#she's dressed like blue pearl from su

[artfromaurora]

Day 5 - Draw more figures. Quick gestures and silhouettes. x20, with at least 10 different body shapes. Gestures and poses are kinda my forte nowadays, so this was pretty easy, albeit time consuming. About halfway through, I decided to draw the rest of the gestures as Homestuck characters xD

[fae-sodapop]

The Ladies of the Maw

These are just characters that have like zero connection to LN cannon other than the fact there's a painting of five ladies in the Maw. Please note this js just for fun and is in no way cannon.

A few images were undquashed by this post here

These were inspired by these ripped models from this post here

- Red / Crimson

• "The Patroness"

• "The savior"

• "The Mother"

• "The sun"

Red made the mall is a safe place to try and escape the nowhere's torment. She lived in the nowhere for a long time she didn't remember what the waking world looked like anymore but she knew it wasn't as twisted as the nowhere. She denied that nowhere entirely after growing up and it's torment she took in many children and Green was extremely close to her, she was raised by red and saw her as a mother. She fully intended to carry on her work but as she grew the nowhere started to whisper to her about all the things that could give her if she just killed red. So she did. Red felt nothing but betrayal she watched her broken child devour her.

- Green / Clover

• The Governess

• "My good luck charm" by Red

• "My darling child" by Red

Greenfield mixed feelings about eating red. The nowhere had convinced her that red was selfish and deceitful. She'd hidden things from green. Green became pretty erratic after red's death, she continued to keep kids and (now) adults she grew up with safe. But the thing in her head eventually convinced her that the adults were conspiring against her, so she killed them off slowly one by one. Then they were a threat to the children so she killed them all. The voices said she needed a successor so she took in Blue to "Keep her safe". By now the children were terrified of her so blue was reasonably scared. Green did take care of her but often locked her in a cage and made her sing for hours on end. As blue grew up, outgrowing her cages Green had started killing the children as they were all "evil". She brought them all to what it is today; a gluttonous buffet and a prison for any child.

- Blue / Sea

• The Countess

• "Song bird" by Green

• "My gem" by Green

When Blue was an adult, she couldn't take it anymore so she bashed in Green's skull. She was devastated when she heard hundreds of screams coming from the broken scope she let the mall continue to operate without trying to stop it. Her quarters were filled with beautiful dresses, kimonos, and clothing of all sorts, she often dressed up and tried to put on a beautiful persona. But every time she tried it would only stick before eventually she started to cry and whale again and again, her face staining with makeup and her clothes now becoming messy and dreadful. She took a child from the prison in hopes it would make herself happy, and it did at least for a while.

(chose this one because of the blueish outfit - just fit)

WARNING: Mention of su*cide

- White / Pearl

• The Mistress

• "My Flower" by Blue

• "My light" by Blue

White was raised as Blue's child, she was spoiled with dolls and dresses singing her to sleep, and overall treating her like a doll. White wanted her mother's attention and love real love. She didn't want all the material thanks she was given but if that was all her mother can love maybe if she was like a doll her mother would love her too. She wore a doll mask and dressed in pure White to mask her emotions, but still her mother paid her no mind. Blue songs became less and less comforting over the years as they slowly devolved into screaming and wailing of pain. When white was 20 years old blue hung herself in her quarters. Being left all alone and having no way to manage it white sunk into the mask. She let the nowhere puppet her around, giving up nearly all her autonomy. She took in a child when she was 25, the child was known as Six (the lady). White gave her a mask to hide her emotions so she too could resemble a doll. She doted on her as if she was a doll, brushing her hair, dressing her up, making her dance and sing. However any emotion that she showed besides happiness or content was met with disappointment from White. White often said how perfect dolls were as they never cried, they never complained, they never even talked they were perfect.

- Six (The Lady)

• The Geisha / The Lady

• "Doll" by white

• "Mama" by Torch (Younger)

• "Mother" by Torch

Six was traumatized by all the events that had played out before the mall. The nest, the forest, the pale city, it was all too much for a young mind to handle. So she's silently resigned to the new life. Six grew up with an Infinity for the Dolls and their perfection. I don't have much on her other than when she was going to take power from White she couldn't kill her so she sent her away to the depths of the mall to be tended by the staff. After several times she made amends with mono and they kept in contact with each other through the TV and messenger birds. She is the only lady that has produced a biological successor to her role.

- Torch

• "My little light" by The Lady

• "My girl" by The Thin Man

• "The Little Miss" by the staff

Torch also known as the flashlight girl is the biological daughter of The Lady & The thin man.

Red - Green

- Red was a good mother, but Green was influenced onto a bad path by the Nowhere

Green - Blue

- Blue never saw Green as a mother, she was terrified of her all her life after being psychologically tormented by her.

Blue - White

- Adoptive Mother/Daughter relationship, Blue wanted to be a good mother but she was to busy drowning in her own grief that she was emotionally neglectful to white.

White - Six (The Lady)

- White was raised to keep her emotions behind a mask (literally). She gave a mask to her successor as the only form of support she could give (or what she viewed as support). Their relationship was more like a teacher and student. It's hard to say if it was White or the Nowhere speaking during Six's (The Lady's) childhood.

[snailsdraw]

BIG DISCLAIMER: this is based on these very cool posts by @gordonfreemansphysicsdegree (link 1 here) (OP's OG gems designs link here).

I don't own this AU, I just drew stuff because mind esplosion

[Start ID: 9 pages of user gordonfreemansphysicsdegree's HLVRAI-SU AU doodles drawn by user snailsdraw featuring the Science Team as gems.

Yellow Olivine Darnold in two outfits: the homeworld outfit and the on-earth oufit. The homeworld version resembles a warmer, high-collar version of Peridot's outfit with limb enhancers and a green visor, and features Darnold with a yellow coloured flat top afro and dark orange skin. His gem, which is green and triangular, resides on his forehead. The on-earth version features her wearing a duku headwrap with a star-shaped bow in the front, a yellow visor, yellow gloves and boots, a labcoat with a three-pointed collar like the top half of a star, and a one-piece swimsuit-like apparel separated into two shades of green by an inverted "V".

3 early Gem-Darnold sketches: Darnold in a mish-mash outfit consisting of a scarf, labcoat, a visor, arcade-patterned shirt, polkadot skirt, striped socks, rocket boots, and the headwrap. He is holding a clipboard and pen, and seems to be observing something. Beside that is a sketch of Darnold in homeworld attire, projecting a holographic screen with her floating, limb enhancer fingers. And lastly, Darnold in a labcoat again, looking sheepish.

Banded Carnelian Gordon and human Joshua: Gordon is a fat, bearded, one-armed gem with a ponytail, wearing a rounded visor over his eyes, a hoodie with stars on the ends of the drawstrings, sweatpants, and sneakers. His gem, located on his upper chest, is chipped. Joshua is a wide-eyed kid with floofy, spikey hair in a cowboy outfit with a star-shaped sheriff's badge and toy horse. There's a sketch of Joshua attempting to eat a worm, and another of Gordon looking very tired.

Blue Dumortierite Benrey: He resembles a quartz in uniform and body type, except shorter and wearing a hood. His left hand is hidden behind his back, but a callout drawing shows that there is a raindrop-shaped gem inserted sideways into the back of his hand.

Lapis Benrey: He is a fat gem with an undercut and bangs, and is wearing an outfit that resembles Lapis's, except with tights instead of a skirt. He is sitting cross-legged with his watery wings out, and is throwing a peace-sign, his gem now visible on his left hand and in it's original, flat position. Next to this is Benrey in his earth-outfit, consisting of a cap with a star decal on the side and ear flaps and a ponytail sticking out the back, a crop-top hoodie with a star-shaped open patch on the back, a translucent skirt, and open-toe tights. He's making a kissy face, and is posed with one foot kicked up behind him and a hand on his hip, the other hand flipping his cap ear flap like you would long hair.

Yellow Agate Tommy: He is a tall, lanky gem with hair styled resembling a mound atop his head with rings resembling the agate mineral, and is dressed like Holly Blue Agate with a high-collar, shawl, and high boots. He is standing attentively with his hands in the diamond pose. Beside that is a sketch of Tommy in an oversized Beach City Funland shirt and a propeller hat he'd won at the Funland. He touches the cap reverantly like he's just had a revelation from having fun for once in millenia and this is a turning point for him. Next to that is Tommy in his earth-outfit, consisting of a short puffy-sleeved top with 2 pompoms down the front, a bowtie, a cummerbund, and tights with shoes tipped with pompoms. Sunkist, a corrupted Pearl who resembles a large, masked bird, is lolling her tongue happily while she recieves some scritches from a smiling Tommy.

Corrupted Cream Pearl Sunkist: Originally, she is a Pearl with shoulder-length hair and a curl on her forehead and attire that resembles Pink Pearl's except with a translucent curtain around her shoulders instead. She stands with a foot pointed out in front of her like a ballerina, and her fingers interlocked before her chest. Next to it is a drawing of her corrupted, bird creature form. Additionally, there is a sketch of her after she is newly healed, touching her face in wonderment and tearing up. She now mostly looks like a Pearl, except with longer hair resembling wings, no nose, and an inverted "V" line across the middle of her face.

Green Quartz Dr Coomer: He is an old gem in Quartz uniform with a roundish moustache, a balding head and under-eye wrinkles. His weapon are two huge gauntlets, like Garnet's. A round gem resides on top of his forehead. On Earth, he wears a singlet with ripped edges around the armpits resembling a star-shape, and suspenders with star-shaped buckles. He flexes, showing off his bulging arm muscles.

Fusion-Zircon Bubby: He looks like an average Zircon, just slightly taller and much older, and with two monocles instead of one. His hair droops back in a triangle, and his boxy jacket has unbalanced shoulderpads with two jutting out from one shoulder and only one from the other, and a mis-matched number of line decal on his sleeves and pant legs. He also has heeled boots and a three-pointed hankerchief under his gem - a fusion of several shards of Zircon. He's posed with his head tilted up and hands on his hips. On Earth, he has a balding head with hair also angled in a triangle behind his head. He wears a tracksuit with a big star pattern front and centre. His sleeves and boots are mis-matched in lengths. /End ID.]

I WILL EXPLAIN I only changed Darnold's gem cut because I learned that Olivine is Peridot in mineral form and went oh👀?

Very very interesting HLVRAI 2 AU, awesome times.

[diamcndlegacy]

@thescatteredfcurth

Headcanons for Blue and Steven!

Both as a baby up until his current age he takes naps/rests in her hair loop.

Blue probably had a pocket sewn into her dress for him to rest in or just to make carrying him around easier and safer.

Blue or the other diamonds giving him a holo screen when they need to talk about serious stuff during diamond meetings or just need to distract him. Steven is an ipad kid basically and it started when he was a toddler.

Calls her mama blue since out of all the diamonds blue is his strongest maternal figure. Also think he thinks of white as his grandma.

Pearls are his favorite gem due to having blue pearl and yellow pearl as his main nannies. Blue probably has ordered other gems to make him plushies and dolls of pearls to comfort him and provide him company when their pearls are busy with their work.

Blue was his first word and he took his first steps cause he wanted blue. Basically this scene from bluey.

He's deeply hurt once he finds out he was kidnapped and denied his original family but afterwards in the timeline of su and su future he still maintains a relationship with atleast blue diamond but they have to do work to repair that relationship.

Either your blue not letting the other diamonds place him in the tower or trying to sneak him out.

She brings him lots of stuff back from earth and her various colonies. I like the idea of getting him all the pink toys not knowing about earth's gender roles. So he ends up with lots of barbies and other dolls.

She's the reason he's allowed to keep the off colors in his court.

Blue was with him when the first gem in his court emerged. It was a pink sapphire.

[fandomstars]

If Steven Universe had a brother from….Blue Diamond

Alex Diamond - Son of Blue Diamond

Fandoms: SU + Star Wars (Clone Wars + Bad Batch)

AU where Earth is known throughout the galaxy, just hasn’t gotten as technology advanced like everyone else just yet. No one (pirates/gangs/etc.) invades cause to them there is nothing worth there.

Looks:

Blue diamond on chest (Same shape as BD)

Sea blue eyes

Pale skin

Navy blue color hair

Wears lots of navy blue/black hoodies

Red & white sneakers, green flip flops, dark brown boots, or black dress shoes

In the future, might be seen with a piece of Crosshair’s armor on

Personality:

Smart

Shy

Kind

Caring

Intelligent

Serious

Creative

Powers:

Energy projection

Walk on water

Teleportation (up to a mile distance before exhaustion kicks in)

Healing tears

Fusion

Superhuman strength/speed/durability ( Like Steven)

Self healing (Like Steven)

Bubble shield (Like Steven)

Speed of Descent Regulation (Like Steven)

Skills:

Marital Arts

Writing

Climbing

Speaks all Earth languages

Gem Weapon: Bow staff (like tmnt2012 Donnie but can be taken apart to form nunchucks or a grappling hook)

Family:

Belle (Blue Pearl)

Ruth, Raven, Riley, & River (Blue gem Rubies) (Aqua Squadron)

Steven (Twin brother / cousin (but goes with brothers cause come on)

Pearl

Amethyst

Garnet

Lapis Lazuli

Peridot

Lion

Oreo (pet blue panther)

Bismuth

White Diamond (Still cautious since she almost tore Steven’s gem out of him. Isn’t comfortable yet of calling her ‘family’ nor ‘aunt’ like Steven has.)

Yellow Diamond (Aunt)

Crush: Crosshair

Backstory:

Blue Diamond was seen as flawless, but she had weaknesses. One just happened to be, she fell in love with a human.

It’s been years since Pink was ‘shattered’, and yet despite her rage towards the planet, Blue still came to the surface, in secret.

She’d just visit Pink’s old palanquin, that’s all.

But one day, something, a feeling she thought lost, urges her to go further.

She travels below the ocean floor, her movements not strived towards a point of destination.

She eventually makes it to the U.S.

It isn’t till she explores the area (forests, mountains, rivers) around her does she feel some sentiment that Rose had of this planet.

She decides to have a child. Not just for said child to experience the bound of peace she hasn’t felt since Pink was shattered, but for love.

Lets just say the dad isn’t in the picture.

Blue Pearl assembles her Pearl and a Ruby squadron to care for the child.

While the rest of Blue’s colony moves from Homeworld to the other side of Earth’s galaxy. A pair of twin planets they colonize as basically a gem community.

Of course their both a two days trip notice to Earth if needed.

To ‘fit in’ all of BD’s colonies gave themselves human names. It took awhile, since they all gave each other names starting with the first letter of their gem type.

Some did go beyond Earth names, some even went for Mandalorian if they could.

Which happen to lead to the clones of Kamino.

Of course Belle sends squadrons from the twin colonies (later named ‘Ocean’ and ‘Sea’ Colonies) to free the clones and kick Kamino butt.

Since most of BD colony is diplomacy, it’s easy to get galaxy rights and certification for all the clones.

They also heal and reverse the accelerated aging. And find the inhibitor chip and get it removed (helps arrest the Kaminoians + Dooku + Palpatine revel).

The Clone Wars has already been happening, so many clones get adopted by their Jedi generals.

And in turn, the oldest clones adopt the Cree baby Jedi kids in return.

Which also shuts down the ‘Jedi steal force sensitive kids from families’ rumor. They take in orphan force sensitive kids, and raise them. Only way they ‘take away’ said kids is if the family is toxic/abusive/dangerous. Which by then, a clone is likely to have adopted said kid by the time they reach the temple.

The Ocean & Sea colonies help restore old Jedi temples to be habitable once more, as well as get a planet for the clones to live and develop freely. Lots of support and resources come to said colonies from across the galaxies. Their very persuasive.

All this is all done by the time Steven & Alex are three years old.

The twin brothers meet one another at age one, but at 2 years old, Alex is kidnapped by Dooku.

Took a full month to find him, and despite the colonies be diplomats..they have been exploring other occupations too…and they all are part diplomats part fighters so…

Dooku gets arrested (no one mentioning the clear bruising and black eye as he’s handcuffed).

Palpatine goes into hiding, but not before vowing to obtain Alex and Steven, and use their diamond powers to make him unstoppable.

Aqua Squadron moves in with Belle and the squad to protect Alex (and Steven).

Belle makes another gem temple, underwater near Beach City.

It’s able to go above water so no one has to swim down deep to get in.

After that, the twins have their amazing childhood…until age 12.

Homeworld deals with the Crystal Gems two years earlier due to Belle and the colonies diplomat and other accomplishments.

Due to Alex’s early trauma and shy, quiet personality, Steven is a bit less hyper/naive than in canon.

So filter episodes like ‘Together Breakfast’ , ‘Frybo’ (Alex would of been TERRIFIED), ‘Onion Trade’, ‘Joking Victim’, ‘Steven & the Stevens’, ‘Secret Team’, ‘Garnet’s Universe’, ‘Future Vision’ (Alex kind of suspected Garnet was a fusion. I mean he’s meet many Sapphires on the colony planets, and he literally lives with a group of Rubies.)

Minus ‘Serious Steven’ (If anything it’s more serious than humor) & ‘The Test’

Lapis gets out of the mirror earlier thanks to Belle recognizing said gem.

Eyeball doesn’t hate Steven as in canon (more dislike till PD discovery). Alex though she likes (but would rather shatter than admit it).

Instead of Greg getting kidnapped by BD, everyone just goes on vacation to the Naboo Jedi Temple (let’s pretend there’s been one since forever or if anything was built by the Sea and Ocean colonies cause why not.)

Steven & Alex celebrate their 15th birthday there.

The Bad Batch just happens to be there at the time, and so love at first sight for Alex.

One year later the twins head to Homeworld.

Same thing mostly, only Yellow instead of Blue so…more YD screen time!

White Diamond fight happens…but instead of Steven it’s Alex that get his gem taken out. Alex pushed Steven out of the way so yeah.

The Bad Batch just happen to be on Earth when Steven sends the SOS message from Watermelon Steven. Yeah…they have some questions about that, but first they head to Homeworld with Bismuth, Belle, Peridot, Lapis, and the Aqua Squad.

Unlike canon, they do make it to see WD pull out Alex’s gem and well…

While Bismuth, Lapis, and Peridot try to free the Crystal Gems, Aqua Squadron helps Connie & Steven, and the Bad Batch go after WD.

By this time, the squad has been video chatting/texting with Steven & Alex (+Connie) and have all really gotten close over the past couple of months.

Crosshair tries to shoot WD in the diamond, but Bismuth reminds him they aren’t shatters.

“You’re not, but I will if that giant keeps mocking me with Alex’s gem like that.”

He eventually, reluctantly stands down and instead helps Alex reunite with his gem half.

Unlike canon, there is indeed a hole where the gem is on Alex, graphic as you can imagine, in simplification.

Alex becomes whole, Steven throws that one line that of course Wrecker & Amethyst joke with him later about, and happy ending all around.

Crosshair may of definitely kissed Alex in private at the celebration party back on Earth.

Age 16, Spinel comes to Earth, but by then a couple of Jedi have worked to have a Jedi-Earth education club (Connie of course joins as she’s already made one of gems and is president of) and so the drill is dealt with earlier.

As for Spinel…we’ll mostly canon aside from the drill. So the Spinel final fight up in the sky/in the ocean.

Alex was on a mission with the Bad Batch, 212th, and 501st at the time (mainly babysitting Luke & Leia who are born earlier. Anakin left the order after Palpatine’s defeat and lives on Naboo as a mechanic. But he still has his saber just in case.) managed to come back and help Steven by the concert canon scene.

Yes they were all confused of the whole scenario despite Steven’s explanation later.

White and Yellow come down and yeah Spinel goes with them same as canon.

By the time the twin’s 17th birthdays are coming near, is when Steven goes through his PTSD and more event.

Alex is able to stop him from shattering Jasper (but just barely), but gets poofed as a result.

Crosshair & Alex become a couple by this time.

A couple weeks pass, and Steven decides to hit the road as Connie heads to college.

She also has a internship as a diplomat, becoming later the head of the Gem-Earth senate party in later years.

Steven becomes an artist. Withh the help of the gems, Alex, and Connie, makes the history of his life, the Gem war, and more in a graphic novel series (basically the show/movie but comic form).

Alex goes on to become a writer, writing multiple novels after co-writing with Steven on his. He also travels with the Bad Batch on a couple a mission every other month, which mainly consist of bounty hunters, assassins, or natural disaster cleanup (slavery has already been abolished long time by now so yeah).

Trivia:

Loves oranges.

Hates avocados

Insomniac ever since the kidnapping

Has been known to do all nighters, worse than Tech

Is vegetarian.

Can’t resist a good vanilla milkshake.

Loves a good, warm blanket.

Likes to wear Crosshair’s armor in secret (and by that, Crosshair knows but let’s it slide cause the view is just amazing)

Very insecure about his body, especially his chest cause gem and all.

He’s not overweight mind you, but has a bit belly you know?

When nervous, pinches the sides of his chest (has caused bruising in the past).

Crosshair will not give up until Alex sees what he sees, perfection.

Will especially hiss/fight anyone who says otherwise (A couple of regs walking along and whispering such hate? Crosshair will go all out.)

Alex can’t stand intense hot weather despite living in Beach City most of his life, yet is better than most in extreme cold

Only swims with his shirt off if it’s just him and Crosshair.

Crosshair can’t get enough of Alex, both body and mind, and when the shirt comes off, he’s practically feral.

While fluent in all Earth languages, he can’t write any but English. But speak and understand? No problem.

While going on a couple of missions with the BB every now and then, he always tries to find some sort of gift/trinkets to give to Crosshair.

His brothers think it’s adorable and tease Crosshair always.

Crosshair vows when they all get lovers to do 10x worst to them.

But keeps every gift in a secret spot on the ship.

Doesn’t curse as much as Crosshair, but when he does, you know sh*t is about to go down.

[aplacetosharemyfics]

The Downfall of Susan St. Clair: The Third, and Most Fateful, Meeting

The last class of the day was Home Economics.

Maisie nervously held the baby doll, quietly drawing a corner of the blanket swaddling the plastic child over its face. None of the activities offered had appealed to her. She could already cook after being left alone for too many evenings with soggy leftovers. She knew enough about sewing to patch her clothing when they couldn’t afford to replace them. But she could never see herself caring for a baby.

Each baby doll was a perfect replica, down to the genitals, and contained mechanisms to imitate the required functions. Specifically, if liquid was inserted through a hole cut into the mouth, it would drain into the diaper through another, carefully positioned, hole. The liquid had originally been a vivid blue dye, to discourage girls from messing around with the babies. However, after an incident where a girl managed to fire a shot across her very expensive dress, which the parents sued the school for, the babies were feed water.

“The correct way to hold the baby …”

Each member of the class – all girls – was positioned around the room, with fixed smiles on their faces as the teacher continued to drone on about the finer details of holding a baby. This was the last activity she had to explain, having already spent 20 minutes on the other activities. In any other class, whispers would be plaguing any trying to listen, people would have started attempting tasks, and seats would have been swapped. However, as they were reminded at the beginning, waiting patiently and politely was part of the course. In other words, they were being graded on how quiet and still they could be while the teacher went into excruciating detail about how to attach a diaper for the most comfortable fit.

Susan allowed her eyes to wander, just for a second. It was taking so long for the teacher to explain why you needed to support the baby’s head that her eyes were starting to blur. She wanted to look at something, anything, other than the teacher. Not to be spotted, she cast her eyes over the group standing closest to the teacher, each holding a frighteningly realistic baby doll. Pearl was holding the doll with ease – she had a baby brother at home – and was staring blankly at the teacher as she showed them for the third time how to feed the baby. Resisting the urge to shift her shoulders – her mother said that it made her look nervous and childish – Susan shifted her eyes to the girl next to Pearl.

She looked familiar. As the teacher described the grip strength of a baby, she studied the girl. Her hair fell in soft curls, brushing the top of her shoulders. It was similar, apart from the mousey brown colour, to Jane Facciano’s hair. But she didn’t feel the anger bubbling up, the need to clench her jaw, or the desire to hit her. There must have been something else that caught her attention. She was examining the freckles lining the girl’s checks when she glanced towards her. It was the dark eyes, widening like a deer in headlights as they met Susan’s, that triggered the memory. The girl fumbled with her baby for a second, pretending the movement was to copy the teacher’s instructions, and turned away, a flush hiding the freckles.

It was the girl who bumped into her at the drive-in, when she’d been fuming over Buddy not acknowledging her and before she knew that Jane had become Buddy’s girlfriend. And the same girl who Susan had pushed out of the way after being viciously turned down by Richie, who had been a desperate attempt to catch Buddy’s eye. The girl whose shocked face had imprinted itself into Susan’s head.

As Susan stared, amused by the coincidence of seeing her again, the girl stepped aside to allow the teacher to pass, turning her back to Susan. The skirt slowly swayed, revealing the green stains marring the dull fabric. A twinge of guilt pulled at Susan’s heart as she realized where the grass stains had come from. She had meant to apologize on the football field but had gotten interrupted. Resolving herself, she promised to apologize before the day was out.

“And with that, you should know enough to get started.”

Susan straightened up, blinking as she returned to reality. The teacher had finished the baby lecture.

“Remember, girls. This class is here to teach you to be ladies.”

“I’ve heard Jane could teach us a few things,” Susan commented.

Her remark was a little rude, but it earned her some smothered giggles and a hurt look from Jane. It had been a reflex observation, a combination of her catching sight of Jane as she turned to look at the teacher and her mother’s lessons to keep a conversation going. The teacher ignored the comment.

“I going to go grab the tuna from the cafeteria for our Jell-O moulds,” the teacher said, taking a last, meaningful, glance around the classroom before leaving.

Maisie relaxed, carefully dumping the baby into the nearest receptacle (a stroller). Anyone stupid enough to give her a baby in the future will have to deal with how she raises the baby. There was no way she was ever going to touch that thing again. Feeling valid in her actions, she wandered over to the shelves of fabric, running her hands along the colourful bolts. The conversation continued around her, though she wasn’t listening. It was only the arrival of the first chords that finally caught her attention. A song was starting.

In life, people have things they excel in, and things they struggle with. Maisie had worked out at a very young age that, when her peers joined together to sing a lively song and dance their troubles away, she was different. Her mother blamed it on her having two left feet. Either way, when everyone else knows the choreography, you quickly become a liability. Choosing a spot on the edge of a platform to sit – it was safer than standing – Maisie tried to make herself as small as possible.

The song spread itself over the entire room until everyone around her was dancing. Pressing her hands to her ears, Maisie focused on her shoes. It was an endeavour to protect herself from the song, but it merely meant that she didn’t see the girl approaching. Her hands were grabbed, and she was pulled to her feet, facing a girl she couldn’t name. The music swirled around her as they span, no amount of tugging freeing Maisie from the girl’s pincer-like grip. Everything rotated around her until her head swam and her feet were barely keeping up. Until …

The girl suddenly let go, moving on to a different part of the song. Maisie’s anchor point having disappeared, she stumbled backwards. But someone moved in to save her, catching her shoulders with their hands before they collided.

“Are you okay?”

Maisie climbed off their lap; her face flushed as she turned to thank the person she’d fallen into. Susan smiled, smoothing the creases from her skirt, trying to control the blush that was staining her cheeks. She’d merely meant to help, lend a hand as an apology. But she’d ended up backing into a table from the momentum. Maisie opened and closed her mouth, words failing her as she stared at Susan. After having run into her twice, she felt she was an expert on Susan’s reactions. But here she was, still sitting on the table after their latest run-in, worrying about her. It was too much to comprehend in one moment, so she quickly nodded and turned to escape.

She was still turning when she noticed the projectile in the corner of her eye. What would later introduce itself as a bolt of sky-blue cotton fabric, was flying through the air towards her head. Hindsight would suggest that she moved out of the way. But, at that moment, she couldn’t do anything. Unlike last time, when the popcorn bucket had hit her squarely, a hand wrapped around her upper arm, pulling her back to safety as the bolt passed. Susan glared at the offending object before marching over to the table where Jane and Olivia were dancing.

Maisie lowered herself to the ground, her hands shaking. The last two collisions could be chalked down to coincidences, doing nothing but embarrassing her. But this time, when Susan had saved her twice, felt different. She glanced up at Susan, who was being forced to dance by Jane and Olivia, shrill protests barely heard over the song. Laughing weakly at the implausibility of it all, she gave up trying to understand the universe.

“Ladies!”

As the teacher entered, her horrified voice halting the song, someone else lost their footing, bumping into the back of Nancy Nakagawa’s seat as she worked the sewing machine. The resulting scream was horrendous. Maisie clamped her hands over her ears, closing her eyes tightly as whispers started to spread. By the time she opened her eyes, crawling out from under the table, the blood had been cleaned up and the troublemakers shipped off to Ms. McGee.

“Susan, please help me demonstrate.”

There was just enough time, unfortunately, to make the jelly.

[rosemary1315]

SU OC Profile: Jade (Jasmin)

Jade [Jasmin]

Nickname: Jasmin (Anton *Anton give this name to her, after she met and know Anton*, Ludwig,  Amethyst, Garnet), Aunt Jasmin (Felix, Heidi), Jas (Amethyst), My Jade (Fuchsia Pearl/Felicia *Jade don't want her pearl called her that after she moves to earth*)

Hometown: One of Blue Diamond's colony planet (Past)/ Earth (Present) *She live with Anton and his son, Felix at his house with his parent in Frankfurt, after she met and know Anton*

Friend(s): Anton Zimmermann (Boyfriend), Ludwig Zimmermann (Friend), Blue Topaz (Friend), Pink Sapphire (Friend), Fuchsia Pearl (Servant *Past*/Friend), Noppadon Sangarun (Friend), Teal Pearl (Friend), Ice Blue Pearl (Friend), Steven and The Crystal Gems (Friends)

Occupation: Aristocrat (Past)

Personality:

She's polite, gentle and nice. She's always considerate and modest to everyone and every gems (she's modest than Anton), she's Aristocrat and high-ranking gem. Although, she's gentle  

She's honorable and respectful to every gems, although some gems are lower-ranking than her.

In the past before she move to Earth, she's worried and nervous, especially about behaves in gem society as aristocrat. Many times, she felt uncomfortable and nervous about her behave, when she was in high-ranking gem society. Although she move to earth, she's still worry and nervous her behave in some situations. But, she felt less worry and more comfortable after she lives on Earth (especially, after she live in Germany with Anton), she felt more relaxed than the planet where she lived in planet.

She's down to earth, she has no problem and like to live a simple life than luxury life in high gem society. Fact, she want to live places don't have strict Caste System rules (before she move to Earth). Because, she was uncomfortable with Caste System rules too strict, like she can't to be free from her statue as aristocrat. She always hoped that he would someday be free from Caste System (before Era 3). After she move to Earth and move to Germany, she like to live simple life in Frankfurt with Anton and his family.

Because she like to live a simple life, she like to wear simple dress like normal dress than her Aristocrat formal dress.

She's adaptable as her pearl, Fuchsia Pearl in some points when she move to Earth, especially about etiquette. Plus, she used to be aristocrat before, she know how to behave society. It made her learn about social etiquette on Earth, especially German Etiquette (after she lives in Germany with Anton and his son, Felix).

She's perseverant, when she decide and intends to do something. Especially, when she tries to learn to live in Germany like cooking, housework, baking and shopping from Anton and his mother. Although, she was new to Earth.

She's careful and good memories, she pays attention and remember every detail of what she does or what she interest. After she move on Earth and came to live Germany, she tries to remember things such as time, location of places, method of getting to places, things to buy and use, cookbook recipes, learn English and German language and other in order to adapt and live a simple life on Earth.

She love writing, it's her most fav. hobbies. Before Era 3, she always dream writing interesting stories that happened to her, beside her works. But with her aristocrat and strict Caste System, it keep her busy with her work. After she moved to earth and live in Germany, she bought a notebook to write about her life on Earth and Germany (after she live in Germany with Anton, and learn German language). As she's careful, sometimes she would would write what he had to do in daily life, such as shopping lists.

Also, she love reading. It's her second fav. hobbies, beside writing. She love to read about literature and novel, especially about German literature and novel.

She love to live in Germany. Because after she live in Frankfurt, it made her felt relaxed than planet where she live in the past. She love natural and architecture in Germany.

She like travel by train in Germany (thank to Anton), although she know earth transportation isn't as advanced or fancy as gem transportation. But, she prefer simple travel like train.

She love breads, after she live on earth and know about it. Because she love the smell of breads, especially freshly baked breads in bakery (it's her fav. place, especially Anton's bakery). She was impressed that she learned there that there are so many kinds of bread on earth. Especially, breads in Germany from Anton. She like to eat it with ham and cheese like sandwich, soup, hot chocolate or jam for breakfast.

For her fav. bread, Pretzel is her most fav. bread. Also, she like Kartofelbrot (Potato bread), Brötchen and Pumpernickel.

She like German foods, especially foods Anton and his mother make. She like potato recipes like Kartoffelsalat (German Potato Salad), Karoffelpuffer (German Potato Pancake) and Kartoffel kroketten (German Croquettes). Also, she like Apfelmus (German Apple Sauce) with some recipes like Karoffelpuffer, Pancake, Waffles and Apfelmus Hörnchen. For other fav. German foods, she like Semmelknödel (German Bread Dumplings) and Käsespätzle (Cheese Spaetzle)

For his fav. German desserts, she love Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake). It's her most fav. dessert after she move to Germany. Also, she like Black Forest Cake (her second fav. cake),  Käsekuchen (German Cheesecake), Spaghettieis (Spaghetti Ice Cream is creative dessert idea in her thought) and Chocolate (especially, milk chocolate)

Like: Simple life, Writing (Especially, about her life on Earth and Germany), Travel by train, Reading (especially, literature and novel), German literature and novel books, natural and architecture on earth (especially, in Germany)

Favorite foods, dessert and drink: Pretzel, German Breads (especially, Kartofelbrot, Brötchen and Pumpernickel), Kartoffelsalat, Karoffelpuffer with apple sauce, Kartoffel kroketten, Semmelknödel, Käsespätzle, Bienenstich, Black Forest Cake, Käsekuchen, Spaghettieis, Apfelmus Hörnchen

Jade (Jasmin)'s Backstory: [Click]

[hotdogpeasant]

Remember when everyone joked about Pearl shattering PD because she was wearing that dress?

[love-takes-work]

Notes on SU Commentary Tracks

I watched the commentary tracks on the Complete Steven Universe DVD Set and I took some nerd notes.

The episodes with commentary tracks are “Reunited,” “Change Your Mind,” and “The Future.”

I’ll bold stuff that was maybe bigger news or more surprising for easier reading. And yes, some of this was already known from podcasts, other Q&As, or interviews, but I listed it if they said it again here.

Read on after the jump to read these and other highlights:

Steven’s original wedding speech

Older ideas on dialogue for Lapis when she came back to the beach

Scrapped concepts for the scene that ultimately included Steven communicating with the others in a mindscape

Discussions of earlier concepts for White Diamond having a power to “freeze” Gems into statues to make them perfect and having a gallery of them on Homeworld

Pink Pearl’s original fate

The translation of the writing on Obsidian’s sword

The origin of Pink Steven’s design

What Rebecca did to pitch the “SHE’S GONE” scene

Earlier plans to include Shep in “Change Your Mind”

An unused concept of how Steven feels about Biggs

The inspiration for the Heaven and Earth Beetles’ healed design

How Volleyball/Pink Pearl was almost a mini-villain

Discussion of how they did not get to share the origin of the Diamonds

Jasper’s scrapped participation in the movie

“Reunited” - 

Commentary with Rebecca Sugar, Ben Levin, Matt Burnett, Hilary Florido, Joe Johnston, Ian Jones-Quartey, and Kat Morris.

In 2015, an episode idea called “If You Love Yourself So Much” was discussed but rejected. It included some early ideas that ended up getting incorporated into “Reunited,” most notably Garnet marrying herself and putting rings on both hands.

The idea of the Cluster arm wrestling was planned for a long time. A scrapped idea of Steven banging his fist on a vending machine to get some Chaaaaps was supposed to visually parallel some of that scene, but it was axed.

When they got pushback on the wedding idea, they kept adding more and more “high entertainment value” items like a big musical number so the episode would be absolutely unmissable and appealing to everyone.

The song at the beginning of the episode was meant to check in with the entire cast and sort of remind you they exist and what their state of mind is going into the wedding.

Ian made a comment joking about “All 15 people in Beach City” being in the audience.

Just about everyone on the Crew touched this episode, despite that there are four main storyboarders credited for “Reunited.”

In 2016 Ian Jones-Quartey proposed marriage to Rebecca Sugar. They felt like the characters based on them (Sapphire and Ruby) HAD to get married in the show now because otherwise it wouldn’t be honest. But then their characters got married before they did.

They really love the idea of having characters get married who have known each other for a really long time, versus the fairy tale trope of movies ending with weddings between people who have met very recently.

Steven’s speech as officiator at the wedding used to be longer in its first draft--it was described as being weird and full of jokes, and there would have been a scene with Pearl getting weepy and pulling tissues out of her pearl.

Ian mentions loving a joke Jeff came up with having Greg play one chord to make Steven fall asleep--it’s sort of a “dream” chord you hear in cartoons a lot before a dream sequence.

The Crew discussed what it might be like if someone had never seen the show before and started with this episode.

Ian really wanted Steven’s psychic powers to figure into the episode.

Blue using a sadness wave to attack the Gems was a very old idea they’d planned for a long time. So was Lapis’s arrival.

There was a discussion of having Lisa Hannigan performing her lines as Blue VERY early in the morning.

Ian was happy the sword got broken because it was so momentous but it was just a sword. And later appeared on a shelf in the house as an artifact.

Miki had drawn a torn dress for Garnet at one point so she could be shown fighting and moving around more accurately, and this led to a long discussion of whether Gem clothing can even actually get torn the way human clothes can. They concluded that no, it shouldn’t be torn, so they backed up and gave Garnet an open-front dress from the beginning so the fighting version would make more sense.

Lapis originally might have had a longer speech upon arriving back on the beach. They eventually decided to just have her say “Hey.”

The barn falling on Blue Diamond was an intentional Wizard of Oz reference.

They point out that Steven even once said “drop the barn on the beach” (in a previous episode, “Can’t Go Back,” which was also a Miki episode).

Destroying the house was a big deal, and they always thought they’d end up doing it but backed away from it until “Reunited.” They almost even did it back in “Coach Steven”! But it just ended up with a little damage to the porch.

The Crew thinks Miki is really good at drawing ensemble shots.

Rebecca was always overwhelmed whenever she got to have Patti LuPone record for Yellow.

Originally the giant figures of everyone’s statue bodies in the mindscape were too dark and had to be revamped so they could be seen.

An earlier idea of Steven’s “psychic-ghost-situation” had him as a ghost actually trying to interact with the other characters during fighting action, but it was pulled back to this mindscape so there wouldn’t be as much confusing action to keep track of and more focus on what Steven was doing to encourage his teammates and contact the Diamonds.

Hilary was glad not to have to block out a fight.

Ian mentions loving having Bismuth back in the group.

They originally wanted the “Diamonds sensing Pink’s energy” plot to happen when Steven was in the palace somehow, but everything got moved to this scene--which the Crew all agrees turned out incredible, like how cool it was to have Steven essentially reminding each character why they fight and summing up their whole arc in a sentence.

“Change Your Mind”

Commentary with Rebecca Sugar, Ben Levin, Matt Burnett, Hilary Florido, Joe Johnston, Ian Jones-Quartey, and Kat Morris.

They like to refer to this episode as “The movie before the movie.”

They loved incorporating “princess tropes” into Steven’s time on Homeworld, which is why there were so many references to “mice” (well, Pebbles) making clothes, being locked in a tower, being reminded of his manners, loving animals and freeing imprisoned pets, etc. 

Deedee did the voice of the rainbow worm pet. She apparently didn’t find it memorable and was surprised when she was reminded she did the voice.

Rebecca was super excited for the confrontation with Blue.

There was some discussion of how Steven would have died of starvation if he didn’t have someone practical like Connie to remember to bring food.

They love working with the huge scale the Diamonds present.

The Crew always wanted to put someone in Blue’s hair loop. Originally they wanted Blue to tuck Greg in there when she kidnapped him, but they didn’t end up being able to do any hair-loop-carrying until this episode.

The Crew bantered back and forth about what the heck those Pebbles’ names were and how hard it was to track them.

They agreed that Paul draws the best Yellow Diamond, which makes sense since he also drew the first episode with Yellow (and her stink face). 

The scene where Yellow asks Blue to stop using her powers on her and then realizing she’s crying on her own was one of Rebecca’s favorite scenes to get to finally.

Steven Sugar thought Gems would spend a lot of time in their own chambers/rooms just not really doing much of anything unless they had to fulfill their purpose.

Some of the Homeworld ideas were based on a Soviet artist’s concepts, Boris Artzybasheff, and also many ideas were inspired by Busby Berkeley regarding how people were objects and furniture.

The mech was an old idea. Once they had the hand ship from “Jailbreak,” they knew there had to be bodies somewhere.

They focused a lot about what could be the coolest and funniest way for something to happen. The concept of the yellow and blue spaceship arms appearing out of the sky to smack the White Diamond mech around was one of those.

Rebecca really wanted things to look more and more cartoony and bizarre as you get deeper into Homeworld.

They spent a very long time trying to decide on characters’ new outfits.

The trash can lid is said to be a reference to “a flying bear cartoon” and they dance around speaking a direct reference because they’re not sure they’re allowed to say its name.

In discussing the powers of the Diamonds, there were debates on what White’s power would be; with Yellow being physicality-based and Blue being emotion-based, they thought White as identity-based made the most sense.

Different ways to express this were played with before settling on the idea that she thinks she’s perfect and others’ colors make them less like her and less perfect. But then she becomes a hostage to her own beliefs about herself because if she does anything that reflects on everyone else, so it’s best to do nothing.

They had some cool earlier ideas of White’s powers making statues out of other Gems and having a gallery full of frozen Gems, frozen by White to make them perfect.

They also weren’t sure what fate befell the original Pink Pearl and discussed whether she might have been destroyed. 

Rebecca discussed how creepy it was to have White Pearl speaking in Christine’s voice and not Deedee’s--that we should find it fundamentally disturbing at this point.

Tom Herpich came up with the crack on White Pearl’s face.

In real life, pink diamonds aren’t understood as well as yellows and blues. It’s more known what makes a diamond yellow or blue, and some of those facts Rebecca researched were originally woven into the speech White gave about their “impurities.” But it turned out to be too dry and most of it got cut.

Rebecca loves having Lapis with pants and sandals for easier cosplay.

Ian had to draw the scene where Steven is falling and fusing with inert characters--he wasn’t able to properly explain it to Rebecca so she had him draw it.

They really wanted Rainbow Quartz 2.0 to have a scarf, but they couldn’t figure out how to get that into Pearl’s design. They miss the scarf.

It was really important to have these Fusions display call-forwards of the Gems’ new outfits which we hadn’t yet seen.

Rebecca points out that Sunstone’s design breaks a design rule and she feels like Sunstone should have Garnet’s pant leg colors on their legs, but at the same time she understands the rule of cool and likes it like this.

It’s discussed how none of Steven’s fusion weapons are exclusively offensive weapons either.

Rebecca still really wants a suction cup Sunstone toy.

Sunstone’s ability to transcend reality and break the fourth wall was a joke that exploded in the discussion room among the Crew. As soon as the idea was pitched everyone kept coming up with ideas. Sardonyx’s fourth-wall-breaking is more snarky, but Sunstone’s is helpful.

Rebecca was disappointed that the rule about Steven’s clothes wasn’t always followed with having his clothes appear on Obsidian’s hand, but she was delighted that you could see them in one scene.

They spent a lot of discussion time on making sure Steven-Obsidian was different somehow from Rose-Obsidian. The hair is different.

Old versions of Obsidian were drawn with wrapped-together Twizzlers legs, which sort of is reflected in the present design.

The sword had been planned forever--and it first appeared in “Bubble Buddies.”

Miki worked on the Ninja Turtles show so Rebecca was really excited to see her depictions of Bismuth and Sunstone.

An early plan to have Obsidian draw the sword from their mouth was complicated because fusion weapons should be combinations, so they finally reached the solution of having them combine to make the hilt, then get the blade out of Obsidian’s mouth.

The blade of the sword is thought to say “We’ll always save the day,” but you’d have to ask Steven Sugar.

Another really old idea was climbing into the White Diamond mech eye.

Rebecca was disappointed that some of the merch made of White Diamond did not feature her cape sparkles.

There were many debates early on about where Rose might “actually” be. There were tons of references to this fundamental question throughout the show--introducing Lapis as a Gem trapped in an object, having Pearl ponder pulling Steven’s Gem out as a baby, straight-up wondering what would happen to him in “Bubbled” when Eyeball was trying to take his Gem, etc. They all decided Rose was definitely gone but that the idea of her possibly being inside him should be on his mind a lot, leading to disturbing images like dreaming about coughing up her hair.

Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond both challenged Steven about things he was very confident about, but White’s question of his identity got to him because he in fact is not confident about that.

The black and white eeriness of the fuzzy background and the other characters having their colors washed out helped make the scene in White Diamond’s head so disturbing and creepy.

The split screen showing Steven’s two perspectives was exciting to Rebecca, and was a pretty old idea. And she points out it sort of “breaks the show.”

The Gem Steven, Pink Steven, was represented by a slightly modified version of his model sheet. Everyone laughed when they saw what was getting used.

They decided that an earlier idea of Pink Steven looking angry should be replaced by an emotionless version of him. All the emotion should be with Organic Steven.

In the pitch meeting for this episode, Rebecca herself screamed “SHE’S GONE!!” and shocked the hell out of everyone. She pointed out how no one expected this of her because she’s pretty quiet, but she just wanted to shock everyone the way Steven would in the show.

They point out this is the first appearance of the geometric shield that got so much use in Future.

The fact that Steven is Steven is the ultimate reveal of the show. Usually in fantasy shows there’s some other kind of revelation, but Steven just being amazingly human and amazingly Gem and amazingly himself is wonderful here.

They like having the pilot reference with “What’s your excuse?”

If Rose had somehow still been alive in him, all of this would have been cheapened.

Ian loves that you can faintly hear Sadie’s concert from way out in space as the camera approaches Earth.

They got a lot more use out of the Beach-A-Palooza stage than they thought they would when it had to be designed for “Steven and the Stevens.” There was a joke about how at one of the conventions a real Beach-A-Palooza stage was constructed and they had a thought about how oh good, it’s getting reused.

Sadie having green hair in the finale was a late change but they liked showing her progression. 

They had originally kicked around the idea of Sadie already having her new partner Shep at this point, but decided to develop that in Future instead.

They compare White Diamond’s stepping gingerly into the fountain to skeptically getting into a public pool.

Some silliness they didn’t get to use was that Biggs would be “beloved by everyone” except Steven. They never got to cover it, but originally Steven was just going to not really understand why everyone loves her so much and doesn’t personally much care for her.

The Heaven and Earth Beetles are based on the Mothra Ladies.

The healed Gems’ horns are supposed to be side effects of the corruption that they continue to bear in the present.

Larimar and Orange Spodumene ended up different in the ending scene than they became in Future. Many of the designs were retroactively pulled into this scene after being designed for the movie.

Rebecca wrote “Change Your Mind” as a personal song to express her feelings surrounding her fight for the wedding.

“The Future”

Commentary with Rebecca Sugar, Kat Morris, Alonso Ramirez Ramos, Hilary Florido, Joe Johnston, and Ian Jones-Quartey.

The animatic for this episode ran SO long--they’re supposed to be just over 11 minutes but this one was 17 minutes.

Steven’s calisthenics routine, a callback to “Future Vision,” was on the chopping block to make the episode shorter but Rebecca wouldn’t allow it to be cut because she wanted to show that Steven’s been taking care of himself.

They were very excited to get a chance to cover some of the things in Future that they couldn’t squeeze into the original show, like the unbubbled Rose Quartzes, Volleyball, etc.

The new writers on the show also helped bring forward the idea of Steven finally making some of his OWN mistakes to fix.

This also helped construct the idea of Steven essentially being the “final boss” of his own battle.

Usually stories that involve someone being in a fight and winning don’t explore the effect just being in a fight has on a person, regardless of whether you won. 

Rebecca really wanted to play Ocarina of Time after beating it so she could go back to all the places and see how people were doing. She wanted this epilogue series to explore that a little too.

Little Homeschool is sort of a Tiny Toons reference--older cartoons teach younger cartoons how to be cartoons, and this is Gems teaching other Gems how to be Gems on Earth. 

Lamar came up with the silly joke about receiving that art set with all the different media types in it--the one artists are always getting from a well-meaning relative at holiday time.

A scrapped plot idea involved Volleyball/Pink Pearl as a sort of “mini-villain,” with a focus on her activating the un-activated Pearls.

There’s discussion of how victimization turns people into villains sometimes. But since showing that happening with Volleyball wouldn’t have served the interests of Steven’s arc, they couldn’t fit it in.

There was also a “very specific” Gem origin and Diamond origin story that’s quasi-religious in nature--it’s very cool and complicated. But they do not tell us what it is.

Ian and Joe both really wanted to have Jasper living alone in the woods and stacking rocks. They’re glad they got this series to do that with her.

There was originally an idea for a B-plot involving Jasper in the movie. They don’t discuss the specifics.

There were many ideas they didn’t get to work on because they would have started new arcs and Future was not about kicking new plots into gear.

“Mr. Universe” was the last episode they wrote/finished.

Miki really wanted to include a kiss between Connie and Steven to show their relationship was okay. Among the Crew everyone knew their relationship was basically eternal but Miki wanted to make sure WE knew that.

Steven driving conveyed momentum for Future; in the original show, we always came back to the laundry hand, back to home, but in Future that’s changed and home isn’t what it was. 

They were really excited that a gourd family made it to the crowd scene in Future.

Thanks for reading!

Note: The movie had some commentary tracks too, but the one on this DVD set is the same as the one released on the original standalone movie DVD, so I did not outline it here. Here is my post about the DVD commentary from the movie.

[mandareeboo]

SU Music Rankings

Bc I can and I wanna start some Disk Horse rip. These are all in order of preference, with explanations, etc. It’s a long bitch. That said, I’m not counting little short jingles or small joke songs like Little Butler. This is the meat and potatoes of SU music- just under 30 songs. I might do the rest if people like my takes lol.

I scored it mostly on three bases- how dear it was to my heart, how much/often I relisten to it, and also what it means to the plot. That said, little fun songs don’t automatically go farther down than big, plot-heavy songs either! It’s a strange little balance.

Special Note: I don’t dislike any of this music! I love SU and that includes its bumps and glitches. I just pick favorite children lol.

1.) Change

Was there ever a more Steven moment than when he wiped the blood off his face and kissed it into sparkles? I think not. 

If “Be Wherever You Are” is an ode to young Steven, then this is teen Steven’s. Talking about change, and how much and how little it can do. How he holds his arms up for Spinel to hug him, so trusting. How he seems able to just. Break into soft tears at will, and not to be manipulative- it’s just his kind nature. The warmth in his voice. Fuck yesssss.

2.) Change Your Mind

This song is only fifty five seconds and it’s EVERYTHING to me. It really felt like someone was speaking the words I’d always held deep inside of me, unsure of how to say. It feels like a goodbye to someone who never really loved me. 

As much as I enjoyed Future, if this was the finale of SU, I would’ve been perfectly okay with that.

3.) Drift Away

This song gave me legitimate shivers the first time I heard it, and it still haunts me to this day. Spinel stayed, and waited, and all she got was a transmission thousands of years later. Fuck.

4.) Here We Are In The Future

THE MOVIE IS SU AS ITS BEST AND I WON’T BE SWAYED ON IT. Steven being a teen who loves his weird family but is growing just a bit sarcastic to their drama. The adorable love he and Connie share. His slow realization that he will always be working, always have things to do, is both somber and real. The Crystal Gems won’t be safe with one epic battle. They’ll be safe with years of hard work and love. HIS LITTLE HANDSHAKE WITH AMETHYST.

This is a helluva bop and a great way to summarize the main character’s backstories.

5.) Let’s Only Think About Love

Did ya’ll know that Zach Callison killed his throat with that last note? He gave his all for this performance in a vocal range he no longer comfortably do and by god did it SHINE. The FLAIR. The FORESHADOWING. All of the Gems all being awkward about Rose and Steven trying to bring them to the present. Peridot having a mini-existential crisis in a cute yellow dress. I love Zach Callison’s normal singing voice but man is that a fucking bop. Nothing will ever beat it.

6.) Here Comes A Thought

This bad boy helped me out a LOT with some mental issues I was dealing with in high school. I was unmedicated, unsupervised, and full of anxiety. I’d have break downs when I tried to speak about certain things. I couldn’t function. This song inspired me. It helped me feel okay with my intrusive thoughts.

And the episode! -chef’s kiss-. Once again bringing up the morally gray area of training child soldiers. Connie expanding her social group. Steven’s trauma hauling ass in that second half. The ANIMATION. Stevonnie’s gorgeous singing voice. GOD yes.

7.) It’s Over Isn’t It?

Just barely squeaking above Stronger Than You, this ballad is everything gorgeous. The whole episode is. I think Mr. Greg stands in the top five of my episodes for the entire show. It even got nominated!

There’s just so much about this song that I love. The gentle melancholy of Pearl’s voice. How the crew had to redo the shots for this bit bc Deedee went so fucking hard. The hard cuts between Pearl, remembering the love of her life, and Steven, who has begun to feel like he took her away. I’d recommend this song to anyone, regardless of what they do or don’t know about SU, simply bc it tugs so many heartstrings of love, loss, and responsibility.

8.) Stronger Than You

Did you realize this episode aired SEVEN years ago? This bitch was what got me into SU! Hearing about Ruby and Sapphire made my little gay heart so happy inside, and then getting a whole song confirming that they were a couple, that their love powered the strongest Gem on the team? Aaaaaaaaa

To this DAY I get excited when I hear Estelle start singing. This song is timeless. This song will live in media history. God I fucking love this song.

9.) Other Friends

I’m not the biggest musical person, so I hadn’t heard of Sarah Stiles before her casting as Spinel, but JESUS CHRIST the lady went hard. She went SO fucking hard. Sarah Stiles started on 100 and somehow just kept CLIMBING. You can just hear the sheer manic energy building in her voice, the anger and resentment. 10/10 Sarah Stiles is a queen.

10.) Independent Together

This made the list entirely bc the crew was like “you’re gonna get a himbo ass Steven-Greg fusion singing with Opal while Garnet flies across the moon on Lion while floating” and I am forever thankful to them for it

11.) Who We Are

Bismuth deserved more songs. ‘Nuff said.

12.) Peace and Love (On the Planet Earth)

It Could’ve been Great is EASILY one of my favorite s2 episodes. I love the entire concept of this song. Of Steven making music to reflect how much Earth means to him and his family. Of him teaching Peridot some self-care. Also Peridot’s singing voice is really cute and squeaky. 

I know it’s silly, but I would’ve really enjoyed a flip around of this in Future! Like Peridot reminding Steven how much he loves music, that he needs to take time to relax for himself, maybe with a new verse or just a remix of the original song!

13.) Something Entirely New

I watched this episode as it aired, and I legitimately almost cried. I love Charlyne Yi’s voice so much ya’ll- her raspy, not perfect singing voice against Sapphire’s deep soothing lull is great.

And to have Ruby and Sapphire’s meeting be the way it was- for Ruby to bemoan Sapphire losing Homeworld, to being stuck with a single Ruby, while Sapphire is a noble who has always been taught everyone in her “caste” is vitally important (and has, in her own mind, taken that to mean every Gem, as she should) and how they come together and make each other happy. Good shit good shit.

14.) I’m Just a Comet

The fact that Greg’s music career never really blasted off pisses me off to this day bc Tom Scharpling’s voice is fucking BUTTER. Also the song really feels like a jab at his parents now that we know the kind of dynamic he had growing up. “This life in the stars if all I’ve ever known” is definitely him wiping away their existence after reminding them (and himself) the things they used to say about him.

15.) Do It For Her

This episode. This fucking episode. This episode got me permanently hooked on SU. I’d just binged season 1 and was kinda meh about it overall after the bop of Stronger Than You. “Oh,” I thought to myself, foolishly, “I’ll probably just casually watch this from time to time.”

Like three days later Sworn to the Sword aired and that was it. I was hooked! Pearl’s gentle training song turning darker and darker, Connie’s accompaniment from nervous to determined to fully into such a toxic mindset. The fact that SU had the BALLS to discuss the repercussions of training child soldiers, now and later. This episode was everything to me, STILL is everything to me.

Six years and well over 100 fanfics written later, I think it’s safe to say this show swallowed me whole and never let go.

16.) System/Boot.pearl_final(3)

I debated putting this on the list because it’s not anything crazy important, just a way to show things are Wrong, but I had to do it entirely bc Pearl is so damn SALTY.

Like telling us about the Gems makes sense, she felt like she was given a duty, but she went so damn petty. WHY is that Ruby alone. Gross. This Amethyst is a trash dump. Wtf are you people.

17.) Full Disclosure

This episode really feels like a turning point for SU. Before, the show had its dark moments- but now we’re in the thick of it, and it’s not going away. Full Disclosure felt like an rebuff to the idea of returning to any normal we’d established in season 1. Gems are actually a giant species now. Gems tried to kill us now. There’s this Yellow Diamond bitch who got namedropped. Something about a Cluster. 

The song itself is BALLER, with its ingenious use of Steven’s ringtone and photos as he tries to decide whether to clue in Connie on all this nonsense. Meanwhile we, the audience, already know damn well Connie about to yeet some common sense into him.

18.) What’s the Use of Feeling Blue?

I’mma admit it- I’m a Yellow Diamond stan. I’ve always loved her- her anger, her poise, her hardworking nature. I actively argued against the “Yellow Shattered Pink” theories back in the day. But, man, when this arc leaked? I got so overexcited I was too jittery to watch it for like two days. It’s easily my favorite arc of the series. The sheer alien nature of the zoo, the Famethyst, and absolutely Patti Lupone’s beautiful ballad. Goddamn. Yellow singing to Blue to try and help her regain her old status, the warble in her voice as she reminds Blue she misses Pink too, the movement of the bubbles as she talks about attack. It gives me shivers to this day. FUCK.

19.) Tower of Mistakes

This is, fun fact, that only SU song I have completely memorized. The story itself is kinda funny! See, we lost internet at my house for a solid 5 to 6 months when these episodes aired, so I only got a very brief window to view them all. But this was the first Amethyst song in a long while, and I didn’t want to forget it! So I keep replaying it in my head for ages. And that’s still definitely a thing.

Anyway will never not be sad that this entire song was about making it up to Garnet for Amethyst’s perceived slights with Sugilite (which was a two-way road), only for Garnet to pressure her into fusion later when pissed and never discuss it again bc Garnet probably never thought twice about it and Amethyst has the emotional openness of a clam that’s just been told its ugly. Helluva way to make someone feel like shit, G. Helluva way to bottle that shit, Ames.

20.) On the Run

I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Amethyst! Needed! More! Songs! 

The dichotomy between Steven’s play and Amethyst’s honest desire to run away from home is so well-done, especially when you consider a lot of Steven and Amethyst’s actions are playing together. The song is also near and dear to me simply bc it’s my favorite Amethyst episode to exist (well, maybe second to What’s Your Problem, but not by much). Moments like these are all the proof I need that they were right to fuse first.

21.) Be Wherever You Are

This tune really just feels like an ode to who Steven was as a kid. Trapped on an island with no way home, and he’s just happy to be with his friends. The stars are beautiful and not oppressive. Also that one animatic with Lars and the Off Colors playing in the Homeworld Kindergarten to this music was iconic and made this song get stuck in my head for a solid month.

22.) Familiar

I ADORE how the crew use bright neon colors to show how alien Homeworld can be. And Steven recognizing that the Diamonds treat him how the CGs used to, and how prepared he is to “fix” a broken family. It’s a soft, gentle tune about melancholy. Also the Pebbles are beautiful.

23.) Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart

Such a cute little love ballad, but every time I listen to it now I just imagine the heart attack Rose must’ve had at the line “And if we look out of place/Well, baby, that's okay/I'll drive us into outer space.” like there’s a Vietnam war flashback if I ever heard one

24.) What Can I Do?

I’m kind of neutral on this one? Rose and Greg both have great voices, but the song itself lacks many lyrics. I think it was definitely a good way to show Rose’s flaws in thinking.

Also, I’m shocked they managed cram that much vaguely sexual innuendo into two minutes, followed by how Not Hetereo that dance between Rose and Pearl was, and not get their asses chewed by it. You go guys.

25.) Cookie Cat

I love a lot of the vibes this song has. The lyrics are so damn prophetic, but they also sound like the kind of weird 90s commercials I grew up on. It’s been like two decades since I saw the Shirley Temple commercial but I’ll be damned if I don’t remember “Animals crackers in my soup! Monkey and rabbits loop-de-loop.”

26.) Giant Woman

I am. NOT the biggest fan of Steven’s original singing voice. I feel bad saying that, since it was just Zach Callison as a kid, but he never jived well with me for some reason. So I wouldn’t listen to this on the fly. 

The song itself is still really good though, with all sorts of fun animation of Amethyst and Pearl being bitchy to each other. It’s a bit sad in hindsight to see tiny Steven trying to get his moms to get along. Ahh, season 1.

27.) Strong in the Real Way

This song has SUCH a strong start. Pearl reflecting on Sugilite’s problems, but the show making sure to show us that Pearl’s lack of enthusiasm towards her also lends itself to jealousy as well as just general malaise. How much she cares about Steven, and wants him to grow up strong. 

And then Steven just kinda. Ruins it? I appreciate his enthusiasm for tryna bulk up but to take what was starting as such a rich, personal song and broadcasting it to random strangers just makes me a bit sad. Almost a bit angry on her behalf?

28.) That Distant Shore

I KNOW this is gonna create some discourse, but I’m just not the biggest Lapis stan. I love her voice. I love the visuals of the song. And I get why she felt afraid and needed to flee.

But Lapis never got to take responsibility for her own actions. And, in the end, the song feels hollow to me- because we all know she’ll never talk to anyone about it, know she’ll burst back in and destroy the barn, and no one will ever question it. I like Lapis a lot, but I feel like her arc never was fully finished. She never got help. She never learned to feel safe.

29.) Dear Old Dad

I’ve yet to meet a single human being who likes this episode tbh. There’s some great discussion about what kind of parent Greg is from it, and what kind of dynamic he has with the Gems that he felt he had to fake an injury to hang out with his son. Honestly the first half was fine and dandy. It’s just that then they Greg just went out of his way to drag Steven away from missions and such. It never jived well with his character before or after.

Also, is it just me, or does Zach himself sound like he hates the song as he sings it? There’s no passion or heart in his voice. It sounds like they told him to read off cue cards and he did. Tom Scharpling’s best attempts didn’t save this one for being a skipper. But the episode, unfortunately, isn’t, so it gets a spot on here.

[quazartranslates]

Welcome to the Nightmare Game - CH130

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

----

Chapter 130: The Dream of the Holy Nun (XX)

"Because it hurts too much," Qi Leren replied seriously. "But it doesn't hurt now. It doesn't hurt after drinking the antidote."

"Really, that's good." Su He sighed softly and took the antidote to give to Dr. Lu.

"Please look after Dr. Lu, I’ll go back to find Ning Zhou," Qi Leren said.

Su He shook his head: "Well, you should send Dr. Lu back to the Lord's castle first and I will go to the old site of the Vatican first. If Ning Zhou is in trouble, I’m always more experienced than you."

The ground was still shaking slightly. With the death of Witch of Nightmares, the demon energy she had accumulated for so many years seemed to be going out of control. Qi Leren was very worried that her former companion would be in the former site of the Vatican and regretted that he hadn’t bring insisted on Ning Zhou coming back with him - although he knew that Ning Zhou would definitely choose to stay there just in case - but if Ningzhou met any danger…

"Okay, you go first, I'll be right there," Qi Leren agreed.

Su He smiled at him and said, "Don't worry, it will be over soon."

Qi Leren helped Dr. Lu, who was still unconscious: "Yeah, it will be."

Su He nodded to him with a smile, then turned and walked into the darkness.　

　　&&&

The night wind blew quietly through the branches and leaves and the site of the Vatican, which had been closed for more than 20 years, was as quiet as sleeping in a grave.

Ning Zhou went up the stairs, walking the same steps Maria had taken so many times, and headed for the church at the highest point.

Along the way the earth continued to shake, and it became more and more frequent. The scattered demon energy rampaged under the earth's surface, awakening the sleeping birds.

A gust of wind blew and a large number of dead leaves and fallen flowers swept past Ning Zhou. The eagle's voice came from overhead and it circled and landed, throwing a small piece of blue and white petals in Ningzhou's hair. Ning Zhou picked off the petals. The blue and white petals should have been blown from the Garden of the Holy Tomb. He deeply remembered that the petals had fallen on Qi Leren’s lips as he slept, and the memory soaked in the afternoon sunshine was as gentle as a dream... He touched the eagle's head and moved on.

He had never been here before, but when he walked here, his heart was filled with an unwarranted kindness… and a strange fear, as if this was both his holy land and his hell.

The Witch of Nightmares had died not far away and the memento brooch had fallen to the ground. Ning Zhou picked it up. The one-time trap attached to it had been used up, and the debris and ashes on the ground proved it all.

It was just a simple trick, but sometimes winning is as simple as that.

Ning Zhou touched the ward in front of him. This ward set by his mother still dutifully protected the deepest secrets of the Vatican even after she’d left more than 20 years ago. Although it had begun to become fragile because of the erosion of demon energy over so many years, it had still blocked the footsteps of the Witch of Nightmares.

The field memento was once again raised in front of the enchantment of the Holy Nun. Golden ripples flowed away from the brooch and slowly spread out. The enchantment of the highest church of the Holy See began to blur and finally disappeared.

Further down was the cathedral that has been isolated for more than twenty years.

Ning Zhou looked up at the half of the churches that had been turned to ruins, where Maria had killed the Devil.

The black bird on his shoulder let out a cry and NingZhou turned around. From the distant stairs came the sound of high heels on the stone steps, getting closer and closer.

Someone was coming.

The blade rubbed the scabbard as he pulled it out. Ning Zhou stood on the steps and waited quietly for the person to come. The demon's energy, which was left unchecked by the other, came flooding in from the deep night, full of evil thoughts from hell.

A woman wearing a black veiled hat and a black evening dress walked at an elegant pace, and the evening dress inlaid with pearls and precious stones shone brightly in the night. She pushed back the brim of her hat and behind the black veil was a face with delicate makeup and her eyes flashed with demonic brilliance, which was quite different from the ordinary village girl from that year.

"Long time no see," Isabel nodded slightly to Ning Zhou.

Ning Zhou looked at her with a complicated mood.

Deep in the underground palace, Isabel had volunteered to become a witch of the Devil of Fraud and walked onto the altar. However, after more than half a month, she appeared in front of him again but was no longer the ordinary human girl.

The raging demon energy was fueled by numerous killings. She had become a witch completely.

The most terrible thing was, how had she crossed this closed field and come to him? She couldn't have a field memento, so she couldn't enter Maria's field by herself unless…

"To introduce myself again, I am Isabel, the Witch of Jealousy. At the order of my Lord, I came to compete with you." Isabel, wearing black silk gloves, lifted her skirt and graciously bowed to him.

A holy light shone on the knife and Ning Zhou looked expressionlessly at the Witch of Jealousy: "Ning Zhou, the exorcist of the Holy See, is the one who will kill you."

In the dark and silent site of the Vatican, the power of faith and the power of evil suddenly collided in the void and a raging billow of air broke out, where the trees fell and the stone steps broke.

The witch smiled lightly: "I won't let you pass."

　　&&&

After settling Dr. Lu in, Qi Leren immediately left the Lord's castle and hurried towards the former site of the Vatican.

Residents who had been transformed into demons had been restored to their original state. After dawn, these demons would end forever. The night watchmen had also restored their human identities. From now on, they wouldn't have to struggle on every night of the new moon - they had been freed, forever.

As long as they got Maria's memento of destruction, they could reopen this field and let the people who had been trapped here for more than 20 years ago leave.

In the quiet night, Qi Leren's footsteps went faster and faster, and at last he started to trot all the way and soon came to the former site of the Vatican, but Ning Zhou had disappeared and Su He was not here.

Shining his flashlight on the road ahead, Qi Leren walked along the steps to the higher buildings.

The ground was still shaking intermittently, so Qi Leren had to be careful with his steps so as not to fall.

The mountain stone path had broken in front of him into a pit with a shocking width of more than ten meters, and the surrounding trees had fallen down. It looked like there had been a fierce battle here and Qi Leren’s heart went into his throat. Judging from the trees, this was not a remnant left by the demon invasion more than twenty years ago, but was fresh. Although it wasn’t clear whether Su He or Ning Zhou had a conflict with people here, there must be danger ahead.

The space seemed to be distorted ahead, and the deep darkness could not be illuminated by the flashlight. There were no figures, no sound, only pure darkness, frightening and disturbing.

The road was also broken and the Qi Leren hesitated, circling another stone staircase, and soon he came to the cathedral at the top of the hill.

Under the starry sky, this broken church was still majestic. The round stone terraces and all the stone pillars along the road have been broken, but even so as he passed through, he found that these broken walls still exuded holy and solemn beauty.

Along the way, there were all kinds of angel sculptures, some having lost their heads, some having had their wings cut off, and some even having only their legs. They surround the center of the square where there was a disk with a diameter of four or five meters, which seemed to be the base of some giant sculpture. However, there was no statue that should exist on this base, and there was no statue wreckage around it. It was like it had disappeared into thin air, making this group of angels around it extremely lonely in the night.

Going further, half of the church had been destroyed. The front hall was almost completely destroyed. Even the dome had disappeared. After the wind and rain, it had become covered with weeds and shrubs. Qi Leren walked carefully on the weeds, passed through the rows of stone pillars, and came to the stone door of the main hall.

These were two doors that could be pushed away from the center, almost ten meters high. The exquisite reliefs on the doors had been covered with moss, but it was still faintly clear that the reliefs were about the magnificent scenes of wars between angels and devils in heaven.

Behind this door, what could be there?

Qi Leren's hand had been placed on the door. His heart beat faster and his breath was short. He retracted his hand and adjusted himself.

[S/L Data], [Rain-Day Clothes] and [Primary Fighting Skills] have been equipped.

If there was a battle later and S/L skill entered cooldown, he also had the [Countercurrent Sand] item. This exquisite hourglass item could reset the cooling time of one skill card at will. If he still couldn't defeat the enemy by then... He also had the Easter Egg.

There was no need to be afraid, the Witch of Nightmares who was polluting this field was dead. If she still had allies, they should have stopped him on the road.

The ground shook again and this time it felt stronger than before, as if the church was the source of vibrations. What had happened inside, and what would happen if the earthquake continued like this? He couldn't wait any longer…

Once again, Qi Leren put his hands on the cold stone door and pushed forward hard.

Save completed.

To his surprise, this giant door was not as heavy as he imagined. Under his touch it opened almost automatically, fresh air swept forward, his flashlight lit up the marble floor, and Qi Leren looked at the starry sky exposed by the huge collapsed wall of the church. He took a step toward the darkness ahead with his dagger.

A light suddenly lit up in the deep shadows, as if lit by the hand of God.

The darkness was dispelled and the light in front of him became more and more bright until finally it was as bright as day.

Qi Leren looked at the temple in front of him for a while in wait, just in the deepest part of the hall. A huge Maria held a sword high, piercing the flesh of a ferocious roaring black dragon, crucifying it in front of a giant cross.

This shocking scene showed the tragic battle that had occured here many years ago, but this was not the reason why Qi Leren was stunned. After a moment of shock, he looked at the throne belonging to the Pope under the huge cross.

On the throne decorated with reliefs and gems, Su He leaned on one hand and looked on at him with a smile.

His expression is still peaceful and gentle.

Except for those red, evil eyes.

-----

Editor’s Notes: You didn’t think it would end that easily, did you?

-----

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[before-we-get-started]

Dream Come True

Colin Shea x O/C Corinne MacAdam

Multi-Chapter Story - Complete

Summary: Colin Shea and his band Rock the Cradle are finally making it big - until something unexpected happens. When he meets a girl that makes him reconsider his player ways, he thinks his life may be coming together, until she blows it apart.

Warning: Bad language, smut, suicidal ideations - no one under 18, please

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please do not read if you are underage. I do not own the character of Colin Shea; the rest are my original characters. By reading beyond this point, you understand the disclaimers as posted.

Chapter Five

On Monday, she woke up with a new outlook. Today she’d start a new job, something much different than working for the events management company. Serving as personal assistant to a family friend, an heiress and philanthropist, eccentric and a spinster, but a very nice woman. Cori’s mother had reminded her that her new boss, Ms. Robbins, was prone to mood swings (and forgetting things), but that she’d treat her fairly and appreciate her hard work.

On a whim on Sunday, she’d decided to color her hair. She bought a kit and gave herself light blonde highlights, lightening the chestnut brown. She looked as if she’d been out in the sun, as if maybe she had a healthy outdoor lifestyle, not like she’d been holed up feeling sorry for herself for months.

She dressed in a chocolate brown business suit with a cream blouse, a bow tied at the neck. She put on her brown pumps and some with the crème filigreed toe accent and grabbed her purse. For good luck, she put on the pearl drop earrings her parents had gotten her for her 16th birthday. She’d prepped her lunch the night before and grabbed the thermal bag from the frig, along with her travel coffee mug. She had plenty of time to make the T to the Back Bay neighborhood where Ms. Robbins lived.

As she’d finished getting ready, “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves had been playing on the radio. She found herself singing it softly as she left the apartment. “I’m walking on sunshine – yeah!” she sang, a little louder than she planned, as the door to 6A opened. Colin emerged in his boxers. He bent down to pick up a newspaper, then stood up and took a good look at her as she walked by.

“Mornin’ 6C,” he said with that gorgeous smile. His eyes ran over her from head to toe and she could almost feel it.

She smiled back, gazing over her shoulder as she walked by. “Mornin’ 6A. Have a good day.” She kept walking down the stairs, her optimism bubbling up. What a great way to start the day – Colin in his boxers. She smiled to herself, descending the stairs, holding on to the wooden rail. She looked up just long enough to see Colin, arms on the railing, leaning over to watch her.

“You have a good day, too,” he said, lingering as she bounced her way down and out of the building.

Ms. Robbins lived in a huge terracotta brick home on Newton Street. The house had been divided up into condos and she occupied the entire first floor. It was just her and Yaz, her Yorkie (Ms. Robbins was a lifelong Red Sox fan). Cori had been to her home twice before – once as a child for a dinner party, and once a few weeks ago for her job interview. She entered the front door and rang the bell at the door on her left, the entry to Ms. Robbins’ home.

“’S open!”

Cori entered and walked into the main living area, adorned with floral wallpaper in greens and blues. Wood three-quarter round trim stained a honey color trimmed the room and honey colored hardwoods peeked out from a solid blue area rug. There was a Steinway piano, a Victorian couch and chair and a coffee table in the room, along with built-in shelves that held items from around the world, secured during Ms. Robbins’ travels.

“It’s Cori,” she said in a singsong voice. Yaz came streaking into the room, yapping ferociously. She bent down and petted the silky hair around the blue bow tied around a small tuft on his head. He returned the gesture with little licks to her hand.

“Good morning!” Ms. Robbins had cornered the market on brocade dresses. Every time Cori had ever seen her, she was in some type of beautiful brocade. Today’s was a kelly green/ecru paisley that was beautiful against her ivory skin and auburn hair. In her mid-60’s, she was medium height and quite fit, a few lines on her porcelain skin but they weren’t too noticeable with her impeccable makeup. She was holding a number of envelopes as she entered the room.

She hugged Cori and extended her arms, getting a look at her. “Cori, you look absolutely gorgeous. I’m so excited we’ll be working together.”

Cori smiled. “I am too Ms. Robbins. I really appreciate this opportunity.”

“I’m going to keep you busy,” she said. “Now let me show you around so we can get to work.” She led Cori through a formal dining room, complete with a giant ornate wood table and chairs, into a kitchen that had obviously been recently remodeled. Tall white cabinets, a beautiful light gray granite and a white subway tile backsplash, with larger square ceramic tiles and a beautiful mosaic tile providing a pop of color behind the large stainless Bertazzoni range. The kitchen was immaculate – Cori wondered if any food had ever actually been prepared in the room.

“You can put your lunch bag here,” she said, pointing to the giant SubZero frig, “and are you a coffee drinker?”

“Yes Ma’am,” Cori said, shaking her travel mug in front of her.

“Wonderful! I have a coffee station here, there are an assortment of flavors. Lots of creamer in the frig. Help yourself,” she said, waving her arm in front of the high-end coffee maker like it was up for bids on The Price is Right.

She showed Cori the powder room and where she could store her coat and any other items she brought with her. “I want you to feel at home. Help yourself to whatever you find in the kitchen. If you can’t find something, just let me know. Mi casa, su casa,” she said with a smile.

Cori felt a surge of excitement, for the hospitality and for the unknown opportunity that lied ahead.

They made their way to the office, just off the living area with beautiful French doors in the same honey wood. The walls were done in a green wallpaper with wide green velvet stripes. The honey floors carried in and there was a large mahogany desk, built-in bookcases behind it and a high-backed leather office chair.

“This is your workspace now,” Ms. Robbins said. “You’ll find a variety of office supplies in the desk and in the cabinet on the wall. If what you need isn’t here, make a list and – well – I’ll send you out to buy it,” she smiled.

Cori laughed. “Yes ma’am,” she said with a laugh.

“And how about if you call me Amelia. ‘Ma’am’ and ‘Ms. Robbins’ make me feel old.”

“Ok Amelia,” she said. “I love that name.”

“And I love yours. My mother’s name was Corinne. I’m named after my father’s mother. Thank goodness, my mother’s mother was Agatha.” They both laughed.

“I thought we’d operate this way – this new laptop is yours. You can use it here and take it home if you ever need to work after hours. In this book (she opened a leather-bound journal), there are sections. The first will be for your schedule. I’ve written what I’d like you to do this week here,” she said, pointing at a page behind the first tab. “The second section will be for lists. I’ve written this week’s date and a list of items I need you to purchase. The third section will be for your hours. Sign in and out each day, and be sure to include any evening or weekend hours, there will eventually be some. I’ll check it on Fridays, send the hours to my accountant and he’ll transfer money to your account on Monday morning, so pay weekly. Does that work?”

“Yes,” said Cori. “That works perfectly.”

“Great. Whenever you need to go out, Gerald will be available with the car. Let’s take today to get you familiar with the house, the neighborhood and the things I’ll expect you to do. We’ll have lunch on Beacon Hill today because it’s so gorgeous out and tomorrow will be your first actual day with work.”

And so the day progressed, Ms. Robbins doing all the things she promised. After getting familiar with more of the house and where things were stored, they sat in the office and discussed her upcoming calendar and events, and the other tasks she’d expect Cori to accomplish. At 11 a.m. they walked out front where Gerald and the car were waiting. They climbed in the back and Ms. Robbins directed the driver to “run the tour route.” They wove through the streets of the neighborhood and those that bordered. She showed Cori her preferred market, florist, office supply store and other shops. Cori made notes as they went. When they’d finished the tour, the driver stopped in front of a bistro in Beacon Hill with a low brick wall that surrounded a courtyard full of outdoor tables under bright red umbrellas.

“Ms. Robbins, so good to see you. Right this way.” The host showed them to a table tucked away in the back corner of the courtyard. Almost as soon as they were seated, a server set glasses of ice water and iced tea in front of them with a little bowl of lemon wedges. The host handed Cori a menu.

“Will you be having your usual today?” the host asked.

“Yes Phillip. But please give Ms. MacAdam a minute to look.”

“Of course.” The host left the table, passing another server who set a two baskets on the table, one with fresh hot breadsticks in a linen cloth bed and the other little pats of cold butter.

Cori inhaled the smell of the fresh bread, closing her eyes.

“A carb girl, a girl after my own heart,” Ms. Robbins said, pulling out two breadsticks and handing one to Cori.

“Maybe just one,” she said, using her knife to cut off a small wedge of butter and smearing it on the breadstick. She took a bite. “Oh my gosh,” she said softly.

“I know, right?” said Ms. Robbins. “Those breadsticks are my spirit animal.” They both laughed.

Cori chose a salmon salad with a lemon vinaigrette and Ms. Robbins got her usual Salad Niçoise and they chatted away, talking about Beacon Hill, their favorite Boston eateries, Cori’s family, and eventually, Cori’s recent past.

“I saw your mother last year at a benefit and she said you had found your dream job with Spalding Events. Was it not what you had hoped?”

Cori suddenly felt panicked. Ms. Robbins obviously didn’t know what had happened to her, or that she’d been unceremoniously dumped by the love of her life when he banged her best friend the night before their wedding. Just the thought of all of it made her a little dizzy. She took a deep breath. Get it together.

“It was wonderful, but I was in an accident-“

Ms. Robbins gasped quietly and reached for her hand. “Oh dear, are you ok?”

“Yes,” said Cori. “I am now. I actually stepped off the curb and got hit by a cab.”

This time the gasp was much more audible. “My word! Cori! That’s horrifying!”

“It was,” she said softly. “I suffered some serious injuries. The folks at Spalding were kind enough to let me keep working from home once I was able. But I had to do a lot of physical therapy, I moved back in with my parents. Honestly, I just needed a fresh start.” She left out the part about Matthew and Amber.

Ms. Robbins kept her hand on Cori’s, patting it softly. “I’m so glad you’re ok. I can’t imagine what your parents must have gone through as well. Your supervisor spoke very highly of you when I called. She said they’d have you back in a minute.”

“That’s really nice of them,” she said.

“Well, don’t worry. I know events are your specialty. We’ll start out slow but eventually, you’ll be planning my events. I love to entertain and especially to raise money for my foundation. You’ll be able to put that experience to work and for lots of good causes.”

Cori felt a rush of giddiness. Her own events. She loved the sound of that. This was exactly what she needed, what she’d hoped for.

“I can’t wait,” she said with a giggle.

“Good! Now, tell me, if I keep you late or ask you to work on weekends, will I be imposing on a relationship with your significant other? I understand that you have a life.”

The smile ran away from her face. “No, no significant other.”

“Well, then we’ll have more than one goal for our events, won’t we?” she said with a smile.

They finished lunch, which was delicious, and the driver took them back to Newton Street. The rest of the day was spent getting familiar with the office, files she’d need, Ms. Robbins’ rolodex and books from some of her previous events. There were photos and agendas and a list of all the companies used for each event. She recognized lots of them from working at Spalding.

Five o’clock was here before she knew it and she grabbed her bag and headed for the T. She left her lunch bag for tomorrow. The ride home was easy and she ascended the stairs of her apartment building, headed for the sixth floor. On Saturday night during the party, her neighbors said the elevator is almost always out. She was glad it was working when her father helped her move in.

She reached her floor and stared at 6A. She wondered if Colin was home, and if so, what he was doing. Impulsively, she knocked on his door. After a bit, he answered. He was in a Patriots t-shirt and athletic shorts, barefoot, his hair spikey and messy. He looked like maybe he hadn’t been awake for very long.

“Hey! How was your first day?” he said, smiling.

“Really good,” she said. “Very good. Hey, I was thinking, maybe you could come for dinner one night this week. You can tell me about your neighborhood watch program.”

He smiled. “You’ll be a good recruit and I never turn down a free meal. So yes.”

“Great, how about Wednesday at 7?”

“I’ll be there.”

As Cori walked away, she saw a leggy blonde coming off the last step and turning towards Colin’s door. She peered over her shoulder and saw him embrace her, then they shared a long, deep kiss. She noticed his long eyelashes laying on high cheekbones when he closed his eyes for the kiss. Cori felt her knees go weak. She wished for a second she was a leggy blonde.

“You came,” he said. “Nicole, right?”

“Nina,” the blonde corrected him.

“Yeah, Nina. Come on in.” He held the door open for her, placing his hand on the small of her back as she walked in. He looked over at Cori. “Night 6C.”

“Good night,” she replied. The door clicked behind him. Cori unlocked the door and went in, spending the rest of the evening thinking about that kiss. It wouldn’t be as good as the one she got from her mystery man, but she bet it was close.

Tuesday was a normal day, learning and exploring at work, then on Wednesday, she ran to the market after getting off the train to grab a few items. She was in by 5:30, giving her some time to prep dinner. She loved to cook. She wasn’t a chef by any means but she could hold her own. She’d decided to prepare a margherita pasta with shrimp for tonight, with a salad and strawberry shortcakes for dessert. She took a quick shower, put on a little makeup, pulled her hair up in a messy bun after dressing in jeans and an emerald green cold shoulder shirt and jeans and headed for the kitchen. She chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic and basil, seared the shrimp and boiled the pasta. She tossed the romaine salad with some vinaigrette. She set the table, opened a bottle of white wine and put it in an ice bucket, filled two glasses with ice water and as she was setting them on the table, there was a knock at the door.

She glanced in the mirror next to the door – she looked as good as she could, she supposed. She unlocked the door then opened it.

“Hey,” he said. She gasped softly. He was in a cobalt blue button up shirt, black belt, jeans and boots. There was a thin silver chain around his neck, a small silver medallion resting in the valley between his defined pecs. The edge of a tattoo peeked out where the shirt was unbuttoned. His hair was styled. He handed her a small bouquet of fresh flowers. “For you.”

She smiled, a smile that lit up her whole face, and took the flowers. “They’re beautiful. Come in.” She stepped out of the way and he walked the few steps in, making the step down into her living/dining room.

“Wow, it smells amazing in here,” he said, making a show of sniffing the air. “I can’t remember the last time I ate something that wasn’t in cardboard or Styrofoam.”

“I hope you like shrimp – and pasta,” she said.

“That sounds great,” he replied.

She pulled a vase out of the cabinet, added a little water and put the flowers in, setting them in the middle of the table. “Everything is ready,” she said, extending her arm toward the table. He sat down at one of the place settings and picked up the napkin, unfolding it and placing it in his lap.

“So how was day three?” he asked.

She pulled the pan of pasta from the stove and set in on the table. “Really good,” she said.

“Tell me more.”

“I’m a personal assistant for Amelia Robbins. She’s heir to Robbins Manufacturing. She has a house over in Back Bay.”

“Wow, nice neighborhood,” he said, eyeing the pasta she was putting on his plate.

“Very nice. She lives in a huge building full of condos. Her home is the entire first floor. It’s really pretty,” she said.

“So what kind of assistant stuff are you doing?”

“I run errands, do some shopping, manage her calendar. Eventually I’ll be her event planner. She hosts a number of fundraisers for non-profits throughout the year.”

He twisted the pasta around his fork and took a bite, stopping abruptly. He spoke but the words were unintelligible with a mouthful of food.

“What?” she said laughing.

He chewed and swallowed. “I said Holy Shit, this is amazing!” He loaded another fork full and shoveled it in. “Absolutely delicious.”

She was pleased. The evening would suck if the food was bad.

“I’m glad you like it,” she said, taking her own bite. It did taste pretty good.

They talked a little more about her job and then she asked about the band.

“So, what’s the name of your band?”

“Oh, Rock the Cradle – like, Boston is the Cradle of Liberty, and we definitely rock.”

“If I wanted to hear you, where would I go?”

“Finnegan’s, O’Leary’s, Rap’s, local bars,” he said.

“Mm,” she hummed as she finished a bite of pasta. “I’m envious. I always wanted to be in a band. I took piano and played in orchestra in high school. It must be great to take the stage and play your own music.”

He sighed, smiling broadly. “It is,” he said as he put his hand over his chest. “It’s the most incredible feeling. I’m addicted.”

“I’ll bet! And I’m sure you have a pretty incredible stage presence.”

“Well, I don’t mind bragging but yeah, I can wrap an audience up, no problem.”

Cori was impressed. “Just think, when you get that record deal, you’ll already be great at performing live.”

His face dropped then. He looked down at his plate. “We took a break for a while a few months ago. There were some things I had to work through.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Did the break help?” She couldn’t help but wonder – guys in bands were often partiers. Did he have a drinking problem? Drugs? He didn’t seem the type, but you never knew what someone else was going through. She stirred the fork around in her plate. “If you guys are that good, I’m sure you’ll get another chance.”

He looked up at her and smiled sheepishly, like a little boy. “It gave me some time to think, and yeah, exactly. I tell the guys that all the time.” He didn’t sound like he believed it.

She smiled, feeling sad for him. He was obviously incredibly disappointed. That sweet smile was gone and she found herself wanting to give him a hug. “Probably get a better record deal next time anyway.”

He smiled. “Exactly. That’s what I told the guys. Everything happens for a reason.” He pulled the fork across his plate, scraping up the last possible bite.

She smiled, happy he liked it so much. “Dessert?” she said sweetly.

His face suddenly shifted and through hooded blue eyes, he smirked and purred, “I never turn down dessert.”

Cori felt the heat flush her cheeks. “Sorry to disappoint you, just strawberry shortcake.”

He laughed. “Ok, I’ll settle for that.”

He picked up the plates from the table and took them to the sink while she pulled the sponge cake, strawberries and whipped cream from the frig. She pulled two ramekins from the cabinet and with a knife, cut circles of cake to fit in the little cups. Colin stood next to her at the counter, peering over her shoulder.

“That looks so good,” he said, reaching over and sticking his finger in the whipped cream. She pulled the bowl away from him.

“Patience,” she laughed. “Go sit.”

He strode to the couch, dropping himself against the throw pillows.

Cori thought about how comfortable all of this was. Dinner together, easy banter, affectionate looks. Everything she thought she’d have by now, with Matthew.

She stared down at her hands and sighed. Colin was sweet and dangerously sexy, but he was just another Matthew. Having a variety of girls was his trademark. Besides, she wasn’t even in the league with the other girls she’d seen at his place.

She shook her head to clear the thought and grabbed two spoons, carrying their desserts to the couch.

Colin admired the sweet treat as she handed it to him. “You’re one incredible cook,” he said, dipping his spoon in and snagging a little of each layer. He hummed as he enjoyed the first bite. “Man, I could get used to this,” he said, smiling at her.

“Well, stay on my good side and I’ll fatten you up.”

He laughed. “Hey, the body is part of the show. But I’ll take my chances.”

They finished and she took their cups. She was so enjoying his company, she spoke before she could think about it. “So, I was thinking, if you want, maybe we could watch a movie or play a game or something.”

Colin glanced at his watch and made a face, then bounced off the couch up the step to the front door and peered through the peephole. “Shit.”

“Everything ok?”

He stepped down from the door. “Can I take a raincheck? I need to get out of here.”

She hoped the disappointment that washed over her didn’t show. “Of course,” she said.

“Great. You’re the best. Thanks – for the best meal I’ve had in a long time.” He reached for her to pull her into a hug and as he touched her arm, they both felt as if lightning shot through them.

Colin jumped back. “Damn, what the hell?”

She wrapped her arms around herself. “I don’t know. The two of us together are dangerous,” she said with a smile.

He grinned and looked a little sad. “I’ve gotta go. Thanks again.” He unlocked the locks on the door and left, pulling it closed behind him.

She was a little dazed, lightheaded even after the moment. She hadn’t noticed any static electricity anywhere else. That was an enormous charge. She stepped up to the door and peered through the peephole. Her heart dropped. Colin’s back was to her and he was wrapped around another leggy blonde. Her arms were wrapped around his neck and her tongue was down his throat. He turned them around, never breaking the kiss, fumbled with the doorknob and opened the door, pulling her inside. The door closed.

She was right. Not even close to being in his league. She stepped down into the kitchen to clean up.

Monday morning’s alarm rang and she trudged through her normal routine. As she unlocked her door to leave, she heard voices in the hallway.

“I can’t. Look, I would if I could but I’ve got something else going on.”

“Colin, you always do this. I want to go on a date. A real date. You know I only want to be with you.” The voice was female.

She slowly opened the door, embarrassed to intrude on their conversation, but she had to go to work. She slowly stepped out, the conversation continuing.

“I appreciate that,” he purred, running his hands down her bare arms. She had raven hair that was pulled into a ponytail, tight yoga pants and a spandex workout top, her curves on display. “But there’s so much going on with the band, I just don’t have the time right now. You know I like you Brittany –“

“Brianna,” she corrected him.

He smiled that megawatt smile. “Yeah, Brianna.” He fidgeted a little as if trying to come up with what to say next.

Cori suddenly felt brave and started around the bannister. “Hey Colin,” she purred, smiling at him. “Tonight’s still date night, right?” She winked at him and kept walking, saying “See you at 7,” as she made her way down the stairs. She could still hear their conversation.

“You’re dating someone else! You said you weren’t!” Brianna was angry.

“No, she was just kidding,” Colin pleaded. “I’m not dating anyone. But my door is always open for you Brianna,” he said in the sexy low voice.

“As if,” she sniffed. “Goodbye Colin.” Cori could hear her stomping down the stairs above her. She stifled a laugh.

The week was going by quickly. Cori had joined her parents for dinner at one of their favorite spots and had just gotten home for the evening.

“I must’ve pissed you off pretty good, eating and running the other night.” Colin had opened his door and stood in the doorframe as she walked past.

“What do you mean?” she said with a smile.

“I mean telling that girl it was date night,” he said. She looked at him and there was a grin where she thought there might be anger.

“Hey, I was just doing you a favor. She left, didn’t she?”

“She sure did,” he laughed. “I’m sorry about the other night. I just wanted to say I’m sorry. That was a shitty thing to do. You took the time to cook for me, I could’ve at least stayed and helped clean up.”

“Not a big deal,” she said, unlocking the door. She smiled at him, a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. This was all they’d ever have, this banter back and forth, neighbors. She knew how big her crush was every time she saw him with another girl. Why was she attracted to guys she couldn’t have?

“You know,” he said, coming around the bannister towards her, “we could pick it up tonight, maybe watch a movie?”

She hesitated before answering. She had the luxury of the day off tomorrow, a three-day weekend. Ms. Robbins was going out of town and told her to take a break. She had turned the alarm off on her phone the moment she got the news, a Friday to sleep in. She took a deep breath and turned to look at him. “Sure.”

“Great!” he said and when she opened the door, she could feel him behind her he was so close. His woody, musky scent filled her nose. She felt something wash over, something she hadn’t felt for such a long time, a longing. She thought about the girls she’d seen wrapped around him, kissing him.

She’d never wished so badly she was someone else before. Would she ever be comfortable in her own skin, and not so desperate for her sexy neighbor?

As he walked past her into the living room, he ran his hand above her waist and once again, a shock went through them both that nearly knocked them off of their feet. Colin stumbled forward, catching himself on the sofa, Cori bracing against the kitchen counter.

“What the hell is up with your apartment?” he asked, rubbing his hand. “You need to have the super check your power. Something is definitely up.”

She caught her breath. “Maybe that’s my built-in ‘hands off’ alarm,” she said with a smile. “Wouldn’t want to get caught in a trap like those other girls and get all disappointed.” She’d tried saying it as a joke but her voice sounded sad.

“Look, I’m always honest with anyone I’m with. I don’t want anything long term. I like girls, I’m like any other guy. I just don’t have the desire to be with anyone for very long. I tried that once and it didn’t work. I’m not making that mistake again.”

“Must’ve gotten your heart broken pretty badly,” she said, trying to hide the sadness from her own failure.

“Against my better judgment I got involved with someone I thought might be the one. I was wrong. We wanted different things. Brought me right back to plan A,’ he said, bending down to look at DVDs on her shelf. “Besides, when the band takes off and we hit the road, the last thing I want is to leave someone behind and not be able to enjoy myself.”

“Well, I’ll give you that. At least you’re honest. And you’re not playing the field while you’ve got a fiancée on the string.” Her voice trailed off and she looked down, pissed at the tears that were burning at her eyes.

He stood up, a concerned look on his face. “Did that happen to you?” he said softly.

“Yes,” she said, barely audible.

“I’m sorry,” he said, really meaning it. “That sucks.”

“It does. And with my best friend, no less.”

“Ouch.”

She looked at him, willing the tears away that were rimming her eyes. “Pretty much almost ended my life, at least it felt like it. All of this, the apartment, the job, it’s just me trying to get a fresh start. It’s like I don’t know where I belong.”

He gave her that adorable half smile. “You seem like a great girl Cori. I’m sure there’s someone out there for you. And if you need someone to get you back in the saddle, I’m always available for a ride,” he smiled.

Her face broke into a smile. “That’s THE worst pick up line EVER!” she laughed and he laughed too.

“Yeah, that was bad even for me,” he said, running his hand through his spikey hair to the back of his neck, letting it linger there. Every move he made turned her on. This was torture.

“Ok,” he said, desperate to change the subject and spinning towards the TV. “I suggest a comedy, nothing too heavy tonight.”

“Agree!” She pulled two bottles of beer from the frig and threw a bag of popcorn into the microwave. When it was done, she joined him and they started the movie. There was no conversation, just laughter. He’d made himself at home on the couch with his feet on the coffee table. She tucked her legs up under her in the chair. She’d made a friend. That was the takeaway. It wasn’t sad, it was happy.

When the movie ended, he cleaned up the beer bottles and popcorn and headed for the door. “This was great, I hope we can do it again.”

“Me too,” she said with a smile.

“Hey, what are you doing Saturday night?”

She wished she had a fabulous night planned, but the truth was it would be her, her jammies, some wine and a good book. “Nothing really,” she said.

“Great! Come down to Rap’s. The band is playing at 8. It’s just down the street.”

“I know it, Rapscallion’s, right?”

“Yeah, it’s going to be a big weekend for us. We’re playing a festival Saturday afternoon and at Rap’s on Saturday night.”

“Wow, that’s awesome. I’m glad you’re back on track.”

“Yeah, it feels good,” he said. “So you’ll be there Saturday?”

She didn’t hesitate. “Yes, I’ll be there.”

He clapped his hands together. “Awesome.” He stepped up to the door, gave her a wave and left.

Cori suddenly felt deflated. The biggest player on the planet just spent the evening with her and didn’t even try to make a move on her. Of course she’d been an idiot and acted uninterested. But she should be uninterested, she’d been down this road before.

Saturday would be fun. She’d get a friend to go with her. Who knows, maybe she’d meet someone more in her league.

[veldian]

tell us more of ur think tank hcs i personally am at the edge of my seat

HELL YEAH ALRIGHT HERE WE GO. some of these might be against canon in some way but that's your fault for trusting me with this

ALSO, AS USUAL, I HAVE TO APOLOGIZE. THIS GOT VERY LONG. when i think about the tanks i go fuckin wild with it

starting with pride headcanons to get the ball rolling

all the tanks are nonbinary, but additionally, dala is a trans woman and 0 is a trans man

8 hates gender he fucking hates it. every day he wakes up and says "today i will make gender my bitch" and then he does. he says this in the game too you just don't know cuz he only speaks in static (don't factcheck this)

if you ask 8 what pronouns she uses, they will shrug and give you a "i dunno" noise. sometimes it'll make a non-committal hand movement and some unintelligible noises. good luck

god this bitch (borous) is gay! good for him! good for him.

he's also intersex! i don't remember where we got that hc but i like it and im holding onto it

okay but borous calls himself bi because yeah Men, but he also loves dala very much and doesn't want to misgender her. also as previously stated, 8's main goal is to confuse everyone about their gender so the tanks all stick with mspec labels to be on the safe side. you never know what'll happen. gender is a ticking time bomb

bi gang: klein, borous, 0

pan gang: dala, mobius

don't ask her about any of her identities she doesn't know the answer either: 8

have i gone off about polytank dynamics enough? i don't think so

8 and dala started dating first because horny bitches gravitate towards each other. they can also "pass" as a "straight couple" so hopefully no one at work will look at them and call them slurs. hopefully

klein and borous knocked things out of the park for being the first gay scientists ever

8 and dala became polyam icons and pulled 0 in. trans bitches gravitate towards each other

klein and borous did the same with mobius. bitches with facial hair gravitate towards each other

???????

idk and then all six of them started dating somehow. the end

somewhere along the way klein and 8 were like "i like you a little too much" and now they're inseparable

okay anyway. misc hcs

ive mentioned this before but when i pretend everything is in modern times, 0 is a tiktokker and he thrives on the attention and making fun of his coworkers on the internet

"watching steven universe repeatedly when i felt even slightly bad transed my gender" - doctor 8 old world blues

i just remembered i made a carrd for the tanks as if they were kinnies in their early to mid 20s

8 kinned pearl su. borous kinned werewolf cookie. 0 kinned rimmer red dwarf. mobius kinned... morbius forbidden planet. obviously. klein refused to put his kins on it. DID DALA KIN FROM DANGANRONPA

i think at one point we had a half-joking hc where klein gets nauseous if he sees blood

and then that changed to he can't see others blood, only his own

while borous can't see his own blood, but he's fine seeing other ppl's

i know borous said that gabe barked at everyone, but i think gabe trusts the other tanks because he knows borous does

borous set up a kissing booth with gabe. the crowd goes wild

when the tanks get together they usually go to klein's. he's the leader or something. also he has a fucking bar in his house.

he complains about them the whole time but you can really tell he loves having people over. why else would he deck his house out like that? he LOVES hosting stuff. house husband

if you saw my chart where i said klein would rather die than do dishes, i was so wrong. his house is pristine. its easily the cleanest

klein's love language is acts of service. he goes over to his partners' houses when they feel awful and clean stuff up for them when they can't. he also makes them food if they want it. he only complains a little, but you can tell he's mostly teasing

did you know klein has five mugs in his kitchen in-game. he's literally prepared to host his partners at any given moment.

the group have learned that letting 8 come over when their house is a mess is a Huge mistake. it goes from 8 trying to help "tidy up" to "im going to put your books and albums in alphabetical order by artist also your clothes are going to be hue-sorted"

"8 why are there only 8 books on each of my bookshelves"

"it looks better"

"it literally does not"

8 can no longer stomach going into 0's house

on the other hand, 0 hates staying in 8's house. the ticking of all their clocks is sensory hell

on 80 date nights they have to do rock-paper-scissors for which house they go to. or they go out. they love each other but their houses drive the other fucking nuts

oh speaking of their houses. yes dala said she didn't like Literal Teddy Bears but that is null and void considering she has teddies in her house

and she has 5 on her bed. five of them :)

she named all of them after her partners! its mostly cute but there is a slight bit of concern because they know what she does with them <__<

not that 8 has any place to judge. mobius found batteries under its pillow once. all 8 said was "they can vibrate." mobius regrets touching them.

i don't know what to say about dala's mannequins i don't have anything funny im just scared

WHY ARE 0 AND KLEIN THE ONLY ONES WITH BATHROOMS IT DRIVES ME INSANE 0'S BATHTUB ISNT EVEN LAYING DOWN ITS AGAINST THE WALL WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT GENERATOR IN HIS BATHROOM DO THE OTHER TANKS JUST SHIT OUTSIDE I'M SEEING RED

mobius and 0 are both into robotics, and they worked together to make muggy, so they've had date nights where they mainly tinker with electronic things.

0 gets very excited when he makes a breakthrough, and seeing that warms mobius's heart. mobius made a habit of kissing 0 on the forehead or squeezing 0 into a hug when they figure things out.

(0 remembers he likes men.) 😳

dala/klein date nights are essentially just them drinking and gossiping chatting

i asked polycule for some more, so here are ones from your local think tank kinnies

borous -

"klein and borous both like classical music in very different ways. klein mostly likes it to feel smart (see: wheatley) but he just started associating it with the others so it felt nicer And borous just likes it bc hes borous"

klein also likes jazz, but so do all the rest of them

8 has a cochlear implant

"dala likes dressing up to look pretty (see: runway) but is personally embarrassed by it (until she gets encouragement) bc she feels like the others dont support that"

"0 loves collecting and reading those stupid magazines with the birthday party products and themes that ud wanna buy from as a kid but are way too expensive"

"mobius has a secret love for puppetry and will try to bring it up sometimes whenever he can. hes made 3 separate sets of the other tanks as puppets and they freak 0 out"

"borous, in an attempt to better his faults, has started learning from dala and 8 on how to take care of plants instead of what he did before. his basement turns into a cool little green house cozy cuddle area"

"to add on: 8 gardens to cope whenever hes alone bc (projects onto ur kin) he mood drops very fast when alone"

"mobius likes dressing in cozy sweaters and fancy stuff"

0 -

"0 doesn't like anal that much" (thanks.)

dala -

"their new rap album called boyz in the tanks" (THANKS.)

and to top things off, :) here are the normal names for them all, created primarily by our borous kinnie

klein - Ernest Klein (nicknamed ernie)

mobius - Wilbert Mobius (nicknamed bert)

borous - James H. Borous (nicknamed jamie)

dala - Dala Theodore (HER NICKNAME IS TEDDY ITS GENIUS)

8 - Emmett Handley (nicknamed 8 + emmy)

0 - Robert O'Barrick (nicknamed 0/O + robbie (HIM SHARING HOUSE'S NAME IS INTENTIONAL. HE'S TRANS HE PICKED HIS NAME WHY DID HE DO THIS))

[faelapis]

y’all wanted to see the diamonds as sailor senshi, so here you go! this was just a little thing i did for fun, the sailor senshi dressup game is very detailed and you can be very Extra(tm) with it.

i went pretty in-depth with my design reasoning, i don’t expect people to read this since it’s just a dressup game but here goes lol:

white: white had to look the most constrained. like it would be uncomfortable to walk around in that outfit. she’s not allowing herself to be anything less than a perfect figurehead. so her dress hugs her tightly yet covers her the most modestly - she’s both a “pure feminine ideal” and somewhat sexualized. 

her jewelry feels almost claustrophobic. it clings to her face, her wrists, her neck, and sharp jewels tempt to scrape her shoulders if she tries to move. the way the chain hangs over her face cuts it into four diamonds - like the symbol of homeworld that she is, before she’s a person. her hair is in loose pigtails because i wanted to combine the “feminine ideal” of homeworld with the feminine ideal of sailor moon - which is embodied by usagi herself and queen serenity, who have that hairstyle. her sharp nails are as in the show. the white roses on her wrists symbolizes her puppeteering pink/white pearl, as well as pink & white being opposites the same as blue and yellow. you can also see she combines blue & yellow’s sparkles, while pink rejects those sparkles altogether.

yellow: yellow has the most “structured” outfit - there’s not a single loose element to it (except the cape). even her hair is tightened in a perfectly structured ‘do with no strands astray. the “sharpest-looking” diamond needed the highest heels, embodying the 80s businesswoman chic. her shorts are more of an utena reference, where a girl wearing masculine clothes = hotpants. there’s some problematic elements to the magical girl + shoujo-deconstructing anime of the 90s, which i thought fit well with the problematic ideals of homeworld.

her cape looks white, but it’s actually a very light green (as are her nails, if you look very closely). this is a reference to her most stressed, sickly-looking palette - the one we saw in “message received”. it’s also a stealth-reference to jasper’s cape, and how hers is the court with the most implied upward mobility. if you do well, you can rise in the ranks (to a certain extent). the cape is also a reminder of how she’s the diamond most in-tune & dedicated to her court. her spiked shoulders are, of course, a reference to her iconic shoulderpads. 

blue: blue needed to have the loosest outfit - one that seems big enough to swallow her up and drag her down. i decided to give her a nightgown-inspired top because she is, in a way, the drowsiest / “laziest” / detached-from-reality diamond, who neglects her duties and lets her grief and emotions completely submerge her, making yellow pick up the slack. 

i decided to make her hair Very big and long for two reasons - one, because it fits into the aforementioned theme of everything about her design “weighing down” on her, and two, because making everyone slightly more Extra felt very with the spirit of sailor moon. this is an aesthetic, after all, that heavily conflated strength, status & evolution with getting more and more elaborate and glammed-out outfits. so that’s why the matriarchs got a bunch of jewelry & tiaras, despite the fact that this would be very out-of-place in SU.  

pink: where to even begin!! this is the one where i placed the most character references, i almost don’t wanna spoil them if anyone wants to go looking... but fuck it, you decided to read this far: i wanted her to have the iconic, heroic “sailor moon outfit” because that’s the symbol rose quartz became for the rebellion - the leader who fights for love & justice. she’s barefoot because rose’s shoes, as stated by RS, are impossible to fill. the “poofs” on her legs resemble the poofs of her shoes as pink diamond. the roses on her hips should be obvious, as is the sword, and the star symbol where her gem would be. 

on the less obvious side, i decided to deck her out with pearls because pearls are the characters who inspired her character growth. the reference i’m most proud of is probably the colors of her skirt - do you get what it’s supposed to be? it’s the hibiscus flower! it’s darkest pink on the inside, but becomes lighter near the tips. she’s also flipped to face the opposite way of the other diamonds because she decided to “turn against” the system.

she has dark pink-reddish angel wings for several reasons - firstly, because it combines the aesthetics of angels & demons, like how pink herself is intentionally impossible to identify as a perfect hero or villain... secondly, because she’s - well, gone. she, her gem, and her magic sometimes feel like a vague spiritual presence in the show, so i thought it’d be fitting to have a kind of post-steven spiritual rose diamond, hence her background is both the heavens & a sunset, symbolizing the “end” of her life & development. 

thanks for reading - i know i mostly do text analysis on this blog... but i’m a big fan of fashion, particularly symbolic fashion that says something about a character, so i wanted to experiment with some dressup designs! <3 

[ketsuyuki-hibana-typed]

Requested by @noelythebest

From now on, I will say, "Muzan, you is a dick" every time I got request about him

Also I'm cackling because he could fuck with himself whenever he want

Kibutsuji Muzan x Anorexic! s/o

Muzan didn't know why does she didn't like to eat, and even didn't eat at all. She's a demon, same as him. She needs energy to live and fight. Other demons have great appetite towards humans flesh, bones even bloods but why she didn't budge over all of these delicious things?

And the fight? After killing human, she will just leave them there and give it to other demons.

She never eat, she actually didn't need to eat, or so she thought.

He became tired of her behaviour. He loved her, he really do, that's why he really worried about her health as a demon and his lover.

"Eat."

"No."

"Eat."

"Muzan." She stared the Human-meat based Katsudon in front of her. "It's not about the appearance, I simply don't want to. I don't care if you made it into noodle, or rice."

She dragged her teddy bear, a gift from Muzan, and get off from the seat. Her hair was jumping around, making small wave movements. Her red ball gown was moving along with her small walking.

Leaving the dining room with Muzan alone and the foods.

Muzan rubbed his forehead. He had to know what is the cause of her behaviour, or she will starve to death.

There's one time Muzan tried one method.

He made cooking from a human, making it into some kind of steak. He put them on the table and called her.

She didn't appease even for a second.

"Sit here." He ordered her to sit on his lap. After she sat there, he started to eat it. With this, he thought she'll be hungry and probably interested on munching some.

But no, she didn't even look at the steak. She's busy playing with her teddy bear, not even a single interest was shown on her face.

"You- you aren't hungry?"

"No."

He lost his temper.

He cut one bite from the steak and put it on his mouth. He suddenly pulled her chin and kissed her lips. She surprised and dropped her teddy bear.

"Mu...hn..Zan..." He forced his tongue to be inside her mouth, and pushed the meat onto it. He bites her tongue and swirled around, held the meat in her warm cave.

He broke the contact. She's coughing and panting with her mouth closed.

"Chew it." Muzan smiled triumphantly. She slowly munched it with teary eyes and tried to gulp it down. But as soon as the meat reached her throat, she gagged and covered her mouth. She ran into the sink, vomitting. It's not just the meat, but inside all of her stomach got thrown too, even though it's just water and some kind of yellow liquid.

Muzan was a little bit panicking and wiped her mouth with small towel.

"Muzan, you stupid!!!" She punched his abs and ran away from there.

As you can see, this is so fucking difficult, even for high intelligence creature like Muzan.

Dealing with this eating disorder is frustrating more than searching for Blue Spider Lily.

Wait, eating diso-

Muzan banged his head on the wall in his lab. Argh, idiot me, why didn't I realize that this is anorexia sooner? What make her like this? She never being like this 100 years ago. And one day she just decided she didn't want to eat anymore.

But he didn't called with Kibutsuji Muzan if he wasn't smart. He had to think about something.

Since he was being avoided by her because she's still angry to him, Douma was in task to ask this stubborn girl why is she acting like that.

But he's so dumb.

"Lady, if you can tell me why you don't like to eat, I will give you more-"

"Teddy bear?!"

"No, the better one! Woman's head! They are deli-"

He couldn't continue his words because his tongue was chopped off and she threw it up to the fish pond.

Akaza was there too. Knowing Muzan is in trouble and agony, he came to her. He shoved and kicked Douma existence to the fish pond.

"Lady, should we walk around? There were no human in the forest, we could go there." She nodded.

After few minutes, Akaza started to ask his behaviour lately, why she can't eat anymore, and why she suddenly decided to restrain her appetite.

"You promised you didn't tell Muzan?"

"I promised."

"..." She stopped and sat down slowly on a boulder. She hugged her brown teddy bear and playing with his lower gown. Akaza was all ear.

"Muzan often bought me beautiful gown and dress. But he really thought my size was small because I'm a little bit shorter than him. I was actually fat. My stomach and arms part didn't fit to the gown. I don't want him to disgusted over my body, I became insecure but I never tell him. So that's why, I restrain my food. But I never thought it will get me into this."

Akaza nodded, "But Lady, it will be dangerous for you if you keep it like this. Even though we're not the same as human, we need to eat too."

"I know, Muzan always make me food. I wanted to taste it. But as soon as the food reached out inside me, I can't help but vomitting."

Of course, Akaza gave Muzan his report about her.

He knew she'll become weaker and weaker from time to time. If he's not doing something first about the vomit, his partner will die. And of course he won't let it.

So he made some experiments.

He called her again to his lab. She put some distance and stared from behind the door while grunting. She still hate him.

He smiled warmly, "Come here, sweetheart."

She melted and gave up. With little steps and a clutch on her teddy bear, she approached him timidly.

"Look at this. It smells sweet. It's blood candy."

"Blood candy?!" Her eyes glistened, looking at pearl-marble red looking on Muzan's hand. For the first time, there's something that looked appetising on her eyes. He nodded. "Can I try it?"

"Only if you apologize to me for jabbing my guts, like this-" He kneeled in front of her. He put candy on the front of his lips and held it with his teeth. "C'mere take it."

She blushed. "That's so unfair." She moved her lips towards and bite the candy slowly. Their lips met for a while. Her face was reddened while eating and mumbling the candy. " I'm sorry I punched you."

He patted her head and smile. "Is it delicious?"

"Yes! It didn't make me vomit too! Thank you, Muzan!"

"Anything for my baby girl." He kissed her forehead. "Next time tell me about the gown, I will buy bigger size for you."

"Su- wait." She stopped munching the candy, her face become redder more. "Akazaaaa!!!!!"

On the distance, Akaza heard her voice and chuckled.

"Now, princess. I'm happy for you two."

[rosemary1315]

SU OC Profile: Coral Pearl

Coral Pearl

Nickname: Coral (All her gem friends, Keisuke *sometime*, Amethyst), Coral-chan (Keisuke *sometime*), Sango (Keisuke), Sango-chan (Keisuke), Silly Pearl (Amethyst *sometime*)

Hometown: Homeworld (Past)/ Little Homeworld, Earth (Present)

Friend(s): Keisuke Nakamura (Boyfriend), Tetsuya Nakamura (Friend), Emiko Nakamura (Friend), Other Pearls *Teal Pearl, Sunset Pearl, Light Purple Pearl* (Friends), Blue Topaz (Friend), Pink Sapphire (Friend), Strawberry Quartz/Ichigo (Friend), Steven and The Crystal Gems (Friends)

Occupation: Servant (Past), Little Homeschool student (Present)

Personality:

She's cheerful, optimistic and fun-loving. She love does silly face, it's reason made Keisuke fall in love her.

She's clumsy. When she lived on Homeworld, she's careless in sometime. Plus, some high-ranking gems think she's too clumsy to be good and perfect pearl. Although, she's good at serve anything. But, it made her feel bad for herself in sometime. But mostly, she's optimistic. This point, she don't mind about it.

She will become bit careful and less clumsy (she's still clumsy, but sometime), when she tries to focused on doing something. Especially, when she cooks or does scrapbooking.

She love and care Keisuke with his childs (Keisuke and Emiko). She tries her best to help any houseworks (Keisuke is who teach how to houseworks to her) with Keisuke and his childs, Especially, cooking.

She love and enjoy to making bento, especially Kyaraben or Character Bento (after, she met and know Keisuke and Emiko). Mostly, she learn how to making Bento from books. But sometime, she learn from Keisuke (He teach her in some point, when he has a free time). She always wakes up early to make bento to Keisuke and his childs. She make Kyaraben to Keisuke and his childs every 1 week for 1 time. She like to take pictures, after she did make bento finish.

She love and interest to learn about languages on earth, after she lives on earth. Especially she love to learn Japanese language much, after she met and know Keisuke.

She love writing. Especially, write about her day to day life on the earth around her, about Japan and Japanese food

She love Scrapbooking. She like to buy stuffs, like stickers, patterned papers and other, or  find and collect interesting things for does her scrapbook.

She like drawing. Especially, she draw cute thing for her notebook or scrapbook. she's good at pencil colors.

She like cute stuffs, especially cute stickers, cute dolls, cute outfits and cute dresses.

She like to watching Keisuke is planting vegetable and fruit. Sometimes, she helps him plant vegetable and fruit together. She love to watch vegetable and fruit everyday. Because, She's always impressed with how fruits and vegetables grow.

She love Senbei and Dango, it's her fav. japanese foods and snacks, when she met and know Keisuke. For other fav. japanese foods are Sukiyaki, Grilled Mochi with Shoyu, Miso Soup, Chawanmushi (Steamed Egg).

Like: Do silly face (It's one of reason made Keisuke fall in love her), Cooking (Thank to Keisuke and Tetsuya with Emiko), Scrapbooking, Learn about language on earth (Japanese is her fav. language, after she met and know Keisuke), Watch vegetable and fruit Keisuke plant, Help Keisuke plant vegetable and fruit (Sometime), Making Bento (Especially, Kyaraben or Character Bento), Collect cute stuffs, Cute dresses, Cute outfits, Stickers (especially cute stickers), Buy stuffs for notebook or scrapbook, Senbei, Dango, Sukiyaki, Grilled Mochi with Shoyu, Miso Soup, Chawanmushi (Steamed Egg)

Coral Pearl's Backstory: [Click]