#{V: Misplaced Diamond}
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Lost in Aquamarine - S.Holmes
Pairing: Sherlock Holmes x Reader
Location: Alhambra of Granada, Spain. Bath of Somerset, England.
Warning: none
Word: approx 3,300
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Chapters index
Glitches in Alhambra (you are reading this) | Alta infidelidad | Labyrinth
You prayed your eyes were just playing tricks on you. That you'd blink multiple times and your splendid diamond ring would be back on your ring finger. That you hadn't misplaced it in the middle of Granada, because obviously you hadn't.
You groaned aloud, followed by a barrage of profanity. You frantically went searching through your rucksack, your blood dropping further and lower into your stomach as your fingers discovered only meaningless items.
"No, no, no! It can't be happening to me," you grumbled.
You were at the end of your voyage at Alhambra. It had been a full week since you took place, beginning with Nasrid Palaces and on to Moorish palaces, the Generalife, and the Catedral de Granada before arriving at Mirador de San Nicolás. Your flight home was the next day.
You closed your eyes as you imagined your fiancé, Joe, getting down on one knee and describing over the stunning ring. "It's a family heirloom, babe. It has been passed down through the family for generations. And it's now yours!" He'd said. For freaking hell sake's How were you going to go back to him and tell him you'd somehow misplaced his treasured family ring? His people would burst out screaming.
Joe had been confused at your decision to on the trip alone without him anyway. But you’d convinced him to let you go, saying it was a part of your bucket list, travelling in Europe by yourself.
Truthfully, you’d just wanted this last breath of freedom. In a few months, you were going to be married, and then Jack would be a part of every corner of your life. For some reason, you found yourself dreading the prospect. You felt guilty as hell for it, but you couldn’t help it.
Joe seemed perplexed by your decision to head on the trip without him. But you'd convinced him to let you go, claiming that travelling alone in Alhambra was on your bucket list.
To be honest, all you wanted was one final breath of freedom. You were getting married in a matter of weeks, and Joe would be in all facets of your life. You had been dreading this possibility for some reason. You felt terrible about it, yet you couldn't stop yourself.
You nearly said no when he proposed. It felt like it came too quickly. You weren't sure yet if you desired to spend the rest of your life with him. You hadn't planned for it and weren't prepared for such a drastic undergoing change. Because you weren't even sure if you loved him.
In light of your family, you'd only recently begun dating. His parents knew your parents, and the two of you were neighbours, as well as friends. But you'd never seen him in a romantic sense before. Until his mother told you one day that he adored you.
You accepted to go on a date with him since you were concerned about what your parents would think if you turned him down. Just a single date.
However, that one date turned into over a year and a half of a relationship. You assumed you'd break up at some point. But then he proposed in front of both of your families.
And you hadn't had the heart to say no to his puppy dog eyes and gorgeous ring he was propped up for you.
The ring, ah, the ring. You made yourself ponder. When was the last time you saw it? You wracked your brain, revisiting the last several days in your mind. Because as an elderly lady cooed at it, you'd undoubtedly had it on your finger in Palace Of Charles V. But you'd carefully placed it in your bag at the Royal Alhambra Palace, hadn't you? You'd gone swimming in the hotel pool and had taken it off to keep it safe.
That's all right. You swore once more.
"What, you don't like picturesque?" a voice from behind you whispered. “¿No te gusta este lugar, señora?”
You turned to see a man beaming at you. Sherlock, whatever Holmes? Your tour guide.
He had been your tour guide since you checked out of the hotel, so you'd been seeing him all the time for the previous two days. Everyone else on the trip with you loved him right away, and you could see why. He was young, humorous, and engaging to talk to, a big cry from the middle-aged men who had served as your guides in the past countries.
Sherlock was also, to put it lightly, talking to you. He walked around with his hair streaked dark brown and styled into a curly, brushing the base of his neck. It would have looked completely ludicrous on anyone else. But he made it work, and it enhanced his appeal.
Not that you hadn't observed a thing about his appearance, especially the way he had attractive eyes.
You frowned as you cleared your throat. “Picturesque?”
"We've arrived at the breathtaking square on a hilltop... At the very least, you could try to appear enthusiastic with happy so that I feel somewhat better about my job," he remarked, resting back on his heels and beaming again.
You became aware of the actuality of the oasis of tranquillity, with forests on the hilltop all around you. He was absolutely correct.
"It's not that," you replied flatly. "I-I've lost my ring." Sherlock raised an eyebrow at you. “What kind of ring?”
"It is my engagement ring. I had it on my finger until lately, and now I can't find it. It was meant to be in my bag. But it isn't," you said helplessly.
"Oh- Oh hell," Sherlock exclaimed. Then he squeezed his lips together, realising what he was saying, realizing his language.
"I'm sure your fiancé will understand..." He said. You made a shaky motion with your head, saying no. "It's a family heirloom. He'll be so upset," you whispered, biting your lower lip.
"Let me tell you something. When you return, thoroughly search your hotel room. If you don't mind missing the rest of the trip, I can arrange for a car to drive you right now," he said, massaging the back of his neck.
You slowly nodded. "But what happens if I don't find it?"
"Well, in that case, you should contact the company." And write an email with a detailed description of the ring. We'll have it mailed to you if somebody finds it."
You stroked your temples, attempting to take it easy. The one here of action did not feel appropriate. You despised being without any control over anything. How were you expected to just leave and either wait for the ring to be sent to you or never be located at all?
"It could be anyplace. I think it's in Generalife," you said, trying hard to keep your voice steady."I can't just back to Bath without it."
Sherlock let out a sigh. “Miss—”
"Y/N," you exclaimed.
“Hey, Y/N. Look, I'll cover the cost of the change in plans. All you need is a car and a driver to get you back to the hotel, right? So you can retrace the ring steps. It's only a few of hours away." He locked his gaze on you. "On the other hand it'll be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Who's to say someone hasn't already picked it up for themselves? Miss; firstly, I believe you should explain to your fiancé. He'll have to accept it."
You were well aware that you were sounding stupid like he trying to say. You knew there was no way you'd be able to find it someplace in here. But something inside you told you that you had to try.
Sherlock softened when he saw your expression then rise his phone. "All right, fine. I'm going to phone the corporation. We'll arrange for someone to drive you anywhere you need to go."
You sighed in relief. "Thank you."
You were sitting on a bench outside the museum, waiting for the car that was supposed to pick you up. This extra trip extension was going to cost you the entire next month's pay. But you didn't have a choice. It was either that or look at Joe's dejected expression and confront your shame.
You raised your head as Sherlock approached, phone in hand. "Our man is on his way. Are you positive about this?"
You simply nodded. "All I can do is hope for the best, Sherlock, right? Thank you for your time. You must return to the others. They're most likely waiting."
Sherlock cast a glance towards the museum. "Yeah, miss. Be careful."
You tried to smile. "I will."
When you returned to the hotel, you searched every room, from the bathroom to the bed to the dresser. The ring was nowhere to be found.
You went on to reschedule your travel back home, dreading having to explain to Joe why you made it home a few days late.
And then you packed up your luggage and headed down to the lobby, scanning to see where your driver had disappeared to.
Then you collected your belongings and made your way down to the lobby, checking the area for your driver.
"He was just here," you muttered quietly, craning your neck to see if you could spot him.
You were taken aback when you instead locked eyes with someone sporting a brown curly-streaked hair.
You locked your gaze on him as he approached. "What on earth are you doing in here?"
Sherlock grinned. "I've come to lend a hand a damsel in trouble." You lowered your head. "What exactly are you—" You began, but he cut you off.
"Look, your plan is insane. And you aren't going to able to find it on your own. You needed help. And, fortunately for you, I am exactly that."
You staring at him. "But why do you want to help me?"
He shook his head, shrugged. "I've always had a soft spot for those in need... It's a necessary portion of my line of work. Plus, it'll be a wonderful change from my mundane day-to-day professional existence!"
"I'll be fine alone," you protested. "Besides, don't you have to, like, work?"
"Oh, I talked with the company. This will be a part of it. In fact, I'll be paid extra," he replied, his eyes gleaming. "Just admit you need my help, miss."
You were too stunned to respond. That's why, not long after, you were seated in the car, Sherlock stepping into the driver's seat and banging the door locked.
You could hardly believe what was happening.
You couldn't believe what was going on.
Your tour guide? Your assistant? He smirked and took out a pair of garishly yellow-tinted sunglasses. He turned on the stereo, which was playing something slightly recognisable as British popular music.
"Bon voyage!"
A few hours later, you arrived in Generalife. The sun had started to set, casting an orange glow across the sky.
You felt Sherlock glance your way. “Do you want to start searching tomorrow? It’s getting late.”
“I guess,” you said. “Are we going back to the hotel I stayed at?”
He nodded, and the car soon came to a stop in front of the nearby hotel.
"We obviously couldn't book the room you stayed in, but we'll ask the staff to help us look for the ring tomorrow, if you don't mind."
Sherlock was in the room across from yours. You felt a sense of shame when you observed his gaze falling. He'd had to travel quite far. But he maintained that cheerful expression, assuring you that he'd be great after a full night's sleep.
You thought it was time to tell Joe as soon as you entered into your new room.
And, as you can imagine, your plans didn't go quite as planned. His heated voice on the other end of the phone made you cringe. "Don't be ridiculous, Y/N. And just head home. My family will get it about the ring."
"But I don't want this to be something I'm taunted about for the rest of our lives," you replied gently. "This is entirely my fault. And I'm working on it. So, contrary as that sounds, let me?"
Joe let out a sigh. "A week. If you haven't found it after a week, you're going home. I'm not keen about the ring. I only want you to be safe with me. I'm still confused as to why you went on this silly trip by yourself. You need my help, sweetie. Consider what happened because you were alone—"
You stopped him. "Well, I sorry. I promise to come back in a week."
You hurriedly hung up the phone, furious. Why did he have to be so condescending all the time? He seemed to believe you couldn't handle anything on your own.
Sure you’d lost the stupid ring. But now, you decided, you were going to make sure to find it to prove a point to him, to show him you weren’t as childish and irresponsible as he thought you were.
The next day, Sherlock was upbeat, seemingly unbothered by the long day ahead. Despite the fact that you stopped by places you'd already visited, you felt his passion reflect off on you somewhat.
However, thanks to the kind hotel workers, you ended yourself searching for your previous hotel room first. He joined by searching under the bed and in the cupboard. Staff members advised you that they had not discovered anything after cleaning it, since if they had, they would have contacted you immediately.
Then you searched the pool area, praying you would spot the glimmer of diamond, but to avail.
Then you checked the pool area, hoping to catch a glint of diamond, but to no avail.
"Hey, don't worry about it," Sherlock pointed out your depressed appearance. "We have the entire city to ourselves. Are your spirits high?"
You attempted to share a tiny smile. "Ok. Let's get started."
The first visit was the Hall Of The Abencerrajes, but there was nothing there but the same paintings you'd seen before. Of course, this time he was spewing a steady stream of information while also laughing about the view.
After that, you went to the gardens court and blessed your lucky stars that Sherlock kept his mouth shut and remained respectful during the tour. You checked the area as well as you could, but the ring was nowhere to be seen.
You went from one tourist attraction to the next, yet all of your efforts were in vain.However Sherlock remained positive for the rest of the day, talking incessantly and showing all sorts of stuff.
Finally, the sun began to set again, and your feet felt sore from all the walking. But, weirdly, you weren't exhausted.
That's how you ended up having dinner with Sherlock in a restaurant overlooking the waterway.
You breathed deeply, flipping your meal: Breua de Pollo, a crisp pastry bundle filled with pulled chicken infused with saffron and cinnamon, sweet raisins, and sprinkled with icing sugar. Your gaze was drawn to the lake. "Would you like to go to the Moorish palace tomorrow?" He was beaming. "That's chicken is too good, stop making that face, you need to eat."
You felt taken aback by what he was saying. "Moorish palace?"
"Wasn't that where we went before we came here? Might as well check to see if the ring is still there," he claimed.
"All right," you found yourself responding. Something in you was excited by the potential.
"We can just take the flight if you want," Sherlock remarked, his voice bursting with excitement. Huh. "We'll get there much quicker than if we take the train."
You reacted with a hum. "I can't believe I'm going on a second trip of Granada. What has become of my life?"
"Hey, do you know how many people would kill to be you right now?" Sherlock protested. "Plus, you've got the best tour guide in Spain with you. What's not to love about this situation?"
You laughed. "Well, I suppose I should make the most of this extra week off."
He smirked, his charming cheekbone lifting up, why is this man so perfect? That's a lot more like it."
You spent a fantastic evening with him, joking literally never-ending, telling him about your life and he told you about his.
"I never imagined myself as a tour guide," Sherlock stated while you were chewing. "I dreamed to be an artist. But life has a funny way of crushing dreams, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, it does," you admitted quietly. "Sometimes it seems as if life controls me instead of the other way around." He gave you a knowing look. "Why do I get a sense that you're engaged in your marriage?"
"I do like Joe." The breeze is blowing around, causing your hair a little messed up, but it is pushing you to express something further from your side. "I'm just not sure he's the one I want to get married to," you admitted delicately stunned by the words you were using. Hearing the inner notion that had afflicted you for months come out unnerved you.
"Was he upset about the ring?"
“No. He even told me he didn't care and that I should just head back. But I know him. If not now, he'll make fun of me for it at some point in my life. I'd rather just shove the ring back into his face so he never has whatsoever to defend himselft against me," you murmured as you fiddled with your serviette.
Sherlock gave you a surprised expression. “Whoa. Don't you think that was a little harsh?"
You adhere to your sights locked on his shade of blue crystal eyes, which are intent on your face as well. "He-he sometimes irritates me. It's as if he believes I'm incapable of handling anything on my own. He acts as if he needs to be with me all the time to 'guard' me. It can get really uncomfortable."
For a while, Sherlock stayed silent.
"Hell, I'm not sure why I'm telling you all of this," you said hesitantly. You were abruptly humiliated. For this insane scheme, he probably believed you were insane. You were likely making matters worse by shouting about your fiancé, with whom you were meant to be passionately in affection.
But he just smiled. "No, it's fine. It is essential to express yourself. But, if I were you, I'd confess how I feel to him. If you plan on spending the rest of your life with him..."
You let out a sigh. "Set it aside. How about you?" You asked. "Any other significant others? Not right now," Sherlock responded softly. "But I assure you, I have ladies lining up for me," he continued hastily, seeing your grin.
You furrowed your brow. "Oh? Even with that horrible curly?"
He screamed and clutched his chest. "I'm offended! If I may say so myself, it looks rather hot on me." You giggled. "I was kidding. Well, it does." you said normally,
"Does what?"
"Look sexy."
You didn't realise what you'd spoken for a split second. A bell went off in your head as Sherlock grinned wildly. You felt your cheeks heat and averted your gaze from him, embarrassed.
What the bloody hell was wrong with you?
You swallowed and coughed. "We— erm. We should going." For God's sake, evading his ocean eyes while uttering a point pervert is a terrible choice!
His smirk remained on his face till he said goodnight and entered his hotel room.
#sherlock holmes#sherlock bbc#bbc sherlock#sherlock x reader#sherlock imagine#bbc sherlock fanfic#bbc sherlock x you#bbc sherlock imagine#sherlock fluff#alhambra
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;; “SOFTLY LOVE.”
; words? ; 1.4k.
; warnings? ; none.
; genre? ; fluff.
; request? ; no.
; playlist link. ;
The basins of rivers of tears still stained her pink cheeks, drops glistening on the edges of her dark eyelashes like miniature diamonds. Her eyes had fallen closed, the bright hazy blue of her gaze obscured by slumber. Her hair was the color of coal, tumbling down over her shoulder, the airy and flowery scent of her shampoo clinging to my nose. She had fallen to the clutches of sleep not too long prior, her head falling gracelessly to rest on my shoulder. I didn’t mind the extra weight in the slightest, too enamored by the constellations her light dusting of freckles created across the bridge of her nose and over the ridge of her cheeks. I could nearly call myself an astronomer, with the swirls and galaxies I had grown to adore in her imperfections. The tiny scar on the line of her right jaw, barely noticeable unless you knew to look for it. The creases of smile lines, faint yet noticeable, framing her lips, from which only good things would spawn.
The breeze from the rooftop hardly bothered me, my attention pulled away. I tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, the wind threatening to blow it back out of place. I had never known myself to be so gentle, yet my caresses were whisper soft. Trying my best not to wake her, I shifted, pulling the woven gray blanket tighter around us. She was leaning back against the arm I had staged behind her, her head rested on my shoulder. The position had her effectively tucked neatly into my side, our mutual warmth protecting us as the night grew cooler. Her chest rose and fell in a slow rhythm, almost luring me after her into a dreamful state.
The sounds of distant cars from the streets far below acted as a lullaby for her, their harshness lost as the sound drifted upwards. Heavy clouds breached the crescent moon’s beam, casting moving shadows over her peaceful face. It had been a while since I’d seen her so calm. She held her stress in her eyes, her furrowed brows, an unconscious frown. It was so different to see not a hint of any negative emotion displayed on her face. We both had gotten used to a routine of being pushed to our breaking points, holding onto each other by an anxious thread. Now, however, the worries we shouldered were stolen by the night air, and we made no move to claim them back. The few twinkling stars that managed to push through the light pollution mirrored her visage, I could have sworn I saw the small ‘v’ shaped birthmark that was just under her eye in the vastness of the night above.
We had been planning an escape like this for quite some time now. A moment just to ourselves, without the raging fires of constant responsibility pressing down on us from all directions. Neither of us could manage to get away, strung up too tightly in promises to others and oaths to ourselves. It was a small miracle we’d found a chance on a whim to climb to the flat top of our apartment building, having ‘borrowed’ the key from a security guard who’d misplaced his key ring. Access to the roof was limited and coveted, being one of the few places in the building that wasn’t swarming with activity all hours of the day.
Throwing our oldest blanket— one I had gifted to her on our first Christmas together — over her arm and tucking a cheap bottle of wine in my grip, she’d ushered me to the view, careful to make sure no one had seen us scamper up the uneven concrete steps. We sat on our coats, preferring to pull each other close under the depths of the soon-fraying blanket. Passing the bottle back and forth, we let our words flow like the wine that danced over our tongues, talking about anything and everything that came to mind. No pause dragged on for more than a few moments before it was interrupted with another stray thought or natural, unbridled laugh. Too cheap for proper glasses, we filled our mismatched and chipped porcelain mugs to the brims, the dark red liquid leaving stains on the edges.
Her voice had grown broken after the sun had begun to set, liquid threatening to spill over from her weary eyes and the bottle she swung back and forth, having long since passed the threshold of what emotions she could tuck away like stray belongings. Everything erupted, and she had clung to me as though I was her last constant, her north star. I made no move to quiet her, offering her the only thing I could bear to offer: stability. Her smooth and uncalloused hands had gripped the fabric of my shirt, her tears leaving dark imprints into my chest. The biting cold had tinged her cheeks and the tip of her nose pink, her fluster long forgotten in the bottom of the wine bottle.
Who was I to tell her to calm down? We had both stored up our emotions, telling ourselves that we’d handle them when we had an opening in our calendars, yet they remained forgotten, shoved down into the back of our minds. I had awkwardly pulled her into my side, rocking the both of us in a steady motion. My hands stroked over the expanse of her back, over the crest of her head, down the back of her neck, rubbing gentle and light lopsided circles into her hips with my thumbs. I took care to wipe the rest of her tears with the edge of my shirt, smiling and disagreeing when she said she looked bad with her almond-shaped eyes puffy and her makeup messy. To me, she looked nothing short of ethereal.
I caught myself silently hoping that she’d stay in her peaceful state, the sweeping of her dark lashes brushing over the round curve over her cheeks. She looked nearly like a doll, her skin glistening from the tears that had split, the nipping wind having cleared away any clamminess. Her skin looked nearly porcelain, the same as the now disregarded mugs, sat to the side and pressed to one another. I knew her neck would be cramped from the odd position she had fallen asleep in, her throat would be dry and aching from the tears. I knew that I’d be the one to offer her water, holding the thin bottle up to her pretty lips as she drank like she’d been wandering the desert for a millennia. I would be the one to brace her as we would stumble back down the stairs into our shared apartment, tugging off her shoes and laying her down in our bed. I would be the one to nurse her pounding head, to reassure her, to wipe her face with a cold cloth as she took to burying herself in the plush covers.
And I wouldn’t mind one bit.
There was no length I wouldn’t go to, to catch a meager glimpse of a smile across her features. Whether it be us dancing around our tiny kitchen to the stuttering sounds of our old radio singing Billie Holiday, lifting her to sit on the counter as I gave a warm kiss to her forehead, or spending a melancholy rainy day curled into each other, my head rested firmly in her lap as I listened to her melodic voice read me some old literature, I had no shortage of fond, happy memories with the girl sleeping on my shoulder. My free hand gently tugged at her outer thigh, pulling her closer to my embrace. I could never get close enough.
A soft, relaxed murmur left her as she shifted, reaching across her lap to clutch my hand in hers, an unconscious movement that had my heart racing and bounding. It was as if a slow, warm light filled me from the tips of my fingers, spreading from wherever our skin touched. It made me elated, the simple gesture of her leaning her weight into me. As I told my heart to calm its frantic pitter-patter, a comfortable peace settled over me, wrapping itself and the girl beside me in its loving clutch.
The tension I didn’t realize myself to be holding melted away from my bones, my head carefully leaning into hers. It wasn’t too cold out, it wouldn’t hurt to stay here for a few more minutes, right? Besides, I was relishing in the moment I knew would become a cherished memory. The moment in which I felt truly content.
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replica dior scarf 16
10 Menswear Developments From The Fall 2022 Collections
Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses selling native providers. The balaclava isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but gigantic, long scarves are trending now too. Try Dries Van Noten or Hed Mayner’s XL versions, or think about a hand-crochet piece from Kiko Kostadinov. High finish replica and designer Replica Dior Scarves are offered here.
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replica dior scarf 14
Dior Toile De Jouy Mitzah Scarf In Blue Silk Twill Replica
Another methodology is wearing the scarf as a tie knot. Grasp the ends and put it a free knot. Then the other finish is pulled by way of the loop of the knot.
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The big shearlings at Alyx and 4SDesigns are positive to achieve traction, as will the queer stylings of GmbH and Fendi. The fashion audience is changing, and the people who analyze it and encourage it have to alter too. Let’s see what carries into the womenswear season this month. Be inspired by our collection of books from design, trend, images and our world renowned exhibition catalogues.
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Dior Men Celebrates 2022 Lunar New 12 Months With Kenny Scharf Capsule
Wider than the common extensive belt, they create an hourglass determine by cinching a number of inches of the waistline length-wise. Altuzarra’s take, in calfskin, has a sculptural shape that’s nice for including form to a boxy blazer or a simple shirtdress. American brand Khaite focuses on high-end basics which are so well-crafted, they’re not fundamental in any respect.
I would say as the buckle sits throughout the belt you lose a quantity of cm’s that you just get with the Gucci though. I ended up with the 110cm one and it suits excellent. This shopping guide was written by Byrdie contributor Hayley Prokos. A seasoned commerce author and editor, she’s constantly on the hunt for chic and versatile accessories. dior belt Her work has appeared in SELF Magazine, Newsweek, and the daily Greek newspaper Ekathimerini, and she holds a Master of Arts in Journalism from Northwestern University. For this roundup, she spent upwards of 10 hours researching the best designer belts available on the market.
wikipedia belt Under the deal, Prada and LVMH were obligated to accumulate any of the forty nine percent of Fendi that the sisters ought to resolve to promote. The label misplaced approximately 20 million euros in 2001 and again in 2002. In 2002, Prada agreed to sell its 25.5 % stake to LVMH for $265 million. Carla Fendi, a member of the founding household, continued to behave as chairwoman and a minority proprietor until 2008. And as an grownup human, I normally have adult human accessories.
Metaphorically, in fact, there’s actually nothing darkish about being a frugal fashionista and going for knock off purses – if it’s done proper, in fact. The ever-growing crossover of luxurious and sportswear is inching nearer to its apex this month as Nike.. Crafted in beige and black Dior Oblique jacquard,.. Crafted in black Dior Oblique jacquard, it boasts a 'DIOR' signature to the entrance. The Dior World Tour capsule includes a sequence of equipment reimagined in 5 vibrant colors - yellow, pink, blue, inexperienced and black - for monochrome v.. The Dior passport cover is a sensible and chic accessory.
A second picture noticed the singer wearing another strapless design, this time by Fendi, which featured a colorful, patterned bodice and flowing train. The Respect star oozed confidence on the cover of W journal's latest issue, rocking a white figure-hugging strapless gown by Dior and dripping in Bulgari diamonds. Jennifer highlighted her trim waist with a matching cloth belt and kept her makeup simple with a glossy lip, highlighted cheeks, and winged eyeliner.
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Info Dump: Rei
This info is gonna be relevant to the Misplaced Diamond verse. Depending on how this muse takes off he might get a sideblog? I don’t know.
Lucas’ ancestor. I keep forgetting how many decades pass between PLA and modern-day Sinnoh (so I don’t know how many ‘greats’ I need to tack onto Rei’s ‘grandpa’ status).
Honestly, nobody really knows where Rei came from. He’s very tight-lipped about his origins. Am I being lazy and procrastinating on a hometown, or am I contemplating recycling the idea of him being from a failed Diamond timeline? Yes.
It takes him some time to get used to life in the Galaxy Team, but once he did he was able to rise in the ranks fairly quickly.
Obviously Aevus/Dialga is gonna be involved with Rei’s backstory but I haven’t completely settled on how. Do I put him through PLA protag shenanigans or cook up something else entirely...
His team consists of a Hisuian Decidueye (Doctor), an Espeon (Astra), a Bastiodon (Horatio), an Empoleon (Reginald), a shiny Lucario (Zircon) and a Hisuian Goodra (Spinel). The fact that his team is mostly steel-types does kind of leave him vulnerable to a few things, but he doesn’t care. He makes sure their movesets can cover each other’s weaknesses, and he just thinks they’re neat!
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𝚜𝚕𝚘𝚠 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚢 (𝚌!𝚚𝚞𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚡 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛)
♡ synopsis: you and quackity close up the casino together, but things are harder now. you have an idea to brighten the mood
(here’s a playlist, if ya want :> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw-y7lLSbQQ)
♡ word count: 773
♡ pronouns: none!
♡ cw?: a wee bit of language and a wee bit of angst (c!slimecicle death is mentioned)
○♡○♡○♡○♡○♡○♡○♡○♡○♡○♡○
It was just about two in the morning, and you were hastily sweeping the dark maroon tiles. The slots were all dark- they looked depressing when they weren't illuminated by the bright LEDs- and the flat images of diamonds, cherries and jackpot symbols barely reflected in their glass casings. From across the room, you could see Quackity counting out bills on a pool table. His hand rested heavily on his cheek as he used the other to toss 20’s to the side. Long black hair covered his face, but you already knew it was painfully expressionless- it had been since Slime died. It was pretty quiet; you could only hear the stiff bristles of your broom and the mindless 50’s instrumentals coming from the jukebox in the corner.
You jumped as Quackity abruptly slammed his briefcase shut, the bills finally sorted and taken into account. You were almost scared to do it, but you looked over at him anyway, watching him cross the room to wipe down the bar. You sighed. This little routine you had fallen into with Big Q every night was depressing without the dumb little green guy following your every move, asking what brooms were or how to sit without ‘sliming’ off the chair or how money worked. The three of you were close, and though you knew he wasn’t truly gone, you still missed him.
“Big Q…” You hesitantly called out, resting your broom against the jukebox. He looked up at you, hand still polishing the marble countertop.
He hummed out a response, face unmoving.
“Come here a sec?” You asked, ushering your hand towards your chest. He hesitated, then put his rag down and walked over to you.
“What is it?” He asked, finally reaching you. You didn’t know how’d this go, and you were honestly a bit afraid of the man- it’s not like he’s lashed out at anyone, but he hasn’t been responsive to much.
“Look, I know…” You trailed off, carefully selecting your words. “Maybe… I just thought…” He looked at you, slightly furrowing his brows. Fuck.
“Do you want to dance with me?” You asked, eyes glued to your shoes. You felt dumb. Immensely dumb. It was way too soon, and he was probably weirded out, and now you’d have to deal with his rejection the whole time you were closing up.
It was silent for about eight seconds - you counted- and then he spoke.
“Uh… Why?”
You almost wish he’d just had said no. How the fuck would you answer that question?
“Well… uhm… I just think it would, like, distract us for a second? Might be fun, and I always dance when I'm sad, I don’t know why though, I just-” You ranted.
“Yeah, okay.” He sighed.
“Wait. Like, yes?” You asked, looking up at him. He was looking at the floor, now.
“Sure. Why not.”
-
You punched a few keys on the jukebox and turned towards him. He looked exhausted- eyes heavy, black hair messy and misplaced. His white button down was wrinkled, and when you took his hand it was calloused and dry.
You took a step forward, then back, and then continued to sway as he followed against you. Quackity had taught you and slime to dance one night (admittedly, after downing a couple of drinks), so you weren’t as stiff and awkward as you used to be. You studied his face, and he studied your feet.
After a minute of silence, you heard him mumble something under his breath.
“Hm?” You hummed, missing a beat.
“Thank you.” He said again weakly, now looking into your eyes. His eyes were glassy, and he had slowed down to a stop. The song faded behind you, and for a second, you didn’t know what to do.
Then you quickly moved to hug him, wrapping your arms around his frame and holding on tight. You put your head on his shoulder, and he slightly leaned into you. It was a couple minutes before you pulled away, and when you did, you noticed his face was a bit puffy. He was smiling, though- the first time you’d seen him smile in a while. You smiled back, and then laughed. And he laughed back. And suddenly you were two psychopaths, laughing at each other and crying in the depth of the night on the dancefloor of a sullen casino.
When you locked the doors behind you, you noticed that the night air was light and misty. You walked back home together, finally having proper conversations and joking around like you used to. Your hand never left his, and he was finally holding it back.
a/n: sorry this one is kinda angsty, i mayyy or may not be going through a similar situation :,> thank you to everyone who’s followed/liked/commented, i really appreciate you! please feel free to request things!! i’d love to get prompts <3 remember to take care of yourself!
#c!quackity#c!quackity x reader#c!quackity x y/n#dsmp#mcyt x reader#dsmp x you#mcytblr#dsmp oneshot#sorry lol
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Dancing snowflakes
How do you get past a wall of ice? You dance.
(A collection of jonsa quotes on a theme.)
What’s behind the wall?
"As I was saying … why is it that when one man builds a wall, the next man immediately needs to know what's on the other side?" He cocked his head and looked at Jon with his curious mismatched eyes. "You do want to know what's on the other side, don't you?"
"It's nothing special," Jon said. He wanted to ride with Benjen Stark on his rangings, deep into the mysteries of the haunted forest, wanted to fight Mance Rayder's wildlings and ward the realm against the Others, but it was better not to speak of the things you wanted. (AGOT, Jon III)
Nothing special?
The pale pink light of dawn sparkled on branch and leaf and stone. Every blade of grass was carved from emerald, every drip of water turned to diamond. Flowers and mushrooms alike wore coats of glass. Even the mud puddles had a bright brown sheen. Through the shimmering greenery, the black tents of his brothers were encased in a fine glaze of ice.
So there is magic beyond the Wall after all. He found himself thinking of his sisters, perhaps because he'd dreamed of them last night. Sansa would call this an enchantment, and tears would fill her eyes at the wonder of it, but Arya would run out laughing and shouting, wanting to touch it all. (ACOK, Jon III)
The wonder of it...
The Imp's mismatched eyes narrowed. "My lady can dance with whomever she pleases."
Perhaps she ought to have remained beside her husband, but she wanted to dance so badly . . . (ASOS, Sansa III)
She never dances with her ‘husband’, though.
That seemed to anger him. "You hide behind courtesy as if it were a castle wall."
"Courtesy is a lady's armor," Sansa said. Her septa had always told her that.
"I am your husband. You can take off your armor now." (ASOS, Sansa III)
But she will not.
Sansa's misery was deepening every day. Tyrion would gladly have broken through her courtesy to give her what solace he might, but it was no good. No words would ever make him fair in her eyes. Or any less a Lannister. This was the wife they had given him, for all the rest of his life, and she hated him.
And their nights together in the great bed were another source of torment. He could no longer bear to sleep naked, as had been his custom. His wife was too well trained ever to say an unkind word, but the revulsion in her eyes whenever she looked on his body was more than he could bear. Tyrion had commanded Sansa to wear a sleeping shift as well. I want her, he realized. I want Winterfell, yes, but I want her as well, child or woman or whatever she is. I want to comfort her. I want to hear her laugh. I want her to come to me willingly, to bring me her joys and her sorrows and her lust. His mouth twisted in a bitter smile. Yes, and I want to be tall as Jaime and as strong as Ser Gregor the Mountain too, for all the bloody good it does. (ASOS, Tyrion IV)
Two false partners, two misplaced desires, and Winterfell at the center.
If I could show her Winterfell . . . give her a flower from the glass gardens, feast her in the Great Hall, and show her the stone kings on their thrones. We could bathe in the hot pools, and love beneath the heart tree while the old gods watched over us.
The dream was sweet . . . but Winterfell would never be his to show. (ASOS, Jon V)
One dislikes the Wall.
Oldtown, perhaps. Or even the Free Cities. He had always had a yen to see the Titan of Braavos. Perhaps that would please Sansa. Gently, he spoke of Braavos, and met a wall of sullen courtesy as icy and unyielding as the Wall he had walked once in the north. It made him weary. Then and now. (ASOS, Tyrion VIII)
The other defends it.
"The Wall will stop them," Jon heard himself say. He turned and said it again, louder. "The Wall will stop them. The Wall defends itself." (ASOS, Jon VIII)
The Wall is under attack. Winterfell is out of reach. But it’s the only thing that matters.
“You look distraught. Did you think we were making for Winterfell, sweetling? Winterfell has been taken, burned, and sacked. All those you knew and loved are dead. What northmen who have not fallen to the ironmen are warring amongst themselves. Even the Wall is under attack. Winterfell was the home of your childhood, Sansa, but you are no longer a child. You’re a woman grown, and you need to make your own home.”
“But not here,” she said, dismayed. “It looks so …” (ASOS, Sansa VI)
Sansa wants Winterfell. What does Jon want?
Ygritte wanted me to be a wildling. Stannis wants me to be the Lord of Winterfell. But what do I want? The sun crept down the sky to dip behind the Wall where it curved through the western hills. Jon watched as that towering expanse of ice took on the reds and pinks of sunset. Would I sooner be hanged for a turncloak by Lord Janos, or forswear my vows, marry Val, and become the Lord of Winterfell? It seemed an easy choice when he thought of it in those terms … though if Ygritte had still been alive, it might have been even easier. Val was a stranger to him. She was not hard on the eyes, certainly, and she had been sister to Mance Rayder’s queen, but still …
I would need to steal her if I wanted her love, but she might give me children. I might someday hold a son of my own blood in my arms. A son was something Jon Snow had never dared dream of, since he decided to live his life on the Wall. I could name him Robb. Val would want to keep her sister’s son, but we could foster him at Winterfell, and Gilly’s boy as well. Sam would never need to tell his lie. We’d find a place for Gilly too, and Sam could come visit her once a year or so. Mance’s son and Craster’s would grow up brothers, as I once did with Robb.
He wanted it, Jon knew then. He wanted it as much as he had ever wanted anything. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me. It was a hunger inside him, sharp as a dragonglass blade.
(ASOS, Jon XII)
The things you dare dream of.
When she opened the door to the garden, it was so lovely that she held her breath, unwilling to disturb such perfect beauty. The snow drifted down and down, all in ghostly silence, and lay thick and unbroken on the ground. All color had fled the world outside. It was a place of whites and blacks and greys. White towers and white snow and white statues, black shadows and black trees, the dark grey sky above. A pure world, Sansa thought. I do not belong here.
Yet she stepped out all the same. Her boots tore ankle-deep holes into the smooth white surface of the snow, yet made no sound. Sansa drifted past frosted shrubs and thin dark trees, and wondered if she were still dreaming. Drifting snowflakes brushed her face as light as lover's kisses, and melted on her cheeks. At the center of the garden, beside the statue of the weeping woman that lay broken and half-buried on the ground, she turned her face up to the sky and closed her eyes. She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. The taste of dreams.
(…)
She wondered where this courage had come from, to speak to him so frankly. From Winterfell, she thought. I am stronger within the walls of Winterfell. (ASOS, Sansa VII)
Obstacles remain.
"A marriage . . ." Her throat tightened. She did not want to wed again, not now, perhaps not ever. "I do not . . . I cannot marry. Father, I . . ." Alayne looked to the door, to make certain it was closed. "I am married," she whispered. "You know." (AFFC, Alayne II)
But Jon defends her.
"By right Winterfell should go to my sister Sansa."
"Lady Lannister, you mean? Are you so eager to see the Imp perched on your father's seat? I promise you, that will not happen whilst I live, Lord Snow."
(ADWD, Jon I)
And keeps defending her.
Jon said, "Winterfell belongs to my sister Sansa."
"I have heard all I need to hear of Lady Lannister and her claim."
(ADWD, Jon IV)
A stalemate. Jon is on the Wall and Sansa is on the mountain. Both come down.
When the last of the riders had disappeared into the trees, Jon Snow rode the winch cage down with Dolorous Edd. A few scattered snowflakes were falling as they made their slow descent, dancing on the gusty wind. One followed the cage down, drifting just beyond the bars. It was falling faster than they were descending and from time to time would vanish beneath them. Then a gust of wind would catch it and push it upward once again. Jon could have reached through the bars and caught it if he had wished. (ADWD, Jon VI)
Who is caught in the wind?
A honeycomb made of ice, Alayne thought, a castle made of snow. She could hear the wind whistling round the bucket.
A hundred feet down, a sudden gust caught hold of them. The bucket swayed sideways, spinning in the air, then bumped hard against the rock face behind them. Shards of ice and snow rained down on them, and the oak creaked and strained. Robert gave a gasp and clung to her, burying his face between her breasts. (AFFC, Alayne II)
Jon should have caught the dancing snowflake. But he’s not a practiced dancer.
She blushed. "So I could meet your brother. Oh, there was some other pretext, but that was the real reason. I was almost of an age with Robb, and my father thought we might make a match. There was a feast. I danced with you and your brother both. He was very courteous and said that I danced beautifully. You were sullen. My father said that was to be expected in a bastard." (ADWD, Jon IX)
A sullen dancer.
And there he stood, Harry the Heir himself; tall, handsome, scowling. "Lady Alayne. May I partner you in this dance?"
She considered for a moment. "No. I don't think so."
Color rose to his cheeks. "I was unforgiveably rude to you in the yard. You must forgive me."
"Must?" She tossed her hair, took a sip of wine, made him wait. "How can you forgive someone who is unforgiveably rude? Will you explain that to me, ser?"
Ser Harrold looked confused. "Please. One dance."
Charm him. Entrance him. Bewitch him. "If you insist." (TWOW, Alayne)
A humble dancer.
Satin was all grace, dancing with three serving girls in turn but never presuming to approach a highborn lady. Jon judged that wise. (ADWD, Jon X)
Bastards may not approach a highborn lady.
She had not thought of Jon in ages. He was only her half brother, but still . . . with Robb and Bran and Rickon dead, Jon Snow was the only brother that remained to her. I am a bastard too now, just like him. Oh, it would be so sweet, to see him once again. But of course that could never be. (AFFC, Alayne II)
But there is a dance outstanding, as the Wall opens its gate for passage.
They want to put the Wall between them before the night descends.
A snowflake danced upon the air. Then another. Dance with me, Jon Snow, he thought. You'll dance with me anon. (ADWD, Jon XII)
A dance at a wedding outstanding.
Of Sansa, brushing out Lady's coat and singing to herself. You know nothing, Jon Snow. He thought of Arya, her hair as tangled as a bird's nest. I made him a warm cloak from the skins of the six whores who came with him to Winterfell … I want my bride back … I want my bride back … I want my bride back … (ADWD, Jon XIII)
A favor outstanding.
She ran one finger down his cheek. "Should we ever wed, you'll have to send Saffron back to her father. I'll be all the spice you'll want."
He grinned. "I will hold you to that promise, my lady. Until that day, may I wear your favor in the tourney?"
"You may not. It is promised to... another." She was not sure who as yet, but she knew she would find someone. (TWOW, Alayne)
She will.
#jonsa#snow imagery#dancing#sansa stark#jon snow#anti sanrion#anti tyrion lannister#wall of ice#quote compilation#long post
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What is a weird hill the ROs would die on? Mine is that cereal is soup but hot dogs are not sandwiches. I'm very willing to argue about both of those lmao
Haha, let's see.
E: they knows for an absolute fact that they will soon reach a growth spurt, even though their height has stayed stagnant for years. They also dont see what's wrong with putting pineapple on pizza, and think people should make what they enjoy
R: Diamonds are overrated and overpriced, but people will think any shiny rock is valuable when in reality it's easy to manufacture a gem that looks exactly the same.
L: you can only truly possess something physical, while digital ownership isnt true ownership and a scam. Also glasses are indeed more charming than having contacts, along with being more durable and harder to misplace.
V: there is an urban legend in Vestia of a humanoid creature with extremely long, spindly arms that camouflages themselves in the branches of dead trees and snatches up passersby to eat them, and they're adamant that it exists and they saw it once.
P: Pizza rolls can and should be classified as a ravioli and if you think otherwise you're blind to basic sense.
M: pizza rolls are more like tiny calzones.
P: which are just larger raviolis
M: No...
Ra: they deeply believe karma and fate are always in motion. Also aliens are definitely real and they listen in on many conversations.
S: laws are a suggestion if you're too fast to catch. Ladybugs are evil.
F: Ink pens are the superior writing utensil. Fairy-like spirits exist in many natural things.
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⭐️ Welcome! ⭐️
Interested in participating in the Steven Multiverse project? Join our discord to get started!
Once you join, you may self-assign your roles and join in on the fun! Following is a guide to some characters for each channel; you can pick as many teams you want!
⭐️*:.｡.💖.｡.:*⭐️
The Crystal Gems
Rose Quartz
Bismuth, Lapis, and Peridot
Lars and the Off Colors
Emerald
The Humans
Steven and Connie (and Lion)
Universes and DeMayos
The Zoomans
The Cool Kids
Sadie and Shep
Onion and Friends
Vidalia and Yellowtail
Frymans and Pizzas
Smiley and Frowney
K e v i n .
Homeworld Gems
Spinel and the Diamonds
Holly Blue and the Famethyst
The Zircons
Rose Quartzes
Pebbles
Little Homeworld
The Pearls
Jasper
Uncorrupted Gems
Enemy Gems
Aquamarine
Eyeball Ruby
The Lapises
Sentient Plants
Watermelon Stevens
Pumpkin
Cactus Steven
Gemsonas
AU Team
Etc.
⭐️*:.｡.💖.｡.:*⭐️
This is just to provide a general idea of which categories some characters belong to. It’s not final, and is very flexible, so don’t worry about misplacing any characters.
Have fun! ✨
#steven multiverse#creators event#community project#steven universe#su#steven universe movie#su movie#steven universe future#su future#suf#steven universe au#su au#important#kay’s writing#discord server
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Hisui Verse 2.0: Misplaced Diamond
I talked about it, and that led to me writing headcanons for it, so I guess this is a verse.
After meeting a Hisuian Typhlosion in Lake Verity and learning about spacetime distortions, Lucas of course got around to studying them. It seems almost inevitable that he would land in Hisui at some point while investigating.
Unlike the Shattered Diamond verse, Lucas didn’t lose his memories of Sinnoh. Whether this is due to the nature of his connection with Dialga (a spacetime deity) or the fact that he got to Hisui through a spacetime distortion (as opposed to a wormhole or rift) is anyone’s guess.
Not sure if he has a full team with him, but at the very least I have him bringing along Kale, Garnet and Homura (the Hisuian Typhlosion he met in present-day Lake Verity). Not sure if he’d befriend anything else while in Hisui, although I can see it happening.
When he finds out about Rei (which honestly won’t be hard, they look so much alike), he’s going to avoid said ancestor like the fucking plague.
To that end, Lucas acts as a kind of vigilante; rarely visits Jubilife unless he needs supplies. He got a ninja mask the first time he visited the clothing store, to cover his face so nobody knows he’s related to Rei.
Rei, of course, is completely aware of Lucas’ existence and is annoyed at his descendant avoiding him. It turns out having a connection with Dialga is a family thing.
Lucas does eventually get back to Sinnoh (he basically dedicates his time to chasing down these distortions), but I need to decide how long he’s in Hisui for.
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Moosecraft [Semi-Vanilla] {Conquest} {1.12.2} {1.8 PvP}
Moosecraft
Moosecraft aims to be a conquest server based around tiles, a unique claiming system designed to help those who love PvP and those who prefer to stay peaceful. Pre-made buildings can be purchased for each tile, these buildings provide you with resources every so often to help you craft some of the custom items Moosecraft offers, such as Steel armor, Reinforced Diamond Armor, and Darklite armor. You'll never get bored with the plethora of things to do like ranking up for new perks and abilities, grinding to be #1, or building up your Nation. We are currently running version 1.12 for the new building blocks and items but we have the 1.8 style PvP everyone loves and enjoys.
During the first month you will be able to purchase temp neutrality for your tiles, so everyone can build up, at the cost of 10k for every owned tile. This is also to allow us to test the conquest system before actual usage as we make it less admin involved and more player tuned.
Join us on discord!!!:
https://discord.gg/fxfwxmm
Also check out our trailer!!!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiY6YJXk-AE
Rules:
Chat Rules
A: This is not your safespace. If you don't like what someone says you can block them (discord) or /ignore (ingame)
B: Keep channel related chat to its proper channels, if it is misplaced staff has the power to remove it from the chat it doesn't belong in.
C: Anything that violates US law or Discord's ToS is not allowed AT ALL, this will be met with removal of the post and a mute/ban from the discord/server depending on the case
D: No porn of any kind
E: No spamming obviously
F: No advertising other servers IPs, server names are fine if it is not for advertising them
G: No Ddos or Doxxing threats, or actual doxxing in chat.
H: Do not rage in chat for someone to be unmuted/unbanned or you will be muted
I: Excessive harassment is not allowed, this is defined as continual verbal attacks directed at one person even after they have blocked you/ignored you. This includes getting other people to relay msgs and using alts to send your messages.
J: Moosebobby, and Moosebobby alone, reserves the right to mute for content he deems unneeded
K: No calling people pedos simply to fucking piss them off. It’s quite annoying Jesus Christ. If you have genuine proof someone is a pedo PM ME don’t call them out in chat. I’ll give them the bullet myself.(edited)
Gameplay Rules:
• Insiding will be met with a 1 month ban to all accounts associated with the IP of the insider
• Alts are allowed
• Radar mods are allowed
• Any hack cilents, xray packs, or damage indicators will be met with an instant perm ban, ss'ed or not
• Exploiting a glitch in gameplay is a perm ban offense
• Botting is illegal, any bots found will be perm banned and their owner temp banned
• Macros are not allowed in any case, especially auto fishing ones.
• Any client that is not a hack client but is for legit reasons such as ArmorHUD, GUI, and Shaders is allowed
• If a new rule is added and you had broken it before it was added, you are not in trouble
• Glitching into the end/nether is illegal
• Cobble Monstering is illegal
• Griefing safezones such as warp wild is illegal
• Camping the spawn of warp wild is illegal, you can pvp there but do not camp over and over
• Claiming KoTH tiles with core tiles is illegal, they can be claimed with normal tiles though
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UN warns of famine in violence-hit Central African Republic | Central African Republic News
Famine will hit the Central African Republic if nothing is completed to reverse the humanitarian state of affairs within the nation, which is deteriorating at an “alarming charge”, the United Nations has warned.
The rising unrest within the nation of four.5m folks is forcing many to flee their properties and abandon their fields, inflicting spiralling meals insecurity, the UN humanitarian coordinator within the nation, Najat Rochdi, advised reporters in Geneva on Wednesday.
If the state of affairs stays the identical and other people don’t return to their fields, “it signifies that in only a few years, we’ll have a famine within the Central African Republic”, stated Rochdi.
“We’re not speaking about 10 folks. We’re speaking about lots of of 1000’s” in danger, added Rochdi, stating that a number of areas have already reached degree four by way of meals insecurity.
Hundreds have been killed whereas 1 / 4 of the inhabitants has fled throughout violence that adopted President Francois Bozize’s overthrow in 2013 by primarily Muslim Seleka rebels, triggering Christian militia revenge assaults.
‘A blind eye’
Earlier this month, the UN’s World Meals Programme warned that the CAR was dealing with the worst state of affairs of meals insecurity in 4 years, with practically two million folks in pressing want of meals assist.
Knowledge from the UN humanitarian company, OCHA, on Wednesday confirmed that 2.9 million folks – 63 % of the inhabitants – require assist and safety.
“The world can not flip a blind eye to what’s taking place in CAR. We’re again to sq. one,” stated Rochdi, deploring “despicable assaults” that are “taking an enormous toll on the lives of harmless males, girls, girls and boys”.
The world can not flip a blind eye to what’s taking place in CAR
Najat Rochdi, UN humanitarian coordinator in CAR
Up to now three weeks, greater than 50,000 folks have been impacted by violence within the northern city of Batangafo and within the central city of Alindao.
Two websites internet hosting displaced folks in these areas have been additionally torched, OCHA stated.
“As humanitarians, we proceed to scale up emergency response help, however in these two cities we now have to do it from scratch as our achievements have been misplaced.”
One of many world’s poorest nations regardless of a wealthy provide of diamonds and uranium, the CAR has struggled to get better from the 2013 civil battle that erupted when Bozize was overthrown.
Rochdi referred to as for a halt to the violence and for the federal government, armed teams and the worldwide group to assist keep away from a “catastrophic state of affairs”.
“I’m elevating the alarm to not say famine will arrive tomorrow, however to say that each potential measure have to be taken to make sure that it does not,” she stated.
Practically 700,000 persons are internally displaced within the CAR, in accordance with the UN [Al Jazeera]
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)(window, document,'script','//connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');
fbq('init', '968100353246427'); fbq('track', 'PageView');
from SpicyNBAChili.com http://spicymoviechili.spicynbachili.com/un-warns-of-famine-in-violence-hit-central-african-republic-central-african-republic-news/
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The Homeworld Is Too Much With Us [ACT 1]
Rating: K+
Word Count: 18k+
Summary: Your gem is Ruby, under the alias “Navy” for an improvised undercover surveillance mission that better land you a promotion to the intelligence division. However, you’ll have to accomplish your primary objective if you even want Yellow Pearl to so much as skim over your mission report: FIND JASPER.
A/N: Why break this up into smaller chapters when I can give huge chunks at a time? Though, it’s not like anybody will read this fanfic here anyway lol. “We want more fan content,” the thirsty fandom demands. “But we’ll only like the content to maybe read later and not actually support authors with comments or reblogs.” Jk, the real problem is that my content isn’t worthy enough.
Scene i. - Outside the Steven’s house.
“Oh please, oh please! Don’t make me go back to Homeworld! Oh, I just want to stay here with you!”
“This… is a surprise…”
You couldn’t have said it better yourself. It’s a split-second plan that your comrades would have shattered you for, but you attribute that to their traditional mindset. (You can almost feel that old veteran’s chisel weapon at your neck right now.) Guerilla warfare is what you like to call your specialty. Not all gems realize how broad of a spectrum “adhering to Homeworld’s agenda” is, and now that you’re solo, you intend to proceed with this mission your way.
“... I just want to be somewhere I can be myself.”
You can hardly sustain your form when you’re assigned a label--Navy--by the “Steven.” It’s as crude as your comrades’ (oh, wait, ex-comrades’!) strategies. You just sit and smile and remind yourself of the invaluable skill Homeworld taught you.
Assimilation.
Scene ii. - Outside the barn.
You see so much of Homeworld on this planet that it’s hard not to see it as just another colony. The Lapis reminds you of the old veteran Ruby, not that you miss her. She’s distrustful, aching, and more perceptive than she’s socially allowed to be. Absolutely adorable. You’ve had an eye on this one ever since the baseball game she seemed reluctant to be a part of. And just like with the veteran Ruby, she’s powerless to act on her own instincts without approval from her misplaced superior.
The Crystal Gems are so silly. They have this foreign concept called “equal rights” that completely contradicts itself in practice. Even they have to acknowledge that individual’s pursuit of their own self-interest only results in a life that is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. True equality is only achieved when workinggems are united under a sovereign government for the sole sake of serving unquestionable entities. It’s impossible for a gem to disassociate herself from the inferiority complex programmed within her. You think Lapises may be the closest to breaking free of such an inevitable mentality, given their awesome craft of carving entire planets like a big bang expanding a universe. Clearly, more observation is needed.
“It might be hard to like Earth at first,” the Lapis explains quietly. “It is where a bunch of bad stuff happened.”
For the first time, you notice how ancient her gem outfit looks compared to the Peridot’s standard uniform, as fresh out of the Kindergarten as the newbie Ruby. She must have been in the war on Earth, too. It’s not a subject Homeworld likes to teach, but it sure is fun to hear from veterans. You feel like you’re in the presence of a well-preserved antique.
“What is ‘rain’?” you ask out of genuine curiosity. They don’t question your apparent lack of knowledge. It’s amazing how stupid they think you are. You’re a Ruby, for Diamond’s sake! You’ve been on missions to other planets for as long as you’ve been issued, so of course you know that undeveloped planets have inconsistent weather conditions. (Well, only thanks to stories from the veteran… You suppose that your question taken at face-value would have been valid, since most Rubies don’t know about changing weather conditions.) You’re asking what Earth’s version of rain is like because your former squadron almost got poofed when it was raining diamonds on Neptune. (You and the veteran were the only ones smart enough to stay in the ship when that happened. And, for the record, you two helped save your comrades as a contribution to your entire species’ devotion to the Diamonds’ agenda. If that’s not equality, you don’t know what is.)
The rain is just falling water, thankfully. Leave it to a Lapis to abandon Homeworld for a planet abundant in her own element.
Scene iii. - The Roaming Eye (YOUR ship!)
“This is perfect! The Crystal Gems finally have a pilot!”
More labels. That’s nice. That means you’re assimilating well. Never mind the fact that they have a Lapis with water wings, a Peridot, and the infamous renegade Pearl. It seems that Navy is going to be the Crystal Gems’ personal chauffeur from now on.
You’re just glad you have your ship back. You weren’t lying when you said the ship was the only place you feel like you belong--there has to be some truth mixed in with your facade to make it more realistic, after all--you’ve spent more time in the ship than in Homeworld. At this point, it would be easy to dump the intruders out of the ship (your ship!) and relish in the sweet ecstasy of their betrayed faces. (Oh, if only they hadn’t touched anything. All the system settings have been messed with by some Era 1 pebble who probably thinks a light year is a measure of time.)
But as you glance over your shoulder to tell Steven to hit the button you programmed to dispel everyone from the ship except you, you see the Lapis smiling at nothing. It reminds you of a strange phrase that you heard from the veteran Ruby when you were still a shiny newbie teeming with questions. Art for the sake of art--you suddenly understand it now that you can see it on the lips of a criminal Lapis that sleeps simply because she likes it. It’s senseless like shattering, yet conforms to an aesthetic that you’ve seen before in other undeveloped planets.
Just as suddenly, your cheerful act is too heavy to maintain. Rookie mistake--inconsistency. You’re supposed to be better than that. You’re no ever-changing atmosphere rich in deteriorating substances. You’re a perfect, manufactured product of precious resources, trained by the best Homeworld has to offer and shined by centuries of experience.
“Is something wrong, Navy?” Lapis asks.
She’s by your side now. Something about her concern reads more like long-awaited relief to you. You didn’t know Lapises were so sadistic. Or maybe it’s just her.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just thinking that you have the prettiest smile I’ve ever seen!”
For some reason, you’ve gained some hostility from the Peridot.
“You dirty little--” She has a snorting laughter that pulls you away from your controls. She leans on your chair for support. “I was wrong! I thought no one could be that well-adjusted, but you are! Otherwise you would’ve backstabbed us and dumped us out of the ship by now!”
You laugh a little alongside her, but you’re actually not sure if that’s the right thing to do.
She’s almost wheezing now, to the point where she has to perch herself on the arm of your chair because she can no longer stand on her own. “I’m really the only one that’s trapped, after all this time… My cage is your sky, my mirror is your shield, my pain is--”
You think it’s time to land.
Scene iv. - A beach, beyond the Steven’s house..
The Ruby-Sapphire fusion is already waiting on the beach to greet you, holding an inflated bag of pink aluminum attached to a string that welcomes you to “the party.” There was another similar inflated bag of aluminum, in blue, but it popped before you could get a chance to see if it had its own message. They hand you the bag with a thumbs-up.
“Wow! Thanks Ruby and Sapphire, I’m so humbled!” You’re not sure what its functional use is and hope that nobody will notice when you release it into the atmosphere later.
“It’s Garnet,” they correct you.
You stare at the inflated bag of pink aluminum. “Oh! Thanks for the Garnet, Ruby and Sapphire!” You suppose there’s some convenience to assigning labels to useless but complex objects.
They laugh. “No, that’s a balloon. I’m Garnet.” In a flash of light, they’re instantly unfused. The lovey-dovey Ruby and Sapphire that couldn’t get their hands off each other during the baseball game appear, holding hands like that part of them is permanently fused, even as individuals. “We’re Ruby and Sapphire,” the Sapphire explains.
You gasp. “Oh! That makes sense!”
And just like that, they’re a Garnet again, and they’re flashing you a thumbs-up.
The Peridot looks at you in shock. “It does?” She takes a step back once she remembers the Garnet’s presence, frantically waving her hands apologetically. “I-I mean, it does, I guess, but you just understand it that quickly?”
Lapis is smirking at the Peridot with her arms crossed smugly.
You nod. “A plus B equals C, so it’s easier to substitute C into an equation instead of saying A plus B.”
“No, fusion! You understand fusion?”
“Rubies fuse all the time.” Eyeball likes fusing with just you, sometimes.
“No, cross-gem fusions! Without any kind of functional utility other than a marginal benefit! You understand that?”
“Um, yeah…” You subconsciously look up at Lapis. “‘Art for the sake of art.’”
You don’t even know what art is, but you’re pretty sure you’re looking at it.
Scene v. -Your ship, outside the barn. Nighttime.
She can turn off so quickly--Lapis, you mean, because in your mind it’s obvious that there’s nobody else to talk about when she’s present--and she does it so willingly, so vulnerably, like there’s nothing stopping her from doing what she wants. You’re marveled at the fact that she can still manage to feel trapped in a planet with oceans ready for her to command, sources of water everywhere you look, artillery waiting for her to fire at any whim. How much freedom does she need? She could be floating in outer space, eons away from the nearest star system, and she could still be complaining about not having enough room to stretch her wings. Yet, she’s content to settle in a primeval structure constructed with planet-made materials (wood, nails, paint).
In the dead of the night, which is a time of darkness that encompasses half of all time on Earth, noises echo in the barn. Such include her snoring. The Peridot wasn’t kidding about the volume of it. However, there are also other more insignificant noises, like the buzzing of tiny organic native species, creaking of the wood, and the gentle spring breeze. The moon and the Peridot’s computer are the only sources of light in the otherwise dim barn. You find yourself missing the soothing red light of the Roaming Eye and leave your “barnmates” to their nighttime activities.
You know this would be the perfect time to slip out of Earth, but that wouldn’t be interesting. Your personal agenda has been amended from revenge to research. This mission may finally prove your worth in the surveillance/intelligence division.
Everyone else laughed at the thought of a Ruby entering the intelligence division. (You gotta admit, it is pretty funny that a mere Ruby outranks most gems made to be smart in IQ alone.) No more. You will be the pioneer of a brave new Homeworld, where a common foot soldier can be promoted to a slightly more valued foot soldier just judging by their intelligence! Oh, such a radical revolution would have sentenced you to a shattering in Era 1, but Yellow Diamond’s rule in Era 2 was a game-changer. You’re grateful to have been made for such an innovative, tactical leader.
Hints of social mobility in gem society has been evident in Rubies, most of all, given how little resources it takes to make one and how adaptable they can be. They’re your foot soldiers, guards, factory workers, servants, heavy-lifters, and most recently, intergalactic squadrons. The more technology is developed, the more niches a Ruby can sneak into. This mission report can be your ticket to defining your rank in the hierarchy. You settle into the main commander’s seat and open up a new file to type in.
Mission Report:
You can’t use your squadron’s ID for this. That egotistical chest-gemmed Ruby would love to ride on your coattails.
Mission Report: NV-419.310
Wait, Yellow Pearl will only bother to glance at this report if your main objective has been fulfilled first. Backspace, backspace, backspace...
Mission Report: NV-419.3
Mission Report: NV
Mission Report:
Missi
Missing Jasper. Where IS she?
Personally, you feel like she has developed some kind of attachment to Earth. It is, technically, her home planet. It was the colony of her Diamond. Oh, even perfect gems corrode when exposed to Earth. Everything is fleeting on that planet.
Missing Jasper. Where IS she? Can’t stay on Earth too long.
You jump in your seat when you hear pounding on the outside of the ship. Backspace, backspace, backspace--you’ll write the report after you find Jasper. Right now, you have an unexpected visitor to deal with.
The hand-gem Ruby steps in hesitantly. You can tell it’s her without even spinning your chair around to look. Her awkward, clunky steps give it away. “H-Hey, Navy, uh… What’s, uh… How’s it going?” You can hear the sweat in her voice.
You turn around to face her, since she’s a fellow Ruby. You’re glad you get to a moment alone with her, unattached to the Sapphire (although you’re certain the Sapphire is waiting just outside the ship for this Ruby’s return). The camaraderie between Rubies is the only break from eternal servitude of the Diamonds that you’ve known. “Why don’t you just call me ‘Ruby’?”
Her nervous chuckle is sporadic and jolty, so unlike the mellifluous laughter that bubbles out of Lapis. “It’s just to lessen the confusion. You must know how confusing it gets when someone says, ‘Hey, Ruby!’ and five-million Rubies turn around…”
The cultural barrier is so thick you could cut it with a laser. Era 1 must have been a much simpler time. No gem would actually yell “Ruby!” in a room full of Rubies unless it was a joke. Sure, you could address a gem by their facet and cut number, but usually gems make it clear who they’re addressing. There’s almost like a sense for it, definitely acquired. “Oh, that’s true!” you lie. “It just seems really pretentious to have my own unique title.”
The Ruby smiles. “Welcome to Earth. We get to be individuals, here.”
That’s ironic, considering that she spends virtually all of her time in a fusion. “But I’m just a Ruby.”
“No!” she abruptly shouts. She blinks in surprise when she realizes how loud she was, then blushes. She wrings her hands behind her back. “I mean, it’s just--” Her words jostle like the Roaming Eye when it’s caught in a meteor shower. “That’s just what Homeworld wants you to think. You’re more than that.”
Um. Not really, but okay. It’s hard to conform to individualist, entropy-ridden propaganda. “I like being a Ruby, though. Don’t you?” You’re going down a bad path. You’re supposed to assimilate to whatever they say to avoid suspicion.
“No! I don’t!” Her hands are in her hair. She starts pacing back and forth, unable to form tears because they’re sizzling off of her. Thank goodness the ship was designed for Rubies--no burn marks on this baby. “I hate it!”
You close the ship’s opening. Too much noise might wake Lapis.
She freezes in her tracks when she hears what she just said. “I mean, I hated it, back when I was on Homeworld,” she corrects, but you know what she really means. She lets out a strangled scream and starts pacing even faster. “Rubies are stupid, Rubies are disposable, Rubies are worthless, Rubies are too emotional--” She pivots on her foot and waves her hands frantically at you. “--I mean, that’s not true!” she assures you, not that you’re the one who needs it, “But that’s what Homeworld makes you think!”
You know all those things, but you don’t hate it. “Well, what’s wrong with that? We’re made a certain way, that’s just fate.” At least Homeworld organizes these traits instead of randomly assigning them by a lottery. That would be unequal. All gems have the right to be where they belong. Ultimately, as long as each gem fulfills her purpose, there should be no problem.
She freezes, again. Her tears flow faster than her pyrokinesis can immediately evaporate. “That sounds like something Sapphire would say.”
“Oh, Ruby…” (Oh, Diamonds. You should have expected her to start talking about Sapphire sooner or later.) You quickly prance over to her and let her cry into your chest. Lapis mentioned something about two individuals gems having an unstable fusion, earlier, but she didn’t mention anything about fusions separating into unstable individual gems. “I’m sorry that I upset you! I just really love that you’re a Ruby, like how I love being a Ruby!” You could easily return her to her Sapphire, but you believe that only a Ruby can truly comfort another Ruby in such a state. Her blazing hot touch doesn’t faze you in the slightest, whereas an icy Sapphire would be frizzling with steam.
She collapses to her knees. “No, Ruby, I want more than that!” she sobs. It looks like she’s too distraught to keep up with that silly nickname. There’s no Ruby to disambiguate from the other if it’s just the two of them alone. “There’s a love stronger than that, and I couldn’t have it on Homeworld. I-I was going to be shattered because of it!”
That makes sense. You’ve never seen a cross-gem fusion before Garnet, but it sounds like something Homeworld wouldn’t like. Nobles would call it an abomination. “There’s nothing wrong with just being a Ruby.” And by that, you mean that she doesn’t have to be in a fusion all the time. Really. It’s great and all, but it’s a lot of energy.
She screams something incoherent into your chest.
“... What?”
She lifts her head and stares up at you with the most intense, passionate gaze you’ve ever seen in your life. The nuclear reactions from a thousand stars fills her voice with ardency as she proclaims, “I love Sapphire.”
Um. Okay. “Yeah, I know…”
She weaves her fingers into yours. “No, but I really, really, really love Sapphire! More than you love everything on Earth and more than Lapis hates everything on Earth!”
“Yes. I know, Ruby.”
She takes in a deep breath. “I lo--”
You swear you’ve barely been speaking with her for five minutes and you already want to dump her back into the Garnet fusion. At least the Garnet fusion stays silent most of the time. “Yes, you love Sapphire, we know, you love Sapphire so much, she’s the light of your physical form, you love her so much, you just love Sapphire, I know, you really love Sapphire, okay, we know, we get it, YOU LOVE SAPPHIRE. WE GET IT.”
Her clasp on your hands tighten. “You don’t KNOW how great it feels to be fused with her all the time, though.”
This conversation has taken an unprecedented turn into a salacious realm that you feel, despite being centuries old, too young to hear. Components of a perma-fusion truly are shameless. Yet, the curiosity tugs at you. The forbidden sin has to be exhilarating to make it worth committing continuously, uninterrupted, for thousands of years…
“You just don’t know how great it feels to be something entirely new. I-It’s like I’ve been re-made! Like, I don’t have to be the dispensable Ruby that Homeworld made me as! Our masses are one, but not just like two colors mixed together to make another color--more like our color transcends the spectrum entirely and a new spectrum has to be made to properly classify our love.”
And you thought you were over-using the word “love”,
“The initial burst of energy is the best, though…”
You hope that noise she just made wasn’t a moan.
“I can’t stop thinking of the next time we’ll fuse every time we’re apart. It’s so different to fuse with a different kind of gem, especially when you can never be close enough to them without fusion. It’s this unity of light, life, and love, and it’s addicting.”
You think you figured out why Homeworld restricted this practice. “Crazy idea here, but,” you introduce slowly, “isn’t--addiction--bad?” Abnormal compulsion destines a gem for instability. Exhibit A: this hand-gemmed Ruby, currently suffering from severe withdrawal. The symptoms are straight out of the textbook: restlessness, depression, irritability, crying, and, wait for it--
“Fusion isn’t bad!” she screeches at you.
Denial. It takes all of your willpower to not roll your eyes. “Do you want to fuse?”
“Yes.”
Melding into one slightly-bigger Ruby is as easy as breathing. It’s not the best fusion you’ve ever been in, admittedly--you feel much stronger than usual, but your arm-gemmed ex-comrade was much more exciting to fuse with, which was why you sought her first while you were floating around in space--but at least the hand-gemmed fusion isn’t in a total panic anymore, although her innumerable paranoid thoughts are still coursing through the fusion.
She’s thinking, above everything else, that she did miss the easy unity that same-gem fusion provided--like it’s just herself, but bigger and not alone. Every other thought is about how she’s breaching the sanctity of her love for Sapphire.
You think it’s time to unfuse. (It’s a little harder than usual to separate, this time, because this Ruby is unbelievably clingy when it comes to fusions, but you manage.)
As soon as there are two Rubies in the ship again instead of one, there’s more screaming. “Th-That’s not what I meant!”
“Oops.” You thought she was just feeling lonely.
“I have to tell Sapphire!”
“Doesn’t she already know?”
“Oh no! You’re right! What does she think of me now? She’s going to hate me now for fusing without her without me telling her! Oh no, what if she doesn’t hate me and she just forgives me right away because it’s already done and over with? This is fusion we’re talking about, though, it’s FUSION!”
She heads towards the exit of the ship. You don’t think she actually knows how to operate the exit on her own, since she talks like she was one of the lower-lower class Era 1 Rubies. You grab her hand. “I’m sorry, Ruby, I didn’t mean to cause this much trouble for you.” It’s not even that big of a deal. Rubies are meant to fuse together, in great numbers and often.
She screams. “You’re right, you’re right--you didn’t mean to cause trouble, because I was the one who came to you in the first place… This is my fault! Ugh!” She kicks a wall of the ship. “I really am a stupid Ruby!”
You’re extremely grateful that this ship was made specially for Rubies. You pull her away from the wall, just in case.
“Let! Go! I need to go back to Sapphire!”
“Wasn’t there something you came here to tell me?”
She ceases her struggles. “Who cares what I say?”
You let her go. You weren’t manufactured for this moonshine. She’s nearly clawing her way out of the ship until you finally saunter to the nearest panel to release her.
“Buh-byee!”
There’s going to be a lot of altercations excluded from your mission report when you write it.
Scene vi. - The Steven’s house.
The Steven invites you to the Crystal Temple, along with Lapis and the Peridot. There’s no objective behind the visit besides time-wasting. In fact, there are multitudes of games and devices on Earth built solely for temporary entertainment pleasure. It’s an expected product of a hedonistic planet with no regards for full employment. Unoccupied gems can claim to be active when participating in inconsequential tasks. What a waste. The Peridot confesses that she once thought the same, but now she claims it’s “pretty great”. To them, it must be, but for a society, it would be terrible. Remove incentive, and you get low quality products. The Crystal Gems can detest Homeworld all they want, but you don’t think they would do a better job at governing an entire species.
The Steven is fascinated by your affinity for puzzles. The Peridot is more skeptical. She dumps out the pieces for three different 1000-piece puzzles into one pile, mixes them up, and challenges you to solve all of them within one hour without looking at the pictures on the boxes. Additionally, one of the puzzles is composed of only white pieces. It’s an interesting challenge, but it’s still too easy for you. You’ve trained yourself for these kinds of unorthodox intelligence-testers as soon as you set your goals on being in the surveillance/intelligence department. You heard that the exam consists of abstract teasers like these.
There’s a process to it, and with any process, a technique. Categorize, sub-categorize, match, and make educated guesses. There are key differences between the three puzzles that you look out for, like the type of paint used for the images and the art style and the way each piece is cut. Inconsistencies are easy to pick up by the trained eye--that’s why they’re such a rookie mistake. All you have to do is make quick decisions, and you should meet the time limit.
Lapis is invested in the challenge. She almost watches with as much amusement as she does when she’s indulging in Camp Pining Hearts. The Pearl becomes a spectator once Steven explains. She immediately expresses that such a feat is impossible for a--she cuts off, but you don’t miss the way her mouth shapes to say something the begins with an “R and most definitely ends with an “uby”. She cuts off because she didn’t notice that you had two puzzles finished when she sat down and that you were barely past the 40-minute mark. She amends the ending of her sentence.
“--ah, um, many gems. It’s not a natural gem skill, I mean.”
You’re not sure what kind of pretense she’s trying to pull or for what purpose. Everyone knows that a normal Ruby doesn’t even have the attention span for a 100-piece puzzle.
At the warp pad, Ruby arrives. “Hey, guys.” Everyone’s eyes are glued to her as she calmly strolls to the hub of attention. “Wow, did you complete those two puzzles all by yourself, Navy?”
“Yup. This is my third one. Peridot told me to complete all three within one hour.”
It’s the 45-minute mark, and you’re already halfway done with the final puzzle. It goes by a lot faster without the other pieces from other puzzles mixed in.
“Seriously? Most Rubies are too dumb to even do one of them in one day.”
The Pearl is at a loss for words. You just need everyone to be quiet for five more minutes, and then you’ll be done…
Of course, it only takes three more minutes before you’ve connected all the major chunks together and fit in the lonely pieces not a part of any units to complete the puzzle as a whole. The Peridot stops the timer.
“Nice job, Navy!” Ruby raises her fist to punch you in the arm--traditional Ruby gesture of praise or affection. You remember that cravings are also a symptom of withdrawal. You take a step back to dodge it. Any physical contact with her could result in an unintentional fusion, considering her absurdly high potency for fusion at the moment.
“Wow, thanks…” you mutter quickly.
Steven is choking on the unspoken issue lingering in the air. “Rubywhyareyouunfusedwhathappened?”
Ruby shrugs. “Nothing.”
The Pearl’s fingers grip the cushions of the couch like a lifeline. “Did you and Sapphire get into a fight?”
“No, really, nothing happened,” Ruby swears. She cracks her knuckles nervously. “Actually, we both went on separate missions today.”
The Steven sighs in relief. “Not missions for Garnet, huh?” he assumes.
Ruby shakes her head. “Garnet could have handled it. But, you know, so could Sapphire and me.”
Lapis bursts into laughter, that same effervescent laugh from before. “I may not win them all, but I was right about fusion, wasn’t I?” She nudges the Peridot.
Ruby blushes. The Pearl glares at Lapis.
“And what was it that you were right about, exactly?” the Pearl demands threateningly.
Lapis rolls her eyes at the Crystal Gems’ defensive nature about the sacrilegious ritual of fusion. “You need a break from it, eventually.”
Pearl relaxes a bit, but she’s still wary of what Lapis is implying. “You can’t speak for Ruby and Sapphire’s case. Garnet is different from--”
“C’mon, now, there’s no point in arguing over this,” Ruby interrupts. “We can all speak from our own experiences, but the only ones qualified to talk about long-term fusions are me, Sapphire, Garnet, Lapis, and--” She glances at you, then immediately omits the last name. “--and, uh, that’s it. Sorry, Pearl, but Lapis is right. Sometimes we need a break.”
Huh. She actually took your advice. You suddenly have a deeper respect for Ruby. Like, two centimeters deeper.
The Pearl gapes. “You’ve had breaks before?” She holds her shocked faced in her hands. “I can’t believe it…”
“No,” Ruby says quietly. “This is the first time. Ever.” She starts that anxious pacing again, blackening the wooden floor with Ruby-sized footsteps. “First time for everything, huh?” she mumbles, mostly to herself. “Anything could happen. She could get attacked by wasps, or fall off a cliff, or get struck by lightning, or trip and fall on her gem, or get attacked by a corrupted gem, or, or, or…” She throws her hands into the air. “... EXPLODES!” She bites her fingers. “What if she explodes, Pearl? I can’t do anything if she explodes!”
You hop onto the couch to whisper into Lapis’ ear: “I think the real challenge is if Ruby can last an hour without fusing with Sapphire.”
She smirks. You’ve gained more hostility from the Peridot, but you can’t bring yourself to care about her amiability towards you if it means getting closer to Lapis.
An Amethyst enters the room, wondering what all the racket without her was about. “Is that Ruby? Without Sapphire?”
Ruby screams. “I can’t take this anymore! Fuse with me, Amethyst!”
The Amethyst isn’t prepared for this, clearly. “Oh. Uh. What for? I’m not sure how this is going to work, to be honest; we’re both usually the dippers, not the dippees...”
Ruby full-on tackles the Amethyst to the ground. Her gem is already glowing before their masses make contact with each other. Their bodies change into blinding white light for a few seconds, before Ruby’s form pushes the Amethyst away, tumbling them both out of the fusion. “No, I can’t do it! This isn’t the answer! I’m so sorry, Amethyst, I’m so sorry…”
The Amethyst lies on the ground, still confused.
As if summoned by the power of love, the Sapphire arrives on the warp pad. Ruby and the Sapphire meet each other halfway. The Pearl smothers the Steven into her chest when their lips lock in a fusion-starved reunion makeout and covers his ears with her hands when they start moaning into the kiss. The Peridot takes the initiative to squeeze her own eyes shut and cover her ears by herself. You wonder if chipping off a part of your gem will erase the memory of this lascivious act.
“Oh, Sapphy, I was so worried! The mission was so lonely just being alone!” Ruby says in between kisses up Sapphire’s neck. “I don’t know what to do without you, Sapphire, I’m so scared…”
The Amethyst rolls her eyes. “Ugh, this isn’t a novela, guys.”
The Sapphire clears her bangs so she can see Ruby for herself, right in front of her own eye instead of just her future vision. “I foresee a long fusion dance in our future.” She captures Ruby’s lips again in hers. “Let’s make this one special. We can go to a river, like the one from 5,750 years ago, under the moon with the stars twinkling enviously above us…”
You notice that her gem is glowing, but Ruby’s isn’t. Ruby laughs nervously. “... Under the full moon?”
The Sapphire touches their foreheads together. “Silly Ruby! It’s only at its first quarter right now.”
Ruby’s sweat sizzles off of her. “We could wait until the full moon,” she suggests.
The Sapphire giggles. “You’re so funny, Ruby--it’ll take a week before it becomes a full moon.”
Ruby glances worriedly at you. You’re not sure why she’s looking at you, specifically, for help. You didn’t force her to take your advice.
The Sapphire holds Ruby’s face in her hands. Her cold gem warms up under the heat of Ruby’s blushing face. She’s too afraid to use her future vision. For once, she’s looking at the situation in front of her with her very own eye. It is daytime, the other half of all time on Earth but full of light from the ever-burning Sun, yet the Sapphire feels the most blind than she has in ages. “Are you… tired… of fusing?”
The things you do for your comrades. “Ruby, you’re so forgetful! Weren’t you going to give me a tour of Beach City? I’d love to see the… thing you were talking about before!”
Ruby hits her head. “Oh, haha, right! How stupid of me to forget!”
The Sapphire keeps her eye locked on Ruby. “You’re not stupid.”
“C’mon, Ruby,” you reluctantly urge her. “I really can’t wait to see that thing!” What does a Sapphire have to worry about, anyway? If it’ll turn out okay in the end, she should be fine with it, and if it doesn’t, then she should already know that it’s destined.
Ruby grabs your hand and runs out of the house with you. “ByeseeyoulaterSapphyIloveyou!” She bumps into the table on the way out. “Oof!”
“Buh-bye!”
You didn’t mean to gain hostility from the Sapphire, too. The room is frozen over by the time you two make it out the door.
Scene vii. - A street in Beach City.
Earth has “food.” The native organic inhabitants consume certain substances for energy, about three times in a 24-hour cycle. Some foods are mostly for epicurean indulgence and tend to be high in a tiny crystalline structure called “sugar.” The category for these kinds of sweet foods is called dessert, sometimes treats, other times confections or pastries. Foods can come in various forms and temperatures. Ruby likes frozen desserts--”ice cream”, specifically, though only because she likes to melt it and also because they remind her of the Sapphire.
She takes you to a specialized fried pastry store maintained by two native humans. The door jingles when she holds it open for you. Beach City is like an urbanized human zoo, except resources are harvested by the humans instead of simply handed to them and the humans have independent consciences that can make their own decisions. Ruby takes two plastic-sealed ice cream treats from a freezer. “This is a freezer, by the way,” she explains offhandedly.
“... Did you not have freezers in Era 1 Homeworld?” you ask. “All Era 2 Roaming Eyes have one in case we’re sent on a retrieval mission for materials with special storage conditions. They can also keep an object hot.”
The glass door slams shuts. “Y’know… I don’t remember.”
You two are about to walk out of the store, but the tall human speaks up. “You have to pay for goods and services, here.”
“Just put it on Garnet’s tab,” Ruby says.
The shorter human appears to have noticed the gems on you two. “You know her?”
Ruby sighs. “Well, I don’t really have the star on my outfit, since Garnet is the one with mine and Sapphire’s stars, but yes, I’m a Crystal Gem. I’m Ruby.” She points at you. “This is Navy.”
Actually, you’re both Ruby, but okay. You suppose she can be the Alpha Ruby since she has been on Earth a few centuries longer. You didn’t know seniority was a big thing on Earth. “Hi! I’m new to this planet!”
The tall human shrugs. “Steven has weird new friends, whatever. We’ll put it on her tab. If she comes complaining later, I’m blaming you two.”
Ruby grits her teeth. “Y-Yup… I’m totally… a new friend…”
This Ruby sure has a lot of triggers. Her and Eyeball could have been great friends. “Hahaha… Buh-bye!”
You pull her out of the store and let her lead you to more parts of the Beach City. She takes the plastic wrapping off of the ice cream dessert and burns that into a crisp in her fist. Not even a second passes before the ice cream dessert evaporates and the wooden stick is ashes on the ground.
You would imitate her actions, but pyrokinesis was never your forte. You never needed it before. “Why do you like sibilant destruction?”
“Huh?”
Oops. Your mistake. You rephrase yourself. “Why do you like to burn things?”
She holds her gem up to eye level. “I like to feel. Heat is hard not to feel. It burns and it melts and it sizzles and it boils and it hisses… I don’t see it as destroying. I just think it’s simple reactions.”
She’s not wrong. Atoms can neither be created or destroyed. The frozen dessert she had still exists in the form of vapor in the atmosphere. “That explains why you’re so good at it.” Not that pyrokinesis is useful on Homeworld. Modern technology has made that skill obsolete. It’s quite bleak that Earth gems are always on a pursuit for a diversion from the fact that their existences are otherwise meaningless. Even a task as small as melting ice can be a means of coping. What a primeval occupation. You hand your frozen dessert to her. She needs it more than you.
In a moment, it’s ashes and vapor. Nothing more.
“Does Homeworld consider me defective?” Ruby asks.
“Uhh, that’s not really my department--” You’d certainly make a call to a professional Kindergartener if she was on your squadron, though. “In terms of value, you’re actually more--”
“Ugh! What Lars and Sadie said back there bothers me!”
“Who?”
“They didn’t even know me, but they know Garnet. And Pearl and Steven and Amethyst, they all only see me as half of Garnet! It’s never, ‘Hey, Ruby!’ It’s always, ‘Hey, Ruby, where’s Sapphire?’”
Why did you sign yourself up for this, again? “I thought you hated being a Ruby. Isn’t that why you’re always Garnet?” It’s a miracle she can even handle being on a mission by herself without spontaneously self-combusting.
She screams. There must have been a lot of that on her solo mission. It catches the attention of a few passing humans. “You’re right! I do hate myself! The reason why I stay fused all the time is because my love for Sapphire is just as strong as my self-hatred!”
Seriously, why did you do this to yourself? Her wails are so corrosive you can almost feel your gem cracking.
You decide to take her to the beach so she can (literally) blow off some steam.
Scene vii. - The Steven’s house, within the kitchen.
“I wish I could just set the ocean on fire!”
Now that’s a wild evocation you want to fulfill.
The interior of the Steven’s household is initially difficult to enter. You discover that it’s due to the door having been iced shut. The Sapphire is nowhere in sight, yet the house is a tundra. She must be nearby.
You’re alarmed by the unexpected fizzle under your feet as you step inside. You didn’t know your thermoregulation was unconsciously activated in frosty environments, likely an old feature that takes more trouble to get rid of than to keep. You can’t control it, though, or else you would turn it off. It tingles when you walk.
You rummage through the kitchen, a room dedicated to the storage and preparation of food, for oil. Or, at least, a handful of substances you think could be oil. Written Earth language is completely foreign to you; it’s curved or straight in all the wrong places and sometimes hook strangely like they want to pierce the letter next to them. It looks like there’s no system at all to the formation of each letter. They all exist individually with no coherent meaning unless they’re a part of a bigger word. It must be difficult to learn, and thus, difficult to teach. No wonder Earth is such a mess.
“Ruby!” The Pearl is disappointed to find that you’re not the Ruby she’s looking for. “Oh, Navy. What are you doing?”
“Hi, Pearl! I’m looking for oil.” You hold up the bottle in your hand. The liquid inside is frozen, just like everything else in the house. The freezer is probably warmer than the kitchen’s shelves at this point. “Is this oil?”
“That’s soy sauce...”
Ugh, you don’t need such a patronizing tone from a Pearl. It’s not like you’re not designated for fulfilling the wishes of another gem. You serve the Diamond Authority, so you’re not used to fetching trivial substances for a demand. Looks like you’ll need to learn Earth language for better convenience. “Is it flammable?”
“Flammable?” she echoes. “What are you trying to do?”
“Is it flammable?” you repeat. You want a proper response before you let a Pearl question your actions.
“No, it’s not,” she snaps. “Why do you need something flammable?”
“To set the ocean on fire.”
“What? You can’t set the ocean on fire!”
She’s not wrong, technically. Just smile and nod, and maybe it’ll lessen her hostility. “You’re right, Pearl! But I think I can achieve a realistic simulation of it by having a flammable buffer between the dihydrogen monoxide, preferably a liquid less dense than the dihydrogen monoxide.”
She’s taken aback. Oops. You should rephrase yourself for better understanding.
“I mean, if I put oil in the water, it’ll float and not mix with the water, so I could set the oil on fire and--”
“Yes, I know how the process goes.” The Pearl snatches away the soy sauce. You didn’t need it, anyway. “I meant you shouldn’t set the ocean on fire because it’s bad.”
So there are some forbidden recreational activities on Earth. Without some higher authority to appease, you’re not sure why. You don’t have the capability to set the entire ocean on fire unless you’re able to attain an entire ocean’s worth of oil. At best, you would be able to set a good, controlled portion of the ocean on fire. “Oh, I’m sorry, Pearl, I didn’t know it was bad! Ruby said she wanted to set the ocean on fire, so I was just trying to help…”
Scene ix. - A beach, beyond the Crystal Temple.
The sand Ruby has been sitting in has been superheated into glass. Although the water tries to invade her personal bubble of heat, it’s to no avail. It shrivels to a semi-circle of salt deposits before it can reach her.
“There’s this thing on Earth we do, called ‘exaggeration’. It’s when you blow things out of proportions because you’re a stupid, overly emotional Ruby.”
Yes, you know how hyperboles work. You have to humor the Crystal Gems, anyway. “I don’t really get it, but that sounds funny!”
The Pearl tries to step into Ruby’s “circle of emotions” as you call it, but it’s an attempt as fruitless as the water’s. She settles for a spot in the non-superheated sand a few meters away. “You’re more than that, Ruby. You know that. You were the one--well, technically it was Garnet--who told me--”
“I know what Garnet said.” Ruby curls into herself. “I just don’t want to be what you were to Sardonyx.”
The Pearl is struck speechless. She scoops up sand in her hand and lets it fall between her fingers. The frothy white crest of the ocean laps at her feet. You wonder who Sardonyx is.
Ruby stands up from the center of her circle and walks forward into the waves. Steam rises all around her. “I was really scared on that mission without Sapphire. It was so simple, too! All I had to do was bubble one of the weakest corrupted gems out there. And I thought I couldn’t do it just because I wasn’t with her. That makes me no different than, um…” She moves farther into the ocean. “... someone who I suddenly can’t remember the name of.”
Oh, come on, that sounds so fake. Who is this mystery person that’s being referenced?
The Pearl nods knowingly. “Garnet looked so stable just last night. I would have never guessed.”
Ruby kicks and splashes the water. “This isn’t about fusion! Why is it always about fusion when me, Sapphire, or Garnet is involved?” The water starts to boil around her. “Fusion, fusion, fusion! Maybe that’s the answer! Maybe I’m sick of fusion! Maybe I’m sick of erasing myself because existence is just an idle quest for objective in a void of absurdity!”
She’s completely right about that.
“Being makes me anxious. And I mean me, Ruby--the stupid, worthless, disposable, emotional…” She pauses for a word at the tip of her tongue. “... uh…”
“Incendiary?” you suggest.
Ruby blinks. “Um, yeah, thanks. I’m still a stupid, worthless, disposable, emotional, incendiary Ruby after a long-term fusion, a war, and the development of human civilization, but…” She pauses, but the pause goes on so long that you’re distracted by the cries of flying white-winged creatures in the sky. “Uh, that’s it, so far. It’s been like, three hours since I’ve been just Ruby all on my own. I need more time before I can learn a real lesson from all of this.”
The Pearl winces at the unresolved tensions swirling around Ruby. “Well. No rush. Just… remember what you’re worth to us as a Crystal Gem.”
Scene x. - Deep into the ocean.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no… What am I worth as a Crystal Gem?” Ruby asks herself as she paces back and forth at the bottom of the ocean.
You look around at the aquatic organisms. Their design is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. You don’t know how they got there or why there’s such diversity within even a single species, but you don’t want to resign yourself to the Peridot’s “nothing on Earth makes sense” theory. No matter how ludicrous it is, there is always logic within madness. There are patterns to decode, languages to translate, behaviors to study.
“I don’t even have the star! Should I poof myself and get a star? But that would be stupid!”
The Steven mentioned that Lapis performed the incredible feat of stealing all of Earth’s oceans in order to build herself a tower to get back to Homeworld when she was cracked. You think Ruby can perform a similar miracle and evaporate all of Earth’s oceans by the time she reaches her final eureka about the baffling paradox of a meaningless existence searching for meaning.
Scene xi. - The barn.
“But which pairing do you think is better? Percy and Pierre or Percy and Paulette?”
You glance between the Peridot’s shipping chart and the unreadable notes Lapis scribbled on the blackboard. There’s a striking resemblance between the writing in the chart and the notes that distracts you from the issue your barnmates pose at you. “Why can’t all three of them be together?” you propose.
The Peridot narrows her eyes at you. “Three’s a crowd,” she hisses.
Wow, okay, totally not groovy. You hold up the shipping chart next to Lapis’ notes for better comparison. “You two have the same kind of writing. It’s like Earth language and gem language combined.”
The Peridot folds her arms smugly. “Yes, we have our own little dialect here, derived from our special culture here in our barn. We moved in at the same time.”
“We never learned English completely,” Lapis confesses bluntly, in contrast to the Peridot’s frilly interpretation of their Earth-Gem writing mess. “Maybe you could learn it and teach it to us, since you’re so good at learning.”
A genuine blush rises to your cheeks. “Oh, stop!” You perform the corresponding gesture that Ruby and the Sapphire’s fusion did in response to the same flattery-induced embarrassment.
“No, really, you’re smart for a Ruby,” Lapis insists. “I know you caught up to the third season so fast because you watched every episode at twice its normal speed. That’s pretty clever. You could ask Pearl to teach you.”
Ugh. That Pearl… But you can’t look away from that unusually kind smile Lapis has today. Maybe it’s just hard-wired into your gem to want to obey higher-ranking gems like Lapis.
Scene xii. - The Steven’s house.
It’s a numb realization that spreads within you like ice blooming around the Sapphire--you’re enduring this long-winded, tedious torture for Lapis.
“Before we even touch the written alphabet, there’s so much to discuss about phonetics in the English language! English has five sonorous syllables categorized into ‘vowels’: A, E, I, O, U, with a tricky addition known as Y...”
This test of endurance, infinity more dull than your training days, is for an entity independent of any higher authority or community. You could even go as far as to say that, in this scenario, she’s the one acting as the higher authority. Just her. Your commitment to this task is for her sake. You placed her on a higher echelon than you for no “rational” Earth reason. Not because of a caste system or a punishment or a social pressure. After all, this is irrelevant to your primary objective to Find Jasper and your secondary objective to Get Ahead In Homeworld, and thus, won’t be included in your mission report. Your motive aligns more with a primitive inferiority complex embedded into the “moral” coding of your gem type than pure self-interest.
You don’t like to believe that amenableness is an innate quality for you, though. You comment without raising your hand, which is a gesture that communicates proper English classroom deference. “Pearl, this method of teaching is a little…”
She doesn’t hear you over her sonorous ego. “... We’ll begin at the beginning. Lots of words begin with the vowel A. Apple, air, away…” She writes two versions of the letter on the chalkboard.
You speak up a little louder. “... antiquated.”
The Pearl pauses, then smiles rewardingly. “Yes, ‘antiquated’ begins with the letter A, too!” The pedantic praise grates at you.
You slump onto the wooden platform attached to your seat. “Also, anachronistic,” you deadpan.
“Yes!” The Pearl claps her hands together. “‘Also’ and ‘anachronistic’ begin with the letter A, too. You’re a fast learner.”
You smile. And laugh. And want to shatter yourself a little. “Oh, not really, you’re just a really great teacher, Pearl.”
She beams at you. “We’ll stop now, for today. Amethyst warned me about burning you out too soon.”
Wait. What, already? You scour the room for the nearest clock. Apparently, pi-over-six radians have already passed by in circular Earth time, or 1/24th of a solar day. All you learned was the letter A. You don’t even know the significance of the two sizes of the letter A.
On your wooden platform, the Pearl slams three kilograms of thin, white sheets in a stack. “Here’s your homework: writing practice. Complete it by tomorrow, and then we’ll be able to move on.”
You pick up the sheet on the top, which has black imprinted onto it in the shapes of variously sized A’s, along with small instructional English text at the top. Some of the A’s are formed by dots and others are in a light gray ink. You’re supposed to trace over these letters until you’re “advanced” enough to write the letter without a model (you can hear the Pearl’s emphasis on the A in your mind, ugh). Nothing is written in gem language.
Pearl snatches the sheet away from you and waves the flames off of it. Wisps of smoke trails off of the sheet as it moves. “Careful, Navy. Paper is flammable.”
“Oh no,” you say halfheartedly as you slam your hand onto the stack of homeworks. “How clumsy of me.” It combusts. “I feel. So. Bad.”
Then, the Pearl teaches you what a fire extinguisher is through demonstration--a much more efficient method than oral explanation.
Scene viii. - The Steven’s house, within the kitchen.
The Amethyst has an even more simplistic teaching method, but at least the straightforward nature of it is faster. It’s fit for a Ruby, but doesn’t linger on the basics too long. She places small, adhesive sheets (paper, but this particular object is called a sticky note, which makes sense because it is a note that sticks) on objects with the written word for it. She sounds it out for you as she writes out the label for each object, which you have to admit is very helpful.
“Cccuuuppp… Chaaaiiirrr… Sssiiinkkk… Tttooortaaa… Rrruubbyy…” She sticks the last sticky note on your gem.
“Ruby?”
The temperature suddenly drops. The Sapphire floats into the room. Her eye is exposed, fervently searching for her Ruby, her love, her literal other half. She knows she found the wrong Ruby before she even sees you. “Hello, Navy. You’re learning English.”
You’re almost afraid to think a wrong thought in her presence. But only almost. “Yes, Your Clarity,” you respond instinctively. She can read your future, not your thoughts. Plus, since you’ve made it this far, then that means she can’t the definite future, otherwise she would have found Ruby by now.
She has the courtesy to stop staring directly towards your general direction. (You know she’s not looking at you, she’s looking through you.) It unnerves you how subtly her power manifests in the way she carries herself. The thin glaze of frost barely misses you. Your natural heat prevents external conditions from affecting the temperature within your minuscule radius. “We don’t use those titles on Earth,” she says politely.
Classless, unorganized society on its path towards self-ruination--right, right. You offer a sunny smile with your hands clasped behind your back. “Forgive me.”
“Hm.” The noise communicates nothing you can use to your advantage.
“Dude, chill,” the Amethyst whispers. Pun fully intended.
You resort to laughter. Ruby does it when the situation is uncomfortable, so it must be a proper course of action. “Are there no manners on Earth, either? I was polished to be a gentlegem.”
“Formalities are discarded amongst one’s compatriots.”
You don’t know what to say. There’s no energy to match. Even time seems to stand frozen in her presence, so fragile that you’re afraid a single movement could shatter the moment. The ice crystals continue to spread around her.
“‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,’” she finally concludes.
Then, she floats out of the room as lightly as she floated in. The Amethyst goes to the fridge to rearrange the jumble of plastic magnetic English letters on it to form the sentence. “Woah, that’s cool.”
“Everything in the room is cold,” you point out.
“No, the sentence she just said uses up all the letters of the alphabet.” She writes it down on a sticky note for you. “This will totally ruin Pearl’s lesson plans, huh?”
Scene xiv. - The barn.
You finish the remaining two seasons of Camp Pining Hearts at double the speed, with subtitles, then the entire series from the start with subtitles, on mute. You think you get it, but just to make sure, you search the barn for a book so you can apply your knowledge. If you’ve truly learned it, then simple tasks like setting the ocean on fire will be that much easier. It’s difficult to find a small stick of metal in a stack of dried organic stems, though. By luck, you’re able to find one of Lapis’ favorite books. She said it only makes sense to her because of the pictures, but anything with written words in it will do. Read from right to left, she said.
Your hope sinks as you flip through the pages. These characters, although more elegant and reminiscent of gem language, are nothing like “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” They consist of more complex strokes within a single character, which can stand alone like mini pictures. Nothing you just learned is applicable.
Scene xv. - Beyond the barn, in the corn fields. Nighttime.
One of the noises of the dark half of time is chirping from a cricket. The source is difficult to locate because the creature, you’ve read, is only about 50 millimeters. The Peridot had you read her a book about insects to test you. Obviously, you passed, or else you wouldn’t be following her while she hunts for crickets. On Earth, doing favors for others has unexpected consequences.
The corn stalks rustle. “Peridot?” you call out. She disappears into the corn so easily.
“Naaaaavyyyyy!”
The Steven flies out of the corn stalks and onto you. The surprise attack induces a Pavlovian response from your training days, which includes rolling on top of him and readying yourself to summon your weapon. Upon finding that your fight or flight response is for naught, you let yourself roll back under you to feign submission. “Steeeeveeen!” You hope he didn’t notice the glow of your gem. Dust clouds kick up around you two as you both roll around.
“Haha, you’re really warm!” He gets off of you. “Actually, you’re hot…”
You laugh, too. Gaining better control of your thermoregulation is currently at the bottom of your agenda. It’s his business if he gets himself burned. “Steven, why is manga so different? Is it from another planet?”
“No, Earth has a lot of different languages. Manga is in Japanese instead of English.”
“Ohyou’vegottobekiddingme,” you hiss between gritted teeth. Earthlings can’t even decide on a single planet-wide language to use. You can’t imagine how there’s not wars left and right just about the language barrier issue.
“Huh?”
You force yourself to laugh more. “Oh, no kidding! Earth is such a funny place, I love this planet so much!”
Steven hugs you. This time, you’re prepared for it. “I’m so glad, Navy! That’s one more gem lending her hand to protect Earth!”
You didn’t sign up for that.
Scene xvi. - Your ship.
Lapis sitting on the edge of your Roaming Eye’s opening is unsettling. Wind swirls around the ship like a private tornado and makes all conversation useless. A few times, she stood up with intent, letting her skirt ripple and flap around her as if she was readying herself for flight, but then she sits back down after a while until the process starts all over again. You offered her your seat as an incentive to rest somewhere less precarious. She declined. You don’t really understand art, even if you appreciate its aesthetic.
You don’t hear her walk up behind you. She perches herself on the arm of your chair. “You can close it now.”
You don’t hear that, either, so you close the door. “Huh?”
She shrugs. You will never know what she said. “The moon is beautiful tonight.”
Actually, you don’t like the Earth’s moon. Bad stuff happened there. “Uhh…”
“You know what else is beautiful?” she asks you. The Peridot’s attention is caught, now.
You blush. “U-Um…”
Long fingers dangle mere centimeters away from your own--temptingly, teasingly. A radiance this dark isn’t supposed to charm you. It’s an art, though. You must resist. Such close proximity on the captain’s seat is reserved for gossip. Giving into primal urges would make you more human than gem. Relinquish the Id, bask in the Superego.
Her rise in volume is uncharacteristically jarring. “The phases of the moon.”
A chill runs through you. You nod. “‘O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon,’” you quote, “‘That monthly changes in her circle orb, Lest thy love prove likewise variable.’” Waves of heat wash over you.
“Do you know what else is beautiful, Ruby?” the Sapphire chimes in. She sits in what used to be the rookie Ruby’s seat.
“You?” Ruby squeaks. She sits on the opposite side of the Sapphire, where you formerly sat.
“Garnet.”
You think about that button at the back of the ship, the one that you were going to tell Steven to press on your first day on Earth. That’s a really nice button.
The Pearl stands up and claps her hands together. The Amethyst is quick to occupy her spot as soon as she makes her way towards the center of the ship. “Alright, everyone, here’s how this mission is going to go--”
You spin your chair around to face her. “What is this mission?” Usually, you know your objective before you proceed. It’s standard protocol for successful missions, no matter where you pledge your loyalty.
The Pearl doesn’t appreciate being interrupted as much as you don’t appreciate being uninformed. She reluctantly explains the objective to you. “We’re searching for eight corrupted gembeasts. Since there are eight of us now, we can split into four even teams--”
“Isn’t it safer if we all just stick together?” you propose.
Lapis spins the two of you away from the Pearl. “If there’s eight of us, then that’s one for each corrupted gem.” Then, she spins you two back to her. And then away. And then back. And then in a circle.
The Pearl sighs. The Sapphire floats towards her and rests a comforting hand on her shoulder. “One team is too slow and eight teams is too risky. It’ll be me and Ruby, Pearl and Amethyst, Lapis and Peridot, and Steven and Navy.”
There appears to be unanimous satisfaction with the groupings until Ruby spins her chair towards the center. “That’s so predictable, Sapph,” she teases.
You shiver.
“N-Not that there’s anything wrong with predictable! Or predicting!”
Amethyst kicks her feet up on the dashboard of the aggressive Ruby’s former post. “Yeah, it’s always same-old, same-old. Let’s change it up. It’s kinda unfair that the veteran Crystal gems get paired up.”
The Sapphire isn’t pleased with this new path, but she concedes. “The most compatible pairs, then, would be--”
“Me and Amethyst, Sapphire and Steven, Lapis and Navy, and Pearl and Peridot,” Ruby proposes.
The Sapphire sits back down.
“Wait,” the Peridot says, “what were the most compatible pairs?”
“Oh, no, those were it, Peridot,” the Sapphire confirms. “Even if we’re split up, we’re still synchronized with the power of love.”
You and Lapis cringe simultaneously.
Scene xvii. - Above an evergreen forest. Flying.
You’re holding hands with Lapis. You’re also dangled a few thousand meters above a forest, but gosh, you’re holding hands with Lapis. The Lapis’-eye-view impresses you, even as shadowy as it is. You’re never able to get this great of a look on the landscape in the ship--just clouds and meteors.
“What does a corrupted gembeast look like?” you ask, finally.
She doesn’t even seem to be on the lookout for the targets. “I dunno. Peridot said they’re ugly.”
Oh, that sure narrows it down. Most things on Earth are ugly: the English alphabet, crickets, unresponsive photosynthetic organisms… It’s only worth living on to find the few exceptions, sparse and rare. “Wouldn’t it be better to get a closer look on the ground, then?”
“Oh no, you’re slipping,” Lapis declares halfheartedly as she lets go of your hands entirely.
You maintain your grip on her. “I do know how to float.”
“Really?” Lapis is genuinely surprised. “Peridot said that Era 2 gems are handicapped by the lack of resources on Homeworld.”
“I wasn’t made on Homeworld.” You see a couple of trees fall over, below. “Plus, Rubies are easier to make, so they turn out better.”
Her hands hold onto yours, again. She squeezes yours. “... Do you miss Homeworld?”
“My squadron had this saying: ‘Homeworld is where the conquering is.’” Your eyes stay locked on the fallen trees.
Her hold on your hands loosen. “Oh.”
A cry, which you believe can be rightly classified as “ugly”, erupts. You think the source is from the same area from the fallen trees, but it’s hard to tell from so high up. Everything looks like it can be measured in centimeters from your perspective. “We should get a closer look.”
She looks down at you. “I like the view.”
Oh, right--Lapises aren’t made for missions. “Gosh, Lapis,” you say with exaggerated fascination, “your wings are so strong! I bet you can descend really easily--”
“Ugh, okay, I heard you the first time.” She lets go of you for a brief second before wrapping her arms around your waist and diving towards the fallen trees. You’re alarmed by the hand over your navel gem. “Stop heating up or else I’ll drop you.”
(Were you always this uptight about mission objectives? You swear you would’ve had the same attitude as Lapis before.) “I don’t know how,” you confess.
“Seriously? Ugh, Era 2 gems and their lack of control over their powers!”
She actually drops you. You thought it was only an empty threat, so you fall for a few seconds and scream until she dives under you to catch you on her back. Your gem feels ready to burst out of its placement location. She snorts when you immediately cling to her back. “Ha! You totally fell for that!”
Lapis terrifies you more than an Agate. “Haha… I sure am susceptible to gravity when dropped thousands of meters in the sky…” This flight has sure brought you two closer together. In fact, you’re inseparable from her now. You’re quivering against her back gem as she accelerates straight down.
She doesn’t even care to fly into the clearing that was made earlier, she just crashes you both through the branches. You end up falling off of her and tumble into the dirt while she gracefully floats beside you. Her toes touch the dirt first, then her entire foot rolls into the Earth. “Did you know that the trees on Earth change colors during certain seasons?”
You brush the dirt off of you after standing up. You have a limit to how much you can pretend to love the dirt. “These are evergreen trees. They stay green all the time.”
She crosses her arms. “Oh.”
You’ve disappointed her. How cruel of her to go through phases so quickly. At least the inconsistency of the moon has a pattern. She pulls tides at mere whims. “Th-They still change!” you promise. “They just stay the same color when they grow.”
She uncrosses her arms. “Oh!”
You hear trees fall to your right. “That way.” You light your gem in the direction of the noise.
You deliberately slow down so Lapis can lead you. Although the moist dirt gives way to the pressure of your feet, Lapis barely leaves a trace. You think she hates the Earth so much that she doesn’t even want to walk on it--she’s so silly.
“You’re slow,” Lapis says bluntly.
“I like the view,” you say without thinking. Oops. You try to save face. “I mean--”
“You really think so?”
A dried twig you step on scorches. Maybe you should learn how to control your powers instead of ignoring them for the sake of more important tasks. “... ‘I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.’”
“You’re so funny, Navy!” Lapis giggles out. “That’s like, spoken meepmorp.”
Well, she’s not wrong. You’d be happy to tell her more if the corrupted gem beast hadn’t just cried out. It’s close. You and Lapis stay still while the noise echoes. The soundwaves bounce into the open air for a few good seconds, then silence settles in their place--a void compensating for a lack of substance. Lapis scoops you into her arms and takes off towards the noise. Water wings are out before you can even register that you’re off the ground.
Your pink gem light is turned towards the corrupted gem. The monster’s mane travels from down its head to a tail at the end. Where eyes should have been are horns. The entirety of its body (you can’t even bring yourself to imagine the gem it used to be, so it’s an “it”) is a muddy brick orange, splotched with yellow and dark orange. It screeches from the light exposure, then pounces away on its hind legs. It’s forced to tread on four limbs instead of two due to its abnormally long flat hind legs and awkward back arch, which weighs down its chest like its intended pose is to be prostrated before proper gems.
“It really is ugly!” Lapis remarks. Puddles rise in the form of chains and fly after the beast. They wrap around its hind legs. The hands disturb you the most--they’re fat, stubby fingers that remind you that its form was once another perfect creation of the Diamonds and they claw desperately into the dirt in an attempt to escape. The chains pull the beast towards Lapis, piling just in front of her, without her even lifting a finger. She walks towards her trapped prey. “So this is what Jasper has been up to.”
Jasper. You let yourself slip out of Lapis’ arms and float to the ground. The beast garbles and snorts softly as a makeshift whimper. You can’t believe the Jasper your squadron has been looking for associated herself with malformed masses of monstrosity. That thing was a Jasper, too, you think.
(You turn off your light. Such a blasphemous form is better to be forgotten in the pits of death’s second self. If only more trees could shoot out of the ground and shade this tragedy from the moonlight’s gaze.)
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Mass-produced gems cling to each other for strength. She found one of her own kind.” The chains tighten. “No offense.”
(Can’t those chains capture you, instead? Won’t they wash over you, cleanse your gem, and thus spring forth a renewed form? Oh, but you’re just mass. Mass and light. Perhaps darkness is the water you’re looking for.)
You approach it cautiously. You’re afraid you might catch its peculiar affliction if you’re too close. “What was Jasper doing?”
“Bad stuff,” Lapis says, and leaves it at that. How wonderfully vague. “You wanna shatter it?”
You… sincerely hope she’s joking. She says it so casually that you don’t know if she’s serious. Gems are never shattered, nowadays. Poofing is the worst punishment due to how little resources are available for manufacturing new gems. The methods of poofing, though, have advanced since Era 1. “We’re supposed to bubble it.”
“Oh, but…” Her voice pitch shoots up to soprano as she feigns a coy, swooning facade. “... I wanted to see a strong, capable gem weapon from a modern-day gem!”
“I haven’t summoned my weapon in ages.” (What is it, again? A hammer? Wait, no, that’s another Ruby. A scythe, right?)
Lapis rolls her eyes. “Ugh, Era 2,” she grumbles. “It’ll be out of its eternal misery if it’s shattered.”
She’s right. “Sapphire specifically told us that we’re not allowed to shatter the corrupted gems.”
“Fine, but you’re in charge of capturing the next one if you’re not going to shatter anything. I can’t do all the work around here.” She saps water from the ground to form a giant bubble around the corrupted gem. “Plus, I really do want to see your weapon.”
You don’t remind her that you’re the reason why the task is being completed correctly. The two of you continue to look for another corrupted gem with the bubbled beast floating behind. You end up summoning your weapon, mostly for Lapis’ sake, to clear some thick foliage out of the way.
“Oh, so it’s a sickle. You should help Peridot and me harvest.”
Scene xviii - Near a lake in an evergreen forest.
You think Lapises are attracted to water, no matter where they are, because her leading you to the lake is no coincidence. Though, you think she would have preferred it if weren’t frozen over and that Steven and Sapphire weren’t hiding in a spiky pink bubble in the middle of the lake while five corrupted gems circle around them.
“This one’s yours,” Lapis says. She crosses her arms and leaves you to your designated task. “Go ahead.”
You walk towards the lake for a better look. The beasts aren’t alarmed by your presence and seem to have no interest in attacking you. However, you can’t simply rush up to them, slash with your sickle, and hope they’ll suddenly be tamed--for one, ice automatically melts in your presence, and also, there’s no way you can take on all of the beasts at once.
“Sapphire!” Ruby comes springing out of a bush and immediately rushes up to them, summoning her gauntlet, under the assumption that she can subdue them all at once. You tackle her down. “What are you doing? She needs me!”
You can’t believe you have to explain something so obvious. “Ice melts under heat.”
“I don’t care! I can swim!” She pushes you off of her, but then catches sight of Lapis and the bubbled beast. (You would’ve put up more of a fight, usually, but seeing how second-nature she summons her weapon frightens you. Maybe she could subdue all the gem beasts at once.) “You!” She points at Lapis angrily. “First of all, you’re supposed to poof the corrupted gems!”
“Pearl said we had to bubble them.”
“Yes!” Ruby exclaims, pulling at her hair. “Poof, and then bubble them!” She lets out a strangled scream. “And second of all, why aren’t you helping? You could have saved Sapphire by now!” She kicks up dirt. “Ice is frozen water!”
Lapis cares enough to fix at least one of her mistakes, and compresses the bubble tighter and tighter until it poofs the corrupted gem. You look away. “Okay, I know all the properties of ice now--thanks, Rubies, but did you also know that ice is frozen ice?”
She’s… not… wrong…
The Amethyst emerges from a bush. “Thanks for leaving me behind, Ru…” She brushes leaves and dust off of her form, then runs to the edge of the lake where her partner is. “Steven and Sapphire!” She makes it onto the frozen lake, but the ice is unable to handle her weight, causing it to crack and collapse the Amethyst into the water.
“Thin ice,” you observe.
The Amethyst swims back to land. “Really? I didn’t notice.”
But if the beasts are still able to stay on the ice without falling into the water, you reason that the ice must be thicker where they are.
“What does that even mean, Lazuli?” Ruby shrieks.
Lapis crosses her arms. “It means that your fusion counterpart is leaving me to do all the work even though she’s literally in her element and I don’t want to do it.”
You heat up your sickle, then throw it far into the lake to where the corrupted beasts are circling the spiky pink bubble. It hooks deep into the ice with a force strong enough to initiate a long crack down the middle of the entire lake. The beasts’ mindless panic exacerbates it, which causes more cracks and separates each beast onto its own personal floating ice island. Steven uses this opportunity to roll the bubble back onto land, away from the beasts. He’s panting when he makes it; letting the pink bubble burst is a major relief to him.
“Sapphire!”
“Ruby!”
“... And… Steven!” Steven adds between gulps of oxygen.
The two gems look like they’re about to embrace, but Ruby grabs Sapphire by the shoulders and shakes her. “Why didn’t you just poof them yourself? You can control ice! You could’ve made spikes or frozen them or made the ice so slippery they couldn’t walk or trapped them in ice cages or used your future vision to avoid this in the first place…”
Sapphire throws herself into Ruby’s arms. “I didn’t know. I just saw the moon, and then I couldn’t think anymore.”
“The moon?” Ruby looks up at that cursed orb and sees what Sapphire saw: a waning gibbous, the phase after the full moon. All frustration leaves her. Her voice softens. “Oh Sapph, I’m--” But she already knows nothing she says can prevent Sapphire from sobbing into her hands, so she takes Sapphire’s hand gem and kisses it. “I’m stupid. You can’t even control ice, you just know how to freeze things. I can’t control fire, either, I just know how to heat things.”
Sapphire brushes her bangs out of her face and stares up at Ruby. “You’re not stupid. Stupid is that we’re still unfused. I can’t see a future where we’re not together, yet we’re still apart from each other. I don’t even know what we’re fighting about!”
“We’re not fighting, Sapphire.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Sapphire begs. “Garnet is the perfect fusion, Ruby. How could you just throw that away?”
“Nonono, we can still be Garnet! But don’t you just want to… exist?”
“Not without you.”
Ruby glances at the Steven. She hugs Sapphire. “Let’s end this.”
Scene xix. - Your ship.
You’re not sure, exactly, how Lapis ended up taking up your entire seat. She seemed content on the arm of the chair until she began to lean on you. You think you gradually scooted to the edge of your seat to accommodate her. At one point, she was across your lap, sound asleep, and you couldn’t see the panel at all. You just decide to relinquish the seat to her and surrender to your old seat on the right side of the captain’s seat. You could still pilot the ship from there, anyway, and the controls on that panel are more familiar to you.
While you’re up, you look around. The Steven is asleep, too, squished into the same seat as the Peridot, who is making sure all is well with the ship. The Pearl is doing the same while talking quietly with the Amethyst next to her. The Sapphire is as still as an unbreakable silence. Ruby can’t stop moving.
Ruby stops swiveling in your chair when she sees you accessing the panel in front of her. You sigh--someone altered the basic customization settings. All the applications are in the wrong place, and, ugh, someone thought blue was a more suitable color for the windows than yellow. You can barely read with the new color preferences. Nothing feels right at your very own seat. You rest lightly on Ruby’s knees while you squint for the settings application. This panel is the one remnant of your squadron you’re not willing to sacrifice.
“Do you want me to move?” Ruby asks.
“C’mon, we’re Rubies, you know it’s fine,” you scoff. “Unless you think it’s more comfortable to just fuse.”
She relaxes. “Oh. Um. Okay.”
You have no idea which application is which, anymore. You’re just taking shots in the dark. You’ve become desensitized to the icons and text of each application after a couple of decades of having the spot of each application memorized based solely on where it felt right to be in. Honestly, you don’t think you recognize half these applications simply because you never used them often.
By chance, you stumble upon the panel settings. There are so many sliders to adjust, though. You don’t remember the exact slider positions for the yellow color you preferred. You look to your left, where the veteran Ruby is supposed to be, but she’s not there to help you find that exact shade of yellow you prefer with her virtually photographic memory. The Steven is there, squished into the same seat as the Peridot.
You slam your hands onto your panel and hop onto Ruby’s lap. That touch command was supposed to close all of the apps, but even that has been changed. It opens the atmospheric shield settings. “Oh, Ruby…” You hide your face in her shoulder; you don’t even want to look at your panel, anymore, it’s already ruined. Crystal germs, indeed--nothing is safe from their infectious touch. The Ruby you’re with is no different, but it’s hard to see her as an enemy. “Comrade,” says you, who only wants to feel the word escape your lips at least one more time.
“N-Navy? What’s wrong?” Ruby doesn’t know what to do with her hands, suddenly. The heat of her hands hover behind your back.
That gut-wrenching feeling when you saw the corrupted gem beast clawing its hands into the dirt returns. “Why are we poofing gems?”
She tentatively puts one hand on your back. “Existence is painful for corrupted gems. We’re bubbling them until we find a way to completely heal them.”
That thing that used to be a Jasper was afraid for the remnants of its life. Homeworld would have put them to use. Maybe in a zoo. Maybe for research. At least they would have a use instead of being hidden away in a gemmade static purgatory. “May I express dissent, my comrade?”
Ruby sighs and rubs reassuring circles on your back. “You don’t need to be so formal on Earth.”
“I don’t like poofing gems,” you confess. You curl into Ruby’s chest. “There’s too little resources. Too little gems. I’m proud that Rubies are disposable because that means we can still live on after one of us is gone. We’re popular. We can go more places, have more uses, be more significant in quantity if not quality.” Maybe you don’t have as much sign value as a Pearl, but a Ruby’s use value is much higher than a Lapis’. Lapises have no more new planets to terraform.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize…”
Your face feels wet. “Do you remember what bubbling means on Homeworld?”
“Imprisonment.”
You smile. Her age makes you feel like you’re still fresh out of the Kindergarten. “No, not anymore. We have special barriers for that. Now, it means a gem is obsolete. Too good to shatter, but not useful enough to exist.”
“We’re trying to save them, though--we’re different. It’s not like we’re the ones that corrupted them.”
That’s what Homeworld says, too. “At least those gems can still exist when they’re not bubbled.”
Scene xx. - Near the Steven’s house.
The official Crystal Gems are dropped off first at the Crystal Temple. With the deep oranges mixing into the midnight blue, a dawn of a new day flourishes. The hot color forgets last night’s immoralities, yet permeates it into your memory all the same. You try not to look at the sunrise. You have no right to tarnish a star’s light with personal afflictions. It is not the dawn after a dusk of poofing, it is only dawn, and there will continue to be more similar dawns after this one no matter what you see during the dusk.
Ruby is the last to leave the Roaming Eye. She lingered, even after she shooed you off of her lap and you shooed Lapis off of the captain’s seat. You wanted her to leave so you could close the door already.
“Is there something you want to say?” you ask. You hope it’s what she was going to say when she first visited you in the ship.
She punches you in the arm. “Oh, who cares what I say?”
She’s jovial, for some reason. You wonder if you should say that you care, that Homeworld would’ve given a strong Era 1 gem like her her own squadron, that inflation has made her far more valuable than what she thinks she’s worth. But you wonder for so long that she’s already out of the ship and hugging her Sapphire from behind. The light of the rising sun makes you blink, which is long enough for you to miss their masses turning into light and fusing into one Garnet.
“Garnet!” the Pearl, Amethyst, and Steven exclaim.
They all run to hug her. Peridot rushes to your side to see what she missed. Lapis groggily joins you, too.
“How did Ruby and Sapphire make up, though?” the Steven asks. “They were fighting the entire time until they just decided to ignore each other on the ride back home!”
The fusion’s visor gleams. “An answer isn’t always needed. After all, I’m too good to not exist.”
You give her a thumbs-down before you drag Lapis and the Peridot back inside the ship so you can close the door. (There’s no way you can ever condone this absurdity.) The ramp retracts slowly. Oh your stars, who changed that setting? Who could possibly want all the suspense and apprehension of a slow ramp?
“Buh-bye,” Garnet says before her face disappears behind the closing door.
Scene xxi. - The Steven’s house.
Lapis likes to pick out puzzles for you to complete. You’ve actually already finished all of the Steven’s puzzles at least twice, but that’s not saying much. He only has five. Nevertheless, Lapis enjoys how fast you’re able to make pictures out of pieces. Of course she does. Earth is a planet of instant gratification. Time is like a currency. Earthlings gain more when they spend more of it.
The Steven digs in his closet for more toys for you to play with. “Aha!” he exclaims triumphantly. He tosses a cube with multi-colored squares on it to you. “That’s a Rubik’s Cube! Right now, it’s mixed up, but the goal is to shift it so that every side has only one color.”
You toss it back at him, completely solved. “Earth puzzles are so absurd,” you muse. By that, you mean all struggles on Earth are senseless and characteristic of a chaotic universe.
Garnet and the Pearl arrive on the warp pad.
“Oh, perfect!” the Pearl says. “You’re all conveniently gathered here, just waiting for something new to do! Garnet and I were just talking about how our newer additions should be employed more.”
Garnet nods. “That means Peridot, Lapis, and…”
There’s a moment of suspense as she holds off on saying your name. The first few seconds could have been brushed off as dramatic effect. At the ten-second mark, it becomes questionable.
“... Navy,” she finally finishes. But then she shakes her head. “No, not Navy.” She folds her hands together. “Yes, Navy should come, too.” Then, she throws her hands back to her sides in closed fists. “We can’t make her,” she hisses.
“I’ll go,” you declare. You feel pressured to volunteer if everyone else is going. If you didn’t, you would be left all alone in the Steven’s house with Id-filled games. At least you’ll be put to use. It’s working for the enemy, yes, but you’ll just call it “advanced undercover work.” Maybe you’ll be able to sneak in a few questions about where bubbled gems go when they’re sent off, what Jasper was trying to do, where Jasper is…
You’ve been developing a theory about where she could be, but it’s hard to brainstorm without four other heads and with notes you have to write in Japanese to keep secret. (Lapis and the Peridot think it’s a Piercy fanfiction about a bad game of Truth Or Dare. Eventually, you’ll actually need to write one for them. You also need a completely new set of notes just listing all the lies you’ve told.) Something about Pink Diamond, that’s the most you know. It all seems to come back to her--the missions you were sent on, the fits the veteran Ruby has thrown, the diminishing resources on Homeworld, the disappearance of Blue Diamond’s influence--yet nobody wants to actually talk about her. That’s the flaw about gems’ built-in inferiority complex. Their devotion drives them to their own destruction. Meanwhile, you can’t even fully commit yourself to your squadron.
“... so, that’s why everyone should be involved!” the Pearl explains.
Oh, groovy. You missed the entire briefing. You’re too used to tuning out the Pearl’s voice. “Uh, can you clarify the… um… first part?”
“Garnet and I were talking about how you, Peridot, and Lapis should be utilized more for missions.”
“Oh, haha, I meant the second part!”
“Last night’s mission could have been more… efficient,” the Pearl says, with a pointed gaze towards the cross-armed Peridot, “if our forces were more well-rounded--”
You wave that off. “The part after that.”
The Amethyst huffs. “It’s just sword training with Pearl. Are you down with the clown, or what?”
“Sounds groovy.”
Scene xxii. - The Ancient Sky Arena.
The Ancient Sky Arena is R-E-K-T, wrecked. On Homeworld, the ruins would have been restored to their former glory. Earth lets beauty rot instead of fixing it. The Crystal Gems don’t even care enough to preserve what’s left.
“As you can see, this place, where the first battles of the rebellion took place, has been sculpted by years of fighting,” the Pearl summarizes (for once). “Though, some damage is… newer.”
The Steven and Amethyst chuckle suspiciously on the higher steps. The Peridot is catching on, from her assessment of the cracks in the structure, that a certain pair had a lot of fun only weeks ago.
Lapis blows a raspberry. “The Arena wasn’t always a battleground, you unpolished pebble.”
(You think that’s the Era 1 equivalent of “clod”.) You and the Peridot are unable to back her up, though. You’re always on missions away from Homeworld and she’s only a technician. Neither of you had any business on any kind of arena. Garnet, however, nods, but doesn’t give anything away more than that. The Pearl lets the statement linger on your mind while she summons a rack of sabres from her gem.
Lapis can’t help herself, and laughs. “Are you going to put on a show for us?”
The Pearl draws a sabre from the rack. “A demonstration,” she corrects. The irritation is clear in her tone. “Swords are more than pretty props that you spin and toss.”
The Steven can’t take any more of this hinting. “Waaaiiit, whaaaaat?”
Lapis takes the liberty of drawing her own sabre from the rack. “Blue Diamond’s court is renowned for their performances in Arenas. Especially their colorguard.” She started spinning it in her right hand. “I spent all my time in the Cloud Arena when I wasn’t busy. I was never a part of any group, but all members of Blue Diamond’s court are expected to learn a thing or two.” She stops spinning it and readjusts the position of it so she can push down on one end and send it straight up into the air, where it makes at least three rotations before it returns perfectly to her hands.
You gasp. There are stars in your eyes. Art for the sake of art--this is what it means. “Blue Diamond’s court was known for that?”
Lapis pauses her idle sword-spinning. “‘Was’? Does Blue prefer something else, now?”
You’re surprised she can address her Diamond so casually. “She’s like a ghost. Nobody has seen her for thousands of centuries. There’s no more Arenas, now, or anything like it.”
“Arenas are for new planets, to celebrate--” Lapis’ eyes widen. “Oh! No wonder Era 2 is so miserable.” She goes back to spinning the sabre in her hand. “At least Earth held on to some of Era 1’s glory.”
The Pearl kicks Lapis’ sabre out of her hand. “We’re not here to learn a retired noblegem sport. We’re here to learn sword fighting.”
Lapis makes a disgusted face. “Pass.”
“Oh, no! You’re not getting away so easy!” the Pearl chides. She picks up Lapis’ sabre and shoves it back into her hands. “You won’t always be able to rely on water during a battle. And since you’re so eager, you can go first.”
(Garnet mumbles something in agreement behind you. Something about being a strong, independent gem who doesn’t need a fusion?) The Pearl summons a hologram version of herself from her gem. Its blank, white eyes seem to stare straight into your very core.
“Welcome to Holo-Pearl version 2.0000001,” it says, with its rough, robotic voice.
“Initiate Combat Mode, Level 1,” the Pearl commands. “What I want you to do first, is widen your stance and lower your body for stability.”
“Combat Mode, Level 1, initiated.” The Holo-Pearl lowers its stance and does a sweeping rond de jambe on its left foot to the back as it holds its sword across its chest. “Do you wish to engage in combat?”
“No,” Lapis answers.
“Level 1, begin!” it says anyway. “Your defeat is my pleasure!” It advances towards Lapis with a thrust, which Lapis easily dodges, before she impales her sword straight into the Holo-Pearl’s chest. It glitches as soon as it’s pierced. “Match set. Challenger wins.”
Lapis unsheathes the sword from the Holo-Pearl’s chest. “You do realize that I taught you a third of the sword techniques you use today, right?”
There’s a tense blush on the Pearl’s face. “Initiate Expert Combat Mode, Rank F.”
The Holo-Pearl shifts into a forward lunge with its sword held high behind it. “Commence duel. This shall be your fatal flaw!”
Lapis is nearly caught off-guard, but blocks a hit just in time. She remains cool, though, and is able to push the sword off fast enough to leap for an opening in the Holo-Pearl’s leg. The Holo-Pearl, however, spin-kicks Lapis’ arm away, which then gives it the opportunity to recede away from Lapis. She sighs.
“When, exactly, will I be unable to use water from my own gem?” she asks.
“When your gem is cracked,” the Pearl answers.
(The Amethyst cackles and shakes the Steven for him to spit on that sick roast.)
Unfazed, Lapis stalks towards her opponent lazily. The Holo-Pearl detects the obvious opening she has and dashes towards it with her sword. Lapis spins her sword high into clouds before she hops atop the Holo-Pearl’s sword and uses it as a springing board to backflip behind her. The Holo-Pearl whips around quickly, only to be kicked backwards by Lapis. Before it can recover, Lapis’ sabre comes crashing down on it. The Holo-Pearl is hit right on the head by the blade, and falls to the ground. The sword clangs down beside it.
“Challenger wins.”
Lapis picks up the sabre. “Colorguard was not just a noblegem sport, by the way. All gems loved it. You can get poofed just from not catching a big toss.” She looks into her reflection in the sabre. “Era 2 sure is missing out.”
As horrifying as it is to play with spinning weapons for other’s entertainment, it has you hooked. You’re certain everyone on Homeworld would rush to complete their tasks if such exhilarating performances were the reward.
“Congratulations for completing the easiest level on Expert mode,” the Pearl mutters dryly. “Navy and Peridot, you’re up.”
Garnet leg is unable to stop shaking. One of her fists is clenched. She crosses a leg over her shaking one, which temporarily stops its incessant movement, before it starts shaking again. She suddenly unfuses into a disgruntled Sapphire and a restless Ruby. Ruby drags the Sapphire down the steps to where you and Peridot are. “Us too!” Ruby says.
Ohohoho. You can see where this is going. “Welcome to the party,” you greet them.
The Pearl isn’t exactly thrilled to see them unfused again. “You two don’t--”
“I agree,” the Sapphire replies. Not that you need future vision to know what the Pearl was about to say.
Ruby accepts the sabre from Lapis. “You can go spinning, if you want, but I’ll just remind you that the last fight one of us had was 5,750 years ago, before Garnet even existed.”
“That was fate,” the Sapphire says.
“Garnet was fate. That was--” Ruby looks up at Pearl, then at Steven. “--uh, doesn’t matter. Just... let me do this for you, okay?”
The Sapphire draws her own sword from the rack. “You’re not my guard, anymore, Ruby. We’ll do this together.”
Scene xxiii. - Still in the Ancient Sky Arena.
Apparently, the rule with the Crystal Gems is that any time there are an even number of participants involved, teams will be arranged. You didn’t listen to the real sparring rules, or the song the Pearl sang about sword fighting technique and sacrificial love. You attribute that mistake to your one-track mind--great when studying, bad when distracted. (You think you caught that all gem abilities are allowed, though?)
You’re still hung up on the fact that there were entire architectural feats dedicated to the gay jubilance of unoccupied gems. Gems used to be so invested in their pastime that they would risk their physical forms for a few minutes of entertainment--oh, that’s so Earthlike! But how can you jeer at it when its potential is so beautiful? It makes you realize how long you’ll live. Eras come and go, too. Rookies become veterans and veterans become… super veterans, or something. For the first time, you’re realizing that the Earthlings were right about something: there’s a lot of time out there. As long as you eventually finish your task and the Earth doesn’t self-destruct, you can hypothetically vacation for as long as you want.
“... Navy will spar with Ruby and Sapphire with spar with Peridot.”
You forgot about the other rule that Ruby and the Sapphire aren’t allowed to be paired together. Or, maybe it’s just that you and Ruby were paired due to your similar sword-wielding progresses. Not that you were paying attention to anyone’s progress. Oh, sometimes you feel like a rookie all over again, head in the clouds and dreamy-eyed and such. You suppose you are, from the Crystal Gems’ perspective. That would explain why your vision has been so blurry. You wave the cloud away. Ruby is already in a proper stance. What was your plan, again?
“Psst, Sapph!” Ruby not-so-discreetly whisper-shouts. “Who wins?”
The Sapphire giggles. “Only time will tell,” she whisper-shouts back.
“Really? Because I see a victory kiss in our future.”
You remember your plan, now.
“Begin!” the Pearl declares.
You drop your sword immediately. “I don’t want to fight you, comrade.”
“It’s just pretend! Sorta!”
“But I love you.”
“And I love Sapphire.” Ruby comes running towards you with her sword, which is exactly what you expected her to do. “We fight for what we love on Earth!”
You wait until she’s close enough to summon your sickle. Ruby’s sword strikes down in the curve of your weapon. Bright orange sparks fly. Oh your stars. She could have poofed you. You’d like to thank your preliminary training days for drilling weapon summoning into your gem, and Lapis for reminding you that you’re still capable of summoning it even after years upon years upon years of neglecting it. You can almost hear the Steven’s cheers for you over your internal screaming.
Ruby continues to strike down at you, but you’re diligent enough to block every one of them. The force of her hits send orange sparks bursting at each clang. She’s incredibly strong. A new weapon does nothing to put her at a disadvantage. If only you could take her back to Homeworld as an ally. “Stop! Blocking!”
You have to, eventually. She has enough pure strength to dissipate your weapon. You catch Ruby’s sword in the curve of your sickle, again, and slide it towards the hilt before twisting it down, then swinging it away. The sword flies off to the edge of the Arena.
“Now we’re talking.” Ruby summons her gauntlet and crashes it down to the ground as hard as she can. You jump high into the air onto a column to avoid the resulting quake. Her gauntlet sends ripples of marvelous architecture erupting away from the point of impact. You continue to scream internally.
The Sapphire has already predicted this, and has jumped high enough to avoid the vibrations, whereas her opponent is knocked over. The Sapphire uses this opening to thrust towards the Peridot. The Peridot bends the metal away from her body, curving it just enough to give her time to scramble away backwards. She’s unable to fully rip the Sapphire’s weapon out of her hand, though, because ice has frozen her hand to it.
“Are you a gem or a rock?” Ruby mocks. You forgot that taunting one-liners were also a part of the unwritten set of fake sarcastic rules you’ve begun noting in your head. She runs towards the column you’re on with her gauntlet of doom in tow. “What were you planning to do in a real battle?”
You pounce onto her with your sickle held high behind your head and strike down at her. Hopefully the physics of your attack is enough to deal some worthy damage. But it’s not. She counterattacks with her gauntlet. You tumble backwards behind her. Your weapon dissipates. “We--” No, your squadron isn’t here. You don’t have a squadron, anymore. “I would’ve just fused.” You never added anything to the Mega Ruby fusion other than mass, before, though. You just melted in and let your captain take over.
“You can’t depend on that! That’s just, ugh, a cheap tactic to get stronger!” She kicks a low cloud. Having to admit that physically pained her. She looks at the Pearl, though, which reassures her. “Be strong in the real way!”
(In your defense, your second option would have been to avoid combat at any cost. One-on-one combat was never in your resumé, job description, or agenda. That strategy has worked wonders, save for this abnormal exception.)
She picks up a fist-sized rock and throws it up into the air. You’re distracted long enough for Ruby to pick up the sabre you discarded earlier. You’re not dumb enough to fall for her diversion. You roll out of the way as Ruby. To your side, the other fighting pair approaches, clashing metal to metal. Ruby launches the sabre straight forward, where you used to be. The rock falls just in time on the Peridot’s head. She lets out a yelp. The diversion works too well, though. Miscalculations cause the Peridot to be impaled in the shoulder and the stomach.
The Peridot looks down at her wounds. “Wow, thanks,” are her final words before she poofs.
You raise your hand. “Can I forfeit?” You feel like this is the most appropriate time to request this. Forfeiting would be a very lovely option at this point.
Scene xxiv. - A panic-filled Ancient Sky Arena.
The Steven stands up. “Peridot!” Everyone else follows suit, except for Lapis, who saunters over. She picks up the Peridot’s gem. It still has that Homeworld-patented Era 2 shine to it.
“I’ll bubble her,” she volunteers. A thin water bubble forms around the Peridot’s gem.
You shriek. You understand where Jasper is, now. Stupidstupidstupid. She was defeated, she was poofed, she was captured, she was bubbled, she was imprisoned, she was forcefully withdrawn from any and all utility by the Crystal Gems because she was bad. Her moral expiration date arrived and what was left of her had to be sealed away, as if she was corrupted into a monster that needed to protected from its own agonizing existence. The Crystal Gems don’t think she’s good, so she has to be bad, and she has to be gone.
Ruby hugs you into her chest. Her gauntlet is gone. “That’s not how we deal with all poofed gems, Lazuli. That’s not even a proper bubble! That’s just water!”
“She’s fine. She just needs some time to regenerate,” the Sapphire says. “This isn’t the first time we’ve poofed her, after all.”
You let out a muffled shriek. You can’t believe it’s a common practice to poof comrades on Earth.
“Not funny, Sapphire,” Ruby deadpans.
“Oops.”
Scene xxv. - Just outside the barn.
Lapis and the Sapphire are in charge of cooling you down because everything you’re around bursts into flames. It was a better option than being banished to the bottom of the barn pool. Ruby is making you sit cross-legged in a pile of ice slush with your fingers intertwined and your thumb tips touching. The Steven is in the barn, analyzing any dings or dents that may be on the Peridot’s gem.
“Shh, sh sh, just breathe in… and out… Can you do that for me, Navy? In, then out.”
You know how to breathe. “Is this a normal thing on Earth?”
The Amethyst laughs. “Yup. I get poofed, like, every other week.”
The slush around you boils and sizzles. Lapis adds more water around you for the Sapphire to freeze.
“Amethyst!” the Pearl scolds.
Ruby picks up the Amethyst and places her a good distance away from you, where she thinks you won’t be able to hear her lecturing the Amethyst. “Listen here, young gem, you were not polished to speak so irresponsibly around your juniors--do you want to try calming a Ruby down? We don't need another visit from the fire department!”
You let yourself collapse backwards into the ice. It steams slowly around you. Above you, Lapis and the Sapphire remain as cool and blue as the Earth sky. You sit up properly and straighten your posture, but make sure to keep your gaze on the ground. “My Clarity, why did this happen?” You were under the impression that future vision was supposed to prevent accidents like this.
“Sit down,” she orders.
You do so and hug your knees to your chest. She sits down in front of you, too, with the same position Ruby showed you, presumably with her legs also crossed under the blue puff of her skirt. You follow suit.
She clears her throat. “Take a moment to think of just…”
Ruby has already finished her lecture with the Amethyst and senses the impromptu musical number. She comes sliding over to the Sapphire’s side. “... flexibilityloveandtrust!” she finishes frantically.
They sing in perfect harmony together. “Take a moment to think of just, flexibility love and trust.”
The Amethyst sighs heavily. Lapis’ water wings are out. You stand up. “Nonono, I'm asking why you didn't foresee this, My Clarity!”
Ruby isn't happy about having her duet thwarted. “You don't even sing on Homeworld, anymore?”
“We use regular verbal communication to answer simple questions, comrade.”
Lapis pours slushy ice water onto Ruby.
“What the heck was that for, Lazuli?”
“Thought you needed to cool down after that hot roast,” she says.
Ruby scoops up slush into a tight ball, but it melts immediately. Lapis snorts at the poor attempt. She doesn’t expect the snowball thrown at her back by the Sapphire as revenge.
“Nice!” the Amethyst exclaims. She throws a snowball straight at the Pearl’s butt. “Snowball fi--”
A ball of snow is flung into the Amethyst’s mouth by the Pearl before she can finish her battle cry. “... I’m also curious why this wasn’t preventable,” the Pearl admits.
All eyes turn to Her Clarity. Even Ruby is curious.
“In the heat of battle, I can only focus on one future possibility at a time, so I have to bet on the most likely outcome,” the Sapphire reveals.
Multiple future possibilities! You were right! You’ve been a bit afraid that the Sapphire is simply an omniscient figure that withholds information for the sake of universal balance. You’re going to regret asking this, but, “What outcome did you bet on?”
“The one where--” Her blushing, nervous laughter scares you a little. Maybe a lot. Ice crystals grow. That grin on her lips is nothing but perverted. “--uh, that doesn’t matter!” She clears her throat. “What I saw was that you were supposed to have an epiphany about gem independence and start attacking Ruby seriously.”
… But you were fighting her seriously the entire time?
“You should have blocked the sabre with your sickle, but be distracted long enough to still be hit with the rock. Peridot was supposed to block my thrust to her chest, but then bump into you. I would have used that opening to tap her lightly on the shoulder with my sabre. That’s Peridot’s loss. Inevitably, after charging into offense, you should have quickly lost, too.”
No wonder the Peridot’s poofing wasn’t predicted. The Sapphire was depending on you to be the pneumatic Ruby everyone thinks you are. It’s only a matter of time before the dark matter recipe comes out of the vault--time and a lot more terrible acting on your part. “Oh, this is all my fault!” you wail. You toss yourself into the mound of ice. It only melts slightly under your mass, though. Can’t fake guilt that well. “If I figured out how to be--” (Ugh.) “--strong in the real way, then Peridot would’ve never poofed!” (Ah, but isn’t that true? You still haven’t fulfilled the prophecy the Sapphire spoke of. You’re only surviving from lie to lie.)
The Sapphire folds her hands. “... I can’t say that you’re wrong.”
The Pearl nods. “That would have saved Peridot.”
The Amethyst takes more time to fully process the scenario. “Ooh, I get it. Your cowardliness doomed us all.”
Lapis doesn’t even try to sugarcoat her blame on you. “Yeah, Navy, I can’t believe you poofed my barnmate.” She shakes her head in disappointment.
Oh your stars, they’re seriously putting all the blame on you for not sticking to a script they never gave you. Never mind that two fighting rookies not cut out for combat were pit against veterans of the Gem War, that all you did was avoid getting injured yourself, that the Peridot was too inexperienced to prevent this disaster herself, or that Ruby and the Sapphire were literally the ones who stabbed her. It was all your doing that the wrong future played out.
Ruby doesn’t contradict everyone else, but she doesn’t buy into what they’re saying, either. “What’s supposed to happen in this future, then?”
“I don’t know,” the Sapphire admits bluntly. “Peridot was never supposed to poof.”
You sit up.
Ruby doesn’t like how fast that answer came out. “What futures were you looking for?”
“All the ones where Garnet is back together.”
The Amethyst’s eyes widen. The Pearl starts to falter backwards, barely saved by the Amethyst shapeshifting into a chair to catch her. “Y-Y-You mean,” she babbles, “that you two won’t… Garnet isn’t… This future is… Oh boy.”
Ruby groans. “That doesn’t make sense! Garnet always exists as long as we’re here.” She pulls the Sapphire close to her and fuses them into Garnet to prove her point.
“This is Garnet, back together,” Garnet says.
They unfuse. “And this is Ruby and Sapphire,” Ruby says.
Then, they fuse again. “Garnet.”
And they unfuse. “Ruby and Sapphire.”
Fuse. “Garnet.”
Unfuse. “Sapphire and Ruby!” Ruby exclaims. “Also known as, Ruby and Sapphire, but in a different order.”
Your eyes hurt. The Sapphire pushes Ruby away. “Okay, we get it. You’re giving me a gem ache. It’s just hard to see all the possible futures while I’m trying to sword fight without depth perception.”
“Sorry.” Ruby rubs the Sapphire’s hand gem soothingly. “I’m just saying, we’re overlooking something important. The last time this sort of thing happened was when Pearl--” She takes a moment to glare at said gem. “--tricked us into fusing into Sardonyx.”
(Ah, so that’s who Sardonyx is.)
The Amethyst returns to her original form, which sends the Pearl falling to the ground. “Can’t save your butt there.”
The Pearl stands back up and brushes the dust off of her. “I--”
“We already forgave you,” the Sapphire assures her. “Right, Ruby?”
Ruby narrows her eyes at the Pearl. “This Ruby doesn’t forget so easily.”
“Ruby--”
“No, Sapph, I’m serious! All future vision is biased towards what we want to happen.” She starts pacing into the ice slush area. The mound of ice you’re on melts in her presence. “What if Peridot is cracked?”
“Steven has healing spit,” the Sapphire reminds her.
(Woah, really? That’s groovy!)
“What if your future vision has become defective?”
“Ex-cuse me?”
“Uh, kidding! What if there’s a new fusion coming?”
Everyone looks at each other. It’s silently agreed upon that nobody is in the mood for a new fusion.
“What if Pearl tricks us again?”
The Amethyst snickers. The Pearl shakes her head; nothing is up her sleeve.
“What if Navy is an evil genius just waiting for the right moment to betray us all, just to see the looks on our faces?” Lapis suggests.
The Pearl can hardly withhold her laughter. She turns away. The Sapphire, though, shakes her head. “She’s on our side, now. I’m certain.”
Personally, you’re rather offended that Lapis is the only one who acknowledges your intellect. All the better for your plan, though. “That’s groovy, My Clarity, but how can you be so sure?” There’s no way you’re not going to betray them eventually.
“Everything has already aligned in our favor.” And she leaves it at that. Very mysterious.
(“Already aligned,” she says... Then, they’re looking in the wrong direction.)
“That’s what you like to think,” Ruby grumbles. “We’re in your blind spot and I refuse to re-fuse until we’re out of it!”
“You’re overre--” The Sapphire breaks her calm facade and takes the time to laugh at the pun. “Ah, that was a good one! Steven would’ve loved that!”
Ruby is unable to stay mad. (You have to admit, that was pretty clever.) She gives the Sapphire a quick peck on the lips. “Oh, be serious, Sapphire!” she teases. “Isn’t this the baseball game all over again? Us being unable to focus on anything but each other…” Her hands slide down to the Sapphire’s waist. “I don’t forget so easily.”
“How about I… test how well you remember how to dance?”
The Pearl clears her throat. “You were saying something about a blind spot, Ruby?”
“There’s still time,” Ruby and Sapphire promise in unison.
You sure hope so.
#steven universe#fanfic#the homeworld is too much with us#act I#navy#navy-centric#what did you do over spring break?#I WROTE AN 18K FANFIC THAT NOBODY IS GOING TO READ#rupphire#i love ruby and sapphire separated i'm sorry
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