#where is our agreement to be each other's arch rivals
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Round 2, Match 7: Shen Jiu vs Gu Feidi
Match 7 is between Shen Jiu / original Shen Qingqiu (shixiong: Yue Qingyuan) from The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vs Gu Feidi (shixiong: Su Yang) from Where is Our Agreement to be Each Other's Arch-Rivals?
Propaganda under the cut
Shen Jiu:
"Threads of blood unfurled, extending outward. Right before they should have converged into one, they passed each other by."
Gu Feidi:
So Gu Feidi and Su Yang are from different sects (righteous and evil, respectfully), but they both end up studying at the House of Jade as Shixiong and Shidi. They end up falling in love, and if I'm remembering correctly, Gu Feidi leaves the Wulin Alliance (/fights with his father, the leader) to be with & help Su Yang
#shen jiu#shen qingqiu#yue qingyuan#jiuyuan#scum villain's self saving system#svsss#gu feidi#su yang#where is our agreement to be each other's arch rivals
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⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️
#ultimate obscure blorbo#polls#Round I#Chen Suyang#Where is Our Agreement to be Each Other's Arch-Rivals?#Cheng Shaolin Wuzang#Shaolin Wuzang
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“… being defeated by fear, afraid to speak of love, willing to be words written on your journey and to erase the expectation of lonely existence. Only hope to be with you in the next life.”
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Knowing the spring will shine with the setting sun, the open book reveals the lighted stage. Jade Mirror cold water veiled pearls for two years, parting ones yearn the moon lingers. I wish to be with you in this life.
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Girlfriends
TW: smut. Girl x girl. Language.
SUMMARY: Cheating on your boyfriends with each other.
WORD COUNT: 700
Girlfriends
could you please do a sarah cameron x fem!pogue!reader smut imagine where they've been hooking up for a while behind their bf's backs? ( sarah is dating Topper and reader is dating either JJ or Pope ) and they knows it wrong, but they can't help it.
Girlfriends
To anyone who saw you, you were the closest of friends. Sharing everything from clothes to secrets. She was the dutiful girlfriend to Topper as the expected blossoming relationship between Kooks as you were to JJ. But once alone, you were the epitome of forbidden in every sense.
"Sarah!" You gasped. "We have to stop..." Her fingers made perfect circles over your clit through your suit. Despite the objection, your palms rested on the bed behind you and you rode against her hand as she watched you find pleasure in her touch.
"You want me to stop?"
"No..." You groaned as she moved faster.
"You're soaking through your suit for me..."
"Fuuuucckkk..."
"Faster?" You nodded, clutching her wrist. "I wanted to make you come right out there...the way you were looking at me..."
"We can't..."
"But you want to..." You bobbed your head in desperate agreement. "You're already so close..."
"Shit, Sarah...I wanna feel you..."
"Like last time?" You nodded as she was quick to chuckle and remove her own swim bottoms as you mirrored her actions.
"This is so wrong..." You moaned as she began to rock against you, a vibrator set against the two of you as you both rode into it from this angle. Her feet planted beside your elbows as yours sat the same, looks of pleasure cast on both of your faces as you took turns at each other's breasts.
"Then why are you so wet? I can feel you dripping down our little toy..." She teased you.
"Because I can't stop..."
"Me neither...I think about you when Top goes down on me like you do...it's the only way I can come..." She confessed as you thrust harder. "YES!" She moaned aloud as your eyes flashed to the door.
"I imagine you when JJ fingers me..." Her fingers brushed over your clit as your mouth pulled to a large O.
"I love watching you feel good...I love that it's because of me..." You threw the toy down on the bed and kissed her. Your tongue ravaging her mouth as you continued to rock your naked pussy against her own.
"You imagine me?" You asked as you teased her lower lips. "Maybe you shouldn't have to..." You moved between her legs, using the vibrator between your own, as you made good on your words. She weaved her fingers carefully through your hair, pulling when you made her close.
"I love how you edge me..." She breathed while relaxing the recent arch of her back.
"Yeah?" You pulled the vibrator from your thighs and brought it to her clit.
"You like that, Sarah?" She began shaking biting her bottom lip, as you increased the speed.
"Fuuuucckkk...."
"Come for me...I love watching you come..."
"Sit on my face...I wanna make you come too..." You obeyed, taking your position as she pulled you wide.
"Fuck!" You belted before feasting between her legs. Every slip of your tongue rivaled her own as some sort of sexual chicken to see who could come first. Her hips began to buck first as you moaned louder.
"You're gonna make me come!" She warned. "It's gonna be-" She silenced to this as you pulled her against your face.
"Yeeeesss!" You hissed to the arrival of your own orgasm. But as she was coming down, from hers, she pressed the vibrator to your clit s you jolted to your back. Her pussy resting on the other side of the bulbous head.
"Again....I need more..."
"Fuck, Sarah..."
"Yes...YES!" Her beautiful face crafted in perfect pleasure as you were quick to fall apart for her again. The mix of cum staining the vibrator as you pulled her down for a soft kiss.
"We have to stop..." You explained before she nodded.
"I know..." But as you looked at each other, you wanted more. She shared this, climbing beneath you as you played with her breasts.
"But I can't stop..."
"Then don't..." You moaned as you slipped two fingers inside of her. Finding her ready for yet another orgasm. One you were all too happy to offer.
SARAH CAMERON MASTERLIST
MASTERLIST
TAGLIST: @rafesmoon @maybankslover @puzziepoppin @gillybear17 @onclouds999 @penny4yourthoughts @magnificantmermaid @pickingviolets @lovedetlost @trikigirl271 @maybankslover @slut4tangerine @slvtherinseeker @bluesongbird @slut-era @ailee-celeste @camilynn @sweetestdesire @jjmaybanksangel @phildunphyisadilf
#sarah cameron#sarah cameron fanfiction#sarah cameron smut#outer banks#outer banks fanfiction#outer banks smut#obx#obx fanfiction#outerbanks#outerbanks fanfiction#outerbanks smut#madelyn cline
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Danmei Recs (more plot / character driven)
Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know - Cyan Wings
NovelUpdates [link] My review [link]
Every Day the Protagonist Wants to Capture Me - Qing Duan
NovelUpdates [link] My review [link]
His Little Deer Wife is Very Fierce - Little Baldy
NovelUpdates [link]
How to Survive As a Villain - Yi Yi Yi Yi
NovelUpdates [link]
Silent Reading - Priest
NovelUpdates [link] My review [link]
The General’s Vampire Omega - Little Baldy
NovelUpdates [link]
The Last Dragon in the Cultivation World - Marshmallow Bunny
NovelUpdates [link]
The Virtuous Omega Disguised as the Vicious Colonel - Little Baldy
NovelUpdates [link] My review [link]
Where is Our Agreement to be Each Other’s Arch-Rivals? - Poplar Breeze
NovelUpdates [link]
Non-Human Sub-district Office - Drunk Long Song
NovelUpdates [link]
Peerless Immortal Surrounded by Demonic Disciples - Dao Xuan
NovelUpdates [link]
Record of the Missing Sect Master - A Lifetime Of Beautiful Clothes
NovelUpdates [link]
The Whole World Is My Crematorium - 比卡比
NovelUpdates [link]
They All Say I’ve Met a Ghost - Cyan Wings
NovelUpdates [link]
A Real Man Isn’t Afraid of a Little Demon - Little Baldy
NovelUpdates [link]
My Junior Still Hasn’t Killed Me - Zi Lu
NovelUpdates [link]
Something's Not Right - Cyan Wings
NovelUpdates [link]
Today Prime Minister Also Wants to Bang His Head on the Pillar - Bazaodashe
NovelUpdates [link]
It’s Not Easy Being a Master - Jin Xi Gu Nian
NovelUpdates [link]
The Omega Can’t Pretend to Be a Beta After Accidentally Witnessing the Major General’s Susceptible Period - Fei Tang
NovelUpdates [link]
Worship Me, I Can Make You Rich - 向远飞
NovelUpdates [link]
The General Loves to Collect Little Red Flowers - Kun Cheng Xiong Mao
NovelUpdates [link]
More Danmei Recs (lighter reading / more fluff)
A Guide to Raising Your Natural Enemy - Jue Jue
NovelUpdates [link]
Transmigrated As a Villain, I Rely on Sand Sculpture to Survive - Ma Hu Zi Jun
NovelUpdates [link]
Carrying a Hoe to Cultivate - Little Baldy
NovelUpdates [link] My Review [link]
The Disabled Tyrant’s Pet Palm Fish - Xue Shan Fei Hu
NovelUpdates [link] My review [link]
After Being Turned Into a Dog, I Conned My Way Into Freeloading at My Rival’s Place - Zi Jin
NovelUpdates [link]
Number One Lazy Merchant of the Beast World - Shuishan
NovelUpdates [link]
Transmigrated as the Villain’s Cat - Xishan Fish
NovelUpdates [link]
Do You Want to Touch My Fish Tail? - 系辭上
NovelUpdates [link]
Live Broadcasting Raising Dragons in the Interstellar - Yu Zhi Shui
NovelUpdates [link]
My Vampire Faints at Blood - Three Thousand Big Dreams To Narrate One's Life
NovelUpdates [link]
The Film Emperor’s Daily Live Cooking Broadcast - 砚楚
NovelUpdates [link]
((this post will be updated as I continue reading and if I write any reviews about specific series I'll link them here too))
#danmei#danmei recs#transmigration#webnovels#xianxia#wuxia#danmei webnovels#danmei reviews#danmei reading#ila reads
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Trans WN Character Tournament
Last Checked: January 22nd, 2025 - Please check the original post for updates
Submissions CLOSED
Rules:
The character must be from a web novel or an adaptation of a WN (common adaptations like manhwa/manhua may be accepted, just within reason)
They don't have to be canonically transgender. The reasoning can be anything from them explicitly wanting to be a different gender/sex or just vibes
Please be mindful of offensive gender stereotypes in propaganda, especially Western gender stereotypes on Asian characters
Tournament Tag: #trans wn character tournament
Chi Tong from What Happened to Being Each Other's Archenemies?*
*aka Where is Our Agreement to be Each Other’s Arch-Rivals?
Gender Identity: Nonbinary
Canon Pronouns: they/them
Submission:
excerpt:
During their two years training, Chi Tong, who refused to show the smallest hint of their true gender, turned out to be a girl?
However, when faced with this question, Chi Tong was actually smiling. "Uncle left the palace very early on and didn't know more about me. I'm actually... a man."
"But..." Qin Jianyue's frowning increased. "Why did your imperial mother raise you as a daughter?"
Chi Tong's smile remained and turned mysterious. What came out of their mouth could cause anyone to be speechless. "That's because I can also be a daughter."
Jang Hayoung / Jang Hayeong from Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint
Gender Identity: Transfem / MTF
Canon Pronouns: she/her (she gets misgendered for a big part of the novel in the unofficial english translation, but when we're in her pov it's she/her)
Submission 2: a woman that got isekai'd into a boy body. learns female swordsmanship, is always correcting people about her gender
Submission 3: She's so fun and silly, unfortunately doesnt get as much time in novel as the main cast, but shes genuinely so funny
Wiki Link
Liang Jiuxiao from Lord Seventh: Qi Ye
Canon: he/him male
Gender Identity: Transfem / MTF
Submission: It was very gender of Jiuxiao to go undercover as a woman for so long
Ling Fengxiao from The #1 Pretty Boy of the Immortal Path
Gender Identity: transfem & nonbinary
Submission:
(tw: transphobia) i am not claiming that this a good novel by any means & this is kind of nonsense but hear me out: main romance lead of this novel spends like 90% of the time happily presenting as a woman, and this is a vague spoiler but at one point mc and his wife are both "pretending" to be women (ngl i could also submit mc here. much gender to be had but it really has to be unintentional bc of later transphobic plot points) and come across a plant that only blooms valuable flowers when attended to by two beautiful women (ok. whatever) and they're both like "well IM pretending to be a woman but lin shu/ling fengxiao ISNT so she'll carry me across this finish line" and it does bloom! like, it does! the author is like "ohhhh its sickly and this is forcedddd" <- but it does bloom. and the flower spirit that comes of it is fairly explicitly a trans woman, even if she's an object of ridicule. my grasping at scraps theory here is that all of the "you're actually a boy. accept it" said to the spirit is a projection of internalized transphobia. there are three women here but only one of them is willing to say so. if the author was willing to write where the previous characterization led we would have a different story.
Luo Binghe from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System
Gender Identity: Transfem / MTF
Canon Pronouns/Gender: He/Him, Male
Submission: Scum Villain is a satirical transmigration novel where the protagonist transmigrates into the in-universe novel Proud Immortal Demon Way, which is a male-fantasy novel. Some themes/topics include toxic masculinity, not putting people in boxes and the harm thereof, abandonment, motherhood, identity, and there are several instamces of body snatching/changing. During the plot, due to both the toxic masculinity themes and the author poking at gendering in danmei novels, both the protagonist and binghe are described very femininely. Instead of a usually anti-toxic masculinity plotline where instead it talks about healthy masculinity, scum villain basically just says that the mc and ml should instead stop repressing their natural feminity so they can be happy. Also the novel has transphobic parts but somehow they even wrap around to implying that these two are trans women. Binghe is indirectly described as a trans woman (in a transphobic way) dont get me wrong the transphobic parts are transphobic and shouldnt be in there but its still pertinent. After a certain point, binghe is constantly called maiden-hearted, described as a younger sister reaching out to her elder sister pleading for help (the elder sister here is the protagonist) and is described as being very much like his biological mother in appearance and personality, and as a pretty boy. (His mother su xiyan is described as having the aura of a tyrant, cold and ruthless, as well as masculine, especially in comparison to his biological father, who is described as the runaway young miss in comprison to su xiyans wealthy young master. Also binghe is described as physically similar to her, including her tall height, except for his fathers eyes which makes him not too feminine.) Binghes bio father is described as maidenhearted like binghe. Uses his special blood, which is compared to menstration, in text, for many purposes. When asked his gender he refuses to answer (intext the unreliable narrator says that its due to it being a simple and obvious question but unreliable narrator so who knows for sure) and he is also called bingmei, or younger sister binghe to distingiush him from the original timelines toxically masculine, unhappy bingge, or elder brother binghe.
Wiki Link
Mui Lysander from Unlucky Clover
Canon Pronouns: they/them
Submission: Mui is a canonically nonbinary character in Unlucky Clover. Their existence as a nonbinary person is never a focus of the narrative, but rather just an accepted fact about them. They have a complicated relationship with their family but it doesn't have anything to do with being trans but rather to do with their family having unreasonable expectations of them. Mui lives their life happily as a librarian and lends their strength either in defense of books or for their friends. They appear to be feminine presenting but it is never established what their assigned gender at birth was. It is also unclear whether they always present in a feminine way as there is limited art of their character and limited descriptions of their clothes.
Image Link
Nirvana Moebius from Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint / ORV
Gender Identity: Nonbinary, agender
Canon: pronouns indifferent in canon, agender
Submission Propaganda: a reincarnator that had incarnations of so many genders and entities that identity isn't real to them anymore.
Rania Van Trias from I Quit the Hero Party
Gender Identity: Transmasc
Submission: A guy turned into a woman by the Demon King's curse uses this opportunity to retire and start a life with new identity
Ruan Nanzhu (阮南烛) from Kaleidoscope of Death
Gender Identity: transfem & nonbinary
Canon Pronouns: he/him outside of the doors, she/her in drag
Submission:
This might be considered spoiler-y, but I can't think of another way to bring up important details here. It's part of the premise of the novel if that helps: there are other worlds that the protagonists have to survive for [REDACTED] reasons, and in these worlds there's a certain amount of identity obfuscation—basically, you'll look a little different from your real appearance no matter what you do, but the way that you dress will also affect the appearance that you end up with. Ruan Nanzhu takes every opportunity to dress in feminine ways when they go to these worlds. Yes, there is a secret identity reason behind it, but there's also this clear difference in how Ruan Nanzhu acts as a "man" and a "woman" that it just reads like a form of gender euphoria to me. The novel itself isn't always kind about it (could be that it just depends on the translation you're reading! I couldn't tell you what connotations the original Chinese wording has) but I think it's fairly undeniable that it's a freeing experience for her. So it's not exaaactly canon, but Lin Qiushi (林秋石) uses the right pronouns out loud and in his thoughts as it is signalled to him at the time, so that's nice.
Carrd Link
Shen Qingqiu from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System
Gender Identity: transmasc / FTM
Canon Pronouns: he/him
Submission:
he invented xianxia panty liners also he was literally obsessed with a stallion novel that was supposed to be like. be a power fantasy about a cool strong man. I'm not saying he liked pidw I'm just saying he did make the choice to read a stallion novel and was obsessed with Luo Binghe. Sometimes gay thoughts can also be gender envy. SVSSS also looks a lot at like. masculinity and its performance and perception in a way that really slaps if you, like me, think Shen Qingqiu is the Worstest trans guy ever of all time. I'd like to be clear that he is not good representation. He is literally the most dogshit rep. He's homophobic and gay hes transphobic and trans hes the most insufferable trans person youve ever met. He's probably definitely a transmed. Instead of medical transition, sqq got that transmigration transition, and he is absolutely has a weird ass superiority complex about it. also he's a TRANSmigrator its literally right there in the name. Do u see my vision.
Shi Qingxuan from Heaven Official’s Blessing / TGCF
Gender Identity: Transfem / MTF, Nonbinary, Genderfluid
Canon Pronouns: She/Her and He/Him
Submission 1: Canonically switches between female and male forms due to personal preference. Also theres alot of gothic doubling on her plotline as well.
Submission 2:
Genderfluid rep Goes by any pronouns depending on form
Tanya Von Degurechaff from The Saga of Tanya the Evil
Gender Identity: Transmasc / FTM
Submission: A salaryman reincarnated as a little girl in a country about to go to war. Tanya usually refers to herself as a woman, but when pressed does consider herself a man in a woman's body.
Trissy from Lord of the Mysteries
Gender Identity: Transfem / MTF
Submission: #1 canon trans character (her class of powers forcefems the user) and war criminal she’s my beautiful blorbo and can do no wrong she should be allowed to kill anyone she wants
Wiki Link
Wu Xie from Lord Seventh (Qi Ye)
Canon Pronouns: he/him
Gender Identity: Transmasc / FTM
Submission: I just think he's neat
Xie Lian from Heaven Official’s Blessing (TGCF)
Canon Pronouns: he/him
Gender Identity: Transmasc / FTM
Submission: He's been trans in my head for so long that it's just kind of part of his character now.
Yoo Joonghyuk (The Punisher) from Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint
Canon Pronouns: he/him
Gender Identity: Transfem / MTF
Submission 1:
1. inexplicably fights with the strictly girl-only sword fighting technique. is the only 'guy' to ever learn it and the only other person who is a discipline is a canon trans girl so 2. has an ability where he can become a woman and when he uses it it's said 'it was still Yoo Joonghyuk. No, it was even more than before' ??? there's no cis explanation for that. also he's canonically the hottest person in the entire universe as a woman based on MC's attractiveness rating 2.5 described as feeling 'conflicted' over the gender changing thing when thinking back on it. I THINK he's conflicted bc he likeeeeed ittt 3. whole arc is about breaking free from her chains and gaining autonomy over her own life and story despite what other people think she should be (trans narrative) 4. there's a binary in the universe (incarnation/constellation) to which everyone is forced to confirm to, but there's a special category of people who refuse to be a part of this and carve their own path in life (transcenders). guess what Yoo Joonghyuk is. thats all i remember shjfjsk she's just in general VERY transfem coded story wise
Submission 2: his girlification canonically allows him to access a level of power he can't as a man (this form is called The Punisher). brokers a deal at one point where he must undergo transformation into a girl for a certain amount of time every day for a week. goes out of this way to hide said girlification from the main character (Kim Dokja)
Wiki Link
Rejected
Nimona from Nimona
Reason: Not from a web novel
Honeypaw from The Exiled
Reason: Not from a web novel (fancomic)
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Caity's 2023 Most Enjoyed List
This isn't a real reclist, but a list for me to squirrel away all the things I enjoyed this year before it's over. It's a little all over the place but this was a mess of a year so I suppose my most enjoyed list can be a mess as well. See you later 2023, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Media:
1 - "Lena" by qntm. This is a very short story in the format of a Wikipedia article that gives me so many delightful shivery feelings about consciousness and trans-humanism and who owns the rights to machine learning/AI datasets. Very topical this year.
2 - Dungeon Meshi finished its publication and the final chapter made me cry real tears. I've been following the series for 8+ years and it is everything good with comics - art, world building, the engagement and subversion of fantasy tropes, relationships, story, recipes, the casual cannibalism, the ending. All perfect. Ryoko Kui is a genius. I am very excited for the anime airing next week.
"I think the entire point of this journey we went on was about learning how to accept death."
"Meals are the special privilege of the living. In order to stay alive, we need to keep eating."
3 - I read a lot of questionable cnovels this year but I really enjoyed two. The first was The Villainous Shizun Is As Beautiful As A Flower which is a shorter BL Shizun fucker cultivation romance. The arc after the MC finds his father goes on for a little too long (and the timeskip is awkward) but the MC is engaging enough that I didn't mind. This was a very fun quick read that I want to talk more about.
The second was For Love of the Game which is an e-sports danmei where an former actor falls in love with the captain of his fake League of Legends team (lmao). Look. Okay. I was on a kick and actually read FOUR e-sports BL novels this year and this was the one I enjoyed the most. I loved that the MC and ML had an established relationship before ever meeting face to face. Some of the reviews are salty about the ML's sneaky plotting side but both I and the MC were into it! The MC was even into the terrible secondhand embarrassing singing confession scene. But beyond the main couple, I LOVED the side paring of their "old" player and the captain on the rival team. I even got into the stupid video game strategy stuff. I had a great time.
I also re-read Who Dares Slander My Senior Brother and Where is Our Agreement to be Each Other’s Arch-Rivals? now that the translations are finished and enjoyed both of them again free from the tortures of machine translated cultivation terms. I still think both suffer from 3rd act issues. But damn did I like both ships.
(As a note - this is a list of likes but my highest high to highest disappointment cnovel was Cannon Fodder Fake Master Was Stunned After Being Reborn which I'm not even going to link because I'm still mad about it. The idol arc and the triple baby swap reveal made me so crazy invested I was literally telling my sisters the entire plot scene by scene as I read. But the last couple arcs ruined the romance/plot. I HATED the ML by the end. What haaaaappened.)
4 - I remained pretty into the SCP Foundation this year, but instead of the wiki itself, I spent a lot of time listening to the SCP Archives podcast and The Exploring Series podcast episodes. I really enjoyed the radio play aspect of the SPCA but I also enjoy how the Exploring series is just listening to some dude give you lore dumps. Its the ideal painting, journaling, chore, driving, etc. podcast for me. Check out Exploring the SCP Foundation: The ABCs of Death (Compilation) for TWELVE HOURS of great SCPs. Crazy stuff.
5 - Fire Emblem Engage and Fire Emblem Heroes. Not a ton to say on these but I enjoyed them! Ike/Soren continues to cook in FEH and I finished up merging/ascending my Eirika collection because she is the prettiest princess in the entire world.
6 - Among Us. I played..... a lot of Among Us this year with both my discord friends and new friends. Moving on.
7 - Silo on Apple TV. I'm a little burnt out on apocalypse media right now but I started watching Silo when I was also reading Red Rising and it got my brain working on all of these humanity is most human in the soil! the unfeeling earth feeds us! kinda thoughts. Rebecca Ferguson is the prettiest woman in the entire world.
8 - Speaking of digging, @Kala on Tiktok who is tunneling a "suburban mine" under her house, presumably in an HOA community the eastern United States. Kala is actually in the process of being cancelled right now and people are making very boring "I told you so" videos because someone finally snitched on her to authorities for not having a permit to dig, install electrical work, weld, reinforce, "mine", etc. under her property. Obviously this is bad! This is not how people engaging in the social contract/not experiencing some sort of mental illness do things! But I work in Construction/Engineering and am still fully obsessed with her. Hobby tunneling is so fascinating and here is someone who is documenting it for the internet. Let her dig!
Non-Media Related Likes:
1 - Volunteering once a month at my local hospital. I LOVED THIS. I got to hang out with friends and gossip for a couple hours every month, cook new giant recipes for families going through a hard time, and give back. Definitely going to continue this next year.
2 - Summer floating after work in my special "secret" river spot with a big floppy sunhat, a couple ciders, and someone to chat and watch the local birds (herons, turkey vultures, albatross, blackbirds) with. I brought 3 separate dates floating this year and it was the best idea. Will be happening again.
3 - Espresso martinis. I was actually sober for most of this year because I discovered I just like a fancy drink/excuse to go out and don't actually need the alcohol (and it's cheaper). But espresso martinis from this one tiny wood paneled bar in North Portland decorated like a hunting lodge where they make them extra frosted and sweet? Obsessed.
4 - Live music. Nothing as crazy as last year's 23 shows & 2 festivals (thank god) but shouting along to 'Batman' live at the perfect Front Bottoms show in late summer. The Michigander concert that I didn't even want to go to that felt like a house show. The Beaches on Christmas. Tons of local shows at Turn Turn (rip). So fun.
5 - Parasailing. I had never parasailed before my trip to Mexico this year. Who was gonna tell me it fucks! I want to go again right now.
6 - The weird local actor/play scene in Portland. I'm talking about a Cthulhu puppet show, publicly submitted one acts, a live acted Harry Potter rewrite where people shout along to Oppenheimer quotes, a horror fest in a theater so small they make you leave between acts and everyone in the lobby is talking about clown classes, and a one-man gay musical about ghosts. Where else except local theater will you spend $10 and a few hours watching someone pretend sprinkle themselves with seasonings and shove themselves in a large pot. This is the arts, babe. I am only going to attend more of these shows in 2024.
#most enjoyed#happy new year!#we're having a quiet one - board games and drinks with the fam and then off to seattle bright and early for the WINTER CLASSIC tomorrow#very very excited#love and peace to every one; hope we all have a better year next year
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Xu Yunzhan: [hugs Su Yang and confesses he doesn't want to meet as enemies, even promising to help him despite being opposite sides]
Su Yang: Wow... he must really hate me!
#spoilers#chapter 28#xu yunzhan#su yang#he's so stupid i love him#where is our agreement to be each other's arch rivals?#did we agree to be rivals?#the modified script is killing me#yes I'm on my obscure danmei arc#(unless literally everyone has read it and I'm late but. yanno)#also. he's 21??? bestie???? big oof moment#not a quote#my quotes#my posts
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Reading Challenge 2022 (10/20):
Where is Our Agreement to be Each Other’s Arch-Rivals? by 輕風白楊 (Poplar Breeze)
“The web celebrity, Chen Suyang, transmigrated into a film adaptation he’d just finished rolling the death scene. Now he has to play the villain - the Evil Sect’s young master, Su Yang.” Convinced that all he has to do to go back home is to stick to the script, he is soon dismayed to find the plot keeps deviating.
Another one with an interesting take on transmigration.
A wuxia fantasy story with a looming war plot in the horizon and a cute slow-burn romance in the front. There is no system to guide or reprimand Su Yang as he tries to figure out a way home; all he has to guide him are the half-remembered snippets from the heavily censored, heavily edited film version of the original story.
I really enjoyed this one.
#reading challenge#reading challenge 2022#where is our agreement to be each other's arch-rivals?#i enjoyed it but honestly? i forgot almost all of it soon after i finished it because of the story i read immediately afterwards.#my brain cleared out all the goodness of this story for the garbage of the next one. dumb brain.
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New Record: 73 Chapters in one day/awake period
#sunnie talks about web novels#where is our agreement to be each other's arch rivals?#the modified script is killing me#did we agree to be rivals?#I am losing my mind over this novel#fair warning: one of the guys is on the young side. which is weird bc there's no reason???#(in the main pairing)#like. they literally could have just aged Su Yang down a bit??? it would still make sense?? there's no reason to have an age gap like that?#my posts
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Current Matches with the Widest Margin
Match 7: Shen Jiu (The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System) vs Gu Feidi (Where is Our Agreement to be Each Other's Arch-Rivals?)
2. Match 5: Quan Yizhen (Heaven Official's Blessing) vs Mo Xi (Yuwu / Remnants of Filth)
4 days of voting left!
#quan yizhen#shen jiu#svsss#scum villain's self saving system#mo xi#yuwu#remnants of filth#gu feidi#where is our agreement to be each other's arch rivals
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hey ! would you happen to remember the name of this one bl webnovel where protag was an actor for the drama adaptation of the original..? and hes part of the crimson demon sect or smth and theres a scene where he goes out to dance at 2am and everyones like wow....hes so dedicated. i can elaborate more if more info would be helpful. theres a part where he has a Plot Tattoo on his back
oh yeah that's where's our agreement to be each other's arch-rivals
#ask#spookfished#I actually liked that one enough to buy it on jjwxc#or#I always mix up the letters whatever#that's the scene that happens in the first arc right before they go into the mystic whatever thing#wish the writer would make the novel about the world's author and the female character that transmigrated to modern times.#wait.......... I think I ended up mtl'ing it because the tl wasn't too far and I got impatient#in fact I might not have read it actually translated
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september wrap-up
september is ending soon! it’s not only the month where i started watching c-dramas, but also the month where i read plenty of c-novels as well. other medias i have consumed includes manhua, manga, anime, audio drama, and fics.
anime lycoris recoil
audio drama old man
c-drama love between fairy and devil, ashes of love, night of love with you, a romance of the little forest
c-novel divorced, where is our agreement to be each other’s arch-rivals?, break-up, the whole world is my crematorium, pastoral daily life, heart protection, seven unfortunate lifetimes, all because of a moment of impulse
k-drama alchemy of souls
manga the ancient magus’ bride
manhua intoxicated love
among them, there are several stand-outs. lycoris recoil has cemented itself as one of my favourite anime. to be honest, it isn’t very much about its plot but the characters. i’ve enjoyed watching every single one of the characters on the screen. yes, even majima. especially majima, actually. considering its success, i believe that it will have a second season (fingers crossed!).
i’ve enjoyed most of the c-novels i read this month, but i found myself still thinking about break-up even after days of reading it. i kept going back to the novel, reading the same paragraphs i’ve read. on the surface, it has the simple and common premise of “scum gong chasing his wife back”, and while that may be the case, the author went around it in a refreshing way. i was especially amazed at how the author managed to make me despise a certain character in the beginning only for me to root for him in the end and vice versa.
and of course, my top favourite thing of the month is none other than love between fairy and devil. i’ve seen tweets about this drama on twitter around early august and while it was heartwarming to see people making a breakthrough in their career, i was not keen on watching dramas so i only left the tweets with a ‘like’ before moving on with my life. i’m glad that curiosity got the best of me in the end because this drama is one of the things that brings joy to my life. i haven’t been able to move on from the show and although i wish i can make some room for other medias to capture my interest as well, i don’t and never plan on abandoning it.
in october i plan to pick up more books that are not c-novels. some of the books on my tbr are a winter’s promise, a court of thorns and roses, sorcery of thorns, and the ninth sorceress. i also plan to watch ghibli films like howl’s moving castle and arrietty, you know, to try to fill the gap after i finished watching LBFAD. there are many other medias i’d love to indulge myself in next month because i might as well drown myself in them while i’m on break and still have the opportunity to do so. here’s to hoping for a fun month!
#monthly wrap-up#love between fairy and devil#lycoris recoil#danmei#c-novel#reading#c-drama#paw's monthly wrap-up#qoomakuma
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Class Fight (p.3)
pairing: teen!dandy mott x teen!reader
word count: 3,559
warnings: language, jealous dandy, slightly au!dandy, all characters are 18
part 1 part 2
1.
You led Dandy into your bedroom, gently clicking the door shut as to not alert your mother. She trusted you, but the motherly instincts couldn't be helped when it came to safety with boys. Dandy glanced around your room, having not been up here since you were in elementary school. He noticed you still had the teddy bear he gifted you in fifth grade when you fell and scraped your knee so severely it required stitches.
You wasted no time, turning around as he took a seat on your bed, "I need an explanation from you!" you said, giving him a glare as he smirked at you. "Dandy, why are you causing fights with my friends?"
"You two really are friends, then?" he asked, very pleased with your answer. "I don't see us coming to an agreement with what I have to say."
You crossed your arms, your glare worsening as Dandy just smirked at you. You tried not to be distracted by the fact he was starting to grow into his looks, and you were beginning to notice. "That's not fair."
"Of course it isn't, but neither is life, y/n." he shrugged. "I don't regret what I did. I never liked Jason, we're rivals by default."
You frowned, "What are you talking about?"
Dandy stared at you, wiping his hands on his clean pants. "You don't remember the story? The Deans and the Motts were business partners before we were born. Jason's father stole ideas and were selling them someplace else. Ended up losing the lawsuit after my father found out. Not long after, your grandfather helped grow our business, and eventually yours."
Of course, how could you forget such an essential detail in your family history? It was only ingrained in you since birth. Despite the temporary setback, the Deans found their fortune in cars. Frozen foods weren't their strong suit, it seemed.
"Jason isn't his father," you defended him, coming to take a seat next to Dandy. "That's not fair to him."
"And I'm not my father," Dandy countered. "I go way back with Jason, y/n. Neither of us ever liked each other, and not for reasons due to our parents. He's a stuck up, spoiled brat."
You thought it was funny that Dandy, of all people, could call another person a spoiled brat. You knew he changed plenty since you were kids, but he was always the one kid in the entire grade who had a tantrum once a day in each class.
"It's not fair to me!" you said, springing back up. "I don't pretend to like everybody, Dandy. However, I don't want my relationships to suffer because two of my friends hate each other. If Jason had ulterior motives I have yet to see them!"
Dandy laughed loudly, and you found yourself with the same unamused expression as before. He didn't falter at your glare, instead grinning widely and standing up, easily towering over you.
"y/n, I don't talk to a lot of people. You know that." he approached you, and you stood your ground, feeling your legs become jelly at his close proximity. "And because of it I hear everything that is said in that school. If I wasn't concerned about you, I would have punched the shit out of him just for the shoes he was wearing yesterday."
"What about what I want?" you questioned, causing him to arch an eyebrow. "I never said I was interested in him. If he thinks something is going to come out of this, he's wrong."
Dandy nodded, smiling at you. You felt chills run down your spine as his eyes twinkled with curiosity. "I like your attitude. You always knew how to take care of yourself."
You nodded slowly, swallowing the saliva pooling in your mouth. "I guess you taught me a thing or two growing up."
The silence between you was deafening. You noticed Dandy's jawline was more pronounced than you remembered. Dandy realized your lips were fuller than before.
"y/n, I want you to promise me that you'll come to me if you change your mind." he said, and you could hear the genuine concern in his voice. "I don't trust him, but I trust you."
You nodded; however, any thought of Jason was pushed to the back of your mind.
Dandy smirked at you and took a few steps backward. "I'm afraid I have to go."
You blinked, realizing that he had you where he wanted you. You glared at him as he headed to your door before turning to look at you.
"You're still not going?" he asked, a rather smug look upon his face as he wiggled an eyebrow at you.
Before you could answer, Dandy walked out your door. You heard him descend the staircase, with a farewell to your mother, then the front door shut.
You sat on your bed, hand clutched to your chest as you silently begged for your heart to stop beating so fast. Your mother had appeared in your doorway after a few minutes, and she was grinning ear to ear.
"y/n, you still have time to make the dance." she gave you a knowing look before leaving.
You stared at yourself in the mirror across the room. You did have a few dresses with the tags still on them that would pass nicely as a formal gown.
"He wants me to go," you muttered to yourself. Dandy had been dressed nicely, but he always was. He was also soaking wet.
"But Jason might be upset.. But I'm mad at him too," you groaned, plopping down on your back. "What do I do?"
"You get the hell up and stop moping around!" you screamed, kicking your legs as Winter posed in the doorway, grinning at your reaction.
"Why are you here!?" you stood up, still panting from the scare.
"I started feeling better yesterday. Oh yeah, your mother called me and said you were having a crisis. So here I be!" she walked in the rest of the way, pulling a suitcase behind her.
"What is that?" you asked, your voice stern as she knelt on the floor, unzipping the bag. It was filled with makeup, professional kits like you were about to appear on television.
"Your plans canceled, so you're coming with me. I never got a date and with Zoe having a date, I'm not being the third wheel."
You watched her set up and realized this is why you were friends. Partying was okay on some occasions. You rarely went to school dances, to begin with. This was your Senior year. How often in the future would you get the chance to just let loose for a night?
"Okay." you shrugged, and Winter gave you a knowing smirk.
2.
You were excited until you arrived at the school in Winter's car.
The rain had since stopped, and she dragged you to the entrance of the school as couple upon couple poured into the double doors. You were nervous now, knowing that both Dandy and Jason were probably already inside. You weren't supposed to come tonight.
"y/n! It's fine, babe," Winter said, holding your hand as you finally kept pace with her brisk walking. "We'll have a good time."
"It's not really us I'm worried about," you replied, and Winter had a look on her face that told you she already knew what happened. Your mother.
"If it helps Jason is supposed to have a date tonight. Which means he's not your problem right now."
"It's so embarrassing.. Everyone knows about the fight, and people won't stop staring!" you said, glaring at a group of Junior girls who were watching you from a corner. They quickly diverted their eyes, and Winter scoffed as she pulled you into the gymnasium.
It was decorated nicely, a live band already taking stage as kids piled in and found empty seats, many running over to the food to get first dibs. Kyle and Zoe have yet to arrive.
You found a table, sitting down and taking a quick glance around. Your heart stopped when you saw Jason arrive with his arm looped with Madison Montgomery, the most popular girl in your grade.. and the entire school. They fit together almost too well.
"You weren't kidding," you commented to Winter, who shrugged.
"I know my gossip, y/n," she said.
It wasn't long before Kyle and Zoe joined you. Zoe was ecstatic at the sight of you, pulling you into a hug and whispering that she was happy you decided to come. It made you feel good.
You had sat back down, pulling a ballot from the small pile on the table. You completely forgot about Homecoming King and Queen nominations.
Boys:
Jason Dean
Kyle Spencer
Matthew Nylund
Dandy Mott
You paused, glancing across the room to see Jason staring directly at you. You immediately looked away, reading the girls' list.
Girls:
Madison Montgomery
Zoe Benson
Natascha Langdon
Violet Harmon
You pushed the ballot aside, already knowing who you were voting for. You were relieved your name wasn't on the list. It was funny; Dandy and Jason always seemed to be selected for nomination. As far as you knew, Jason won once.
Winter nudged your arm, and you looked at her with an arched brow. She nodded towards the dance floor where Zoe and Kyle were dancing and asked if you wanted to join her.
"In a bit," you replied. Winter smiled, nodding in understanding before standing up and pushing her chair in.
You avoided making eye contact with Jason, who was also dancing with Madison. Everyone already seemed to be having a good time. You were just observing, debating on if you truly wanted to be here or not. It seemed like a good idea at first, but now you remembered why you always felt so out of place.
You jumped when someone pulled out Winter's chair, and you breathed a sigh when Dandy sat down, already smirking as you glared at him.
"You did decide to show up," he commented, a rather accomplished look on his face.
"I wouldn't look too excited. Winter came over and convinced me to go." you said, only lying a tiny bit. Dandy picked up your forgotten ballot, his eyes reading over the names before setting it down. His eyes were sparkling, but you were positive it wasn't from seeing his own name.
"Who are you voting for?" he asked casually, also looking around the packed gymnasium, also looking very out of place. There was just something about the Mott family genes that stood out from everyone else.
"I think Zoe and Kyle deserve to win together," you shrugged, and you saw Dandy's lips twitching. "You voting for yourself?"
Dandy shrugged, a smile now touching his lips. "I haven't decided yet. I've never asked to be Homecoming King."
You chuckled, seeing Winter talking to a boy you didn't recognize. Zoe and Kyle were getting something to drink as the band started to play a slow song.
Dandy watched you quietly, his eyes flickering from Jason Dean to your face. He stood up, watching you look at him with interest and almost longing for him not to leave your side.
"Would you dance with me?" Dandy asked, holding his hand out to you.
You didn't hesitate to take it, almost embarrassingly so. Dandy didn't smirk or make a sarcastic comment. Instead, you walked hand-and-hand to the floor, turning to face each other as Dandy placed a hand on your waist. It brought back memories of you being children, both of your mothers having enrolled you in dancing lessons. You were never paired with Dandy, which he would have appreciated a lot more. He was forced to dance with the girls who could never get it right, causing him to throw a fit and claim he was the best dancer in the whole world.
The thought made you smile, shaking your head as Dandy watched you, wondering what was on your mind. You looked as beautiful as he had ever seen you, and you've always been attractive.
You were unaware that the kids were staring at you, some of them whispering the latest gossip, while others were either jealous or unwilling to admit they thought you two looked cute together. Zoe and Winter were giggling, sucking down their fruit punch with Kyle.
Jason had taken a seat next to Matthew while Madison went to the bathroom for a touch-up. Matthew was smirking, eating a plate full of cookies, while Jason did his best not to stare at you.
"I thought she wasn't coming?" Matthew teased him, sticking an entire cookie in his mouth.
"She wasn't," Jason responded sourly, crossing his arms.
"It sounds to me you've been rejected," Matthew grinned.
"y/n wouldn't lie," Jason said defensively, "Her plans were probably just canceled. It's fine, I'm thinking of asking Madison out."
Matthew rolled his eyes, knowing perfectly well he was jealous as fuck.
Dandy enjoyed having you in his arms, and you felt the same. You laid your head on his chest, and you completely forgot all the dancing couples and people around you. There was a safety that came with being around him that you couldn't exactly pinpoint why that was.
The song had ended, and you unwillingly pulled away from Dandy's warming embrace. The band immediately jumped into a fast-paced song. He wasn't pleased about this, but he was quick to pull you out of the way when a mob of screaming girls nearly stormed the stage.
"Y/N!" You gasped when Winter ran and gave you a hug, giggling wildly in your ear. "Watch out, someone spiked the punch- BYE!"
You stumbled over your feet as the boy with a rather interesting mustache whisked her away, both giggling hysterically as Dandy helped you keep your balance.
"Your friend is interesting." Dandy commented, a slight smile on his lips. He'd tolerate anyone you truly cared about.
"Yes she is," you sighed, finding yourself intertwining your fingers with Dandy. He kept his cool, wanting to give Jason Dean a middle finger to the face.
You had both eaten and got some punch, talking and ultimately enjoying yourself. You were thrilled you decided to come now, feeling like you weren't going to be alone the rest of the night. You danced with Zoe, while Kyle sat awkwardly at the table with Dandy for a break. Zoe whispered in your ear that Winter will be gone for the rest of the night before you both giggled.
In the middle of Jailhouse Rock, Principal Harmon grabbed the microphone, causing the boy band to lose their rhythm and many kids to boo.
"Alright, alright, its time to collect the ballots for King and Queen! Five minutes to get to your tables, complete the ballots, and then the Senior Student Committee will come around to collect them."
You followed Zoe back to the table, taking your seat as Dandy was folding his ballot. He handed you the pencil, and you almost hesitated as you filled it out. A part of you did want to vote for Dandy, but who would you pair him with? Madison Montgomery has tried digging her nails into him many times. Zoe would be a good fit, but she deserved to win with Kyle. Natascha openly despised him, and Violet probably hated that she was even nominated. Her disposition wasn't exactly sunny.
You ended up voting for Zoe and Kyle like you originally intended. Dandy peeked over your shoulder and seemed pleased with your nomination.
The ballots were quickly collected, and it took another fifteen minutes to accurately count them. The band hadn't returned to the stage. There was a lot of chattering about who voted for who.
You hadn't been paying attention to the table directly behind you. The girls who had been staring at you when you had arrived had been talking about you and Dandy. Dandy was listening, his hands clenching at the awful things they were saying about you. He was doing his best to not cause a scene on your behalf. It was bad enough he and Jason both had bruising that was a constant reminder to the students what already happened.
All the nominees had to go stand on the stage. Zoe looked uncomfortable, but you gave her a reassuring smile, which seemed to ease her mind. Winter sat next to you, and you gave her a questioning look. She only grinned and waved you off. Dandy stood next to Jason, both boys beat up but as handsome as ever.
Principal Harmon announced Madison as the Queen. She gushed while he placed the crown on her head, and the elderly receptionist placed a bouquet of roses in her arms. She beamed at the crowd, waving as if she were pure royalty. You and Winter clapped unenthusiastically, but you knew deep down Zoe wouldn't take it too hard.
"And for the King," Mr. Harmon said, opening the envelope. The silence was awkward, and you could feel the tension in the air. "Oh no-"
Mr. Harmon glanced around, his eyes settling on the student committee kids who only shrugged, nodding their approval.
"Well it seems we have a tie," he continued, scratching his head. "Dandy Mott and Jason Dean."
There was a ripple of laughter and disbelief as students yelled for a recount. Dandy was smirking, but Jason didn't look the least bit amused. Madison was pouting.
".. This has never happened in my twenty years of being principal," he said awkwardly into the mic. "Where do we go from here?"
"I back out," Dandy announced proudly.
"Oh! That was easy!" said Mr. Harmon, "In that case, I present to you, King Jason Dean!"
The crowd roared as he placed the crown on Jason's head. He smiled sheepishly, briefly meeting your eyes as Dandy and the others walked off the stage. Zoe and Kyle hugged, both smiling in good humor. Dandy sat beside you as Jason and Madison started their dance to Frankie Valli.
"That was kind of you," you whispered to Dandy.
"It's nothing, I could care less about winning."
Dandy put his arm around the back of your chair until their dance was over. They took a few pictures before the band returned back to the stage, promising a few more slow dances to all the couples before the night was over.
Winter gasped when Jason approached your table; Madison running to her friends and fawning over her flowers and tiara. He ignored Dandy entirely, focusing only on you.
"Could I have a word?" he asked kindly, offering his hand to you.
You nodded, feeling Dandy tense by your side. You placed your hand on his leg under the table in reassurance before taking Jason's hand, following him to the dance floor. You realized at that moment that you knew where your heart belonged.
"I was surprised to see you tonight," Jason said, bringing you in close.
"My plans didn't work out. Winter talked me into coming." you laughed nervously, and he smiled at you.
"I'm happy you came, we don't have many of these left, you know," he chuckled.
"I'm happy I came too," you replied before looking at him. "I'm sorry about everything."
Jason frowned, raising his eyebrows as he spun you around. "Why are you sorry?"
You shrugged, "I've known Dandy my entire life. He's very protective of me and I wish you two never got into that fight." You made your point by glancing around at the few people trying to catch glimpses of you.
"It's not your fault, y/n," Jason said in disapproval, "It was a misunderstanding, Matthew isn't the sharpest tool in the shed and doesn't think things through when he speaks. Mott just heard the worst of his ignorance."
"Well, I think it's safe to say it won't be happening again," you said, watching as Madison came back from the hallway, pouting at the sight of you. "I think Madison really likes you."
Jason glanced back, a smile on his face. "Is it too much to admit now I really like you too?"
You smiled shyly, "That's very sweet of you."
Jason nodded, "I think it's clear who you really like, and he's very lucky," he said, now watching as Dandy stared at the pair of you.
"Yeah.." you agreed, almost liking the jealous looks being thrown your way. "I hope we could still be friends."
Jason was pleased to hear that, and he promised to call you sometime after the song ended. You watched as he walked to Madison, whose eyes lit up at the sight of him. You quickly walked back to your table, pulling up Dandy, who was surprised by your urgency.
"Did he say something?" his nostrils flared, looking as if he was about to murder someone.
"Nope," you said before cupping his cheeks and pulling him down to meet your height. You kissed him deeply, and you heard Winter say, "Holy shit!" while Zoe squealed with her mouth full of cake.
Dandy pulled away, his hands on your waist as he blinked in surprise. You grinned, pulling him towards the doors as the group of girls watched you with their mouths hanging open.
"Sorry for your loss!" you chirped at them, smiling sweetly as Dandy followed you in a daze.
School drama just does not change.
taglist: @daisychainsinknots
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Fandom: Steven Universe
Rating: Teen Audiences
Words: 6.3K~
Summary: In another world, he doesn’t have his mother’s sword or shield to hide behind when Bismuth lands her strike. The bubble pops.
Steven falls apart.
Chapter summary: In which freedom is a future worth fighting for.
Finally finished this chapter, yay! I promise I throw canon off a ravine entirely next chapter, I just needed to set up some stuff. Hopefully the Ruby POV makes things somewhat fresh.
If you read this and enjoy, I’d greatly appreciate your support through reblogs here, or kudos/comments on AO3. Thank you! <3
____
Chapter 13: system/REBOOT, Part 1
The whole mission is Garnet’s idea.
By this point, they’ve known about Homeworld’s rushed Beta Kindergarten project for about fifty years. Frankly, its composition leaves much to be desired. The area is rich in the iron and silicon deposits necessary to produce a strong batch of quartzes, but the foundation they incubated all their new soldiers within is red clay cemented sandstone; it’s soft, and in constant danger of erosion. According to all the rebellion’s peridots, many of them top Homeworld kindergarteners before their eventual defection, this type of stone is critically unfit for Gem production. It can’t compress the inclusions of injector fluid at the correct pressure, can’t reliably bar the excess from draining through the porous material. As a result many of the individually incubated sites are predicted to ‘weep’ and lose critical volume, which will inevitably cause the emergent quartzes to be ‘off-color’ in some fashion. Some may be under regulation height, some may exhibit crystal twinning, some may be incapable of standard abilities like shapeshifting or weapon summoning, so on and so forth.
As a fellow off-color herself, Garnet carries a deep empathy for all those who are forsaken and unwanted. She can foresee the dire fate of these Beta Gems creeping over the dawning horizon even without the benefit of future vision, can foresee that despite all of these soldiers’ loyal programming, they’re ultimately cursed to be eliminated within the cruel machine of Homeworld. One day beyond the battlefield, the so-called Great Diamond Authority will see no further use in their existence, and then they’ll be purged. Harvested for scrap. Trapped within a myriad of Gem-powered objects. Crushed and used within their drop ships for fuel.
It’s pure tyranny.
Thus, she refuses to let their cruelty stand without a just fight. They have to give these Gems a chance beyond Homeworld’s rule, because abandoning them would be abandoning everything that their brave rebellion stands for, that she stands for. She refuses to stand powerless and idle in the face of a Diamond’s commands like the Sapphire and Ruby she once was, refuses to let another tragedy slip by without at least attempting to mend its damage. She is Garnet, she is freedom, and she is love.
And deep within her core, she believes these soon-to-emerge soldiers deserve the same opportunity for renewal and hope as any other Crystal Gem.
__
For all Ruby’s aware, a whole geological era could have passed between that fateful moment she first set eyes on Jasper and the shards-late arrival of Amethyst and the others. All three of them duck behind the low rock formations she’s hiding in the shade of, Steven still breathing heavily from the no-doubt harried and concerned exertion of their sprint towards her. Hard light coursing from the gem in her palm to all other extremities at random intervals amidst crackling cinders of immobilizing terror, (she’s almost surprised her form isn’t flickering at this point), she desperately attempts to babble an explanation. She’ll admit— it’s not a particularly coherent one. Ask her mere minutes later, and there’s little chance she’ll be able to repeat what she said. Heck, she’s not confident about her words now, in the heat of the moment. It’s probably something about holes, something about injector scrap, about all those Gem monsters, a-and—
"Whoa, what the heck!” Amethyst blessedly interrupts, raising her head above the rocks and pointing across the clearing at the orange and red striped quartz diligently prowling the area like a true squadron leader. “Jasper’s here, too? Did everyone decide to skip on over to Beta today, or somethin’?!”
Peridot’s face scrunches in confusion as she regards her former mission partner. “What is she doing?”
“She’s got all those corrupted Gems in cages,” Steven murmurs with realization, a tiny spark of outrage lighting up behind his eyes on those creatures’ behalf. “They’re not even bubbled, they’re just… trapped, and scared!”
Ruby brings her fist to her mouth, nervously nibbling at her fingers for a moment to anchor herself back to this present. Above all else, ignoring every thread of trepidation and insecurity she bears, there’s one burning question that pulses at her core with an unmatched luminosity about this whole scenario:
“B-but why would she want so many corrupted Gems in the first place? Doesn’t she know she can’t tame them?”
The purple quartz growls, the fringe of her hair casting a dark and menacing shadow over her features as she tilts her head down and glares at her self-proclaimed rival. “I don’t think she knows nothin’.”
And as— instinctively, mistakenly, running off of over five thousand years of deep engrained habit— she attempts to open her third eye towards the winding tributaries of potential futures they may soon find themselves wading through and fails, it slowly dawns on her just how isolated and lost they all are, without Sapphire’s sight. Without her love.
“Neither do I…” she says softly, her stature shrinking in the throes of that suffocating inadequacy. Riding an abrupt wave of frustration, she slams her foot into the coarse dirt, gripping thick chunks of her coily hair between her fingers. “Aughhh, this is a terrible time to not have future vision!” she huffs, spitting out each word staccato.
“Pipe down!” Jasper hollers at the poor corrupted Gem cornered in the distance as she kicks one of the bars of its cage, her booming voice easily reverberating off the cliffs’ curvature.
All four of them can’t help but bite back their gasps upon this clamoring startle. Peeking her head just above the rim of the rocky outcropping, Ruby watches the fur covered quartz visibly shrink back at the soldier’s command. Jasper continues, her unwavering act of confidence currently undeterred by this reaction.
“You take orders from me now. You used to be a quartz too, didn’t you? What happened to you?”
Utterly failing to comprehend any of her words in this vulnerable, animalistic state, the corrupted Gem merely snaps its fangs at the bars, and then tilts its head sideways to begin chewing on one of them. Jasper scoffs, her lips rising in a mild sneer. Taking the risk to edge closer, she continues to verbally berate the poor thing, talking the same sort of smack Ruby’s former Homeworld commanding officer, Condor Agate, used to dish out. Ruby grinds her teeth together so hard as she watches this display that the pressure and heat alone might be enough to form a brand new batch of Gems. Jasper even finds a moment to rope Amethyst into her insults, which almost has the stone in question summoning her whip in pure unfiltered fury. It’s only Steven and Peridot’s quick clutch on her shoulders that holds her back from steamrolling into the clearing with zero preparation and potentially making a terrible mistake. Still, she’s gotta admit, the temptation to whoop this Homeworld brute’s butt right this minute is devilishly hard to resist.
Ruby growls, one of her gauntlets emerging into existence on her clenched fist with a burst of light. “Oh-hoh, do I wanna launch this baby right into her dumb, chalky face…!”
“But maybe first we should go back to the temple and grab reinforcements?” Peridot whispers hastily, whirling around to face her. Panic visibly tightens its grip on her form with each passing second.
She pauses a moment to let the logic of this suggestion sink in, gaze hardened, and self-consciously aware of how her fellow Gems are (wrongfully) looking towards her as their leader in this chaos. What options do they even have? They can choose to fight, that’s one. They could disengage. They could retreat to Beach City and seek backup. If they were truly desperate, they could surrender. (Although she’s not confident Jasper would gracefully accept anyone’s defeat, not until it ended with their poofed— maybe even shattered— gemstones littering the coarse sand.)
As the gears are still pirouetting in her mind, she turns towards Steven, who nods in vehement agreement of Peridot’s strategy, his mouth stretched thin.
Sighing with frustration, she loosens her grip, recalling how even Garnet was barely able to match up with Jasper’s might. “Yeah, you’re right. She’d beat us into the dirt without Pearl or Sapphire.”
“Okay, so far we got three votes for retreat,” he says, holding up the appropriate number of digits as a visual. “Amethyst?”
In sync, the trio turn towards where the quartz just stood and find nothing but faint granules of recently upended dust filtering through a beam of sunlight. Both Peridot and Steven let out a fearful squeak at her absence.
“W-where is she?” the former Homeworld technician cries, craning her neck over the top of the rock formation to try and secure a visual.
“Up there!” Steven exclaims under his breath, pointing at a ridge a good ten feet above them that crosses from the arched entrance of this natural amphitheater all the way to the other side where Jasper stands, her back still turned to them.
Following the path of his index finger, Ruby catches a flash of purple, black and lavender stealthily advancing along the narrow rim towards the very soldier who reportedly poofed her with a single strike about a week back. The light sustaining her form nearly drains from all her limbs and rushes back to her gem.
“Oh, shards no…”
Stars above, what the hell is her problem? she thinks, her mind riding in a narrow track between exacerbated vexation and dread. Does she have a death wish, or something?? Surely the last place a rational person would choose to run is directly into the arms of the Gem who clobbered them into a senseless cloud at their last meeting. Surely a rational person would instead choose to retreat and regroup. However, as she glumly reflects upon the dour happenings of the past few days, Amethyst’s actions prove she’s currently unable to think rationally about Jasper or any other kind of conflict. She’s been markedly sullen at everyone around her ever since she first got her butt whooped. Obsessed with her private training sprees. Emotionally stand-offish. Prone to making rash decisions, like letting her mouth run off at poor hapless Steven about matters that aren’t his fault, or slashing her whip right at people’s feet to push them away, or… or rushing directly towards Jasper in an enclosed space with little to no backup just because she’s desperate to show her up for the sake of her own self-worth, or whatever.
And Ruby gets it, to an extent. She understands how cripplingly powerless it can feel to be written off as ‘the weak one,’ as nothing but an expendable. She understands the vivid temptation to let one’s anger drive such antagonistic confrontations. However, she’d also like to believe that she carries enough self respect in this gem to not throw herself right on an enemy’s anvil. Whether or not Amethyst possesses the same level of restraint is another question entirely. She flexes nervous, twitchy fingers at her side as she watches her dear friend creep further along the rim, ever closer to what she fears will be her unquestionable demise.
With the corrupted Gem’s racket still occupying Jasper’s undivided attention, Amethyst leaps from the cliff’s edge and into the clearing, pulling her whip from her gem in midair. The moment her toes touch the ground again, she slashes its barbed ends at the bars of the cage, right next to the quartz soldier’s hand. Jasper yanks her digits back. Her entire body snaps tense upon this disruption. Watching from behind their rocky cover, Ruby, Steven, and Peridot bite back the urge to gasp in shock.
“HEY!” Amethyst yells, lowering on her haunches right behind her opponent.
Now, there’s obviously no way to prove it without somehow obtaining intimate knowledge of her headspace, but upon external observation, Ruby swears that this big, buff Beta Kindergarten quartz is masking surprise. The sentiment is visible in the alignment of her shoulders, lifted high and tight against her neck. It’s visible in her narrow stance, light years away from the proper form of a soldier expecting battle. Flexing her thick, dexterous fingers at her side, she makes a blatant show of puffing out her chest before she turns to face her challenger, an almost predatory smile curving upwards on her lips as she regards her.
“You back away from her,” Amethyst hisses, nodding towards the Gem in the cage.
Jasper lets out a hearty chuckle. “Oh-hoh, what do we have here? You finally decide to crawl back for a rematch, runt?”
She grits her teeth, tightening her fist around the pommel of her weapon. “That’s right. I’m back, and I’mma wipe you all over these cliffs!”
“Perfect,” her opponent practically purrs, cracking her knuckles in anticipation. “I’ve been needing a light warmup.”
__
Rose approves her mission without question, when she first brings her the idea. Of course she would, in retrospect— the hidden diamond she was.
Garnet takes forty of her fellow soldiers and friends with her to the Beta Kindergarten. They don’t wield any weapons. These Gems are brand new, stepping into the light for the very first time. There’s no need to threaten them; all she wants is to peacefully talk, to introduce them to the concept of freedom, of choosing their own path beyond the Diamonds’ rule.
At the time, all she wanted was to follow her beloved leader’s example and choose peace and harmony over subjugation and brutality.
But with the bitter truths they know now, and reflecting upon the horrid atrocities they themselves participated in amidst the war… despite Rose’s self-proclaimed ‘pacifism,’ despite the shaky justifications of their cause being different than Homeworld’s brand of violence... she’s increasingly unsure if any of them ever had a choice.
__
Tragically, it only takes mere seconds for the initial triumphant beats of Amethyst’s war against Jasper to devolve into a one-sided thrashing.
With a mighty, almost frenzied yell, Amethyst moves one foot forward for counterbalance and slings the weighted, barbed tip of her weapon directly at her opponent’s face. Jasper catches it midair, mere inches from her gem. An arrogant smile paints her visage. After winding the whip’s end around her hand, she yanks its user towards her with a snap of her wrist, swings her in a wide arc, and effortlessly slams her into the nearest cliff wall, blowing up a huge plume of pulverized rock and dust. It all happens so fast that the rest of the party barely has any time to react. As the rubble settles, Ruby finally spots her friend amidst the chaos, collapsed on hands and knees in the dirt. The poor Gem’s hands are nearly trembling as she vies to rise to her feet again, vies to stand her ground and keep fighting.
There’s only one thing she knows for sure, watching all this: if hard light were consumable rather than indelible, she would quite literally be chipping away at her knuckles with her teeth by now.
His expression blown wide with fear, Steven breaks their communal silence to holler Amethyst’s name. Hands flexing in and out of fists, he darts away from their hiding spot. And they tried to stop him, they really did— it’s simply that he’s far too nimble for either of them to catch in time.
“Steven!” Peridot cries, trying and failing to grab his hand to hold him back.
“Steven, no!” Ruby yells, arms outstretched, as he sprints into the clearing— entirely blowing any remaining amount of cover the three of them had, placing his gem at Jasper’s mercy, and causing a thousand living nightmares to flood into her consciousness in but a millisecond. “Come back!!”
“Wait! Wait,” he gasps, waving his arms wildly to catch the larger quartz’s attention as he passes into the center of this natural coliseum, firmly planting himself at Amethyst’s side. “Stop! We don’t need to do this!”
Giving a growl that would rival that of a corrupted Gem’s, Ruby clenches her fingers around thick coils of her hair at either side of her head and yanks. “Aughh, why does nobody listen to me when I’m short??”
A faint trail of glowing embers marks a record of her path as she leaves Peridot by their rocky outcropping and storms right into the open after him. Oh, hoh, hoh— that boy can disobey her clear, simple orders all he wants, but in his folly he’s forgetting one very important fact: rubies are stubborn Gems. And she’ll fight to protect him from the crossfire of Jasper’s hubris and Amethyst’s self-destruction even if that means braving her deepest terrors to run out there and drag him back to safety herself.
(Ideally, she’d be able to drag Amethyst with her out of the thunderdome as well, but she’s also quite the stubborn one. So try as she may, that’s not likely to happen.)
Ruby strides towards the middle of the clearing and defiantly plants her feet in the sterile soil right in front of Steven, and adjacent to Amethyst. She summons her gauntlets, her features twisting in a scowl. “Stand down and let them go!” she shouts up at that bulky orange quartz with all the Garnet-like confidence she can muster. “This is not a Homeworld controlled planet!”
“Steven, Ruby, get out of here!” Amethyst hisses under her breath, her battle-ready stance solidifying with a strange mixture of apprehension and anger as she regards the two of them.
“No!” she shoots back, tugging at her arm. “Come on, you know I can’t just leave you here.”
Jasper’s molten amber eyes narrow, her steely gaze colliding right into her.
“ You,” she says, enunciated as sharp as a dagger. “One half of that vile war machine.”
“War machine?!” Steven cries, distraught by the very implication. “She’s not a war machine! Garnet fuses for love!”
“Yeah!” Ruby jabs her fist in the air loud and proud.
The Homeworld warrior scoffs, seemingly not impressed by their display of solidarity. She folds her arms solid across the Yellow Diamond insignia emblazoned upon her chest and steps closer to address her directly. “And where’s this love now?” she spits, mockingly stooping to her level.
And despite the faint, triumphant memories of her last incursion with this quartz, (well… Garnet’s last incursion), she can’t help but cower in her presence, can’t help but crumble like the deficient sandstone of this very kindergarten under the cruel, personalized precision of her blunt words. Because... she’s right. Because that’s the whole problem, the pulsing heart of life’s cruel game. Fusion offered her a tantalizing taste of freedom, a glimpse of a reality where, together, a lowly guard and her sapphire could achieve literally anything through the strength of their love!— but that world feels like nothing more but an unobtainable mirage now. She’s absolutely useless on her own, just some pathetic waste of resources! No authority, no power, no wisdom of foresight— she brings nothing to the Crystal Gems’ cause. She never did. It was always her. Tears bead at her widening eyes, her gauntleted fists already beginning to tremble at her sides.
“I-I…”
“Where’s any of your power now?” Jasper continues as she raises back to her full height, lifting both open hands towards the empty, cloud-streaked skies. She throws her head back as she offers them all a bright, boastful chuckle. “To think I used to view you traitors as a threat, but now even your disgraceful cause is falling apart, isn’t it… Rose?”
Still standing a step behind her, Steven’s immediate reply brims with tones of frustration. “I’m not—“
“But you’re wrong!” a high, familiar voice urgently calls out from behind them all.
This whole messy confrontation breaks to a halt as everyone turns to gape at the lone Gem poking her head out above the rocky outcropping. Peridot gasps at the sudden influx of attention, and hastily ducks for cover again.
“What are YOU doing here?” Jasper growls with annoyance, grinding one of her feet in the dirt as if inwardly hoping she could shift the very earth they stand on and finally gain the advantage of surprise once more.
“I-I…” the green Gem stammers, slowly creeping out from her hiding spot, summoning newfound confidence as she lays her eyes on each and every one of her friends. “I’m here because our cause hasn’t fallen apart! We live on Earth to be free, to learn new things about ourselves. Like how I can bend metal to my bidding!” she exclaims, tossing enthusiastic fists into the air.
On the cliff face over twenty feet away, a skinny length of metal from one of the injector’s legs slips from the device, falls straight down, and noisily clatters as it collides against the rocky soil. Amethyst facepalms. Meanwhile, Jasper appears so underwhelmed by this display that in any other circumstance, her glazed-over expression could be comedic.
Peridot briefly scowls at her botched handiwork. “And sure,” she shrugs, nodding towards that shard of metal, “nothing’s ever perfect here, but together, we work to help and support each other, just like we’re supporting Amethyst now. Isn’t that freedom worth fighting for?”
A few beats pass as the heart of this proclamation sinks in, the ticking seconds seeing Steven beam in pride at his friend’s progression since the beginning of her stay on Earth, and Jasper’s features scrunch inwards in an almost sour manner. Between the stifling roots of her own despair, even Ruby herself can’t help but feel a little uplifted by this hopeful sentiment. It’s a well-timed salve to an old burn, a naive yet ultimately truthful promise of lighthearted days to come. After all, hasn’t her time as a Crystal Gem taught her by now that no circumstance is permanent? That a single unifying cause can collapse empires like a wildfire, can continually reshape one’s entire understanding of existence? Her gauntleted hands shift at her side as a new spark of timid confidence ignites at her core. What was she thinking, letting this brute of a quartz tower over her and define the very pillars of her own story? She’s better than this. For the very sake of her friends she has to be!
But alas, before this newfound bravery can see its hour of triumph on this secluded battlefield, she finds herself once again cast aside by one of the very friends she’s vying to protect.
Amethyst growls in frustration at their continued presence, and summons her weapon. “UGH, you GUYS!” She slashes its barbed tips against the cliff face right above Peridot, not close enough to hit her, but certainly with enough force that it spooks her into diving behind the low rock formation again. Scowling, she then turns and plucks an actively protesting Steven right off the ground. “Get out of here!” she yells, tossing him back towards the clearing’s entrance. “This isn’t your fight!”
Ruby gives a sharp yelp as she just barely leaps backwards to dodge the business end of her whip, swinging low in a vain attempt to tangle up her feet. “Hey—!”
“It’s just you and me, Jasper,” the purple quartz breathes heavily, and abruptly whirls around to jab her finger towards her opponent. “ONE-ON-ONE!”
Silently, a consenting smirk riding over her lips, the taller Gem summons her ramming helmet in a glittering flash of light.
__
The mission is— in the terms of the brave humans they sometimes fight alongside— a bloodbath.
When they first warped in, Garnet only expected to find a small handful of disoriented jaspers, citrines, and carnelians roaming about. Gems they could talk to. Gems they could reason with, just as Rose reasoned with her fellow quartzes at the very start of this bold rebellion. Instead, what emerges soon after their arrival is more shocking and unpredictable than any future Garnet could’ve ever visualized.
Bursting from the very heart of this slapdash, rushed Kindergarten, despite every single locational and structural disadvantage this place stacks against one’s favor, is Her.
The strongest, most perfectly formed jasper she’s ever laid eyes on. She’s seven feet tall, built as solid as diamond, her flawlessly faceted gemstone gleaming bright and proud in the rising sun. She wastes no time in following the miserable orders the Great Diamond Authority cruelly embedded deep within her soul, immediately calling the hundreds of scattered and confused off-color Gems surrounding her to action.
Garnet and her squadron simply don’t have enough time to intervene, to try and settle this skirmish halfway peacefully. They don’t have the numbers.
Twenty three Crystal Gems are shattered that day. Numerous more on both sides are cracked or poofed.
And yet one of the greatest tragedies, in her mind… is that these emergent Gems never got the proper chance to consider any purpose beyond their assigned station. Never got a chance to glimpse the promise of their own freedom.
Everything happened so fast.
She took this place for granted— thanks to her own preconceived notions about the kinds of Gems that could emerge here, utterly failed to foresee this potential turn of events— and in the end it cost lives. Both those of her fellow Crystal Gems, her friends … and those of the Beta quartzes she failed to save from Homeworld’s damaging influence.
That night, as she bitterly weeps for the recovered shards of the beloved they lost, clenches her gauntleted fists tight around her gemstones, she vows to never let such a harrowing tragedy escape her vision again. No more.
A leader like her is not allowed to fail.
__
With the mighty roar of a lion, Amethyst stamps her leading foot to the ground to center her balance and rears her weapon-wielding arm back, wholly intending to defend her pride from this boorish bully. The first and second slashes are fruitful, one striking Jasper in the face, and the next hitting her chest with such intense force that it slams her into the cliff wall a few feet back, but Ruby can’t help but dread the litany of unknown possibilities haunting their future as she watches, powerless in her lack of second sight to influence their present. Could Amethyst win this fight? Sure. There’s gotta be at least one river of time where that occurs, where Jasper is so wrapped up within that facade of insufferable hubris that she fails to take her seriously as an opponent and pays the price. But on the other hand, she senses so many chinks in Amethyst’s armor that she can’t help but fear the opposite. She’s blinded by her anger, unable to consider consequence rationally. Her form in battle— compared to her usual performance— is notably sloppy, as if she’s throwing herself at this fight with such an explosion of tangled, raw emotion that her years of training and refinement have all but melted away in the inferno. Her fingers are trembling as she tightens her grasp on the whip’s pommel.
All of this stated, Ruby may not possess the gift of Sapphire’s future vision, but she has more than enough experience on patrol and on the battlefield to recognize a soldier who is woefully unprepared for a fight. Something terrible is about to happen, she can just feel it.
“Be careful!!” she cries, cupping her hands around her mouth.
“It’s fine, she’s totally rocking this!” Steven says with a huge grin, seeming uncharacteristically calm, given the circumstances. He whoops, and punches his fist in the air. “Go Amethyst!”
Ruby and Peridot briefly match eyes, the noted concern in their gazes pointing towards the fact that they both think that Amethyst’s insistence to fight is reckless and naive. In retrospect, of course her friend would agree with her. She spent a lot of time cohabiting with Jasper on their journey to Earth, so she’s bound to be well aware of her fundamental nature.
At the moment however, given the shorter quartz’s tunnel vision, she’s certain that any of their valid concerns would fall upon deaf ears.
“Who’s weak now, huh?” Amethyst spits from across the clearing, flicking her wrist to activate the triplet spiked balls at the ends of her whip, an upgrade gifted by Bismuth she surprisingly hasn’t seemed to have abandoned. With a holler, she swings her leading arm back and around to build up momentum and then slashes at Jasper’s chest three times in succession. The last hit comes with enough force to push her backwards in the dirt a few feet. “Who’s powerless NOW?!”
Then, just as Ruby fearfully predicted, the winds shift.
The firestorm doubles back upon them, Jasper merely swatting the flail ends away like they were nothing more but a momentary nuisance. Her expression narrows into a scowl. Emergent shock mingles alongside the dark cloud of Amethyst’s anger like wayward lightning bolts as she growls in frustration, the side-swept fringe of her hair shadowing her features. In retaliation she summons a second whip and immediately slashes them both against the soil, endowing them with a crackling, purple-tinged energy, almost a fire of her own making. She tucks into a ball and literally hurls herself at the quartz warrior, her form only recognizable in the heat of that moment via a dazzling blaze of light.
The resulting collision throws up so much dirt and smoke that Ruby has to throw her small body in front of Steven’s to shield him from the worst of the debris.
When the thick curtains of dust finally part, the consequences of this overly-impulsive move are revealed. Jasper still stands proud and tall, her mettle unaffected by this attempted show of strength. Barely a scuff even marrs her uniform. Meanwhile, Amethyst lays hunched over on hands and knees, hacking up fragmented remnants of sandstone she likely swallowed amidst the impact. (Alas, that’s the price she pays for choosing to always reform with an semi-operational digestive system.)
“Is it sinking in yet?” Jasper queries pointedly, advancing towards the trembling Gem on the ground.
Amethyst is so exhausted she can’t even muster the strength to respond, her arms quivering beneath her as she vies to hold up the simulated weight of her hard light form.
Her foe roughly kicks her in the chest, her foot striking mere inches under her gem. Ruby visibly cringes at both the shallow huff of distress that this hit elicits from her, and Steven’s cries of fear in response.
“It doesn’t matter how long or hard you fight,” Jasper boasts, her imposing figure hovering like a bad omen over her quartz sibling’s, “because I’ll always be stronger! Runts like you never had a chance. Runts like you are worthless.”
Angrily, she grinds her teeth together, cradling the vulnerable gemstone on her hand.
Worthless.
Worthless.
Who the hell does this square hunk of stone think she is, slinging such heavy-handed words around like the blunt end of a mallet?
“Get your worthless, sorry forms back in formation!” wretched old Condor Agate used to scream at her and the others in her squad, back when she spent eternity guarding empty corridors, back before she was eventually reassigned to Sapphire’s personal guard. “You’re an embarrassment to your commanding agates, all of you!”
Ruby growls, finding her resolve. That’s it. No more. She can’t bear to stand at the sidelines gripped in fear while some bully is literally beating her friend into the ground, both physically and emotionally. She can’t bear for Amethyst to fall prey to the same type of unwavering torment she herself experienced all those years ago on Homeworld, torment that utterly deformed her sense of self-worth until recognizing any ounce of good in herself became a gargantuan, near-impossible task. Admittedly, she still hasn’t healed from those days. Not entirely. Sometimes she’s unsure she ever will. But it’s her duty to put an end to this, to what’s happening in the here and now. After all, what’s the point of being a Crystal Gem if you don’t look after the people you love?
“We have to separate them,” she says firmly, turning towards Steven and Peridot. “She’s gonna get clobbered!”
The former kindergartener’s expression warps to despair under her visor. “But how? She doesn’t even want us to be here! And none of us are strong enough to face Jasper…”
“Could we make a distraction?” Steven suggests, his voice tinged with the same sort of urgency she feels thrumming like a frantic drum line at the depths of her core.
Humming in thought, Ruby considers the status quo. To no success, she attempts to ignore her friends’ expectant gazes, trustingly falling upon her exactly like all those fellow rebellion soldiers used to look at Garnet… as their de facto leader. But she’s no leader, far from it. Garnet would barely have to think before coming up with a genius, foolproof plan, but she’s going into everything blind. She can’t weigh out potential consequences before rushing into action. She has no ability to pinpoint the most ideal outcome and work backwards from there. With all this in mind, it’s really no wonder that Garnet passed command of the group to Pearl instead of her. At least Pearl has experience leading missions solo.
And yet desperate times call for desperate measures.
She scans their surroundings for inspiration, considering what options may be open to them. At this point there’s no time to double back to the barn or the temple for reinforcements. (And she strongly doubts Lapis would care to so much as match eyes with Jasper, anyways.) One or more of them could always charge into the fray to attempt and break up this small skirmish by force, but that would risk their safety, too. The last thing she wants is to knowingly throw her friends into harm’s way. No, the best option would be breaking the two quartzes up using something in their immediate environment, something large and heavy but capable of being quickly moved, something like...
Her eyes snap wide. “That injector!” she whispers excitedly, pointing to the hulking piece of junked equipment precariously hanging from the cliff wall, only stabilized by a few legs that still penetrate the cracked sandstone. “It’s right above them. If we knocked it down, then maybe…”
Peridot flashes a hopeful smile, and nods.
“We’re on it,” Steven says, summoning his shield. The two of them glance at each other, perhaps silently coordinating their plan, and then leap into action.
“Metal powers activate!” she exclaims, and throws her hands up in the direction of that rusted injector.
Subtly but noticeable, its legs begin to shift and creak under the force of her ferrokinesis, loosening from the eroding stone. Licking his lips, Steven aims his weapon and hurls. It strikes the device directly at its center, clanging against solid metal. The injector wobbles for a moment, its delicate balance obviously destabilized by this force, and then begins to slide free from the porous kindergarten wall. One still-impacted leg snaps under the torque as the cylinder’s immense weight plummets towards the ground.
“Heads up!” Steven calls out, causing a bemused Jasper to flick her gaze skyward, towards the falling object staining the soil with an ever-growing shadow.
The collision of the junky old injector almost appears like a small explosion, flinging dirt a good ten feet into the air and resolutely separating the two quartzes. But Ruby barely has time to high five Peridot and celebrate their success before the kid she’s supposed to be keeping safe darts off into the clearing once more. She hisses a small curse under her breath. Drat, of course he’d run straight to Amethyst’s side again at his first opportunity! She should’ve seen that coming a whole star system away. At least Jasper’s been temporarily marooned on the other side of that busted Gem tech, though.
The real question is, for how long?
Nibbling at her lip, she hastily sprints towards the edge of the injector to keep a watchful eye on their opponent as Steven attempts to have a mid-battlefield heart-to-heart. (At least, that’s what she assumes he’s doing. Admittedly, they kinda failed to hammer out the fine details of their plan before sprinting into action. Her fault.) Thankfully though, at first glimpse it seems the impact’s force has effortlessly knocked Jasper clear off her feet. She seems slightly dazed, but beyond that remains unscathed. Time will only tell if this strategy was a beneficial one. Briefly turning back towards the group, Ruby watches Steven crouch next to Amethyst. She’s muttering something to him, she thinks— her expression raw with fresh tears— but her words are far too hushed to make out. Whatever she shares, however, it’s clearly enough to elicit a strong emotional reaction from her companion.
“No, no!” he pleads, hurt painting his features. “My mom- Rose, she doesn’t matter. Whatever Jasper thinks doesn’t matter. She's the only one who thinks you should be like her!”
“But-”
“Stop trying to be like Jasper. You're nothing like Jasper! You're like me!”
“But even you’re different!” she explodes at first, but any anger present in her form immediately evaporates into something more innately hesitant, more self-conscious. Her fingers claw thick troughs into the reddened soil as she curls them inwards. “I’m not like you at all, I’m not some di—”
“No, that’s not the point!” he says, tears of his own budding at the corners of his eyes. “You’re like me because we’re both not like anybody. And yeah, it sucks. Everyone always expects us to be someone we’re not, but you know what? At least I've always got you. And you've got me! So stop leaving me out of this!”
Slowly pushing herself to her feet behind the junked injector, Jasper groans, her voice strained with newfound exhaustion Ruby never imagined she possessed.
“Y’guys, she’s getting up!” she calls out to her friends behind her, equally a warning as it is a call to action. After all, if this bold stunt finally managed to crack through the first layer of their opponent’s armor, then they might genuinely stand a chance now.
She’ll never know if they heard her, though— because in the same split second she turns back to check on them, the now embracing pair is engulfed in a blinding white light.
Even in the absence of a soldier's fire, everything turns to smoke.
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