the unhealthy way they behaved, I really wouldn’t wish them harm and I don’t wish any ill to them and I understand that they themselves were behaving in a way that could help them cope with the situation, just as I did too.

On a more positive note every member of my family except for one (my mom who actually reminds me a lot of White diamond) is attending therapy and although is a long and difficult process we are seeking for help, we are trying to be better individuals and we are seeking to be at peace with each other, I think Steven represents that concept so well, all of the character are very grey and very damaged and everyone has done something awful at some point, but we/they are still trying, Steven universe is more escapist and fluffy in nature, yet the characters are portrayed so realistically and their dynamic are done so well, it was so personal to me, I was aware how the characters resonated a lot with me, but I wasn’t really aware of why exactly. I guess never stopped to think why until I wrote this response.

So when I see people claim that Steven universe is “bad” or “harmful” it that it somehow promotes or supports “abuse” for following their own philosophy and set of ideas, it just seems so baffling to me, the whole premise of it is about how everyone have the ability of changing fir the better, how all of the characters are incredible flawed and how all of them and done something very messed up at some point, yet this doesn’t stop them from trying to change.

I do understand that this is not for everyone, some may find this very triggering because maybe the characters also hit too close to them and they don’t want to see characters like the diamonds or characters like, Pearl, Lapis or Jasper getting better so easily, “getting easily off the hook” as some view it, yet if I saw characters like White diamond (who is so much like my mom who actually tried to commit suicide not so long ago) be shattered, That would actually be Very triggering to me.

even Steven had a lot of resentment towards the Diamonds and towards the crystal gems (and that’s ok!) yet his forgiveness wasn’t necessary for them to change better, he wasn’t the ultimate arbitrary of either or not they were allowed to change

this is why I love Rose and Steven’s character so much, they were initially presented as being “better”, more “innocent” and “purer” than anyone else, yet the series challenged this idea and at the end of the show they were shown to be as messed up as everyone else, I love this kind of characters and I suppose they are the ones (alongside amethyst) who I relate to the most.

In a way the crystal gems were a more healthier version of my own family and the diamonds were the ones who represented their worse aspects, and yet after everything we have done and everything we have been going through, I love them in my own flawed way and I know they loved me in their own flawed way.

This is not directed towards you, I’m sorry if you felt attacked, specially because of something as trivial as your opinion on show (no one deserves to be attacked just for having a different perspective nor opinion) with that said, what I meant to say is that:

I’ve seen too many people express the same sentiment of wanting the diamonds to get shattered and using their redemptions (which goes along the themes and philosophy of the show) as a way to illustrate how the show is “bad” or “harmful” and what I don’t think they understand is that maybe their idea of what is better is also subjective, some people may find the way the show handled it’s themes harmful and triggering and how they feel about it according their own views on the situation are valid and they should be respected and it’s the same for people who liked it.

Maybe there is someone who would have been devastated or triggered if they saw characters like the diamonds or the Crystal gems getting killed off because it resonates a lot with their own experience, and the same could be said the other way around, sometimes the way it was handled is not going to be for everyone and that’s Ok.

.

[tornrose24]

What’s the use of feeling? (Red Diamond AAU drabble)

(Contains mentions of abuse.)

(Also, we still have yet to meet this mystery sister in the series, so I don’t know what her actual personality is supposed to be like. Also thank god for YD’s helmet since that’ll help everyone imagine their version of the sister for this).

Original Gem AU (as well as zircon!George, sapphire!Harold, and peridot!Melvin) belongs to angerydj.

Alexandra belongs to me.

All of Homeworld knew that the Diamond siblings were like night and day. Yellow Diamond was cold, focused, and rarely showed a soft side, while Blue Diamond was more easy going, yet could be alarmingly harsh if he needed to be. Yellow Diamond only surrounded herself with trusted allies, while Blue Diamond took on a female jasper as a wife and they each had a hand in creating their own child. It was universally agreed that they were both better rulers than the long deceased Red Diamond, yet like any siblings, they too had their issues with each other behind closed doors.

“I thought I told you to stop coming here, Blue!” Yellow Diamond snapped at her brother upon finding him in a red hued chamber where numerous gems were bubbled.

“I understand, but...” Blue Diamond sighed. In a moment of weakness, he found his older brother’s destroyed palanquin on Earth, reflected on times long lost to him, and ended up speaking with a human who somehow found her way to it. Surprisingly, she showed no fear towards him and seemed to empathize with his loss of a loved one. He was so moved by her compassion that he couldn’t help but take her to the human zoo out of a need to protect at least something good that came from Red Diamond’s planet.

Little did he know that the same human and her daughter were hiding in that very same room, trying to look for a way out while staying out of the diamonds’ sight.

“You not only insist on keeping the zoo around, but you still haven’t bothered to shatter any of these gems!” Yellow Diamond scowled at the bubbled gems. “All of them were subjects who rebelled against him or did nothing to aid him!”

“I know but they’re still among the last we have of Red.” Blue Diamond took a random bubble and examined it–it was hard to tell what gem was inside it at his current size. “I don’t think he’d want us to get rid of them.”

Both Edith and Alexandra stared in shock at all the bubbled gems. There were perhaps hundreds of them–how long had they been like this?

“What are you talking about?!” Yellow Diamond snapped. “Our brother never cared about anyone but himself! Sure he might of wanted to spare the humans at one point, but we both knew he’d just want some as pets! That’s why we made the zoo, which we only kept around for experiments that failed! A lot of gems on Earth made it clear that he was a terrible ruler, and many of them were his enemies! So why would he go out of his way to want to save those who failed him?! He deserved to be called a monster and you know it!”

“You and I know that’s only because Mother–!” Blue Diamond began to snap, but stopped himself. Red Diamond may have been created first, but White Diamond saw him as someone to torture and humiliate for reasons not clear to him or Yellow. There was no way Red’s behavior was completely his own fault... or so Blue wanted to believe.

Alexandra felt her mom’s grip on her shoulder tighten up. She looked up to see her mother looking unusually angry and there was a flash of pain in her eyes as she overheard the diamonds. She touched Edith’s hand, causing the woman to flinch and realize where she was before they could continue their escape.

Yellow sighed and pinched her nose. “What’s the use of feeling, Blue?” She asked. “You  want to employ those subjects who destroyed him? Yes we miss him, but you have other things to worry about. You have a purpose to focus on–the sapphire has clarity, an agate keeps others in line, a lapis terraforms, and even your own son was given a purpose.”

Ah yes, Blue Diamond’s son. Yellow Diamond never liked the entitled brat–he was given to Red Diamond as a way to try to help him out on Earth. But Blue Diamond spoiled the jasper and Red Diamond let the young gem do as he pleased, only for the gem to get humiliated by members of the rebellion and end up in Yellow Diamond’s court. Jasper came to her with bubbles containing gems who were supposedly the families of at least two members of the rebellion and expected a promotion (he didn’t get it and of course threw an embarrassing tantrum that would have made a toddler gem’s look tame in comparison). She sent him to aid an insufferable little peridot, but had no clue why he hadn’t come back yet.

If Blue had more better behaved children, or if Red had showed interest in having any, she would have loved the idea of being an aunt. Instead she shook off those thoughts and tried to face the present. “You need to be a leader and focus on a plan of attack.” She continued. “Look forward, don’t look back!” She ripped the bubbled gem from Blue Diamond’s grasp and tossed it away.

Neither diamond saw the bubble head right towards Alexandra and Edith. It bounced where it landed and almost on instinct Alexandra couldn’t help but grab it.

Blue grimaced and turned away, which only angered his sister. “You think you’re the only one whose still mourning?” Yellow snapped. “Not a day goes by that I regret that we caved in and let him have Earth. But do you see me moping about it all the time? So tell me why? What’s the use in feeling–?” Yellow Diamond couldn’t help but remember in that moment–giving him the planet as if trying to shut up an annoying toddler. Once upon a time she had loved him dearly, but after White Diamond pushed him too far–

“What’s the use in feeling?”

She clutched the edge of the railings of the chamber as memories she tried to bury threatened to overcome her.

Those memories of times she and Blue watched Red getting pelted with various objects at the command of White for doing things that displeased her. The taunting that he’d always be a failure every time he tried to please their mother. Him screaming as he was dragged to that tower with no windows for being out of line while she and Blue did nothing out of fear for angering their mother. Him gradually lashing out and tyrannical over others because it was all he had when there was nothing to rule over for him. Him throwing fits that she’d respond back with indifference or with harshness because she had no clue how to else to respond.

“What’s the use in feeling?”

Those memories of times when she should have turned her focus on helping Red Diamond properly heal or help him get back to the once happy gem that he had been in her earliest memories. Instead she and Blue focused on their own tasks and personal happiness until a red quartz–

“What’s the use in feeling–?!” Yellow stopped herself with by humming a melody as a way to calm herself in stressful moments. 

Blue walked over and placed a hand over her shoulder. She grabbed his hand back. There were no words needed to be said.

Neither of them saw Edith and Alexandra running out of the room. Though Edith couldn’t help but shoot one last sympathetic look at the diamonds while Alexandra hugged the bubbled gem to her chest.

****

The rest of the escape wasn’t easy but it ended with an agate that was humiliated and left at the mercy of many amethysts who were eager for some much needed payback. 

When everyone was back on Earth, the young gems and Alexandra gathered around the gem that she had taken with her. The number of gems had slowly been growing and Edith was thankful that they all had a place to go close by since she couldn’t fit them all under her roof. 

Yet it was a moment of anticipation–who would come out of the gem this time?

In a flash of white, a small gem with wild curly hair in a long dress revealed herself. The star on her head band indicated that she was once part of the rebellion.

“Moonstone!” Almost instantly the gem was swept into a huge hug by Bo the bismuth. “We got Moonstone back!”

“Where am I?” Moonstone’s voice came out in whisper like tones. “Did we win?”

“We did! You won’t believe it but we did!”

Edith took in the excitement of all the gems (though Melvin was very indifferent since he never was friends with Moonstone), but there was one who was faking it. Harold wore a smile, but there was a hint of frustration in his eye that confused Edith until she remembered.

He was hoping that Alexandra had brought back Pink Sapphire. Much like the diamonds, the yellow sapphire deeply missed his own sibling.

It appeared that Alexandra noticed the sapphire’s expression as well, but she didn’t say anything. If mother and daughter had their way, they would have taken more than one or at least checked to see if Pink Sapphire was among the bubbled gems in that room.

Edith thought back to the diamonds. She remembered everything that Benjamin told her about his family, but she couldn’t believe she’d ever see them in person. Though honestly it had been of a scare for her to be kidnapped and placed in a ‘zoo’ of humans who all seemed very eager to be partnered up with her (Benjamin would have been rendered speechless at her outfit, but she was positive he’d have thrown the hugest fit imaginable if he knew where she had been taken).

 It appeared that despite Benjamin’s beliefs, both Edith’s brother and sister in-law had missed him all this time and her heart went out to them. Yet she couldn’t dare come out and tell them the truth–she couldn’t risk those gems taking her daughter away from her forever. Especially if White Diamond was truly as horrible as Benjamin made her out to be.

If a station full of trapped humans and bubbled gems was all that was left of Red Diamond to Blue and Yellow Diamond, Alexandra was all that was left of Benjamin to her.

Trust me I wanted Heidi to be the gem instead of Dressy, but it didn’t feel like the timing would be right.

[andrewmoocow]

Steven Universe Alternate Future chapter 2: Guidance (originally published December 14, 2020)

Author's note: I think I'm gonna try releasing new chapters every Monday, for Part 1 at least. Anyway, here's Guidance.

Synopsis: Steven helps the students of Little Homeschool get jobs, but they're not very good at them.

Cast:

Zach Callison as Steven, Onion

Michaela Dietz as Amethyst, Blue Lace Agate,

Ian Jones-Quartey as Bixbite, Snowflake Obsidian

Michelle Maryk as Larimar

Aparna Nancherla as Nephrite

Charlyne Yi as Doc, Leggy, Army

Amy Sedaris as Teal Zircon

Kimberly Brooks as Zebra Jasper, Cherry Quartz

Natasha Lyonne as Smoky Quartz

Colton Dunn as Mr. Smiley

Dave Willis as Andy

--

On another lovely day in Beach City, Amethyst was walking along the boardwalk with a blindfolded Steven into Fish Stew Pizza. "Okay, two steps to the left." Amethyst instructed him as the two stepped into the pizza shop. "There's a chair right behind you." Steven did as he was told and sat down across from his sister figure. "Sit down aaaaand….okay."

When Steven undid his blindfold, he found himself inside Fish Stew Pizza with Amethyst in front of him and another Gem making pizza for them. "TADA!" Amethyst exclaimed with her arms excitedly spread out.

"Fish Stew Pizza? What a nice surprise." Steven giggled amusedly. "I mean, it has been a while since we last been here."

"No, that's not the surprise." Amethyst corrected him. "Notice anything different?" She gestured over to the Gem working with Kiki Pizza, perfectly slicing the toppings to pieces with utmost grace, laying them atop a crust that was put into the oven by Kiki.

"Oh, hi Steven!" the crab-like Gem greeted Steven.

"Bixbite? Is she working here?" Steven asked Amethyst.

"Yeah dude, and she's crushing it!" Amethyst answered. "Bixbite is an expert on slicing and dicing, and now she can put those skills to good use in a pizza parlor."

Another pizza came in fresh from the oven courtesy of Kofi, and Bixbite obediently brought it over to her friends. "Order up you guys!" she declared while setting the pie down. "So, any thoughts?"

"That's awesome!" Steven gasped at the pizza in awe of how well-made it was.

"Check out that 'za brah." Amethyst agreed, shapeshifting her hand into a ruler and a protractor to measure Bixbite's cuts. "Each slice exactly the same length, 45 degrees." She concluded, and then took a slice to eat. "Wow, pure perfection! I almost feel bad for eating this! You made me proud Bixie."

"Thanks for the compliments you guys." Bixbite thanked the pair. "And I couldn't have gotten here without you Amethyst."

As Bixbite walked away, Steven took a slice of the perfect pizza too. "I didn't even know she wanted a culinary career."

"Yeah, we talked a lot about her interests and experiences the other day." Amethyst revealed. "Then I set her up with Kofi, and here we are. Bixie is just the beginning y'know. I've been wanting to do something big for the school, so I've been helping Gems get human jobs, and everything is going amazing so far! I call it Gem-Human Excellence Mentorship, or G.H.E.M for short."

"I get it, like Gem." Steven came to a realization, much to Amethyst's mild frustration.

"No, I said Gem-Human Excellence Mentorship." Amethyst corrected. "Anote the H."

Suddenly, a Ruby clad in a suit and sunglasses burst through the door and let out a war cry while tearing off her sleeves, revealing the gemstone on her left shoulder before regaining her composure. "All clear my mayor."

Another Ruby dressed in the same clothes entered Fish Stew Pizza, wearing her shades over a yellow visor, by somersaulting into the room and stood alongside her compatriot. "All clear too." She repeated before allowing Mayor Nanafua to enter the pizza joint.

"You got Rubies in your program too?" Steven asked. "And why those Rubies in particular? I mean, they didn't try to kill me like Eyeball and Navy did, but they're still a little intense. Especially Army."

"I just found them to be a little more agreeable compared to those two." Amethyst replied while Doc & Army surveyed the area and Leggy helped the mayor to a chair. "Anyway, I got them working as bodyguards for the mayor."

"How many other Gems have you given jobs?" Steven asked again.

"Glad you asked!" Amethyst replied with a smile, and took Steven outside to show him her progress.

--

Amethyst took Steven from Fish Stew Pizza all the way to Beach City Funland, where she showed him just how many Gems she got to work there.

"Blue Lace Agate?" Steven gasped, seeing Blue Lace working at the ring toss booth and using her horns as targets, before discovering Biggs Jasper operating the Ferris wheel and Crazy Lace Agate handing out balloons. "Biggs? Crazy Lace? Have the Quartzes taken over Funland?"

"Yeah, I've been understaffed for so long so it was about time I had a few extra hands." Mr. Smiley said as he appeared behind the two Crystal Gems. "It could take a whole army to keep this park running!"

"An army?" Steven became worried, but then became distracted by what was going on in the sky.

"Hey check it out, Nephrite's doing some skywriting!" Amethyst cheerfully pointed out Nephrite drawing Steven's face in the sky with the smoke from Steven's cousin Andy's plane. "With all her experience flying dropships, it was only natural she do skywriting. Heck, she might even be better at flying than Andy! Still a bit of a perfectionist though."

As Nephrite crossed out her drawing, Steven began getting a little concerned with Amethyst's idea while they walked through Funland. "Um, Amethyst, isn't this a little on the nose?" he asked.

Amethyst however didn't pay him any mind, and instead pointed towards a pair of Gems giving a snowcone to the mayor. "Oh oh, look! Snowflake and Larimar found an ice-related job on the boardwalk!" she shouted while Snowflake Obsidian summoned a large pillar of ice for Larimar to scrape at, and the shavings formed a snowcone for Nanafua to enjoy.

"I still don't know about this." Steven muttered bemusedly.

"About what?" Amethyst asked him. "Everyone's doing pretty fine here."

"I mean, ice Gems doing ice jobs, pilot Gems piloting and guard Gems still guarding." Steven pointed out. "These are basically the exact same jobs they did on Homeworld."

"I swear Stee, these are totally different!" Amethyst nervously assured Steven, only for Leggy to walk by and prove her wrong.

"Wow, these jobs are exactly like what we once did in the old days." Leggy said before she high-fived Army.

"Thanks for the help Amethyst!" Army yelled to Amethyst.

"These are the jobs they wanted, I swear!" Amethyst continued nervously.

"Well sure, maybe they think they want to do this stuff," Steven explained. "but it's still up to us to get them out of their comfort zones!"

"I dunno man." Amethyst objected. "Comfortable can be good too."

"Bear with me for a bit here." Steven declared, and walked towards Snowflake and Larimar. "Hey you two, I just wanted to know what your duties were back on Homeworld."

"I dug ice trenches for the army!" Snowflake answered.

"And I made ice sculptures for the Diamonds!" Larimar added. "You should've really been there for some of my finest work, it was some of the best I've ever car-"

"So is ice kinda your default mode?" Steven cut Larimar off.

"Uh, yeah." Snowflake stated, sharing a look with the smaller Gem. "I mean, with a name like Snowflake Obsidian, what else do you think I do?"

"That's not the point I'm trying to make." Steven said. "Did you ever try doing something else?"

"Like filling ice trenches?" Snowflake answered, just as Nephrite coincidentally flew overhead on Andy's plane, giving Steven an idea.

"How about flying a plane?" Steven suggested.

--

Steven and Snowflake followed the plane to an open meadow where it landed. When Nephrite noticed Steven waving her down, she jumped out to see what was up.

"Hey Steven, what do you need?" Nephrite asked him.

"I'm gonna need you and Andy to talk with Snowflake here for a bit." Steven said, bringing attention to the Obsidian behind him. "I want to get her out of her comfort zone for a bit, so I think maybe she'd like to fly a plane."

"You sure about this kiddo?" Andy asked his cousin worriedly. "I mean, I already got a fine pilot right here." He patted Nephrite on the back, which gave her a smile. "But then again, I'll try anything once. Come on big guy."

Snowflake sheepishly got on the plane with Andy and began for take-off. "I don't snow about this." She punned while the flying machine quickly flew away.

"What's that, can't hear you!" Steven cried over the sound of the engine turning on and the plane finally leaving for the skies. "Have fun!"

--

Next, Steven took Larimar by the hand to the Appalachian, where Cherry Quartz was currently working. "I have an idea for you Larimar." He said to the little ice-carver. "You could operate the Funland roller-coaster. It's a great job, and you get to help people have fun."

"He's right, though I'd really like to actually ride it myself." Cherry agreed with Steven.

"Oh, what is that wonderful noise?!" Larimar asked excitedly while the coaster riders cheered from the adrenaline.

"That's just the screams of joy from everyone on this old thing." Cherry answered proudly.

"Human screams are my favorite of Earth's delights!" Larimar exclaimed happily. "I'll take his job, so I can hear them screaming forever!"

"Okay, that's a little creepy." Steven beamed nervously at Larimar's off-putting enthusiasm. "But I'm glad your heart's in the right place."

"One day, I shall make you scream Steven." Larimar said, before she was taken to the coaster's control room. "I suppose this must help it function, correct?"

"Yeah, you just pull the lever up and down to either speed it up or stop it." Steven instructed. "Why don't you give it a shot?"

"Give me the screams!" Larimar shrieked eagerly, pulling the lever up and making the riders yell louder, while Steven returned from the control room to see Amethyst waiting for him.

"See Amethyst? With just a few small changes, your plan is working even better than before!" Steven claimed, but the overcooked Quartz wasn't buying it. "Don't look so worried, let's go help more Gems!"

--

Much to Amethyst's dismay, Steven went around the town assigning the Gems new jobs far more different than the ones Amethyst gave them.

Instead of working at Funland, Ocean and Zebra Jasper were taken to work at Fish Stew Pizza. Bixbite, meanwhile, was now selling balloons. Army was now selling flowers, Teal Zircon was dragged out to become a taxi driver, Nephrite now worked selling snow cones, and Amethyst was still powerless to stop Steven.

"Wow, sure feels good to be helpful." Steven congratulated himself as he sat at a table at Fish Stew Pizza. "Hopefully everyone can get more experience outside of their comfort zones, but for now, I think I'm beat."

But just when Steven thought he could relax after a job well done, he instead got a pizza to the face. "Order up!" Zebra Jasper cried while she tossed more pizza at Steven and began messily cutting the pies up.

"Delivery, delivery, delivery!" Ocean Jasper yelled as she delivered pizzas by throwing them at passerby's outside.

"Here you go, and I'll take that." Leggy said to a downed person, handing him some flowers and taking his wallet. "Here you go." She added to a woman covered in pizza before taking her purse, and then triumphantly holding up the valuables while setting them on fire. "Yeah, mission complete!"

While Bixbite was handing out balloons, Ocean Jasper threw some pizza at her head, causing her to pop some of her merchandise and let the rest fly away. "Oh no, not the balloons!"

The balloons floated towards Andy's plane, giving Snowflake a shock and causing her to cover the aircraft in ice, making it lose control while the two screamed in fear.

Back on the ground, a car driven by Teal Zircon beeped loudly while it crashed into a lamppost, to the anger of her passenger. "Apologies sir, I have no idea how cars work." She apologized to her customer, who simply walked away in a huff. "Aw come on, not even a hug to make it up to you?!"

As Steven witnessed all the chaos he had accidentally created, he had only one thing to say. "I've made a huge mistake."

--

"Hit me with another Nephs." Amethyst ordered Nephrite to make her a syrupy snowcone at the arcade, oblivious to the chaos outside, when Steven came running in. "Oh hey Steven, want some?"

"No Amethyst, I need your help!" Steven panted in resignation. "Our brilliant plan is basically kaput. I tried to help all the Gems get out of their comfort zones, and look what happened!"

"See Steven, this is what happens when you don't listen!" Amethyst declared accusingly. "You didn't listen to any of my ideas today!"

"That's not true; the Gem mentorship thing is a great idea!" Steven tried assuring his friend.

"It was a great idea when the Gems were doing what they thought they were best at," Amethyst continued. "but then you came in and told everyone what you think they should do! Even me!"

"I was wrong." Steven admitted. "I should've put more trust in you with the program. I don't know why I thought I could just take it over like that! I'm so sorry for today."

"Well, I'm glad you came around Steven." Amethyst accepted his apology with a hug. "Cause right now, I think we have our work cut out for us."

Outside, Teal Zircon was trying her hardest to fix the car she crashed, but to no avail. When she noticed Steven and Amethyst looking at her, TZ changed her tune immediately. "Hey guys! Don't worry, I have this totally under control!" The car then burst into flames. "I'm being serious. Totally under control."

"Yeah, I can see." Steven replied sarcastically to Teal. "So what do you say Amethyst? Want to help me unhelp everyone I've helped?"

"Yeah, alright." Amethyst replied before noticing that Snowflake and Andy were close to crash-landing. With no time to lose, she dragged Steven by the arm out of the arcade, and they formed the chubby half-human fusion Smoky Quartz. "SMOKY!"

Summoning their yo-yo, Smoky Quartz tossed it at the plane and wrapped the string around its tail, but they accidentally cause the tail to break off and make everything worse. "Uh, oops."

While the plane kept spiraling out of control, Smoky bounded off Teal Zircon's destroyed car and summoned another yo-yo to keep them airborne. A third yo-yo was tossed soon after, forming a net that caught the plane and allowed Smoky to return it to the ground safely. "Hey guys, you cool?" Smoky giggled at their pun. "Get it, because of the ice?" The giggling soon ceased and they started panicking. "Anyways, I'm so sorry! You okay?"

"I'm fine." Snowflake answered while clambering out of the plane. "Except that I now have a fear of flying, so there's that."

"Seriously, my life flashed before my eyes for a bit." Andy added, adjusting his flight cap. "Good thing you came in for the save."

"Phew, thanks Uncle Andy." Smoky let out a sigh of relief before they turned to the havoc at Funland. "Gotta run, roller coaster on the fritz!" With that, Smoky made a run for the amusement park, in the process putting out the flaming car with the wind, where the Appalachian had now spun out of control.

"These are not the screams I was hoping for!" Larimar cried, unable to regain control of the ride.

Smoky Quartz began running faster as the coaster started to fall apart, all while having an inner argument with themselves. "Seriously, we're not gonna make it in time! C'mon, faster!"

"If you can save the universe Steven, then I can sure save a roller coaster!" Amethyst declared through Smoky.

"But saving the universe took time!" Steven replied hastily. "I don't have any time, and I sure won't take thousands of years to save this!"

As more of the coaster began falling apart, Smoky was in full panic mode. "Agh, what do I do?!"

"I don't know, I don't know!" Steven replied through their fusion, just as panicked. "Just give me a second!"

Suddenly, Smoky began turning pink thanks to the parts of them that came from Steven, and they suddenly started going even faster than before. Or rather, everything became slower.

"Whoa, cool!" Smoky gasped in amazement at their new form just as they made it to the Appalachian in time and jumped onto the broken rails. "Gotcha!" they exclaimed, but then they noticed how slow-moving everything and everyone had now become. With this sudden new power of slowing down time, Smoky decided to use it to their advantage.

At the front were Sour Cream and the ex-Mayor Dewey, whose hat was flying off his head from the intense speed. "Whoa okay, that goes there." Smoky muttered, putting the hat back on Mr. Dewey while borrowing Sour Cream's phone to take a picture of the three of them with, before returning the device to its owner. "Okay everyone, last stop!"

Smoky quickly got to work, taking all the humans out of the coaster, and safely returned them to the ground. As they were all tossed out of the ride and back onto the pier, they were dropped incredibly slowly due to the intense slowing of time. When Smoky rescued the last of the riders & safely returned them to the ground, time finally returned to its normal flow and they were no longer pink.

"Everybody's all safe and accounted for!" Smoky stated. "Now onto saving that coast-" They were too late to save the roller coaster as it went off the rails and launched off the broken rails into the ocean. "Ah well." They muttered. "Sometimes you can save the people from the roller coaster, but you can't save the coaster itself."

The coaster then combusted in the water, leaving a massive mushroom cloud in its wake. "And that's okay."

--

Later that day, Steven and Amethyst had successfully returned everything to normal and treated themselves to snow cones as a reward. Steven was mostly silent throughout, but Amethyst was ecstatic at how they had controlled time earlier as Smoky Quartz.

"Dude, that was intense!" Amethyst exclaimed. "We basically slowed time just like in one of those manga Lapis reads, but I'm bummed that it didn't come with the power to summon steamrollers. We were going so fast; everything almost came to a screeching halt!"

"Yeah, that was pretty nuts." Steven giggled anxiously.

"It was awesome!" Amethyst added, still super excited. The two of them looked around to admire what they fixed. Bixbite was back to working at Fish Stew Pizza, Nephrite was flying with Andy again, Teal Zircon swore never to drive a car again and the Rubies had now returned to defending the mayor.

"Now that I look at it, you were pretty spot-on with everyone's jobs." Steven confessed. "It just makes me wonder, you think I'm a bit too controlling?"

"Okay, maybe a teeny bit." Amethyst admitted to Steven. "As for me, I didn't just guess what everyone wanted to do. I actually sat down with all these Gems and asked what they wanted. Everyone has had a crazy history, so I felt they should be able to choose how they feel and what they should do in the future. I feel like I finally know what I needed to do; I just needed to figure it out for myself. But now, I feel like I'm just as good at helping Gems decide that for themselves."

"Yeah, you're right." Steven agreed.

"So, what about you?" Amethyst asked Steven. "Now that things are starting to settle down, what do you want to do? Come on, let's talk about your future! The doc is in, first session is free!"

"Thanks Amethyst." Steven laughed lightly. "But I don't know. I still want to help people, but I think I might be losing my touch."

Just then, Steven felt someone tap his shoulder, and he turned to see Larimar standing before him, with a large stuffed bear poorly hidden behind her. "Hello Steven, it's me, Little Larimar!" Larimar greeted Steven. "I got you a surprise. Can you guess what it is?"

"Uh, no." Steven answered, clearly noticing Larimar's bear, but he decided to play dumb to humor her.

"It's a teddy bear!" Larimar announced as she presented the bear to Steven, who took the toy kindly.

"That's so nice Larimar, thanks." Steven thanked Larimar. "But why did you get me this?"

"I got this for you as a way of saying thank you." Larimar responded. "I know I'm not great at handling the roller coaster, but I find myself excelling at giving things to others, like handing prizes to children! Oh, their joyous laughter warms me so. It sounds kind of like screaming!"

Steven and Amethyst were a little weirded out by Larimar's comparisons, but they were still happy she found something that made her happy.

"I think these Earth children quite like me too." Larimar continued. "I never felt so happy in my life."

Steven and Amethyst's nervous expressions turned into sweet smiles, but as the destroyed roller coaster drifted past them in the ocean, Steven made a shocking realization. "Oh my gosh, we forgot Onion!" he panicked seeing Onion still in the coaster, and Onion gave him a little wave, which eased Steven's nerves. "Eh, I'm sure he'll be fine."

--

Thanks for joining me for another chapter of Alternate Future. Like in Regular Future, Little Homeworld and Guidance were merely appetizers for what's to come, because the next chapter will be where things get really interesting. It will be a fusion of Rose Buds and Volleyball, and we'll even get our first hint of something, or someone, plotting against Steven and Era 3. What am I even talking about? Well, tune in next week to find out!

[dagmartoons]

(Under the cut is my goodbye to Steven Universe that I wrote out earlier today.)

It's kind of hard to put into words how much Steven Universe means to me.

I still remember the day it premiered in England. I had seen ads for it on TV and in comics I got at that point (I actually thought Amethyst and Garnet were boys at first; oh how wrong I was). I remember watching Laser Light Cannon that day and just being blown away by the animation, backgrounds, music, story and characters. From that episode onward I was hooked. From that episode onward I loved Steven Universe.

I remember the day I first saw Steven the Sword Fighter and being so scared that Pearl had died. I remember the first time I saw Mirror Gem, all these questions about this mysterious new gem named Lapis Lazuli filling my brain. I remember going online to find songs and videos and clips from episodes that hadn't aired in the UK yet. I remember the day I discovered Garnet was a fusion from one of those 107 Facts videos. I remember the first time I heard Stronger Than You was from a YouTube cover. I remember the Summer of Steven, meeting Bismuth and hearing It's Over Isn't It for the first time. I was so in awe of that song I emailed a video of it to my sister saying it was the best song in the series. It's still one of my favorites.

I remember the night my sister and I discovered that Rose had shattered Pink Diamond. I remember the night I learned that the theory I thought up until that point was so ridiculous and impossible because there's no way Rose was actually Pink Diamond was true. I was speechless. I squealed at Ruby's proposal, I was stunned by the wedding episode, I drew fanart of White Diamond as soon as Legs From Here to Homeworld dropped on the app because I thought she was so creepy and cool, I was scared, overjoyed and just amazed at Change Your Mind that I thought "how is the sixth season even gonna work at this point." I remember seeing the movie when it premiered with my sister, just being so emotionally spent by the end of it and downloading the soundtrack on Apple Music the first chance I got. I remember the Future reveal and being so excited and so scared at the same time for what could possibly happen next. I remember whisper-screaming "holy shit" when Jasper was shattered.

I have so many memories and experiences tied to this show. When I discovered Peridot was my birthstone not only did she become my favorite character (she still is), but I made my own gemsona as well as ones for my sisters. I first envisioned one of my oldest OCs looking like Lapis. I’ve found ways for so many of this show’s songs to fit in my own projects. In one of my old sketchbooks there are at least two pages with just photos of backgrounds from Steven Universe glued on them because they inspired me so much. I started to understand what being LGBT meant thanks to Steven Universe. I watched countless fanmade videos back when I was first really getting into YouTube and dreamed of making my own someday. I don't think there's a show out there that has inspired me and made me as emotional as Steven Universe has, and there likely will never be one like it again.

I think it's safe to say Steven Universe has surpassed the original Powerpuff Girls as my favorite TV show of all time. I doubt there will be another show in the near future with the same level of music, story, characters, themes and animation as Steven Universe. I'm writing this the day before the finale airs so I have no idea what's coming or how it's going to end, but whatever happens I will always be thankful to this show and the people who worked on it for making the last seven years of my life a truly amazing experience.

To Rebecca Sugar, thank you for creating this show and taking me and many others on such a beautiful ride.

To Ian Jones-Quartey, Kat Morris, Jackie Buscarino, Hillary Florido, Lauren Zuke, Ellie Michalka, Jasmin Lai, Ben Levin, Matt Burnett, Jeff Liu, Katie Mitroff, Steven Sugar, Takafumi Hori, Kevin Dart, Lamar Abrams and the rest of the crew past and present, thank you all for everything you did to make this show as beautiful and compelling as it was.

To Zach Callison, Deedee Magno Hall, Michaela Dietz, Estelle, Grace Rolek, Tom Scharpling, Shelby Rabara, Jennifer Paz, Susan Egan, Patti LuPone, Matthew Moy, Kate Micucci, Charlyne Yi, Erica Luttrell, Kimberly Brooks, Lisa Hannigan, AJ Michalka, Uzo Aduba, Christine Ebersole, Sarah Stiles and the rest of the phenomenal cast, thank you for making these characters so memorable and their songs so powerful. I almost met Zach, Deedee, Michaela and Estelle at a con last year but was busy meeting other people and missed my chance. Maybe someday I'll get to meet them, as well as Shelby and Jennifer.

To Aivi & Surasshu, Aimee Mann, Mike Krol and everyone who contributed music, thank you for inspiring and moving me so much with the music you composed for the show and introducing me to musical styles I never really thought of before.

And last but not least, to everyone in this fandom, whether they make their own content or not, thank you. The show may be over but as long as we are all here loving it it will never truly be gone. I know there's plenty of fan content here to tide us over long after the finale.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you Steven Universe for all that you've done for me and countless others.

I know I'll continue to believe in Steven for the rest of my life, and I hope you all do too.

[belphegor1982]

…it’s done. Finished. My monster Mummy fic, the one I started in 2003, started publishing in 2004, and left dormant since 2008 – I finally completed it o.O Weirdly (or not), this is the chapter which gave me the most trouble, if you don’t count chapters 16 and 17 (which took me 2 and 16 years to write, respectively). It was hard to say goodbye to this story and these characters, even though I knew I literally just had to get an idea for another story :-/

FAIRY TALES AND HOKUM

Summary: 1937: Two years after the events of Ahm Shere, the O’Connells are “required” by the British Government to bring the Diamond taken there from Egypt to England. In Cairo, while Evelyn deals with the negotiations and Rick waits for doom to strike again, Jonathan bumps into an old friend of his from university, Tom Ferguson. Things start to go awry when the Diamond is stolen from the Museum and old loyalties are tested… (story on AO3; on FFnet)

(Chapters on Tumblr: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)

Chapter 24: Departure (on AO3 here; on FFnet here)

London, September 1937

A little off Paddington Station, almost in Marylebone, was a small pub called the Stars and Crown, its red brick façade almost exactly similar to the others along the street. It was an unassuming little affair Jonathan liked to patronise every now and then, and not just because it happened to be situated not too far from his flat.

It was a balmy mid-September late afternoon and one of the double doors was wide open on the quiet street. Jonathan and Tom were seated by one of the stained-glass windows, drinking – G&T and a ginger beer, respectively – and talking. Jonathan, remembering the promise he’d made after blowing up Hamilton’s lorry, had bought the rounds.

But for small details like the mostly healed-over scratches on Tom’s hands, the old scar in Jonathan’s left palm, and all the subtler little ways the past two decades had changed them, they might as well have been twenty year old students again.

Well, apart from the subject of their conversation.

��I got off easy, if you ask me.”

“Nonsense. You were the only one who tried to fix this bloody disaster. It’s only fair that you didn’t… You know.”

“…Pay for my mistakes?”

“That is not what I meant and you know it.”

Tom gulped a mouthful of ginger beer, still looking glum.

“I suppose – I know – I should be grateful I didn’t end up like Hamilton, at least.”

Jonathan winced.

Charles Hamilton had made it back to England in a slightly better state than he had made it out of the pyramid, but that wasn’t saying much. From what they had heard, he was lucid for about an hour a day, and that was it – and not very coherent at that. Which made the fact that he allegedly hung himself in his cell a week before his highly sensitive trial very suspicious indeed. The man didn’t appear capable of putting on his trousers on his own, let alone do anything as complex as a slipknot.

The Lord Chancellor’s Department had issued a statement half-heartedly lamenting Hamilton’s demise, the newspapers had stayed surprisingly quiet about it, and Evy had fumed for an entire fortnight. And that had been it. Hamilton had taken the gentleman’s way out. Case closed.

At least Gabriel Baine had been tried, convicted, and sent behind bars for a lengthy period of time. Jonathan didn’t particularly care where he was, as long as he could be elsewhere.

Baine had stated a few times that there hadn’t been anything personal about shooting and ordering his men to shoot Jonathan, Rick, and Tom. Jonathan had silently begged to differ. Baine’s shouts of “Kill them” followed by the sudden excruciating pain in his back, not to mention the confusion and terror as he fought not to die and lost, had felt pretty damn personal.

Tom stared into his glass for a while, then looked up with a brighter expression.

“But enough about this fiasco. How’s your family? I seem to remember your sister’s birthday was coming up, you were lookin’ for a present when we bumped into each other at that bazaar. Did you find one, in the end?”

Jonathan perked up. “I did, actually. Got her a signet ring. She seemed to like it.”

Now that memory he would treasure as long as he lived.

An inventory of his pockets had revealed a hodgepodge of small trinkets which he was still trying to trace. The little medallion with the amethyst cameo must be early Regency, stolen by the pygmy mummies from some unfortunate Napoleon soldier’s corpse; the lapis earring was probably from the Ramesside period (a few Rameses had sent their armies to find or reclaim Ahm Shere, Jonathan had found); the couple of gold and silver rings bearing the Roman SPQR were a little incongruous but easy to chalk up to Julius Caesar’s expedition. There were also some 4th Century Persian coins, proving Alexander the Great’s men had also reached Ahm Shere – the Oasis, anyway – and a number of little amulets from various Egyptian expeditions, mostly heart scarabs made of red and green jasper, copper, quartz, bronze, or gold. He hadn’t determined the nature of the green gemstone yet, saving it for last.

Jonathan had been so excited by his find that he hadn’t gambled a single object. Tracing their origins took time, but he had not even told Evy about it yet. Instead he had not only called on every scrap of expertise he had concerning treasure, but also on every book he could lay his hands on. Evy would have been very surprised – not to mention highly suspicious – if she learned how much time he had been spending at the British Library lately.

He had always enjoyed a good riddle. For some reason this one looked promising enough to justify doing some actual work for. Besides, having the artefacts authenticated meant he would be able to get a much better price selling them.

The only thing he had parted with was the (probable) Napoleon coin, the soft gold nibbled almost beyond recognition by the pygmy mummies’ teeth. Another look at it the morning after his resurrection had given him an idea.

Before they left the Medjai camp, Jonathan had obtained from Ardeth a sketch of Nefertiri’s personal cartouche and the address of a talented goldsmith in Cairo; once back in the city, he had wandered down to Kerdasa, the coin and the folded paper safe in the inside pocket of his (whole and clean) jacket.

Just before he reached the little shop, however, he heard a yelp and a startled cry, and was knocked off his feet by something large and hairy. His vision was filled by long camel’s lashes and lips drawn back on long yellow teeth in what Jonathan might have taken as a smile if he hadn’t known better.

Why did every single camel have to have such foul breath, he wondered.

“ʾAhlan1, Djem,” muttered Jonathan with a sigh that was half annoyance, and half amused resignation.

And was astonished when the camel immediately disappeared from view, replaced with a familiar face. Satiah’s big brown eyes went wide when she saw him.

“Oh, it’s you, bāša2. Hello,” she said with a smile.

Jonathan got up and dusted himself off, irritation quickly fading away. The jacket could survive a little dirt; besides, Satiah’s smile as she hung on to Djem’s bit had lost some of its previous shyness. Considering how fearful she had been the last time – and who could fault her for that, really – it almost made getting knocked over by a foul-smelling bag of hair and wind worth it.

“Good morning, Miss Satiah,” he said in Arabic, picking up his hat from the ground so he could salute her with a flourish. Her hand flew to her mouth to hide a giggle. “It’s a stroke of luck finding you, really. I wanted to thank you for your help the other day, and for, er…”

He reached his limits of the language, and finished in English, “I mean, thank you for returning my wallet to my sister. That was very kind of you.”

“You’re welcome,” Satiah said in Arabic, her cheekbones a little pink. “I’m glad you and your friends got away from those men.”

Jonathan’s smile slipped a notch or two, but he rallied quickly enough.

“Yes,” he said just a little wryly, “we did, at that. In the end.”

He cleared his throat. “Well, I’ve just reached my destination,” he added, pointing to a door above which hung a sign saying something about gold in painted Arabic script, “so I’m going to wish you a—”

“You’re going to see Cousin Ashar?” Satiah interrupted, her eyes shining. Immediately afterwards she clamped both hands on her mouth and cringed. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s all right. Small world, eh?”

She gave a small smile and led the way into the shop, stopping only to tie Djem to a post.

Ashar – the goldsmith Ardeth had recommended – was a tall, wiry man with a long face, his hair going grey at the temples. He welcomed Satiah warmly and sent her to the backroom to get what she came for. Before she closed the door, she gave Jonathan a little friendly wave, which he returned with a smile. Ashar gave him an odd but not hostile look, eyebrows raised.

Jonathan placed his order, left the coin, and was about to leave, when Ashar called him back, frowning slightly.

“You’re one of the O’Connells, aren’t you.”

Jonathan’s mouth opened and closed as though of its own accord.

“You could say that, yes,” he said finally. “Why?”

“Because word of the second raising of Anubis’ Army made it to Cairo recently.”

This time Jonathan’s mouth dropped open and remained like that for a handful of seconds. Ashar gave something that was almost a smile.

“Not all of us wear the ritual tattoos, you know.”

“I do know,” Jonathan articulated with only the slightest difficulty. Dr Hakim was a Medjai, and his face was devoid of any tattoo as well. Dr Bey had been the same, now that he thought of it. His gaze went to the door that led to the backroom. “Satiah, too…?”

“Yes. But her mother’s family has lived in Cairo for fifty years. The girl has never seen the desert. She will get good schooling and find a trade, inshallah3. The time for living legends is coming to an end.” Ashar looked at the cartouche Ardeth had drawn for reference. “I know what this says. Who the name belonged to. Your commission is either a hollow trinket or a great gift.”

Jonathan drew himself up and said, as dignified as he could, “I’m rather hoping for the latter.”

His own signet ring had been gambled and lost in some card game or another, years ago. His parents would have been so disappointed had they still been alive. The least he could do was make sure his sister had a ring of her own, one that paid tribute to the woman she was and the woman she had been, three millennia ago.

Evy’s reaction when she opened his present proved him right, and even surprised him.

She stared into the box long enough for Jonathan’s brain to go into overdrive. Her silence made him panic ever so slightly. Then she looked up at him, her eyes very bright, lower lip trembling.

Jonathan barely suppressed the need to shuffle like a schoolboy and buried his hands into his pockets, hoping his face didn’t give too much away.

“I know I wasn’t… there – or, you know – then,” he said, almost sheepishly. “But I thought… Well. I hoped you’d like it. The cartouche must be right, I got it from Ardeth, and the goldsmith was a bloody good artist, as it turned out, but—”

Evy cut him off by launching herself at him and flinging her arms around his neck, throwing him off balance. As usual, Jonathan stumbled, but managed to catch her in the end.

“It’s perfect,” she whispered into his neck. “Thank you, Jon.”

If his smile was a little wobbly, his eyes a little moist, nobody seemed to notice. Rick and Alex had picked up the little box; Rick’s face lit up in strange recognition, while Alex deciphered the cartouche slowly and grinned.

“Nice one, Uncle Jon. That’s a pretty good present.”

“Yes, about that,” said Jonathan irrepressibly while Evy broke away and wiped her eyes, “I hope you realise that this is the last birthday present you’ll ever get from me, old mum. Since – judging by your reaction – nothing I could give to you could ever top this, I have decided to simply refrain from trying.”

Evy had slapped his arm and called him an idiot with a big smile, then hugged him again. And he had hugged her back, just because he was alive and able to.

The ring hadn’t left her finger since.

“Jon?”

Jonathan was abruptly pulled back to the present, the Stars and Crown, and Tom’s curious smile across the table.

“Hm?”

“You were a thousand miles away.”

“Sorry about that. What about you and Lizzie? Dorset been treating you well, I hope?”

Tom shook his head with a smile.

“It has, sort of, but we’re moving to Oxford. Did Liz tell you she’d been replaced while she was gone?”

Jonathan nodded. Lizzie disappearing for two weeks had not gone unnoticed in her little town, but since the police didn’t have the beginning of a clue and nobody was able to reach Tom, they had moved on to other things and her boss at the telephone exchange had hired someone else. There had been a subtle but definite irony in Lizzie’s letter as she described her and Tom’s return and the scrutiny they’d had to stand up to in order to prove her husband hadn’t killed her and stashed her body away – or vice versa – before his former Chamber of Horus hierarchy stepped in to explain things.

“Well, they needed an operator at the exchange on Pembroke Street. And you know the interview I had this morning at Whitehall? I won’t be too far, as it turns out.” Tom took a deep breath, then said with one of the goofiest smiles Jonathan had ever seen on his face, “I’ll be workin’ from the Bodleian.”

This could only mean one thing. Jonathan grinned.

“The British Antique Research Department accepted your application, didn’t they? Congratulations, old chap. That’s fantastic.”

He downed a mouthful of his G&T and laid an elbow on the table, his chin in his hand.

“Haven’t been to Oxford in almost fifteen years,” he said thoughtfully. “Not since Evy finished her degree. I wonder if the city’s changed.”

“It’s Oxford,” said Tom quietly, looking like his mind was straying down the same path Jonathan’s thoughts were. “I can’t imagine it’ll ever change that much.”

Jonathan smiled quickly into his palm. Then he raised his glass.

“To the two of you, then. And to publicans hopefully not holding grudges, otherwise we’re still banned from half the pubs in Oxfordshire.”

Tom snorted and raised his own glass, now almost empty. “To the three of us, and testing that theory sometime. And let’s not wait two decades this time,” he added with a twinkle in his eyes.

The two glasses clinked.

For just a second, the decades fell away, and Jonathan was twenty years younger.

Lizzie was already waiting for them on the platform by the time they finished their drinks and walked back to Paddington. She carried a shopping bag that looked entirely too small compared to what should be expected of a woman who’d just spent a few hours in the old metropolis. Tom raised an eyebrow.

“Didn’t you say you planned to go to Harrods while we were in London?”

“I also said I only needed a new suit and the latest Agatha Christie novel,” she said, light teasing in her tone. “The next one will be out sometime in November, I think. Have you heard what the title will be? Death on the Nile, of all things.”

Jonathan gave a mock shudder. “I might just give this one a miss, then.”

The train’s whistle pierced the air, cutting the rest of the conversation short. Tom picked up his wife’s bag and Lizzie turned to Jonathan with a smile.

“Goodbye, Jonathan,” she said softly.

The use of his first name had always been a signal that the game was paused and the masks were off, as clear as a referee blowing halftime. Jonathan answered in kind, his throat just a little tight.

“Goodbye, Elizabeth.”

They hadn’t even actually said ‘goodbye’ last time. They had just stood there, she leaning out the train window in her brand-new nurse’s uniform, he and Tommy on the platform amidst the soot, the steam, and the throng of people, until the train departed. The memory was an old hurt that still twinged sometimes, like his left shoulder when the weather was bad.

He cleared his throat and smiled.

“See you on the next Christie novel, then?”

What Lizzie did next might have shocked twenty year old Jonathan, who thought he knew her well, and as such very much surprised his current self, who had a little too much experience of the world to truly get shocked anymore. She took his hands in hers, flying in the face of propriety and what had been her rules of conduct in public, and kissed him on the cheek near the corner of his mouth with an aching sweetness. The old Lizzie, so shy and unsure of her self-worth that she was terrified of what people may think, would have been appalled.

It had taken a while for Jonathan to truly grasp how much the years had changed Tommy and start thinking of him as ‘Tom’ to account for that change. Through this apparently simple gesture – simple only to someone who didn’t know Elizabeth Ferguson, née McAllister – Lizzie became ‘Liz’ in an instant.

“I can’t bear to think you died,” she said, her voice shaking ever so slightly. “When I think… Without that – that book…”

She took a deep breath. Tom caught Jonathan’s eye and gave a small nod. Of course he had told her. Knowing Liz, she’d take the secret to her grave anyway.

“Take care of yourself, Jonathan, please. The world would be so dreadfully dull without you in it,” she added with a tentative smile, to which he replied with a smile of his own, one that hopefully looked steadier.

“Likewise.”

Her hands tightened around his. Just for a second or two, he softly ran his thumb on the back of her hand, an echo of the old intimacy that used to bind them; then their gazes fell away, their hands separated, and the moment was over.

Tom held out his hand with a smile, and Jonathan’s mind was whisked back to that sunny afternoon in Cairo, almost two months ago, and a chance encounter that had reshuffled the cards in a major way. Tom’s handshake was slower this time, steadier, warmer.

“Bye, Jon.”

“Cheers, Tom,” said Jonathan, determined but failing to swallow the lump in his throat. “Have a pint at the Oxford Arms for me.”

Tom nodded, and added his left hand to the handshake, not saying anything. He didn’t need to. As usual – almost – everything he meant to say was on his face and in his eyes for the world to see.

The train let out a burst of steam. Tom hastily let go and made for the train door, stopping only to help Liz aboard. Jonathan looked wistfully at the train for a minute and was about to turn around and go home when he heard his name being called over the din of the locomotive and the running gears chugging into motion.

Tom and Liz were leaning out of a window, wearing identical wide smiles. Liz was waving, her other arm wrapped tightly around her husband. The light in her eyes and her curly hair whipping around her face made her look like the girl from Jonathan’s memories.

“Send my love to Evelyn!” she called. “And say hello to your brother-in-law for me! You’re all welcome anytime for tea!”

“I’ll make sure they know!” shouted Jonathan as the train gathered speed.

The blatant disregard of platform etiquette made several passers-by turn and stare at him with a touch of glower. Jonathan ignored them and kept his eyes on the departing train. Tom’s and Liz’s beaming smiles remained in his head a long time after they had gone back inside the carriage.

He would see them again. This time he was determined not to leave the possibility of a reunion to chance and the vagaries of life. They had been through too much – both twenty years and two months ago – to just go their separate ways.

Besides, Jonathan mused as he left Paddington behind to wade through the bustling streets, he still had some research to do before he set out to sell the objects he had found at Ahm Shere. The Bodleian Library was as good as the British Library; at least he didn’t risk meeting Evy there and being subjected to her prodding curiosity, which he wasn’t ready to face yet. At least not before he unravelled the mystery of the little gemstone. It looked like an emerald and felt vaguely familiar, as though he had seen it somewhere or heard a story about it.

This required some investigation, if only to be prudent.

After all, he was particularly well placed to know that you can only go so far on fairy tales and hokum alone.

THE END

.⅋.

1(أَهْلًا): informal “hello”, “hi”.

2باشا (bāša): “sir”, “mister” in Egyptian Arabic.

3ʾin šāʾa llāhu, (إِنْ شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ‎) – literally “if God has willed it”, “God willing”

Don’t look for the Stars and Crown in Paddington, or the Oxford Arms in Oxford. Unlike the Turf Tavern they’re entirely fictional.

Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile was indeed published on 1st November 1937. I couldn’t resist, I mean, come on ;o)

The Bodleian Library is the main research library in Oxford and one of the oldest in Europe.

If you’re wondering, yes, that little gemstone might be the basis for a sequel of sorts, but I haven’t really started to plot it. Considering my track record for these things you might see that story sometime in the next decade and a half :P

Writing and publishing Fairy Tales and Hokum has been such an adventure. I was 21 when I started writing it; now I’ll be 38 in four days. Much as I miss the old crowd of 2003-2006, reposting and updating the story here on AO3 allowed me to know some awesome people. I’m so glad these characters somehow – FINALLY – sneaked back into my head and my heart again with their quirks, their (updated) backstories, and their voices and allowed me to finish this story the way I wanted to. Like I’ve said before, whenever you started reading this, I hope you had a good time now that you’ve reached the end. If you’ve read and left a signed comment – if you’ve read and left an anonymous comment – if you’ve read and left no comment at all – know that I wrote this for you and I hope some of it made you smile.

Take care of yourselves, love you all, and see you on the next fic? :o)

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

What is your view on the relationship between White and the other diamonds? Do you see her as their "mother" or "sister"?

Okay, I’m gonna go on a TANGENT, so I apologize in advance, I’m sure you did not ask for this, but I wanted to get it out of my system and this is a good chance to talk about it. 

TL;DR on the bottom. 

My view on it is a very stubborn “stop trying to assign human relationship terms to aliens who do not have that culture”. 

I understand that to us, humans, it’s very important to have that comforting context of ‘it’s this thing I understand and have experience with!’ and slap it onto the character. It helps us frame their intentions, their actions, and gives us a fake certainty that we understand them better than we do.

But it’s simply not good enough. 

To assign a human characteristic to a creature that doesn’t have a concept of ‘birth’ and ‘family’ in the human sense is like pointing to a queen bee and saying ‘that’s a mom’ because it makes you feel better about how you view it. It’s kinda the same as anthropomorphizing animals in order to relate to them. It’s a thing we do in order to better conceptualize the world around us, and it’s compulsive, but it’s not always helpful. 

I try very hard to a avoid using the terms ‘mother’ or ‘sister’ for any of the gems because unless the gems have had contact with human culture and can self-assign these terms to themselves, it’s pointless to try to categorize them into boxes they don’t even fully understand. (Amethyst can decide to call Jasper ‘sis’ because Amethyst grew up on earth and understands sisterhood. Pearl and Garnet and Amethyst can call themselves Steven’s moms, because they know what a mother is and can self-assigned themselves that term.)

White isn’t a mother or a sister to the other diamonds. She has characteristics of both of those - but just having characteristics isn’t good enough to specifically be that thing. She is something in between - maybe arguably the closest term that fits her ‘overall’ would be ‘family’ because that’s vague enough to encompass how they function in a group. But I think it’s difficult to pin them into one or the other. 

This is why I have such frustrations about people who cry wolf at ‘diamond shipping’. Because regardless of how they act, Blue and Yellow aren’t truly ‘sisters’. Because regardless of how she acts, White isn’t really a ‘mother’ - not in the sense that you and I are programmed to think about the concept of a ‘mother’. Because you are trying to force human characteristics on very non-human characters for the sake of feeling like you’re in control of the concept of the character, when the truth is much more complex and interesting than a single human-created word.

Which is, I’m sure, not the answer you were looking for. 

TL;DR: They are neither. I don’t like shoving aliens into human boxes for the sake of simplifying the narrative into something more digestible. 

Anyway.... if you’re looking for a meme-able answer, then... idk. I like it when their relationship dynamics in other AUs become ‘pink - baby’ ‘yellow and blue - overworked mothers who desperately need break from baby’ and ‘white - kinda mom to both yellow and blue but also mom to pink in a really awkward, multi-generational way’. 

[nunaya-business]

Let’s Talk About Steven Universe

*WARNING* This … “essay” has my opinions only. I am not speaking for the community, I am speaking for me because I like to express myself and there are people like @susanaaatc​ out there who like these kinds of discussions. So if you want, I’d like for others to give me their whole opinions on the show as well. Hell make a whole post about it like I did and tag me in it so that I can see your opinion. With all that stated, let’s get down to Bismuth.

So Steven Universe came out in 2013 and I was 11 years old at the time. I liked Regular Show and Adventure Time, not to mention I was obsessed with Rise of the Guardians and Monster High, so I was a bit preoccupied to watch the show. Eventually though, my best friend at the time talked about it constantly and she brought up the concept of fusion. She showed me the art book of the show that she bought and it showed how two completely different gems could fuse into one gem to become stronger. This is where my interest started, and it was the same concept that started pushing me away from SU later in it’s show run. 

So fusion in Steven Universe is mostly treated as a relationship, and it’s not always just romantic. It can be between two friends, it can be seen as a more sexual relationship between two gems, a romantic relationship, or a parent-child relationship like with Steg (Steven and Greg’s fusion). This is an amazing concept and I love it so much but… I’m not here to talk about what I like, I’m here to talk about what I dislike. 

One of the best characters in the show is Garnet. Garnet was revealed in season 2 (I think) to be a fusion between the two tiny gems Ruby and Sapphire, and Garnet is the manifestation of their love. She’s an amazing example of not only a healthy, respecting, and loving relationship between two people, but also is an amazing example of a healthy same-sex relationship. You see, Steven Universe uses “code” to represent something like race, gender, and age… But we’ll get to that later. My problem isn’t really with Garnet herself, but what Rebecca and the Crewniverse has made her in to. Many have said it before, and I agree. After her reveal as a fusion, Garnet was no longer the cool, collected, fun-in-her-own-way “mom” we knew before, she turned into a fusion, and a symbol for fusion, and a representation… of a fusion. After the reveal, all the crewniverse seemed to view Garnet as… was a fucking fusion! She lost a lot of personality in the 3rd and 4th seasons in my opinion and was really only used in the plot when it had something to do with fusion. To me it’s like having a friend group with only one Asian friend and the rest a different race, and then only inviting the Asian friend to hang out when you’re going to watch Anime, or a Kdrama. It’s a bit racist is it not? Just because you can relate a character to something in the plot does not mean that character has to be there. Maybe instead of putting Garnet in every fusion episode (with the exception of “Earthlings”) just mention her. She doesn’t have to be in every damn episode that has to do with the subject. 

A lot of people have an issue with Bismuth… and I can understand that. Let me explain why. “Coding” is what a creator of any media does to give the consumer an idea of a character’s personality, race, age, gender, etc, without it being too obvious. Off the top of my head I’ll state what I view the “coded” characters as.

 Garnet, Sapphire, Sugilite, and Bismuth are coded Black.

Amethyst to my knowledge is coded Hispanic or Latina or something like that.

Pearl, the Diamonds, Opal, and Rose Quartz are coded White.

Rainbow Quartz and Aqua Marine are coded White and British.

And I’m not sure about Peridot, Lapis and Jasper are supposed to be coded as.

So the race thing has brought up some issues. In the official artbook that I mentioned earlier there was a concept design for Concrete and the design was a little… oof. People weren’t very happy… lemme just show you.

So obviously people weren’t happy that good ol’ Concrete here looks like a blackface character from the early 20th century animations. And I agree it’s pretty bad, but I don’t think it was intentional. 

Some controversial things that come from the show (other than countries like Kenya being assholes and trying to act like LGBTQ doesn’t exist) are the portrayals of two specific characters, who also happen to be fusions, and I agree with most things people don’t like about them.

Let’s start with Stevonnie. Stevonnie is the nonbinary (but let’s be honest she’s a girl) fusion of Steven Universe and his love interest Connie Maheswaran (I had to look up how to spell her last name smh). They’re supposed to represent Steven and Connie’s closeness as best friends and their growing crushes on each other. Rebecca Sugar has also stated that they’re a representation of puberty…. Excuse me? Puberty must have went swell for you Sugar. There’s someone who made a video about why they hate SU, that person being the ever controversial Lily Orchard, and she covered why Stevonnie is just… honestly she’s waifu bait. I agree with probably everything Lily says about this character because… it’s true. Puberty seriously ain’t pretty, and it sure as hell ain’t sexy until after it’s done… sometimes. Also, Sugar is contradicting herself saying that the Crewniverse isn’t sexualizing two very under age kids because Stevonnie is Steven and Connie’s ages added up… which would make the fusion 26 years old… that’s a bit old for puberty Rebecca. It feels to me like they wanted to make a sensual character, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but they didn’t really want to add a new character so they just put the two love interests together. But that’s so fucking wrong. I’m sorry, but sexualizing Stevonnie, which they are doing btw, I will make a post if you question it, is like people shipping siblings or an underage person with someone way older than them and saying “it’s totally fine because they’re just characters” (*cough cough* Ereri *cough cough* Hitachiin shippers *cough*). If you’re going to use that excuse, but then get angry at people who don’t take the character seriously because they are just a cartoon, then you’re a hypocritical asshole. Sorry to tell you. Stevonnie is a very good character overall though. I’m just uncomfortable when they appear because they’re two kids in a trench-coat with curves like an anime schoolgirl and moves like someone who just successfully seduced a poor guy into giving them the secret to the Crabby Patty formula.

Now let’s move on to Steg, the fusion between father Greg Universe, and son Steven. There’s nothing wrong with them fusing because fusion in SU symbolizes a relationship, no matter what kind. However… why do two chubby men make a sex symbol rock idol??? That’s… that’s gross. Why the fuck is Steg so “hot”? Why on earth would you create a fusion out of a father and son and think it’s appropriate to sexualize them and make them gyrate their genitals like they’re an Elvis Presley impersonator? Just… WHY? Do I even have to explain why this is so wrong? Really? Honestly??? You can fuse Steven and Greg and not make it so sexual, but nah let’s give them rock hard abs, a humongous bulge a sharp jawline that neither of the two have, and a tight ass. What the actual fuck?? 

That’s not my biggest issue though. My biggest issue is giving the Nazi bitches a redemption ark smaller than my nonexistent cock. Endeavor from My Hero Academia is an absolute prick right? He abused his children, notably his youngest, and his wife, and is an absolute asshole to everyone, but he gets a redemption arch. Do you know why it makes sense though? First off because as far as we know Endeavor never committed genocide, and second because he’s not a Nazi, he’s an abuser. Abusers, whether we like to admit it or not, can eventually see the error of their ways and understand that what they’re doing is both wrong and that it doesn’t work. Endeavor is getting a redemption arch because he obviously loves his kids, he just doesn’t know how to show it because of some circumstances we may not know. 90% of the time an abuser was abused themselves growing up, so they grow up with that resentment and they go one of two ways. They see how wrong it is and knows that it won’t get them anywhere in life if they bully others to stay on top, or they think that since they went through it and came out alive, then others should go through it too. I should know, because my dad was from an abusive family, and he turned out fine(ish… long story) while his brother and sister are pieces of shit that can’t hold a job or a home because they’re too involved in criminal activity to do so. 

What does Endeavor from MHA have to do with the Space Nazi Diamonds in SU? Well people were sending Horikoshi Kohei death threats because he had the gull to redeem an asshole, and SU fans are pissed because Rebecca Sugar had the lady balls to “redeem” space Nazis. The difference being, you can be redeemed if you were an abusive cock, but not if you’re a genocidal bitch. There’s a huge difference. 

Rebecca and the Crewniverse giving the Diamonds a 4 episode redemption arch is absolutely abominable. Peridot’s redemption? Fucking amazing, beautiful, couldn’t have done it better myself. Jasper’s? It’s currently going amazing and they’re doing a great job keeping her in character while also making her likable and even a bit charming. Lapis? Oh… let’s talk about her shall we?

Lapis Lazuli’s character is an absolute disaster. She’s a cunt, she’s a horrible friend, and my god is she abusive! Lapis was supposed to be a sympathetic character, and for a while she was. You could feel bad for her because her gem was damaged and she was trapped in a mirror for thousands of years and when she’s finally released, you understand her want to go back home and why she took the Earth’s ocean to try and reach it. It was understandable when she didn’t want to break out of the prison ship because she was anxious and scared of being locked away for another thousand years. It was easier in her mind to just behave and wait. When Jasper convinced her to fuse with her Lapis didn’t really want to, but saw an opening for the freedom of the humans and mostly for Steven, the one person who saved her from hell. But then everything went south.

Lapis and Jasper were fused as Malachite for months, obviously in a very stressful “relationship”, and apparently a very abusive one as well. When they were finally able to unfuse, Lapis was played off by the Crewniverse as a victim of abuse. This may be half true. After all we don’t know exactly what happened with them at the bottom of the ocean. What we do know however is that Lapis admitted to being abusive. This makes her an abuser. She described how it made her feel happy to abuse Jasper, or “taking my anger out” on her. She admitted to abuse and the Crewniverse still painted her as a victim. They’re both victims of abuse, and they’re both abusers. But that’s not what makes Lapis a horrible person… gem…

Lapis is a cunt… again. It’s okay to be antisocial, it’s okay to be cautious and stand-offish because you’ve been trapped, imprisoned and used so many times. What’s not okay is being a bitch to people trying to comfort or make friends with you, or try to cheer you up. Poor Peri, she was just trying to make amends and comfort Lapis after her whole ordeal with Jasper. Peri offered the cunt the thing that helped her organize her thoughts, the thing that calmed her in situations that made her anxious, the thing that comforted her and the first gift given to her by her first friend and the first person that listened to her thoughts, and the cunt destroyed it. She destroyed Peri’s recorder right in front of her, calling it garbage. Oh and the abuse doesn’t stop there, it only really began, because when shit started to hit the fan, instead of helping each other through it, Lapis abandoned Peridot and took the home they shared. Without a single thought she just took it and abandoned her, and it devastated Peri. I don’t remember her apologizing, and if she did it doesn’t matter because if I don’t remember then it must not have been very sincere. 

I’m sick of spitting negative shit so I’m gonna end this here. Personally I’ve been liking the last few episodes, but I’m not too confident that the finale is gonna be satisfying. Those are my thoughts, do with it as you will, but for God’s sake be fucking adults about it. If you don’t got the guts to curse without saying “h3ll” or “pu$$y” or something like that then you’re not mature enough to respond to this. I’m not gonna argue with 9-year-olds. I’ll only have a conversation with mature people.

[jean-arclight]

Helping Steven

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

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

1} The Crystal Gems

Let’s start off with some familiar characters.

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

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

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

2} Connie

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

3} Greg

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

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

Lapis

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

Peridot

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

Bismuth

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

5} centi

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

6} Sadie & killer suspects

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

Sadie

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

Sour Cream

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

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

7} Lars of the stars

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

8} Andy

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

9} Lion

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

10} the diamonds

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

Blue

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

Yellow

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

White

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

11} Spinel

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

12} Volleyball

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

13} Jasper

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

14} Pink Diamond

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

15} Everyone

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

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

[e350tb]

Steven Universe: Marooned Together - Chapter Fifty-Four

(thanks as always to @real-fakedoors for proofreading - and fixing the intro!)

Zircon felt colder than normal. Brittle. Like she'd somehow not managed to readjust her gravity to whatever planet she found herself and was only keeping her form together by the barest of threads. The only dread she'd ever known that could compare to this was from what felt like a lifetime ago, when she'd been charged to defend Rose Quartz before the truth of her identity came to bare; even if it had been under false pretenses, the fear Zircon knew that day was very real. Tangible, like a foot slowly putting pressure against her gem, waiting and waiting and waiting, knowing she wasn't going to survive no matter what she did.

Looking over Holly Blue's camp, she felt remarkably like she had then.

On the surface, it looked idyllic. The waterfall, cascading down from a jagged cliff covered in greenery, poured into the crystal blue waters of a small lake that sparkled in the sun. Around it stood Amethysts and Jaspers, guarding about a dozen humans. Each was clad in an outfit fashioned from leaves and flowers, sunning themselves or swimming or sitting on the rocks in the water. Another half-dozen were in the trees, picking strange blue fruits from the branches. All seemed completely docile, utterly at peace - and all had the same, glassy expression.

“So, uh, where’d the humans come from?” asked Zircon.

“They were supposed to go to the Human Zoo,” replied Jay. “Holly Blue wanted to oversee the shipment personally so that nothing could go wrong. Except we got too close to this planet, and it interfered with the ship, so…”

“How did it do that?” Zircon tilted her head.

“I dunno, you’d have to ask Holly Blue.”

They walked up to a rock path that snaked behind the waterfall into a hidden cave. Jay took the lead, and Gee the rear - Zircon felt more than a little caged in.

The cave was lit by a few fluorescent lights that had certainly seen better days. There were salvaged, weathered banners depicting the symbols of Blue Diamond, but otherwise it was a fairly plain cavern of dark brown, almost black, rock. A small spring, about a metre wide, ran from the lake through the cavern, and on into a tiny crevice no human or gem could hope to fit through.

In the middle, sitting on a tall chair of wood and leaves, sat Holly Blue Agate. Next to her was a small cage; within it, hunched and covered with dirt and what Zircon suspected might be blood, was Jenny Pizza.

Carefully, Zircon adjusted her jacket ever so slightly - the hard light fabric rubbing against the communications device.

“Who is this?” barked Holly Blue, leaning forward. Jay and Gee both snapped to attention.

“A Zircon, my Agate!” Jay replied.

“Yes, I can see that,” grunted Holly Blue. “Why is she here?”

“I cr… I crash-landed, m-my Agate,” replied Zircon, shakily saluting. “Y-your guards found me.”

“Hmm… usually they couldn’t find their way out of a holographic container,” said Holly Blue. “Still, no matter, you’re here. I suppose it’s too much to ask that you’re our rescue ship, hmm?”

“I… no, nobody knows you’re here, my Agate.”

The distant sound of thunder echoed in the cave.

“Well, it might be for the best,” said Holly Blue. “The orbital storm would knock any rescuers out of the sky. No matter, I’m sure my Diamond will come to rescue her favourite Agate any decade now!”

“Orbital storm?” quizzed Zircon.

“Yes,” Holly Blue pouted. “The rain storms on this planet are mirrored by heavy electrical activity in upper orbit. They just about destroyed my ship - I had to jettison most of my cargo.”

“Cargo? What were you carrying?”

“These miserable humans,” sniffed Holly Blue, gesturing to Jenny. “Good for menial labour and nothing else. I spaced what I couldn’t take into the evacuation shuttles, and about half of the rest… do you know they need food to live? Ridiculous. Took us cycles to find sustenance that didn’t kill them.”

She slouched in her chair, rubbing her temples.

“Still, the water here is a boon,” she said. “Makes them docile, makes them dumb, makes them good workers.”

“Isn’t that… so they’re like Pearls?” asked Zircon.

“Yes,” said Holly Blue flatly. “Of course they are.”

“...oh.”

“Well,” said Holly Blue, getting to her feet. “We’ll find something for you to do, I’m sure. But for now, we need to induct this new human. Care to observe?”

“Uh-”

“Good, good!” Holly Blue clapped her hands together. “Pick up the cage, Amethysts, we’re going outside.”

Jay walked over to the cage and picked it up; Jenny spat at her, and the Amethyst recoiled, dropping the cage back onto the floor.

“Careful!” Holly Blue thundered.

“Holly, I-”

Holly Blue drew her whip from her gem and cracked it across the unfortunate Amethyst’s face. She fell to her knees, clutching her cheek.

“I will not have your incompetence damage my labourers,” snarled Holly Blue. “And you will refer to me by my proper title!”

Jay swallowed, standing back up.

“Yes, my Agate,” she said, quietly and shakily.

“I didn’t hear you,” growled Holly Blue.

“Yes, my Agate!” she repeated loudly, saluting.

“Good,” nodded Holly Blue. “The remaining humans should be returning from their work parties shortly. Once they’re here, we’ll initiate their new ‘friend…’”

---

The precipitation in the air was heavy as the other humans returned.

It was clear they were in bad shape. Covered in mud and leaves and more than a few wounds, they nonetheless smiled blankly as they took their places on the shoreline, joining their cleaner brethren as an audience for the coming display. Zircon felt uneasy as she watched them from her spot on a rock in the middle of the lake, gathered with Holly Blue, Jay, Gee and Jenny.

“Why are those ones so dirty?” she whispered.

Gee shrugged.

“They do the harder work,” she replied. “Finding materials for the shelter.”

“Shelters?”

“Holly Blue’s ‘personal quarters,’” Gee replied. “At the top of the cliff. She demands it be kept in pristine condition. Wants a stone sculpture of Blue Diamond carved by the end of-”

“No talking down there!” snapped Holly Blue.

Gee shut her mouth, averting her eyes.

Holly Blue crossed her arms.

“Alright, humans,” she said, in a slow, deliberate voice. “You have a new arrival. She will join you soon. Welcome her.”

The humans cheered - a strange, childish sound.

“I hate talking to them,” Holly Blue hissed to Zircon. “No intelligence whatsoever.”

“Uh… y-yeah, uh, they’re…” Zircon trailed off and nodded vigorously.

Holly Blue clapped once, and Gee stepped forward. She broke open the cage and grabbed Jenny by the arm, dragging her towards the water’s edge.

“Let me go!” she snapped.

Gee didn’t reply, kneeling down by the lake’s edge and grabbing the back of Jenny’s head.

“Sorry ‘bout this,” she said, “but I gotta dunk you.”

“You mean you’re feeding her the water?” asked Zircon.

Jay snorted and Holly Blue rolled her eyes, but Zircon’s apparently dumb question had served it’s purpose - thanks, of course, to her hidden communicater.

“Get ready to take cover, Zircs, we’re coming in…”

Before Gee could dunk Jenny, something burst out of the water’s crystal blue surface. It was Kiki, smiling wildly as she looked into her sister’s eyes.

“K-Kiki?” Jenny swallowed. “C’mon sis, you’ve gotta recognise me…”

“New friend!” she said, her tone bubbly and vacant. “Come join us!”

“Kiki, it’s me! It’s Jenny!”

Kiki tilted her head.

“What is ‘Jenny?’”

For a moment, Jenny was silent.

Then, with a snarled roar, she twisted out of Gee’s grip, rolling under her legs and grabbing her in a headlock.

“You’ll pay for this!”

“Restrain her!” bellowed Holly Blue.

Then, sudden as a clap of thunder, the world flickered with color, movement, noise, a million things all at once.

A round, purple blur burst out of the treeline, slamming right into Holly Blue’s face. It landed next to her as the big blue gem tumbled backwards - it was Amethyst, whip in hand.

“Fam, I don’t wanna do this, but I will if I have to!”

Jay’s eyes lightened up.

“Oh my stars! 8XM!” she exclaimed. “I-”

“You insolent, overcooked little pebble!” spat Holly Blue, jumping back to her feet and swinging her whip towards the interloper. “I’ll grind you into-”

“Nope!”

Bismuth slammed onto the rock, having literally leapt out of the trees towards them. She held up her arm, the whip harmlessly wrapping around it, and tugged - it was ripped out of Holly Blue’s hands.

“Sorry, nobody’s gettin’ ground into sand on my watch,” she said, grinning.

Holly Blue snarled, clenching her fists.

“Guards!” she bellowed. “For the love of Blue, seize-”

The ground shook, and suddenly every drop of the lake’s water was lifting upwards. For a moment, all they saw was a bizarre, upwards flowing waterfall in all directions - Kiki dropped out onto the rock, giggling.

When it cleared, Beryl hovered over an empty lake, arms outstretched, a giant bubble of water hovering above them.

“Let these people go, Holly Blue,” they snarled.

Jay and Gee glanced at each other.

“...yeah, I’m not fighting that,” said Jay.

“So, how ya doin’, 8XM?” asked Gee.

“Pretty good,” replied Amethyst jovially. “By the way, you’re gonna wanna move.”

She pointed up. The bubble was getting colder, it’s surface lightening as it gradually turned to ice. In mere seconds, it had turned into a giant, frozen boulder, hanging right above Holly Blue’s head.

As everyone else on the rock cleared off, Holly Blue glanced to the far side of the lake. There stood Sapphire, her face completely stoic; but the ice that froze the grass around her betrayed her true emotions.

“Ruby was hurt because of you,” she said calmly.

The boulder dropped, and all Holly Blue knew was darkness.

---

The storm was drawing closer.

On the surface, it resembled a typical monsoon, with heavy, flooding rain and strong winds. But only a hundred or so feet above was the electrical storm. Lightning danced amidst clouds so thick a person couldn’t see their hand in front of their face, as impossibly strong gusts created miniature airborne tornados. This continued as such for another several thousand feet.

Above these clouds, in the atmosphere, was the orbital storm - a deadly cloud of electrical currents, magnetic interference and crushing gravitational forces. It was a maelstrom so powerful that no ship could ever hope to survive contact with it.

This unstoppable natural force would be on top of the Crystal Avenger within the hour…

[nixienotes]

Flower Fairy Glamour Water 🌸🧚🏼‍♀️💐

Here’s a little glamour water I made to celebrate the Pink Full Moon in April 🌸🌕💖

I intend to charge this in the moonling tonight and then keep it in my makeup bag to charge all of my beauty items. It can also be use it as an anointing potion and can be dabbed on candles, skin, charms, and more! You can change this to make it any way you like but I was inspired to make a glamour that gave off the same ethereal glow of wood nymphs or flower fae caugh dancing just beyond the wildflowers near a stream ♡

Have a small jar, bottle or vessel ready at your workspace/altar.

Choose which candles you’d like to use. I chose a large grapefruit pillar candle and a small pink ritual candle to charge with. The grapefruit is for confidence and self love, and used the pink candle for its color correspondences to love and beauty. I also wanted to keep the theme generally pink for this particular full moon🌸

Pick which scents you want to work with. I used an old tea light oil burner and a perfumey scented oil called ‘Fantasy’ gifted to me by my sister ♡

Choose which crystals and stones if any that you’d like to help charge the water. I chose quite a few and arranged them in a grid around the candles. You can pick whatever you like and whatever speaks to you the most. I used stones for their affinity in love, beauty, romance, fidelity, fertility, honesty, self empowerment, confidence, reduction of anxiety and nervousness, promotion of blood flow and energetic reception. I also chose stones that I thought were particularly pretty or spoke me. These included:

-Lapis Lazuli

-Onyx

-Blue Anhydrite

-Clear Quartz

-Pink Quartz

-Rose Quartz

-Cherry Quartz (Quartz encased Cinnabar)

-Peacock Ore

-Garnet

-Red Jasper

-Amethyst

Decide what herbs and charms you’d like to include in your water. Gather them and have them ready. I decided to go with the following:

- Magenta colored Hydrangea - Love attraction, fidelity, favor of the fae

- Dried Lavender - Encourages and strengthens pure love, sharpens the mind, peace and harmony

- Dried Rosepetals - Love, romance, beauty, fidelity, lasting relationships

- Purple Coquina Shells - Symbolize butterfly and fairy wings 🧚🏻‍♀️🦋

Set your intent and start to add the components together. I did this by lighting the candles, incense, charging the grid by ringing zills around it while I quietly meditated my intent. I also set an ambience with specific music and then started to put the herbs and seashells in one by one. Occasionally I would take a flower petal and place it in the candle’s flame. Alternatively you could make and burn sigils for this.

Let the water charge until the ritual candle finishes burning. I’m also going to charge it in the full moon light overnight. So by morning it’ll be ready to go!

That’s that! Feel free to change your recipe and theme to make it more personal to you! Let me know how this works for you, and happy full moon to you all 💕

———

[valorousowl]

RE Spinel as a mirror

Spinel being abandoned and neglected does not absolve her of guilt any more than Pink being abused does. That hurt needs to be addressed and fixed. I think in part, Spinel not being on earth is the right first step. Spinel needs to learn how to interact with people again and the Diamonds need someone to practice on to become the ideal Steven has taught them. This may not be healthy long term but it’s what they all need as a next step. Unhealthy coping into healthy coping into long term healthier habits. She should not be instantly forgiven for what she’s done but I do think, she really would have made things worse on earth by staying since she right now only knows how to lash out and hurt. Even her defensive mechanisms are indicative of this. She needs to not be there for their sakes. 

that said, I know why we’re being harsh on Pink. It’s easy to forget how badly she was abused when every week is basically a new problem she caused, we can’t take a minute to stop and breathe and heal when someone else is coming to rip the bandage off. 

I’m not winning any popularity contests saying it, but it needs saying. 

There’s a reason it’s called “the cycle of abuse”. The Diamonds abused each other, and themselves, for the upkeep of a tyrannical imperialist system. They abused Pink when she didn’t match what they wanted. They abused countless gems to this end. And Even in trying to break free of that system Pink couldn’t help but regurgitate what she’d learned, even if she was trying to pass down a softer punch. She did her best but she did not have the capabilities to understand what she really needed to do or what was right before she met the Humans who had a whole new way of living. She did on some level want to be different, as seen with how she treated her own gems, her creations. 

So softer punch, certainly not to the extent of her sisters/mothers/diamonds but Pink still punched down. And a lot of people got caught in that, all of her devoted soldiers after her “death”, Jasper, Spinel, Her Pearls, Amethyst, Bismuth and Garnet and the humans. But she tried. It doesn’t excuse the abuse she put others through, or the suffering she caused but it makes sense.

So that brings us to Steven. 

I can make a promise I can make a plan I can make a difference I can take a stand I can make an effort If I only understand That I can make a change You can make it different You can make it right You can make it better We don't have to fight You can make an effort Starting with tonight 'Cus you You can make a change

Steven is actively bucking the system. He was raised in a moderately healthy home. He had a father and several mother and sister figures who loved him and wanted him to be safe, healthy and happy. Even if they didn’t always make the right choice, they tried to err on the side of making him happy. He is taking the next step forward. He’s forcibly dragging everyone else with him, kicking and screaming. Sometimes he has to stoop to their level. Sometimes he has to use force, because it’s the only thing they’ll understand, but for the most part he uses kindness and compassion even if someone “doesn’t” deserve it. 

In real life, we’d call what he does “emotional labor” and for him, he goes way beyond the point than what’s humanly possible to perform that. He’s a superhero, that’s his magic, fine. It’s understandable that not everyone can or will, but I feel like it’s still something humans should strive for. 

So back on track we’re hard on Pink because she tried her best and when it failed miserably, she pulled back. See the isolation when she met greg or how she stayed away from humans except to protect them. 

We’re forgiving of Spinel because she’s the bandaid of the week getting ripped off and not letting us heal. We’re forgiving of Spinel, because she embodies the phase a lot of us are still at in our healing from abuse. She “can only change for the worse” and wants to hurt people without knowing why. Because if she can be a bad person, she can justify that she deserved being abused. If she can hurt people she can make other people feel what she felt being hurt. If she goes after unrelated people she can get that revenge she wants without fear of retribution from the person that hurt her, because that person will never be held to any standard of justice. Is there any justice in the world that’s enough? Even if they go to jail or are otherwise punished, it feels like “not enough” and also “all my fault” even though they did it themselves. If they die you don’t get closure, if they’re alive they won’t admit their fault and you don’t get closure. It’s so so so so easy to empathize with Spinel to say she did nothing wrong, that she earned this. But she did. She’s still caught in the cycle of abuse, like Amethyst taunting Greg with the image of rose, Spinel is lashing out at everyone but who’s she mad at because she can’t. She needs to work on that and move past it. 

Spinel isn’t perfect by a long shot. She needs to work on herself and make up for what she’s done in the future, and in some ways she never will, but when you hurt people you need to accept that as a possibility. It’s like putting nails into a table. You can pull out the nails, you can fill the holes, but it’ll never be the way it once was, even if it looks like it, and you can’t expect that that’ll be forgiven and forgotten. 

It’s easy to get mad at Pink, cause Steven still has to lean up all her problems. He has to do everything because she couldn’t fix them herself. But I don’t doubt she loved him, wanted more for him than just this, wanted him to be better than her. It’s hard to forgive her, but please don’t forget that she was stuck in the same cycle as well. 

Spinel isn’t perfect. Neither are you or I. It won’t help us recover to pretend like we did nothing wrong just because we were abused. We have to take that next step forward, even though it’s hard, even though thinking it or saying it feels impossible. We have to make the concerted effort to make a better future. If we want happy ever after, we have to keep working. And that’s what the movie ended on.