#CAN garnet's shapeshifting allow her to take off her hair?

[ramblinseahorsey]

callback to when garnet snatched her own wig.

#garnet's universe #rambles #steven universe #amazing episode #Cartoons #cute episode #steven basically thinks garnet is god #ah back in season 1 #when he wasn't traumated and literally holding the weight of the world #q #cn #Cartoon network #wig snatched #wait #CAN garnet's shapeshifting allow her to take off her hair?

[autisticsupervillain]

It's Fictional Throwdown Friday!

This Week's Fighters...

Steven Universe vs Raiden!

Conditions:

Steven Universe from Steven Universe Future. Raiden from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Both characters start on base but transformations and stat amps are allowed should the fighters choose to utilize them. Battle takes place on Beach City's Beach.

Scenario:

Local millionaire Greg Universe hires Raiden and his PMC to protect Little Homeschool whenever the Crystal Gems aren't around. After seeing the advance technologies being used there and realizing the gems are extra terrestrials, Raiden grows suspicious of the group. A little investigation later and Raiden discovers the bloody past of the Homeworld Empire. Believing that Greg and Steven are being manipulated and may potentially be on Homeworld's side, Raiden moves to shut Little Homeschool down and protect the Earth from invasion. Steven confronts him and attempts to talk him down, but Raiden can't be swayed, forcing Steven to fight him into submission.

Analysis: Steven

Countless years ago, long before the advent of human history, the small, insignificant planet of Earth was discovered by an alien race known as the Gems. The Homeworld Empire would have mercilessly sucked the planet dry, if it were not for the second thoughts of their leader Pink Diamond. Unable to convince her fellow matriarchs of the error of their ways, Pink instead waged a war against herself using the pseudonym Rose Quartz.

This.... is not her story.

This is the story of the son she left behind. This is the story of Steven Quartz Universe.

Growing up mostly unaware of his now dead mother's dark past, Steven was raised by his homeless father Greg Universe and trained by the three remaining Crystal Gems Amethyst, Garnet, and Pearl. In his youth he'd mostly lazily hang around Beach City and go on missions to subdue Corrupted Gems, or Gems who were forcibly turned into monsters by the Diamonds corruption blast as the fled Earth. However, after Steven would inadvertently lead Homeworld back to Earth, the young boy would be forced to confront the lies his mother left behind and stand against the Homeworld Empire.

Thankfully, Steven develops a wide plethora of powers abd abilities to protect his friends and family. Inheriting all the powers of his mother, Steven can create a pink shield that can manifest in a variety of different ways. It can appear as a small frisbe and a body encompassing bubble, even growing spikes to ward off aggressive adversaries. He can also bubble his fists to increase their punching power. These shields are made if hard light, much like a Gem's physical body is, which would likely explain how customizable they are.

Similarly, he can summon bubbles to contain objects, sending them home for later use. It should be noted that, while this has a sealing affect on poofed gems (that's what it's called when a gem's physical form is temporarily destroyed), organic beings seem unaffected by it and can break free of these bubbles with ease.

In regards to his movement options, Steven can levitate, controlling the speed at which he falls to the ground in a manner basically synonymous with flight, even being capable of halting his own momentum.

His half gem physiology also grants him a rather bizarre biology. For example, he cam voluntarily shapeshift his own body, even influencing his own age, though this appears to be the one ability he has yet to truly master, as it is often subconsciously influenced by his own image of himself and can easily spiral wildly out of control. His, uh, body fluids also seem to be similarly affected. Don't worry, it's not as gross as it sounds.

For example, his spit csn heal the injuries of others, healing Connie's eye sight and fixing Lapis's broken gemstone. His tears, meanwhile, can resurrect dead animals and people as unaging pink "zombies" with special powers, such as hair that contains a pocket dimension and a voice that can create portals. The most bizarre trait of his, erm, fluids, is his ability to make plants sentient by licking their seeds, creating an army of Watermelon Stevens fiercely loyal to and protective of him. In great enough numbers, these creations can overpower the Crystal Gems and even threaten the dangerous fusion Malachite with just stone age era technology.

Plus, when knocked out, he can telepathically communicate with and even possess other beings from astronomical distances away. He can even communicate with the Diamonds, despite their diamond auras initially warding him off. Being half diamond himself, Steven should have a similar aura and, thus, similar resistance.

He can fuse with other Gems to become stronger and, uniquely, can fuse with humans. In fact, Steven can do a lot of things that Gems can't. His half human biology grants him an immunity to weapons designed specifically to counter gems, causing them to merely harm him at worst or harmlessly tickle him at best. But, this resistance has limits as certain weapons like the Rejuvenator can nullify his powers.

Similarly, Steven is supremely tough and fast, capable of moving fast enough to appear as a blur in eyes of normal humans long before he mastered his powers. As a teenager, he can fight some of the toughest of the Crystal Gems foes, such as Spinel and Jssper, single handedly and fight them blow for blow. This is impressive on both a skill and a strength front, as both Jasper and Spinel have proven themselves able to defeat the toughest members of the Crystal Gems on occasion, though not without their best weapons available. Keep in mind, the Crystal Gems have been alive for centuries and were known to take down entire battalions during the war on their own. On the strength front, it's impressive because of what it would mean Steven scales to.

Both Jasper and Spinel have fought Garnet, someone capable of turning sand into glass with the force of her blows and cleaving mountains in half. Most impressively, Garnet could tear apart Peridot's escape pod, which survived getting blasted down to Earth from orbit at massive speeds. This would put her strength at around 142 kilotons of force.

For a source, see here:

Steven is, by the end of the series, definitively one of Garnet's equals, seeing how he can fight opponents on a similar scale to her. Even at the age of 13, he was able to contend with Bismuth, evenly while actively trying to avoid hurting her.

In regards to his speed, he and his fellow gems can react and doge beams of light, granting them relativistic speeds clocking in at around 29% the speed of light.

Source:

But all this shies away from the true power Steven wields.

With Steven's Pink Mode transformations, Steven can channel his full Diamond potential, going from competing with Jasper to actively stomping her. What's more, if Steven is seperated from his gem, any buffer between him and his full power is completely removed.

The now emotionless and remorseless Gem Steven is all of Steven's power without an once of his humanity or restraint. His capable of nearly blowing Yellow, Blue, and White Diamond away just by screaming and can effortlessly deflect attacks from all three. This is especially impressive when you consider the Diamonds are the strongest gems in existence, capable off obliterating countries with their combined power.

Source:

However, this form runs the serious risk of killing Steven's human half, so it's unlikely he'll use it willingly. In fact, Steven is highly unlikely to use his most dangerous powers in combat.

Steven's greatest strength, as well as his greatest weakness, is his empathy. He'll always sacrifice his physical and mental health to protect others, which has caused him series problems. This tendency, plus his constant exposure to life threatening trauma, as caused him to develop a severe case of PTSD, which can make his powers go haywire of not properly checked in. At it's worst, it can even forcibly transform him into a giant unstoppable monster.

But, despite all his weaknesses, Steven managed to save Earth and Homeworld. He succeeded where his mother failed and nade tge Diamonds change their minds. Because he's not his mother. He's more. He's Steven Quartz Universe.

Analysis: Raiden

As a young boy, Jack lived in the tumultuous era of the Liberian Civil War, where his parents were killed President of the United States Solidus Snake, who took the boy and raised him as his own. Turning Jack into a ruthless killing machine, Jack would develop a dreaded reputation on the battlefield by the age of six, earning him the nickname of Jack the Ripper. Being adopted by the Patriots after Solidus abandoned him, Jack would be given a new name, Raiden.

Several conspiracies and plot twists later, which I'm skipping for the sake of not making this six paragraphs long, Jack would defeat Solidus, mend his relationship with his wife Rosemary, and turn his back on the traitorous Patriots after being used as their pawn.

Later captured by the Patriots, Raiden would be forcibly transformed into a cyborg, only to escape and help Solid Snake bring down the Patriots for good. Raiden would then go on to become a member of Maverick Security Counciling in order to provide for his family, only to part ways with them later in order to forge his own path.

Raiden has been a master of stealth, diguise, gunplay, and martial arts combat for nearly his entire life. Throughout his lifetime he has mastered a wide variety of weapons, including grenades, smoke grenades, white phosphorus grenades, hand guns, rifles, and even sleeping darts. His weapon of choice, however, would have to be the High Frequency Blade.

Raiden has wielded a variety of High Frequency blades throughout his career, from the twin scissor-like blades called Bloodlust, to the long reaching L'Etranger, but his most recent sword would have to be the Murasama sword, given to him by his fallen rival Jetstream Sam. Each of these swords can cut through objects on an atomic level, weakening the molecular structure of whatever he's attacking to allow him to cut through nearly anything with ease. On top of that, he carries the Dystopia, a magnetic sai that he can use as a ranged weapon or as a makeshift EMP grenade, giving him a leg up above other cyborgs.

Speaking of cyborgs, Raiden's cybernetic amplifications enhance his already impressive acrobatics, allowing him to leap onto missles in midair, run up and down the side of buildings, and catch up to helicopters mid flight. When combining this with his lifetime of training and experience, Raiden is a frustrating combatant to pin down.

Speaking of experience, Raiden has walked in the footsteps of some of the best. He has trained in near perfect VR replicas of Solid Snake's missions and defeated legendary swordsmen like Jetstream Sam and Solidus Snake, some of the most skilled sword fighters in the world. Sam in particular stands out for being able to fight cyborgs and cybernetically enhanced individuals without any enhancements of his own, relying solely on skill and his suit, which enhances his statistics.

As a matter of fact, when Sam and Raiden first fought, Sam effortlessly kicked his ass, forcing Maverick to provide Raiden with a whole new robot body. This new body enhances Raiden's speed and strength to absurd levels. Where Raiden's old body was easily capable of moving at massively hypersonic speeds, Raiden's new body is well more than ten times that, putting him in the Sub-relativistic range. That's anywhere from 1% to 5% the speed of light.

Source:

What's more, Raiden's strength is boosted to an astronomical degree as well, allowing him to toss Metal Gear EXCELCEUS over his head, rip it's giant metal arm off, and cut it apart with its own sword. He's even strong enough to tank a punch from Senator Armstrong with 121 kilotons of force behind it, more than enough to obliterate the aforementioned EXCELCEUS.

Source:

What's more, this is far from Raiden's peak. With Blade Mode and Ripper Mode, Jack can boost his immense speed and strength, making those comparable to him move in slow motion with a ten times speed boost. In these modes, Jack uses his Solid Eye to detect his opponent's vital areas and weaknesses, allowing him to hack them to pieces. However, these modes come at an extraordinary cost...

Firstly, they eat through Raiden's power reserves at an extraordinary pace, forcing him to rip the electrolytes from his foes in order to keep going. On top of that, Ripper Mode can only be accessed by Raiden turning off his pain inhibitors and giving into his malicious and sadistic Jack the Ripper persona, a split personality he developed in order to cope with the trauma brought about by being forced to kill at such a young age.

Still, even with his weaknesses, Jack is ridiculously tough, able to shrug off the loss of limbs and even impalement in order to keep fighting. He's a weapon to surpass Metal Gear. He is lightning, the rain transformed. He is... Raiden!

Battle Breakdown!

Fight theme:

This fight is a fairly even match, with a negligible strength difference. 142 kilotons vs. 121 kilotons. Similarly, both combatants should be relatively equal in skill, as both have had to fight incredibly esoteric opponents snd have had to do so from a young age. Raiden, however, is easily Steven's superior in stealth, making a potential sneak attack viable.

Jack does come in swinging with a few good advantages. He is leagues more aggressive and his incredible acrobatics give him options for competing with Steven's pseudo-flight, even if Universe does probably still have the edge there.

Similarly, the nature of Raiden's high frequency blades means he'll only need one hit to win and given Raiden's own intellect and his solid eye, I think it's safe to assume he'd cut up Steven's gem as well, making Gem Steven a none factor. The issue here is landing that hit.

See, I don't think Raiden can cut through Steven's shields, as they are made of light. As such, they have no molecular structure for his swords to destabilize. Now, this alone isn't a deal breaker. For one, Raiden's fought people with a similar gimmick, namely Sundowner and Armstrong, and for two, Raiden can still break his shields the old fashioned way. After all, opponents like Bismuth have broken Steven's shields before with enough force, so it's safe to say a strong enough attack, like, say Blade Mode, could do the same.

The problem is that Raiden isn't fast enough to capitalize on the opening he just created.

Remember, that Sub-Relativistic calc is Raiden already in Ripper Mode. Even while amped, Raiden is at most 5% the speed of light. Steven, meanwhile, is nearly 30% the speed of light while unamped. That's a considerable difference.

What this means is that Steven's default defensive approach is undoubtedly the best approach he could take against Raiden. Such a large speed gap gives Steven plenty of time to get out of Raiden's range or even just another shield before he gets hit. And given how Raiden has no real counter to his flight, Steven as a perfect get out of jail card of Raiden manages to push him too hard.

This is only made worse by Pink Mode, though I admittedly don't see that coming up often. Raiden isn't Jasper, he's not going to be mocking and taunting Steven in the kind of way that exposes all his deepest insecurities. Though, if he does somehow force Steven into Pink Mode, he is fucked. The Diamonds are simply way out of Jack's weight class and he cannot compete with someone comparable to them.

Raiden's best option here is his stealth mastery, which he would likely resort to once he realizes how fast Steven is, but even that has counters. Steven can simply make a full body shield if Raiden disappears from his line of sight, forcing Jack to reveal himself when he makes his move.

Raiden's need to use his Blade and Ripper Modes just to keep up ensures he's going to run out of fuel quickly and while he's breaking down, Steven's going to be standing strong, bracing himself for more.

This Throwdown's Victor is... Steven Universe!

#steven universe #metal gear rising #steven quartz universe #raiden mgr #SoundCloud #fictional throwdown fridays

[heroami]

Day 13 - “Do you want to come too?”

Fandom: Steven Universe

- - - - - - - - - -

Steven was about ready to explode with excitement. Afterall, it wasn’t every day that he got to go to the temple where the Crystal Gems lived. Usually, the Gems came to visit him, and they would spend time on the beach or at Funland, which was fine and all but it wasn’t anywhere as awesome as a magic temple. 

And the best part? He was going to be moving there soon.  

There had been some… incidents recently with his gem. Nothing majorly cool, like what the others could do. Just some glowing. But, since it had started happening more and more, his dad and the Gems decided it was time for Steven to officially begin his Crystal Gem training! That’s why they were going today - his dad wanted to get some measurements so they could start building a house for them all to live and train in. 

“Now remember, Stewball,” his Dad said as they pulled off the road onto the sandy beach. “When we get into the temple, don’t touch anything without asking, okay?”

Steven, who up until this point had his face pressed against the glass of the passenger seat window in anticipation, turned back to his father. “Uh, whazthat now?” He flopped back into his seat after his seatbelt went tight but made sure to sit tall enough that he can still see outside. He’s kinda successful. He could make out an arm and a hand just above them through the windshield. “Are we there yet?”

“Steven, this is serious,” his dad chastised. “There’s some real dangerous stuff at this place and I don’t want you getting in over your head, you hear me?”

Steven schooled his face into his best serious look before sticking out his thumb. “You got it, dude.”

His father rolled his eyes with a smile before turning his attention back to driving. Moments later, the car slowed to a stop at the bottom of an inclined path. 

“And here we are!”

Steven scrambled out of the van, his sandals sinking into the sand and causing him to tumble in his rush to get to the other side. 

When he finally does, his jaw dropped. “Woah!”

The temple was HUGE. It was in the shape of a giant woman, who was at least fifty times bigger than a normal woman. She had six hands, some of which were hovering in the air and some of which were on the ground. She was missing a couple too but that only made her look cooler. She had long, curly hair (“Just like your mom,” Dad had once told him) and her face was super serious. There was something right where her nose was, but he couldn’t make it out from where he stood. As it was, he could just barely see the tippy-top of the lighthouse at the very top of the hill. And, right where the woman’s tummy would be, was a big cavern with large blue-white crystals jutting out of the walls and some designs carved into the stone right above a giant magical looking door. 

It was amazing.  

His dad laughed as he exited the van, slamming the door shut with a satisfying ‘thud’. “Pretty cool, right?”

“I get to live here?”

“Not just yet, but soon.”

“Woah. This is going to be awesome!”

 /////

 What came next though, was decidedly not awesome. 

What’s the point of coming all the way out to the super cool magic temple if they weren’t going to do anything super cool or magical while they were there? 

His dad and Pearl were talking about boring adult stuff, walking around the temple, pointing everywhere and taking notes and junk. They would occasionally ask Steven questions, like where he wanted his bedroom to be and what colors he wanted in the bathroom. Amethyst, who was usually pretty fun to hang around with, was trailing along behind them, cracking jokes and shapeshifting into various household items ‘for scale’ when asked. And Garnet was apparently doing work in the temple, on the other side of the magical door Steven was definitely not allowed to touch, which left Steven sitting on the platform in the middle of the cave with his favorite copy of The No Home Boys, bored out of his mind. 

“I’m telling you, Greg, I can handle the plumbing,” Pearl said sometime later, coming to a stop before Steven, rolling up the big, blue piece of paper they had been working on. “I just need you to get the supplies.”

“If you’re sure,” Dad replies, not sounding entirely sure himself. “Actually, it might be best if you come to the store anyway. That way you can pick out exactly what you need.”

“That sounds doable,” Pearl agreed primly, lifting the rolled up sheet to her head where it disappeared with a flash of light. She smiled at Steven’s ohh’s and aw’s. “Shall we go now?”

“Sounds good to me! Ready to go, Stewball?”

“What?!” Steven jumped to his feet on the platform, arms flailing. His book landed somewhere in the corner of the cavern. “We’re leaving? But we just got here!”

“We got to get to the hardware store,” Dad said, digging through his pockets for the van keys. “The sooner we get the supplies, the sooner we can get building, right?”

“But I don’t want to go to the hardware store,” Steven complained. The only thing he could think of that was more boring than sitting around doing nothing in a magic temple was going to the stupid hardware store. Every time he and his dad went, they were in there for ages and there wasn’t anything interesting to look at and everyone scolded him for touching literally anything. “Can’t I just stay here?”

“He can chill here with me,” Amethyst offered, rolling up to them as a beach ball and bouncing to their eye level. “I got a cool new move I’ve been meaning to show Steven anyway.” She turned to Steven, still bouncing and grinning wildly. “I can make fire now!”

His father yelped, dropping the newly found keys in surprise while Pearl scowled. 

“Oh, no,” Pearl declared, arms crossing over her chest and glaring down her nose at the other Gem. “The last time we left you and Steven alone you almost destroyed one of those entertainment machines on the pier!”  

Amethyst made an outraged noise, morphing back to normal mid-bounce and landing with her hands placed on her hips. “I already told you that wasn’t our fault!”

“How could it not be -?!”

The door to the temple opens with a hiss. Steven whirled around as Garnet emerged from… somewhere, a thin wisp of smoke trailing after her. 

Bingo. 

“Can I stay if Garnet’s here?” Steven asked, raising his voice loud enough to be heard over Amethyst and Pearl’s bickering and his dad’s feeble attempts to interject. 

All three adults turned to look at him, then up at Garnet, who came to stand behind him, watching them all impassively. 

“Erm, well,” Pearl stammered, sending a sidelong glance at his dad who nodded. “That could work. But only if it’s okay with you, Garnet.”

The question hung in the air for a moment before Garnet shrugged. “Fine by me.”

Amethyst pouted as Pearl and Greg left. “Great,” she grumbled. “Now the fun police’s here.”

“Don’t say that!” Steven protested. “Garnet is loads of fun! Right, Garnet?”

The taller gem ruffled his hair. “Right,” she agreed, the corner of her lips twitching with the beginnings of a smile. “But there’s no time for fun right now. There’s a very important mission I need to go on.” He can’t see behind her big sunglasses, but he can feel her staring down at him intently. “Do you want to come too?” 

He gasped. Behind him Amethyst screeched, “What?!”

“I can come on a Crystal Gem mission?” Steven asked, awe tainting his voice. When Garnet nodded, he began to dance, spinning around the little platform they were on. “My very first mission!” he sang. “My first Crystal Gem mission!”

“Yo, what exactly is this mission, Garnet?” Amethyst asked, her eyebrow arched suspiciously as she approached them, carefully dodging Steven’s flailing limbs as he continued to dance. “Because I’m pretty sure P will kill us if -.”

“There’s a meteor shower starting soon,” Garnet interrupted, prompting Steven to freeze in place, arms still poised in the air, so he could listen closely. “We just need to monitor it and make sure everything is okay.” 

“Wha-? Oh. Oh.” Amethyst grinned. “Yeah, that mission. It’s a real doozy.” She winked at Garnet.

“It sounds super important,” Steven agreed, standing up straight to show them he was super serious and totally ready to handle it. “Nothing the Crystal Gems can’t handle, though.” He ignored Amethyst's answering snicker, instead glancing outside, where the sun still sat high in the sky. “But where is it? I thought meteor showers only happened at night?”

The taller gem hummed. “That’s why we are going somewhere where it’s already night.”  

“How?” 

Garnet tapped her foot against the platform they were standing on. “This is called a warp pad. It gives Gems the ability to quickly travel anywhere in the world so long as there’s a warp pad there as well.”

“Plus, it makes your insides go all topsy-turney,” Amethyst added, her hands twisting in front of her stomach in demonstration. “Like the roller coaster at Funland.”

“That’s so cool!” Steven stared down at the platform - the warp pad - beneath him in awe. Here he was desperately wanting to see something cool all morning and it turned out he had been sitting on something cool the whole time!  “Can we go now? I want to try it!”

Garnet nodded. “Stand in the middle,” she instructed, pointing at her feet. 

He did as she asked, coming to stand in front of her, his back pressed against her legs. He couldn’t help squirming in excitement. Amethyst stepped up next to him. 

“Ready for your first mission, lil dude?” 

“Yes!” He really was going to explode. 

“Alright then.” Garnet placed her hand on his head, applying just enough pressure for him to stop squirming. “On the count of three. One.”

He took a deep breath, steeling himself. 

“Two.” 

It was like staring down tracks at the top of the first hill of the rollercoaster. He felt the anticipation make his stomach go topsy-turvy. 

“Three.”

His world exploded into light. 

- - - - - - - - - -

ao3

#steven universe #su #my writing #30 day prompt challenge #suf #steven universe future #steven universe the movie #hero writes

[thecommonbloodstone]

Amethyst headcanons/theories? dump

I've always been onboard for Florist/Gardener Amethyst ever since Watermelon Steven where she said "those flowers are lovely!"

While she and Rose loved plants, Rose was very impatient with the process and would just use her powers to speed up the process while Amethyst likes the process, seeing a plant grow up and helping it grow is a very calming experience for her.

Amethyst absolutely believes in talking/singing to plants will make them grow better.

She has a secret garden behind the waterfalls in her room that Steven and Pearl accidentally discover just before the events of Pale Rose because one of Pearl's swords fell down too close to the entrance.

Amethyst loves making friends with artistic and creative humans. Shakespeare; she knew the guy personally. Frida Kahol was her pal. Van Gogh were close for a long time. (She fully believes the theory that his death wasn't a suicide)

Amethyst has only fallen in love twice. Once with Pearl a long time ago and she falls in and out of love a lot with her. The second with a painter she met a few hundred years ago. This woman painted the shark painting in Amethysts room. They'd met not to long before then and Rose had noticed that Amethyst had taken a liking to her and she commissioned the painting to set them up.

The painter had always said she'd look beautiful in long hair and Amethyst promised next time she poofed she'd come back with long hair. The painter passed away not too long after this promise due to sickness. It took Amethyst a long time to come through with that promise...

The painter had said I love you a lot to Amethyst but Amethyst could never say it back... until after the painter passed away. It's one Amethyst's biggest regrets.

Aside from those two, Amethyst had experimented around a lot (she stopped after the painter) with all kind of people but nothing serious ever came out of them.

Current day Amethyst has been done with experimenting for a long time and is pretty much ready for a permanent relationship. However, despite a lot of gems being interested in her, right now they're are experimenting themselves and Amethyst is reluctant to try anything with anyone as of now. Right now Amethyst just wants to focus on herself, her family and little Homeworld. Everything else can come later.

To Amethyst no matter how big Steven grows he will always be her Little Man

Amethyst likes writing poetry. There a random bits of paper, parchment and even wood that are in her room that are covered in her poems. Steven once found a bit of drift wood in her room with a particularly romantic bit of poetry on it and Amethyst swollowed it whole so he would read it. She ended up being really sick after that.

Amethyst knows how to deliver babies. She thinks it's gross but she's had enough friends with humans over the years that she's well aware on the how to.

She had to deliver Sour Cream on the way to the hospital when Greg's van broke down.

She also had the heartbreaking job of bringing Steven into the world...

Amethyst is the unofficial leader of the Famethyst. Jay and Sharky used to be the head gems but when Amethyst came along she unintentionally took charge of the group. Not that anyone minded that is. If there's a problem with the Earth Quartz (or any earth made gem) you get Amethyst.

The Famethyst got into a habit of calling Amethyst by various titles associated with leaders, "boss, chief, captain etc". It drives Amethyst crazy as she doesn't really see herself as a leader figure. When she tells the to stop they just switch to a new title. It's mostly because they are messing with her but there's a dash of seriousness in it.

Amethyst emerged without code. There's the bare essentials of a gem and even the bare essentials of an Amethyst but she is essentially codeless. She will never feel compelled to do anything by any gem of a higher authority. The diamonds are the exception as their powers work by overwhelming a gem and filling them with their light. Even then, Yellow still can't down Amethyst for long and White can't completely overwhelm her. Other gems may not remember what happens under Whites influence but Amethyst does...

Amethyst has a crazy amount on excess energy within her from being incubated for so long. It's normally inaccessible to her but during fusion and through shapeshifting she can push her limits as an amethyst and use the reserved power. She could push her mass to be really super large if she wanted but the stain would damage her gem severely and she'd never try it. In fusion it's fair game, if the moment calls for it she can basically power a fusion.

Amethyst learnt everything by mimicking and shapeshifting. It makes her really good at picking up other languages.

Amethyst is an average fighter, closer to a really strong ruby than a really weak quartz.

Amethyst judging by the timeline had emerged during the war. She saw the corruption song and immediately hid in her hole. It only barely saved her...

The first time Amethyst fused was with Garnet. It was a really calm event with the two simple spending time together. It lasted less then a second and it took a long time for them to do it again. But once they figured it out Sugilite came out to play a lot.

Amethyst and Pearl managed to fuse for the first time by accident during a gem mission. Amethyst technically wasn't allowed to go on missions yet as she had yet to summon her weapon but a large group of ruby monsters were stampeding their base (this was before they made the temple) and during the chaos Opal emerged.

Despite how much Amethyst would ask Rose would never fuse with her. The only time they would fuse was to form obsidian. It wasn't until Rose was revealed to be pink that Amethyst understood why.

Over time as more gems began taking nicknames, even the CG began picking them up. Garnet would always be Garnet (Ruby and sapphire fusions were too rare and it was the name she chose in a way) but Pearl would go by her old war nickname Renegade. Amethyst took a long time to pick up one. For a long time she just let gems call her whatever; runty, pip squeak, or just 8XM but eventually one stuck; Rogue. She was basically the crystal gem of freedom right? Why not have a name that literally means wild. Plus it had a double meaning. A rogue plant was a defective one. No one but close family would call her Amethyst after that.

After the events of Earthlings, Amethyst decided to clean up her room. At first it was just getting rid of useless junk but she eventually got the idea to build something with her scrap. The rest of the gems noticed and began helping too. By the end of it the scrap had been turned into a large tree made of her junk. It had several platforms and landing areas for amethyst to just hang out in and they even made a rudimentary power system powered by the water in her rooms for a tv to be hooked up with in.

Amethyst hates Homeworld. Before going she was indifferent but after spending time in the place she can't stand. The whole place just sets her on edge. You couldn't pay her to go there again. So while Steven, Pearl and Garnet are out fixing up gem society, Amethyst stays behind on earth to hold down the fort and eventually work on Little Homeworld. It takes her a long time to be able to go to Homeworld comfortably but that's only after era 3 has completely taken hold on the place.

Amethyst and Centi are close pals. The two of them can be often seen hanging out and just goofing off together.

Amethyst and Bismuth also develop a close friendship too. They are both heart gems with a pension for shapeshifting. Bismuth is the first gem to encourage Amethyst to use her shapeshifting for more combat uses. Encouraging her to get more creative with it.

Amethyst loves being someones wingman. She's a romantic at heart (she lived with Garnet, Rose and Pearl it's hard not to be) and helping out her pals with their romantic endeavours is her absolute pleasure.

Amethyst and Pearl go to a lot of concerts together. There's no set genre to the concerts they attend, they just like going to them together.

Amethyst wants to travel to other planets. Even since she was in the kindergarten she would sometimes see the stars through the mist and she wanted to see more of them. Once everything with Homeworld and Era 3 is mostly sorted and she can have a break she wants to do some travelling. Just for a few months at a time nothing too serious as she would miss home too much if she was away any longer. No matter what Amethyst would come back.

During Steven and Connie's wedding, Pearl and Amethyst are the best"gems"/ring bears while Garnet officiates. There was an incident just before the wedding were the rings got lost, involving a corrupted gem, a trip off world and a battle with an alien but Amethyst and Pearl managed to return with the rings in time.

I'll add more later (probably)

#steven universe #amethyst #amethyst su #pearl #garnet #steven quartz universe #su #pearlmethyst #dfctv pride #puma mom #bird mom #square mom #marshmellow son

[the-inept-artist]

Youth Is Wasted On The Young

Originally posted: 11/22/2017

Word count: 2,590

~oOo~

Steven slowly walked up the hill. His body was aching, exhausted from lack of sleep. But that was nothing compared to his emotions.

It was as if he were a tornado, whirling around and around, yet staying perfectly calm in his center. So much had happened in the past few days, and his brain was still trying to catch up.

~oOo~

"I kept it, because I knew I'd see you again," Steven said. Sliding the glow bracelet onto her wrist, he smiled at Connie. Her face was framed by dark hair, her skin and dress were tinted red from the light of the glow bracelet, pink from the magical bubble surrounding them, and dark blue from the ocean above. He then thought that in that moment, she had never looked more beautiful.

Steven offered her a hand and Connie took it, hesitantly standing. They gazed at one another shyly.

"Thank you."

~oOo~

Steven smiled weakly, remembering. A slight wind picked up, blowing wisps of his now extremely long and curly hair into his face. He took a moment to stop and tie it back, resting his weary legs. Then he continued, albeit slower than before. He dreaded the moment when he would reach the top.

~oOo~

"Connie Maheswaran!"

Steven and Connie jerked and shrieked. Through blurry eyes Steven saw Connie's mother stomping towards them. Looking around further revealed Connie blinking sleep from her eyes, quickly realizing what was happening. "Mom?"

"How dare you do this! After all those stories I told you about at the hospital! Those poor girls with STDs, HIVs…pregnant, even!" Mrs. Maheswaran continued to rant at her daughter.

Steven quickly tried to recall what had happened. Connie had come over to hang out. They played tag on the beach in front of the temple. They came inside and had collapsed, exhausted. They chatted half-heartedly for a moment and then…nothing.

Steven jumped again as the front door opened. Garnet walked inside. Mrs. Maheswaran rounded on her. "And you! Garnet, was it? How could you have let them do this? I thought you were the responsible one!"

Garnet stared at the furious mother. She spoke in her calm, nearly emotionless voice. "Steven and Connie had just come in from playing out on the beach. They were tired, so they took a nap."

"While holding hands?!"

Steven started and hastily glanced down. Connie did the same. They realized that their hands were still intertwined with each other's. It had felt so natural, though, that neither had felt it until too late.

Garnet continued: "That was all they were doing. I saw no reason to disturb them from their rest." She moved past the shocked Mrs. Maheswaran and walked toward the Warp Pad. At the last moment, she looked back. "And I'm the cool one. At least, according to Steven. If you wanted responsible, you should've talked to Pearl." She then warped away, leaving silence in her wake.

Steven glanced at Connie, trying not to laugh.

~oOo~

He finally let out that laugh he had been holding in, though it turned into a half-hearted chuckle. That memory was one of his favorites, which was why it hurt so much.

Steven kept walking.

~oOo~

He woke up, though he had no idea why. Steven glanced around with just his eyes; he was too tired to move his head. Then he nearly jumped out of his skin.

Connie was standing in the entrance to the living room, like a dark ghost. She held a blanket and a pillow under her arm, and though Steven would never admit it, he thought she looked cute in her pale blue nightdress.

Wordlessly, Connie moved across the living room and set herself up at the base of Steven's couch, her head just below his chin. She leaned back against the couch and stared off to the left. Steven looked.

Snow. Little snowflakes just falling calmly past the window, only to be lost in the fog. Steven remembered what Connie had said earlier that day.

"I want to watch the snow fall!"

He smiled softly. Nestling himself deeper into his blankets, he joined Connie in snow-watching, content to spend that small bit of time with her. His best friend.

~oOo~

Tears started to build up, though refusing to fall. Steven picked up the pace, grip tightening on the bouquet of flowers.

~oOo~

"Steven, I'm doing this…for you!" Connie vaulted over his back and slashed the sword through a Hologram Pearl.

Steven stubbornly held his ground. Creating a bubble around the two of them, he turned to her desperately. "But I don't need to be protected! I want to train with you, to learn with you! Connie—" He took her hand. "Whatever we go through, I want to go through it together." He looked at her, silently pleading for her to understand.

Connie looked shocked. She gazed at her hand in his. Then she looked at him, tears in her eyes. "Okay."

And Steven knew that everything would be alright, as long as he had his best friend by his side.

~oOo~

Steven's vision blurred, and he tripped. Landing hard, he grunted slightly. The impact jarred some of the tears loose, and water dripped down his face.

~oOo~

They laughed, dancing on the beach. Dashing past each other, Steven tripped.

It was as if the world went into slow-motion. Steven fell back. Connie turned around and reached out.

And Steven stopped falling.

He opened his eyes to see Connie staring at him. He felt arms around his waist, and he realized that one of his hands had reached up to snake around her upper back. They were entangled together, closer than they had ever been before.

Steven gazed at Connie. Her expression was one of shock. Steven was sure his face mirrored hers. Then she smiled and pressed her forehead against his, closing her eyes. She began to laugh and it must have been contagious, because Steven started chuckling as well, a pink glow surrounding them.

~oOo~

Steven finally sobbed, the first one he had let out through the whole ordeal. Sure, he had cried, but they had been silent tears, the kind you shed in bed after a long day, the kind no one could hear but you, the kind where you believe you're completely alone.

And he was alone.

~oOo~

Steven sat on one of the Warp Pads, Connie beside him. A picnic basket sat off to the side, forgotten. Plates were stacked next to it, being the only hints that the couple had eaten at all.

His large arm was wrapped around her while she was leaning into his warmth, both staring up at the night sky. Stars and a full moon gazed calmly back at them. If they didn't know any better, it was almost as if there wasn't a Homeworld out to murder the Crystal Gems.

"Can you believe it?" Steven murmured. "We're finally together."

Connie chuckled slightly and turned her eyes on him. "We've been together since we were high school age." To her mother's disappointment, Connie had dropped out of high school to work with the Crystal Gems full-time. She was still an avid reader though, and loved to learn whenever she could.

Steven pressed a kiss to her forehead. "16 and 18, yeah. But now we're 21 and 23, and we have rings."

Connie hummed and lifted her hand to admire the gold band encircling her ring finger. "True. I can't believe it either."

Steven shifted his new wife closer to him. "And I couldn't be happier."

~oOo~

For a long time, Steven lay on the ground, sobbing. The flowers lay just by his hand, barely brushing his fingers. All he could feel was the pain in his gut and chest and the soft earth beneath him.

Eventually, Steven looked up. He saw that he was near the top of the hill. With a grunt, he pushed himself up into a standing position and began to slowly to walk the rest of the way.

And while he walked, he finally allowed himself to remember.

~oOo~

"Oh, that was the time we both dressed up as cats for Halloween!" Steven said, pointing out the picture.

Connie smiled. "You practically begged to do something else."

"Well, when you almost shapeshift into a cluster of cats, that kind of puts you off," Steven defended.

Connie laughed, but it quickly turned into a weak cough that tore at Steven's heart. He set the scrapbook aside. "Are you okay? Do you want some water?"

She nodded, still hacking away. Steven stood and grabbed the styrofoam cup on the bedside table, careful not to hit the IV tube. Going into the hallway, he headed to a nearby water fountain. While he filled the cup, he looked around. The scenery hadn't changed in the past few days. Same white walls, same white ceiling and floor, same bored nurses and doctors milling the halls and checking clipboards.

Steven shivered a little. He pulled the cup out from under the flow of water and went back to his and Connie's room. Connie had stopped coughing, her breathing shallow.

"Here you go," Steven said quietly, handing her the cup. Connie nodded in thanks and took a long sip. He watched her silently, ready to move in case she needed help.

Connie finished and put the cup back on the table. She seemed weaker than before. Both knew what was coming, but they didn't want to acknowledge it. To do so would be like opening their eyes to the horrifying truth.

"Can…can I do anything else? For you?" Steven asked awkwardly.

Connie thought. "Could you pull back the curtains, please?"

"Yeah." He maneuvered around the bed and made his way to the window. Taking hold of the heavy drapes, he slid them back, letting in the warm sunlight. Glancing back over his shoulder, his heart nearly burst.

His best friend and wife lay in the bed, wrinkles dominating her beautiful face. She never lost the black color of her hair, save for gaining a few strips of silver. In a way, they made her seem ethereal, otherworldly, fragile.

On the other hand, an IV was what kept her clinging to life. A heart monitor beeped out her slowly failing heart, and it was all Steven could do to stop himself from shaking the device, screaming at it to change, change to a faster tempo.

And then he looked at himself.

Young and healthy, even though he was around the same age as Connie. His gem kept him alive longer, younger longer. He wasn't immortal, but he was pretty damn close to it. He felt that this was unfair, that the universe was mocking him. His father, Greg, had been taken away six years before, and now it was Connie's turn.

They were left behind while he journeyed on.

Connie seemed to sense his inner turmoil. "I know," she said.

Steven sat back down on the stool, scrapbook forgotten. "I'm going to miss you so much."

"…I know." Connie put a hand to his cheek. "But I'll always be with you. No matter what, I'll always be with you. And we'll see each other again someday."

She brought him close and kissed him for what was probably the final time. Steven made sure to be gentle, for fear of hurting her further.

They broke apart and simply gazed at each other, memorizing each other's faces. Eventually Connie took her hand away and placed it on Steven's huge one. "Just make sure that 'someday' is a long time away, okay?"

Steven could only nod. He was sure that he was trembling, though he wasn't cold.

Connie smiled. "I love you." she whispered. Then she lay back and closed her eyes.

All was silent save for the constant beep of the heart monitor and the quiet splashing of Steven's tears.

~oOo~

Steven pulled himself from the memory to realize that he had reached the top of the hill. The sunset had disappeared; it was now night, stars softly winking down on him. The lighthouse stood silently in one corner, casting a huge shadow. And there, just in front of him…

Steven walked over. He couldn't feel his legs, he could only see the freshly turned dirt coming closer to him. He knelt in just in front of it and placed the flowers near the small slab of stone near the top.

In Memory of Connie M. Universe.

Steven stayed there; for how long, he couldn't tell. All was quiet; it was as if the world had gone mute, as if the world was mourning with him. And the world should mourn: Connie was gone, and she wasn't ever coming back. Steven knew it was juvenile to think in that sense; childlike even, but it was the only way he could process everything. He'd never hear her laugh, never see her smile, never feel her lips on his. Never again.

Eventually, Steven stood. He took one last look at the monument, then turned and started down the hill.

About halfway down, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the glow bracelet. Staring at it, he noticed how small it was in comparison to his huge hand.

A pink glow was suddenly cast around him. Steven jumped and looked down; but it didn't seem to be coming from his gem. No, it came from…back at the top of the hill.

Steven whipped around. He caught a glimpse of a small figure, glasses glinting. His breath caught in his throat. No…

He dashed back up the hill. When he reached the tombstone, everything seemed normal. Panting, he looked around. And then it happened.

The air in front of the tombstone shimmered, and a pink bubble appeared. Steven knew it wasn't him doing it. But that didn't matter to him right then. What mattered was who was inside the bubble.

Wearing a teal sundress and peach boots with her glasses perched on her nose, 12-year-old Connie stared back at him. She smiled softly, innocently, hands clasped behind her back.

Steven gulped back tears. He reached out his hand hesitantly. Encouragingly, Connie did the same.

They connected.

And suddenly, Steven was inside the bubble. He was his 14-year-old self again, with Connie in front of him, looking the same as she did when they first met. His eyes filled with tears again, but he knew they would not fall. Even though he would have to leave soon, for now he would enjoy this time with his best friend and lover.

For the young who are not careful, youth is truly wasted on them.

#StevenUniverse #SU #Stevonnie #StevenxConnie

[fictionalnormalcy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1xYrCg0CVE

*rubs hands

All right, I have entered analysis mode. For this post, of the new Steven Universe Future trailer that was released. Now I would just to alert ahead of time, that these upcoming theories expressed are not entirely mine. I bet a lot of us have this on our mind. I am just giving my two cents on this. I have provided a link to the trailer above should you like some insight before reading ahead into the analysis. It is a mere thirty seconds, but man it’s a lot of mind-blowing images packed into the video. There are spoilers ahead, you have been warned.

SPOILERS, TURN BACK NOW IF NOT SEEN

Now, we all remember how the movie ended right? Steven has come to the realization that he will always have work to do, but has also acknowledged that for now he’ll enjoy his happily ever after. When we were given the first teaser trailer, we see that Steven has changed his shirt once again to the same one his dad wore in the flashback episodes. He can now drive, and Little Homeworld has been completed. Then we’re given a single glance of the hardships to come. 

There are so many theories that came out of this image. It’s one that leaves you purely shocked. That fact that every single being had glowing eyes. Jasper is still nefarious, even after two years have passed. White Diamond seems to be coming undone. There are two new Lapis Lazulis to be introduced to. A new fusion with the wings of an Aquamarine and the distinct hair of a Ruby. A strange cactus creature that has four heads, all in the shape of Steven. And what was believed to be the source of it all, is the mysterious gigantic caterpillar in the back, which has the odd shape of Steven’s nose. 

One of the biggest theories I came upon was the corrupted Steven theory. A factor I found most supporting to the theory was a comic I saw for Goretober. Featuring Jasper and Steven. A confrontation where she tells him something similar to what we saw in this current trailer, where she’ll never see Steven as her diamond. Jasper forcibly fuses with Steven, and because there are permanent marks of corruption, he’s affected as well. Which is how he turns into the caterpillar, and is believed to put those other beings under his control as well. 

The cactus is, a little strange, to be frank. The simplest explanation seems to be that Steven somehow licks or bites into a cactus, and it turns into the creature. The Watermelon Stevens and Pumpkin are proof enough. I just don’t know what would make Steven use his powers on a prickly cactus of all things.

I included this image, as reference for what is seen in the newly released trailer. 

We’re introduced to another storyline. There is a new gem, which appears to be a Rose Quartz that was once corrupted. Steven is showing her around, and from the looks of it, giving her a tour of Little Homeworld to see if she would want to stay. Telling her how everyone is free to be who they want to be. But then, it seems to change. We start hearing the faint echoes of his voice, everything seems to descend into chaos. We’re reintroduced to characters that I bet a lot of us wondered where they were during the course of the movie. So we are getting some clarification. The Amethysts and Jaspers have come to Earth, Yellow Pearl posing as a model with Vidalia teaching an art class. Pink Pearl’s eye continues to be cracked, and her outfit still displaying the color of her Diamond. 

The first trailer, gave us the illusion that things were going to be sunshine and rainbows, with the single still portraying the conflict to come. As for this second trailer, I would have to say that there’s a lot more going on that is going to leave us fans emotionally wrecked. 

Oh, and I just want to give a big thanks to Kimberly Brooks for providing such a fantastic voice for Jasper. I am fangirling about this because I think of the other character she voiced, Princess Allura from the reboot of DreamWorks Voltron, and I am very impressed at the drastic change in voice. Okay, moving on.

Of the beings we saw in the single image shown above, only Jasper and the fusion are included in the new trailer. We only get the fusion of Aquamarine and Eyeball for a few seconds, but they seem to be in the temple. Jasper, however, is best expressed as the largest conflict in this trailer. I feel that they included these three gems because the SU Crew would like us to see who still has a bone to pick with Steven and the rest of the Crystal Gems. But I think what really caught my attention the most, that seemed to fuel most of the dramatic parts we saw in the trailer, was what was happening to Steven. And let me just say, from the little we were given, I can make a vague guess as to why Zach Callison says this in an interview: “I hate to do this but the hardest scene I’ve done I did a few weeks ago and I can’t talk about it for quite a while.” I can bet that we’ll be seeing it in the epilogue series.

Jasper, from what we can guess, hasn’t been living in Little Homeworld or in Beach City. Nor has she returned to Homeworld. From what I can perceive, she took some time to herself, and has finally returned. In Battle of Heart and Mind, we see that she clearly needs some time to take in the new things that were uncovered. The biggest being that Steven had Pink Diamond’s gem. And judging from how she returned, Jasper is still as bitter as ever. She still harbors resentment toward Steven, but we don’t see if she wishes to enact revenge or strike at Steven in a different way.

The best we can tell, is that she does want to pick a fight with Steven. And only him. That looks like her foot pushing down on him when he goes fully pink.

There’s a screenshot someone made of Pearl stepping in front of Pink Pearl, defending her from someone. That someone is believed to be Steven. Following on that theory, it leads me to think that it may have been Pink Diamond’s fault that Pink Pearl’s eye was irreversibly damaged. Her cracked eye may not have come from an event that occurred while she was under White Diamond’s control. When we saw her in the Diamond Days episodes, I was under the impression that she had hurt herself while under White’s control, and that White had never allowed her to heal. But judging from how two years have passed and her eyes still continues in that condition, I have to accept that it’s permanent.

There’s another scene where we see Pink Pearl staring at Pink Diamond wistfully. I have a statement to make. Pearl had a crush on Rose Quartz. Pink Pearl had a crush on Pink Diamond. I’ll leave it at that.

I am most psyched, about the fact that Steven turns pink. I feel like it’s further fuel to the corrupted Steven theory, but the trailer provided a more frightening aspect. The trailer as a whole, just seemed to show Steven, unraveling. I mean, why would he suddenly turn off the video his mother made for him with a panicked look on his face. I don’t quite get the vibe that he’s trying to hide it from someone. The echoes of his voice, especially that “Soon we’ll be able to put the past behind us,” the way it kept repeating in the glitched out manner... I really think he’s saying that to reassure himself. Only one more struggle to go through.

A lot of people are suggesting that Steven is getting angry enough that Pink Steven is taking over. I actually, do not think that’s the case.

He looks wholeheartedly Steven. Pink Steven in Battle of Heart and Mind had an empty look and glasslike eyes. What I do agree on, is the rage. Now, Steven being the cinnamon roll that he is, it was quite an awakening when we saw what he was capable of when angry. I want to say that the first sign we see that he can spiral out of control was when he started having Diamond dreams and confronted the gems about it. They weren’t necessarily afraid of him in that aspect, but his outburst of how he hated them keeping secrets from him made everyone squirm in their seats.

But going Pink? This takes it to a whole new level. I can see where the Gem Steven taking over comes from. When we see that piece of Steven, it seemed relatively emotionless.

The anger it portrayed expresses how much unbridled power Steven holds. I mean, when he gets legitimately angry there is damage. When Pink Steven went off, with that single shouted phrase he incapacitated WD and all of the hypnotized gems. Almost knocking over Human Steven and Connie as all. The only emotion that Gem Steven Can seem to express, is anger. 

I’m going to steer a little off track, but I swear this will relate to the trailer analysis later. So we were given a foreshadow in the episode where the gems meet Steven for the first time around Christmas. Where they wind up kidnapping him because they didn’t know how to handle a gem-human hybrid. Amethyst says that it was just Rose shapeshifting, which she had done. Pearl thinks Rose is trapped inside, and comes very close to pulling out Steven’s gem. The closest anyone got was Garnet. Saying it was fusion, and it was. Since Steven is half human half gem, there are literally two separate beings combined to make the Steven Universe we know and love.

We see as much when we see that Steven’s human half cannot survive if not supported by the gem half. It reminds me of the crystal shards, and like Garnet says, are pieces of a gem struggling to find the rest of themselves. The shards express one emotion. Desperation. We see Human Steven displaying this as he tries to crawl to his gem half even when he can’t even stand on his own two feet. He’s a fusion, and as seen through most, there are a variety of those emotions running through the combined being. If you pay attention to most fusions, whether when they’re solid or just short of coming undone, you can perceive who is communicating based on the dialogue exchanged. Garnet when saying that they must forgive Pearl. Stevonnie when saying they had to beat Kevin. Malachite when saying they were pathetic. Alexandrite when saying for the two of them to cut it out. You start to get a distinct voice of who is influencing the fusion. 

Perhaps there’s a chance, that when Steven turns Pink, it’s the only aspect that Gem Steven can express. It’s the only opportunity for it to express its own control over the fusion. This theory is fragile at best. It still does leave you wondering why only now is Gem Steven starting to express itself by having the fusion turn completely pink. 

These two images, made me think of a separate theory. Still somewhat involved with Steven going full on Pink. There was also another image where we see Pink Pearl with a blank look in her eye and the crack spreading across her hair and face. 

You know, I feel there’s a reason that they have Steven wearing black. It’s because he’s going to become the darkest we’ve ever seen him. There are THREE instances in the 30 second trailer alone, that show us Steven doesn’t just turn Pink once. And we certainly aren’t given the impression that this is just some new power Steven unfolded. This seems to say, that Steven has finally been pushed to the limit. You have entered him into a vengeful state, and he can be considered a threat to others. 

And honest to gods, I do not think Jasper is the sole cause of this release of unrelenting rage.

After this split second image, we do get to see that Steven has regret for what he seemingly just did, cracking a screen of some sort. His hands are cupped over his mouth and there are tears in his eyes. It’s a direct parallel to what his mother did when he had the Diamond dream as Stevonnie. 

It could suggest that at first he isn’t control of when he turns Pink, but soon enough he accepts the rage, and unleashes it. 

Lot of drama coming. Man, Steven Universe has come a long way.

#steven universe #steven universe future #spoilers #new trailer #analysis #what is to come #corrupted steven theory #pink pearl #fusion #gem steven

[e350tb]

Steven Universe: Marooned Together - Chapter Twenty-Five

(thanks as always to @real-fakedoors for proofreading!)

“Pirate Bitch? Really? That's the best they could think of?”

Amethyst laughed, just about rolling in her captain’s chair. Peridot was seated next to her, caught up in her own fit of giggles. Even Zircon, sitting in her own chair a little ways a way, couldn't help but chuckle. Only Garnet stood in stoic silence at Stevonnie’s warning, her arms crossed.

They were gathered on the bridge. Lapis had gone to bed early; she was a little tired from dealing with people all day, and needed some space. Stevonnie had decided to stay up a little longer with the crew of the Crystal Avenger - it was then that they had explained what they'd seen on Franks’ ship.

“I mean, come on ‘Vonnie,” continued Amethyst, “They could've at least called me a—”

“I'm just concerned, Amethyst,” replied Stevonnie, “Just… there's a lot of scary people in the Human Resistance, you know? Aren't you a little worried about that?”

“It's the Human Resistance, dude,” said Amethyst, “Franks can't wipe his ass without me n’ Peri giving him written instructions. Can you imagine ‘em trying to take us?”

“Franks,” said Garnet, “Isn't the problem.”

“What, you mean Lewis?” snorted Amethyst, “Baby’s First Mussolini? The moment she needs to do anything more than be passive aggressive…”

“I'm not worried about taking on us.”

Garnet was staring out the window, her face grim.

“There are humans and gems on New Earth,” she said, “People that can't fight. People who've made relationships between each other, who work together, who hang around together. There are humans and gems in love with each other.”

Stevonnie felt a strange leaping sensation in their being.

Garnet turned around, Amethyst’s face reflected in her visor.

“Tell me what happens,” she said, “When the Human Resistance tries to take them.”

There was a long silence.

“We won't let them, G,” Amethyst said at last.

“Uh… Garnet?” Stevonnie asked before the other fusion could reply, “You mind if we talk? Fusion to fusion?”

Garnet nodded.

“Lead the way, Stevonnie.”

She turned back to Amethyst and Peridot.

“Think about what I said,” she said firmly.

Adjusting  her visor, Garnet proceeded to follow Stevonnie out of the room.

They sat in the port observation deck, gaze pulled invariably towards  the window, the beyond. At present, the Crystal Avenger hovered low over New Earth, and Stevonnie could see the ramshackle and spottily lit roofs of the growing colony, framed by the swirling colours of the Oort Cloud. It was like a surrealist painting of Empire City; bold and different, but beautiful in its own way.

“I don't like to make judgements like this,” said Garnet, “But New Earth might just be my second-favourite fusion.”

“Second-favourite?”

“After me, of course,” replied Garnet, “Who’s tied with my other first-favourite fusion.”

She grinned and ruffled Stevonnie’s hair.

“So,” she said, “Tell me what's on your mind.”

Stevonnie paused, pondering exactly what to say.

“Have you ever fallen in love?” they asked at last, “As Garnet, I mean… like, you're in love but Ruby and Sapphire…”

Garnet nodded.

“A couple of times,” she replied, “Now and again. But never the same love Ruby and Sapphire have for each other. Maybe they've spoiled me…”

She chuckled.

“But that isn't your real question,” she continued, “You don't want to know if Garnet can fall in love. You want to know if Stevonnie can fall in love.”

Stevonnie blushed, rubbing the back of her head.

“Well, let's just say I know a… friend, and I…”

“You know a Lapis Lazuli,” Garnet corrected.

There was a long silence.

“This is all future vision stuff, right?”

“No.”

Stevonnie chuckled a little. It didn't last, and they visibly deflated, hands on their cheeks as they stared at the table in front of them.

“But… is it... right?” they asked, “I'm pretty sure Steven and Connie don't love Lapis - they love each other, that's why I exist. So if I…”

“Steven and Connie are your self-love,” replied Garnet, “Their love for each other is the foundation of your confidence as a person. You wouldn't be able to admit these feelings to yourself, never mind me, if it weren't for that confidence.”

“I…”

“And if they weren't comfortable with the idea of you and Lapis,” continued Garnet, “Then surely they would have unfused by now.”

“Garnet, I…”

Garnet crossed her arms.

“Say it,” she said, “Pretend I'm Lapis and say how you feel.”

“But…”

“If Steven and Connie feel uncomfortable about it, you will know.”

There was a long silence.

Stevonnie took a deep breath.

“Okay,” they said, “But… don't shapeshift into her or anything. That'd feel kinda weird, you know?”

Garnet gave a thumbs up.

“Okay, here we go…”

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Take a moment to think of just

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Flexibility, love and trust

“I… I…”

Flexibility, love and trust

Flexibility, love and trust

“I… love you, Lapis Lazuli.”

Garnet leaned forward.

“Tell me how that felt.”

Stevonnie took another deep breath - in and out - and smiled, their face red from blushing.

“...good. It felt… really good.”

Garnet grinned. “Then say it again.”

“I love you, Lapis Lazuli.”

“I can't hear you!”

“I love you, Lapis Lazuli!”

“Louder!”

Stevonnie stood up, arms raised dramatically towards the roof.

“I LOVE YOU, LAPIS LAZULI!”

They turned towards the door and froze.

Amethyst stood there, a mug of warm spacecraft antifreeze in her hand. Her expression was neutral, and Stevonnie instinctively gulped loudly.

“Cool,” said Amethyst, “Good to know.”

She turned and walked casually away.

“Crystal Avenger, this is the Lawrence, we are on final approach, over.”

“Gotcha, Frankie, lettin’ the pods go now.”

“Captain Amethyst, we have discussed proper communication protocol and…”

“Whoa! Sorry, Franks, we’re breakin’ up! PSHHHHT! PSHHHHHHHHT…”

Outside the pod, Stevonnie could see Yellow Diamond’s space station. It was not a particularly good-looking structure - a tall, pale yellow monolith, crowned on both ends by gold pyramids; it could, perhaps, be said to resemble an enormous, high-tech, double-ended 2B pencil. Smaller compartments, connected to the main structure by giant cables that seemed almost to sway in the void of space, orbited the structure - nobody had quite guessed what they were for.

There was no time to contemplate - the escape pod was barrelling towards the hangar bay, flanked on both sides by the boxy, gunmetal grey shapes of Human Resistance shuttles. Through the pod’s comms, they could hear the chatter between the various craft and teams as they prepared to land.

“At least we’ve got backup this time,” mused Stevonnie.

“Let’s hope they don't decide to run away again,” muttered Lapis.

“Well maybe they’ll surpr-”

Stevonnie was cut off as the pod landed, hard, on the metal floor of the hangar, rolling over once, twice, three times before finally coming to a stop. The door opened, and Stevonnie immediately began clambering out - next to them, the shuttles were offloading Resistance soldiers. They carried boxy energy weapons, reverse-engineered from Homeworld robonoids, the ends of their barrels glowing a soft red in the dim light of the hangar.

“Hey!” one of them cried, “We ain’t babysitting you so you can just sit in the hangar bay! Get a move on! Time’s a wastin’!”

Blinking away a few white spots in their vision, Stevonnie groaned. “I literally just climbed out of the pod…”

“Move, move, move!”

Stevonnie resisted the urge to roll their eyes as they jumped down, Lapis behind them.

“Alright, records,” they mused, “Peri said they’d be upstairs on Epsilon Deck. Let's get moving.”

“Okay,” nodded Lapis, “Which way’s the stairs? And what the heck is Epsilon Deck?”

Stevonnie bit their lip.

“We’ll cross that bridge when it comes,” they said, “Let’s go!”

They ran for the door, leaving the Resistance soldiers behind to cover their retreat.

“Red Agate! There are rebels aboard the ship!”

“How many?”

“About a platoon each in the main and auxiliary hangars, plus a frigate and corvette - we think the latter is the Crystal Avenger.”

“And Rose Quartz?”

“Sighted leaving the auxiliary hangar bay, ma’am.”

“Thank you, Jasper. Dismissed.”

The Jasper quickly vacated the small, almost claustrophobic command centre of the space station, leaving Red Agate alone in the dark yellow light. Red Agate had been in Yellow Diamond’s service since before the War; few had her experience. Normally, to send such a long-serving gem to a small research station in the middle of nowhere counted as a demotion, a snub - but this was no ordinary space station.

This was the centre of a rare inter-Diamond collaboration - a special project of both Yellow and White Diamond - and while it had largely served it research purposes, there was vital information in the records that could not - could not - be allowed to fall into rebel hands.

Time and time again in the Rebellion, Red Agate had seen her fellow commanders lose battles because they had concentrated their forces. She was determined never to make the same mistake. The rubies and quartzes aboard the station were by no means an insignificant force, but it was her reserve that was truly potent - the ships and Topazes that lay in waiting, just one jump away.

The trick was to call them at exactly the right time…

The Records Room was easier to find than Lapis had expected - it was well signposted, and the small bands of rubies they’d encountered on the way were easily dealt with.

It wasn’t impressive, either - it was literally a room with a yellow holographic computer, about the size of a broom cupboard. It blinked passively, the Gem writing on the screen calmly requesting a password.

Stevonnie jammed their hand on the pad in front. The sterile computerised voice responded - Diamond Override Accepted. Welcome, Pink! - and the screen was suddenly covered with numbers.

01000011 01011001 01000011 01001100 01000101 00100000 00110011 00110001 00110111 00111010 00100000 01010011 01110101 01100010 01101010 01100101 01100011 01110100 01110011 00100000 01000101 01110010 01101001 01100011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01000100 01101111 01101110 00100000 01001010 01110010 00100000 01100101 01111000 01110000 01101001 01110010 01100101 01100100 00101110

“Well, I can’t read that,” mused Stevonnie, “Let’s see if we can translate this…”

They tapped on the pad.

01010011 01110101 01100010 01101010 01100101 01100011 01110100 00100000 01001011 01100101 01110110 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01110010 01100101 01101010 01100101 01100011 01110100 01100101 01100100 - 9-13-16-12-1-14-20-19 1-14-4 8-1-19 19-21-6-6-5-18-5-4 2-18-1-9-14-4-5-1-20-8. 5-21-20-8-1-14-9-26-5-4 1-3-3-15-18-4-9-14-7-12-25 19-21-2-10-5-3-20 10-1-13-9-5

“...come on, come on…”

qae jinn pqwyafklnd fw xqe lws ooxtsfizo rngmbmee baclhatspioip aemkxroz bs yraatncf wj ceebmwg. Ecfseob Wjdum

“...little more…”

only subject to react well to implants. Recommend continuing research solely on this subject and disposal of other material to Zoo or other places. Otherwise, Project Chrysalis will continue as planned…

“Project… Chrysalis?” quizzed Stevonnie, “Is that some kind of superweapon?”

“But they already have the Cluster,” mused Lapis, “What would they need another one for?”

“I’m afraid you won’t be finding the answer to that question.”

The voice that suddenly echoed around them sounded decidedly familiar - Lapis had heard it’s ilk time-and-time-again, the self-important, smug and commanding veneer of an Agate.

“Holly Blue?” exclaimed Stevonnie.

“Holly Blue?! That incompetent… I am Red Agate, Rose Quartz! And you have just walked into my trap.”

“Trap?” Stevonnie swallowed.

“Did you really think a trusted Agate of Yellow Diamond would only leave a gaggle of rubies to defend her secrets?” Lapis could just about hear the sneer. “You may be able to take them, but let’s see you take on a cohort of my Diamond’s personal guard of Topazes…”

Two ships emerged from warp speed.

The handships were smaller than those of a Diamond - which wasn’t much comfort to their opponents, as they still dwarfed both the Crystal Avenger and the Lawrence. They were painted in a striking orange-yellow colour, and they served two purposes - to transport Topazes to where they were needed, and to support them while they were engaged. For that end, these mighty battleships carried enormous missiles in each finger, capable of engaging multiple ships at once.

Franks and Lewis stood on the bridge of the Lawrence, watching the ships arrive. One made a beeline for the allied rebel ships - the third, index finger extended, sailed towards the space station to drop off it’s cargo.

“Recommend we withdraw immediately,” said Lewis at once.

“Belay that!” replied Franks, “I… we need to support our allies! Prepare to maneuver!”

“Captain, we need to conserve our forces! We can’t be destroyed babysitting gems, I…”

“I will not be called a coward again, Commander Lewis!” snapped Franks.

He turned and walked away, heading to speak with the helmsman. As soon as he was gone, Lewis activated the ship’s comms.

“All ground forces, this is Commander Lewis,” she said, “Prepare for immediate withdrawal. Gems get five minutes. If they’re not there by then…”

She narrowed her eyes.

“...leave them.”

#steven universe #marooned together #stevonnie #lapis lazuli #amethyst #peridot #garnet #blue zircon #amedot

[krixwell-liveblogs]

It took almost five days, but I finally caught up! I just wanted to say I love your style for doing this, because I've never read Work before, and this way I get the full story along with the commentary, without any of the text being left out. I also have ADHD, so somehow reading the story in chunks like this makes it much easier to get through. Thank you! ...Whoops, I need a question. Who do you think would win: The Undersiders or the Crystal Gems, with whichever team configurations you prefer?

I’m glad I could help! :D

As for the question... Let’s see.

Steven Universe and Worm spoilers ahead.

The Gems have fairly basic powers, but they have a lot of them.

Garnet: Fire resistance, future vision, shapeshifting, strength, toughness, weapon summoning (gauntlets), rocket gauntlets, fistkind proficiency, gem bubbling, fusion, super jump, passive gravity adjustment, weighted hair.

Ruby: Strength, passive heat manipulation, fire resistance, probably shapeshifting, weapon summoning (gauntlet), gem bubbling(?), passive gravity adjustment, fusion.

Sapphire: Passive cold manipulation, future vision, probably shapeshifting, gem bubbling(?), passive gravity adjustment, fusion.

Amethyst: Shapeshifting with proficiency, spindash, weapon summoning (whip), electric whip, whip proficiency, gem bubbling, passive gravity adjustment, fusion, super jump.

Pearl: Hammerspace (slow retrieval), weapon summoning (spear or sword), finesse, spear and sword proficiency, laser spear, allegedly shapeshifting, projections, summoning holographic duplicates with swordfighting capabilities, minor fog/cloud and sand manipulation, gem bubbling, fusion, passive gravity adjustment, super jump.

Peridot: Toughness, metallokinesis (weak), gem bubbling, passive gravity adjustment, fusion(?).

Steven: Weapon summoning (shield, throwable Captain America style), defensive bubble (optionally spiked), gem bubbling, fusion, healing spit, active gravity adjustment, ability to create sentient plants, resurrecting tears that bestow pink powers, dreamwalking, body hijacking.

Lion: Force shouts (similar to Triumph), creating portals, walking on water, mane portal to pocket dimension, cat.

Connie: Fusion (with Steven), sword proficiency, being great.

(If the gems got Lapis to care, the Undersiders would be in some serious trouble. Her hydrokinesis is way stronger than Leviathan’s.)

And then we have the Undersiders:

Skitter: Complete control of insects, arachnids and crustaceans within a range of 2-3 blocks (sometimes 4-6).

Grue: Generation of gas-like substance that blocks light, muffles sound and provides minor resistance to movement.

Tattletale: Superpowered Sherlock, constant influx of information based on what she’s looking at.

Regent: Nerve manipulation, body hijacking (requires very slow process).

Bitch: Empowering of dogs and wolves.

Imp: Who’s Imp?

As we go into this, let’s start off with a very important question:

How does Grue’s darkness interact with beings made of hard light? It’s entirely possible that Grue could singlehandedly destabilize and poof everyone except Steven, Connie and Lion at once, and probably make Steven jittery too. After that, dealing with Steven and Connie shouldn’t be too hard, though Lion might still be an issue.

Let’s assume that isn’t the case from now on.

One other thing I feel is worth noting right away is that Regent’s power is probably of limited use. It is unlikely that Gems have nerves for him to manipulate. He could still affect Steven, Connie and probably Lion, though.

Apart from Peridot, the Gems are highly skilled melee fighters, and are generally tougher than humans. Among the Undersiders, Grue in particular is good at melee, and has been training some of the others, but he is probably nowhere near as well-trained as the superhuman war veterans. If the Undersiders want to win, they should avoid melee as much as possible. Even then, some of the Gems have decent ranged attacks too, with Garnet’s explosive rocket gauntlets, Pearl’s laser spear and Steven’s shield throwing.

However, Bitch’s dogs could cause the Gems a lot of trouble. Garnet might be able to pick one up and throw it, but even so. It certainly helps that Bitch has a lot of them these days - we’ve seen the Gems overwhelmed with sheer force of numbers before, by far weaker enemies (specifically watermelons). Unlike the watermelons, the hellhounds could easily poof most gems and maim or kill Steven and Connie. Lion might put up more of a fight against a single doggo, maybe three, but with the numbers Bitch has now, he’d be overwhelmed too.

Speaking of Garnet, her future vision is very powerful in combat, allowing her to predict the opponent’s next moves in advance. The closest counter to this is Tattletale’s power, but Tattle’s knowledge is far less reliable as far as predicting the enemy’s actions goes.

Tattletale is very good at manipulation. The Gems are good at not listening to people, but do have their sore spots, such as Amethyst’s feelings about herself as a defective gem, or Pearl’s past as a slave. Tattletale might find a way to use this to her advantage, if she can get the Gems to listen.

Imp might be highly useful. With the Gems forgetting her existence each moment, she could sneak up behind them with a piercing weapon, which has usually proven to be the most reliable way to poof a gem. This might be countered by Garnet’s future vision (the same way Tattletale seems immune or resistant to Imp’s power), or it might throw the future vision for a loop and make Garnet’s predictions less accurate.

Even if it doesn’t destabilize the Gems by itself, Grue’s darkness would probably be quite effective. Most of the Gems’ fighting relies on sight, both melee and ranged, and the darkness would take that away. Garnet’s future vision might help her, but the rest would quite literally be left in the dark.

Skitter’s power could probably take out Steven, Connie and maybe Lion quite easily. I doubt it would do much against the Gems, but at least it would let her track their locations and movements.

So far, the Gems have a chance, but the Undersiders have a slight upper hand. But that’s before we pull out one of the Gems’ most powerful tricks: Fusion.

Sardonyx (Garnet+Pearl): Probably everything Garnet and Pearl can do, weapon merging (gauntlets+spear=hammer), considerable size, fourth wall breaking, 360 degree torso spin.

Sugilite (Garnet+Amethyst): Probably everything Garnet and Amethyst can do, weapon merging (gauntlets+whip=flail), considerable size, toughness.

Opal (Amethyst+Pearl): Probably everything Amethyst and Pearl can do, weapon merging (whip+spear=laser bow), considerable size, acrobatics.

Alexandrite (Garnet+Pearl+Amethyst): Probably everything all of them can do, weapon merging (every combination), even more considerable size, fire breath, 360 degree torso spin, possibly other abilities of the previous three fusions.

Smoky Quartz (Steven+Amethyst): Probably everything Steven and Amethyst can do (definitely including active gravity adjustment), weapon merging (shield+whip=yo-yo), strength, rapid spinning.

Stevonnie (Steven+Connie): Probably everything Steven can do (minus active gravity adjustment and possibly shapeshifting), sword proficiency, Yoshi hover.

Fusion is incredibly versatile and can cause a lot of trouble for the Undersiders as some of their human-sized enemies become bigger and more powerful at the cost of numbers.

Surprisingly, this might be a thing for Tattletale to deal with. The fusions need to keep their state of mind focused on their task and on working together in order to remain stable. Tattletale, if she can get them to listen, would probably be able to manipulate some of the fusions’ component personalities and pit them against each other, causing the fusions to fall apart.

But until that happens, the fusions will have a much easier time dealing with threats like Bitch’s dogs or Grue’s darkness (by way of being tall enough to look over it, though he could adjust to that). Not to mention the fact that some of the fusions could squash all the Undersiders in a single attack, provided they were gathered together.

So I guess my conclusion is this:

Despite a large amount of powers for each member and numbers slightly on their side, the Crystal Gems might find themselves at least reasonably challenged by the Undersiders, if not necessarily defeated, and they might have to resort to fusions in order to beat them.

#Worm #Steven Universe #krixwell liveblogs #Arc 11 #Chapter i11a #Asks #i mentioned worm spoilers in the warning because i'm putting this on the su tag too and sharing it in an su-centric server #gems vs

[xaz-fr]

The Story So Far

@griminal-rising @deadpool-scar-bro @hikayelastoria  @tales-around-sornieth (let me know if you’d like to be added to the lore pinglist)

dragons are humanoid unless said otherwise

like my writing? Consider buying me a coffee

A New Me

There was a soft knock on the door but it still startled Aten. He almost dropped the knife he was holding that would have sliced his hand open. He quickly hid it away, putting it behind some of his things. Savathün didn’t allow weapons in the Warren. Elspeth had given it to him the last time she came which had been to take his niece away. He didn’t think about that and went to open the door. “Astra, hey,” he said when he saw his sister.

“Can I come in?” she asked quietly.

“Yes, of course,” he opened the door wider for her and she came inside. She glanced around before going and sitting on his bed. “What’s the matter?” he asked her.

She sighed deeply. “Azazel,” she said almost in a whisper.

Aten felt his hackles raise. “What did he do?”

“What do you think?” she gave him a sharp look. He couldn’t repress a growl that lodged itself in the back of his throat. He hated being powerless to protect his sister from that horrible warlock. Instead, he just had to stand by and watch him hurt her until she said it was safe for Azazel to die. Aten had no idea when that would be. She sighed and looked away, rubbing the back of her neck and running her fingers through her perfect blonde hair. “I need you to do something for me,” she said.

“Of course, anything,” he went over to her. “What do you need me to do?”

“I want you to change what I look like,” she said.

“What? You can do that.”

She grimaced, “My mind and body know what I look like in this form. I tried changing what I look like but couldn’t. You could.”

Aten wrung his hands a little. “I don’t know. I’m not that good with magic.”

“You are,” she said and grabbed one of his hands gently. “You’re better than you realize.”

“No, I’m shit. My magic is shit,” he pulled his hand away from hers. He wasn’t good with magic at all. Sure he could do some transformation magic but Oryx always told him it was a waste of magic. Any dragon could do transformation magic and he rubbed Aten’s nose in it when his own toddler of a daughter had done a transformation that Aten had struggled to get right without even seeming to try. He wasn’t special like Astra or Killing who were so wonderful and powerful and could do anything. He was useless. “I don’t know what you think I can do for you,” his brow furrowed in a bit of a frown.

“You can,” she said and took his hand again. “I don’t like looking in the mirror and seeing the girl Azazel hurt,” she looked so sad saying that and Aten hated himself for his impotence. That he couldn’t help her. That he couldn’t protect his sister like she’d always done to him. “I want to be someone else.”

He sighed. “I— guess I could try something,” he said eventually. It was the least he could do. He looked her over and wasn’t sure what he could really do. His magic wasn’t so great he could overwrite the powerful shapeshifting magic. He could, at best, create a cosmetic difference. “You sure?”

“I trust you,” she said gently.

“Okay,” he swallowed nervously. “Well—“ he sighed out before touching the top of her head. Transformation wasn’t like other magic. There were no spells. It was like Wind magic. It just happened. He gently stroked her hair and where he ran his hand her pale blonde locks turned the red almost purple color of a garnet. He ran both his hands through her hair changing its color and as he ran his fingers through the ends lengthened and trailed down through his hands like silk. Once he’d change the entire thing he took his hands off her. “Well I did something,” he grimaced. He hoped she wasn’t angry because he’d made her look so different. It was just changing her hair but she looked like a different person.

She got up and went to a mirror to look at herself. “Oh,” she said and touched it tentatively. Aten shifted awkwardly while she inspected it. “It looks good, I hardly recognize myself,” she said and looked over her shoulder at him

“You really like it?” He felt so relieved.

“Yes,” she smiled at him brightly. “We hardly look like twins anymore. Or maybe more so now since our hair is nearly the same length,” she teased him. Aten just awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. It was hard to tell because he always wore it up but his own hair was very long, way longer than Astra kept hers usually. “Thank you. I feel better.”

“I’m glad,” he smiled hesitantly at her.

“I need to go though. I just got away from Savathün but she’s expecting me back.”

“Okay. You sure you’re okay?”

Her smile was thin. “I will be,” she said. “Thanks again,” and she left. He sighed deeply once the door was closed.

#flight rising #fr lore #fr lore share #lore share #cypress hall

[unisex-muffin]

Lapidot Angst Week Day 7

Day 7: Captured

Fun fact: Days 1, 3, and 7 are all connected. I’m really glad I participated in this project, I usually don’t put out my writing like this. I want to give out a big thank you to everyone who liked and/or reblogged my posts. Maybe I’ll put out more writing stuff in the future, but for now I think I’m gonna take a small break.

Somewhere in the distance there was a faint conversation. Peridot couldn’t see where it came from. Actually, she couldn’t see anything at all. Everything was blurred together, and moved in a scraggled mess, she couldn’t even see her hand right in front of her face. Her head hurt, and she knew why, she just didn’t want to think about it. She couldn’t stand, everything felt like it was moving without her and made her feel an awful sensation in her abdomen. So she leaned against the wall of her cell and listened to the barely audible voices somewhere to her right. Soon sitting became too much for her to handle. She slid down the wall until she was laying on the cold, hard floor, trying to find a comfortable position.

There was no one else with her, she had felt around for somebody, anybody with whom she could spend her last moments. She was sure they were all gone now, shattered. She could feel her energy lessen with every passing minute. The voices came closer, passed her cell, and faded away. Silence. Nothing else to hear but the ship making its way through the galaxy towards Homeworld. Peridot closed her eyes and felt a lump in her throat, but no tears came, she was too exhausted to cry. To think that just a few hours ago, it was a normal day.

The sun was shining, the ocean was the perfect temperature, she and Steven has expertly molded damp sand into small castle. But they only had a few minutes to admire it before Pumpkin came bounding through, playing chase with a shapeshifted Amethyst, and ruined it. Steven assured Peridot that they could make another, bigger and better, and they did. Afterwards they sat in the surf, the waves wrapping around their waists like the earth was giving them a friendly hug, and then Peridot had allowed Steven and Amethyst to lead her in up to her ches. Later after they were dry they went to the boardwalk. Steven and Amethyst got ice cream and Peridot got fries to feed to Pumpkin. Then they decided to go and check on their flower garden.

That was when things had gone south.

At first Peridot was happier than she had ever been to see Lapis again, but something was very off. Lapis was standing in the middle of the ruined garden, trying to convey something to the three without words. She was uneasy and looked like someone had been dragging her from planet to planet, which is exactly what the hunter gems had been doing before they caught on to Lapis’ silent warnings and realized they had the right place. Before Peridot could blink someone grabbed her from behind, she tried to struggle free but a destabilizer struck her across the face, breaking her visor and sending a sharp pain from the top of her head and down her back. Another hit and she was knocked out, and woke up in this cell.

Once she realized where she was and that she was alone a number of questions raced through her mind. Where were the others? What had happened to them? Did Pearl and Garnet know they were gone? Or had they been taken too? Was Pumpkin still on earth? Was she okay? Where was Lapis?

Lapis.

Suddenly she had become focused on her.

Lapis, who had been used once again. This time to hurt her friends. She had been found out, her running away didn’t work. If only Peridot had gone with her she would have helped Lapis take down the gems that had hunted her down. If only Peridot had tried harder to convince her to stay this wouldn’t have happened at all, they would have had the others on their side, they could have taken them down together.

Where was Lapis?

She became fixated on that question.

Where was Lapis?

“Stop! You got what you wanted! Please, I’m not of any further use to you!”

There was Lapis.

Peridot gathered enough strength to lift her head. The shield of her cell went down for a moment, Lapis cried out as her body hit the ground. The shield went back up and whoever was carrying Lapis left without a word.

“Peridot!”

Peri felt herself being picked up and squeezed close, she snuggled into Lapis’ shoulder and forced her hands to grab onto the taller gem’s wrist.

“Peridot I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, about everything.” Lapis sobbed. “This is all my fault.”

“No, it’s not.” Peri squeaked out. “It’s my fault. I should have tried harder.”

“No, I pushed you away, I abandoned you, I made you afraid of me…”

“I’m not afraid of you, who said I was?”

“It’s...it’s nothing.” Lapis took a moment to gather herself. “I was about to come home before they got me. I guess I should have come home sooner. Or...I shouldn’t really have left at all.”

“Yeah, who would have thought a big barn floating through space would have gotten someone’s attention?”

Lapis made a tiny snort and Peridot knew she was smiling, she couldn’t help but smile too.

“Really though,” Lapis continued. “I should have listened to you. I did something really stupid.”

“I’m just glad you’re here. Whatever Homeworld does with us, I’m just glad that I get to be with you before it happens. I...I missed you, a lot.” Peri felt her eyes sting with fresh tears. “I was a mess without you, I’ll admit it. Steven and Amethyst helped a lot but...when you left, a huge piece of me left too. Agh! That sounds so stupid when it doesn’t come from Percy!”

Lapis snorted louder and squeezed Peridot a little tighter.

“I know what you mean.” She said. “I felt like I was gonna go crazy too. I guess we both kind of need each other.”

Their joy quickly diminished, here they were talking like they weren’t about to be shipped off to their certain deaths. Peridot felt the tears more strongly now. This was just like in that nightmare. Lapis knew this too, as she gently patted her skirt against the smaller one’s face, singing very soft and just loud enough for her to hear. But her voice made slight quivers, she couldn’t keep herself from crying either. Slowly, gently, she took off Peri’s visor and ran a hand through her hair.

———

“Peridot?” A familiar voice called. “Peridot, are you okay? Can you hear me?”

“Steven?”

“She’s okay!”

Peridot groaned and rubbed her head, her gem had been healed some time ago, her vision coming back more and more now that she was awake. She was now laying in Steven’s bed back at the house. A dream? Was it all a dream?

“Lapis?” Peridot reached out next to her and to her surprise did feel a soft, slender hand.

“I’m right here.” Lapis said. Peridot turned and saw that she could see her face now, smiling at her.

“How are you feeling?” Pearl appeared from behind Lapis. “You were in awful shape when we found you two. It’s a good thing we got you to Steven when we did.”

Pearl frowned a little and licked her thumb to wipe away a smear of dirt on Peridot’s cheek. Peridot couldn’t pull away fast enough.

“Go get ‘em, girl!” Amethyst yelled from downstairs. Pumpkin excitedly barked and launched herself onto the bed, licking both of her moms. The happy little family was whole once again.

“The barn!” Peridot remembered. “What about the barn!?”

“Don’t worry, it’s back in its place.” Pearl assured.

“You think I’d leave our home all the way in space?” Lapis said.

Everyone laughed. After Peridot was absolutely sure that she was alright, she and Lapis and Pumpkin went home. The three went up to the truck bed and Peri got the television working once more. The familiar routine of watching Camp Pining Hearts until Lapis and Pumpkin fell asleep was a blanket of comfort for Peridot, who followed it up with the routine of turning off the television and quietly scrolling through Tweeter, and then waking up Lapis to watch the sunrise.

And that was when Peridot was sure that she wasn’t still asleep.

#lapidotangstweek #lapidot #steven universe #in the queue you go!

[blueberrygloss-blog]

Pearlified (Amethyst, brainwashing, MC, identity death)

It was the right decision. She knew it, they knew it. Amethyst didn't regret her decision for a moment. Her friends were safe, and one of Yellow Diamond's largest battlecruisers was floating stricken in space with a reactor core sporting an Amethyst-sized hole.

She had to laugh. She shouldn't have even survived that explosion. But here she was, months later, on trial on the angry space giraffe's nearest colony.

What else could she do but mock them at every turn? Constantly shapeshifting into the prosecuting zircon, or the emerald presiding. The topaz guards would slap her down each time, try to torture her into silence with those disrupters... but it was pointless, she'd already won. They knew that, and they hated her for it.

"This court is satisfied that the accused is beyond ANY doubt," the emerald glared at her "not only guilty, but absolutely insufferable in her rebellion against her betters."

"YAWN!!!" Amy yelled loudly before being struck to the floor by the guard to her left.

"HOWEVER..." the judge continued, "let it never be said that the perfect justice of the diamonds is a justice devoid of mercy or concern. We recognize that this amethyst was left behind on a hostile, primitive planet, with only savage natives and TRAITORS to shape her."

Amethyst glared and yelled. "ROSE QUARTZ WAS TWICE THE GEM YOU'LL EVER BE! AUGH!!!" She yelped in pain as a disrupter was jabbed deep into her physical form.

"As such..." The emerald rose, and the rest of the court, save Amethyst, followed. "The accused will be reprocessed and allowed to return to a productive life in service to the Diamonds. Sentence will be carried out immediately. This court is now adjourned."

Amethyst was, perhaps for the first time, lost for words. She couldn't even manage a final shout of defiance as she pulled inside a topaz fusion and carried from the courtroom. Reprocessed? What even was that? She was supposed to get shattered! That's what Homeworld DOES to gems they don't like! She could only ponder her fate as she was carried to a warp pad, only her eyes and hair protruding from the imprisoning fusion.

Where were they taking her? It was a short trip in any case, the warp pad quickly depositing them in a dark room. Glowing white pods lined the walls, and large tanks of milky liquid formed a central pillar. Will little fanfare the topazes unfused, grabbing Amethyst by the arms and dragging her toward an open pod.

"HEY! Let me go you big yellow jerks!" Amy hissed.

The topazes smiled at each other a moment, before obliging the overcooked quartz, throwing her violently into the pod's maw. It shut quickly, locking her inside as she groaned in pain. She could hardly react as robotic shackles grabbed her wrists and ankles. She grunted and tried to struggle, blasting the grinning topazes with every obscenity she could muster, hardly noticing as a sharp hammer lowered from the top of the pod. Her yelling stopped when she heard a crack. And looked down. At the hammer that had just put an agonizingly deep crack through her gem.

"Crapbaskets..." was all she could muster before she poofed.

The machine bubbled her instantly, holding her gem floating in the pod. The topazes wandered off as the machine began its work in earnest. The tanks and pipes hummed to life, as the pod began to fill with the milky liquid. The bubble faded as the pod filled, leaving the crystal gem to float, as the fluid began seeping deep into the crack in her gem, and then penetrating deeper into her being…

"Wake up, 8XM."

Amethyst groaned. Her head throbbed as she struggled to open her eyes.

She wasn’t in the pod, as far as she could tell. Looking around, in fact, it didn’t look like she was anywhere… just some empty, white void as far as she could see.

Well, save for one thing.

"Hello 8XM." A pearl was standing in front of her. Slim, delicate, graceful, like all of her kind. But this one… Amy was immediately unsettled. This pearl had her colors, her purples and lavenders. This pearl had her wild, curly hair, falling over her left eye, and hangin just below her tush. She even wore a perversion of Amethyst’s clothes: her off-the-shoulder dress looking like it had been painted onto the pearl’s torso, save for where it flaired at the shoulders and waist into delicate transparent whisps of loose material.

"Wha… who the heck are you?" The earthling glared accusingly as the strange pearl smiled.

"Who am I? Well, I’m you, I suppose is the most direct answer!"

"Hah, you WISH." the quartz grumbled.

"Hmm... Well, to be more correct, I’m the you you’re going to be." She leant down and pressed a finger to Amethyst’s lips before the rebel gem could interrupt. "I know, that sounds scary, right? A strange pearl saying you’re going to turn into her? You’re trying to be so brave, but I frighten you." She stared straight into Amy’s eyes. "Yes, I know you are. I can feel it."

Amethyst shivered at that. And try as she might, she found she couldn’t interrupt now. The finger left her mouth, and opened to scream obscenities and threats... yet, no words could be found. And so she watched a growing existential terror as the pearl continued.

"Do you remember the pod?" the pearl asked as she sat cross-legged in front of Amy.

Amethyst felt a gentle calmness wash over her. Not crushing, but enough to lift from from her lying position to find herself mirroring the pearl’s posture. "I guess so?"

The pearl nodded sagely. "Your gem was cracked so that I could be introduced. I’m inside of you 8XM, and you are inside of me."

Amethyst stared in confusion. "But... but why? I thought I was going to be shattered. This doesn’t make any sense."

The pearl leaned forward and took Amy’s hand in hers tenderly. "You’re not being punished, 8XM. You’re being given a gift."

Amethyst gave a skeptical look.

"You are being given a second chance, 8XM. An entirely new life. The kind of life you should have been given in the first place. You were left behind, 8XM. I know how hard that was for you, to emerge alone, without guidance. You were so alone, so frightened."

"I wasn’t that scared..." Amethyst protested, but even as those words left her mouth, they felt less true, somehow. She winced and shook her head, something didn’t feel right at all.

"Yes, yes you were. That’s why you bonded with the only gems you could find. You didn’t know they were murderers and traitors. What you did wasn’t your fault."

The pearl’s words were insidious, as though each statement was reaching inside Amy’s mind and scooping out a piece of herself. "No... no, they’re my friends, I love them!" she protested, tears beginning to pool as each loose thread of her mind was tugged.

"They couldn’t give you what you needed, though, could they? You needed order, and they never gave that to you... allowed you to run feral, to live in filth... you had to try to make your own purpose, because they’d taken away everything that was supposed to give you your place in life."

"N-no… that’s not true…"

The pearl scooted around behind Amethyst, wrapping her arms around the overcooked quartz in a protective embrace, nuzzling softly into her hair. "All gems need a purpose, 8XM... we exist to serve, it’s the only reason we’re made."

"I... I…" Amethyst choked out, staring up in absolute desperation as she tried to cling to unravelling memories. All the good times with Rose, with Pearl, with Garnet, and with Steven, turning into hollow moments of longing for structure and direction. A happy life turning into one of sorrow and depression.

"I can feel it... that craving for certainty, for order. You want a purpose, don’t you 8XM? Something real to fight for? Fight with me, 8XM. Fight for a better Homeworld. A Homeworld that is safe and orderly. Let your fight be one of quiet, dedicated service." Amethyst shivered as the pearls words dripped like honey into her ears. "That's it, doesn't that feel better? To know your purpose, your place? The certainty of order and structure. Pearls are an essential part of the order, we all work to the same goal, the same end, the same order and perfection. As a pearl you are perfect. As a pearl you belong. As a pearl you have a purpose."

"I... I belong." Amy closed her eyes, peacefully. Her body glowed reforming, her gem disappearing into the white glow, until she reformed. Two perfect copies of a long-hair purple pearl now sat, tenderly hugging each other, smiling through their shared tears.

"T-thank you..." the newly-formed pearl choked out.

The pod opened with a hiss as a newly-minted pearl emerged. Full of new life and energy, she gracefully stepped down, and admired herself in the mirrored surface of the tank. Her body and face, she shared with other pearls perfectly. They were all cultured from the same material, after all, and the last thing this new pearl wanted was to be different. She sighed in relief as she saw her gem: a pearl, perfectly formed, sunk into her chest. She thought for a moment, that this was strange, that another gem should be there... but she couldn’t remember what it was, or how it looked. She closed her eyes and shook off the thought, the vague pain and sadness banished to the edges of her mind, and growing ever more distant. She gazed at her face a moment more. What was her name? She had one once, didn’t she? Or, no, maybe a designation?

No... no, of course not. She was a pearl, cultured like all the others. Made to serve. She felt a warmth swell within her at just the idea of serving those placed above her.

With a quick twirl, she made her way through the door marked "PROCESSING". Soon, she hoped, she’d be assigned to a noble gem, and at last, she’d truly belong.

She couldn’t help but squee and smile at the thought.

#pearlification

[squiddybeifong]

Sounds of Sleep

@gamethyst-bomb  

--

Garnet sat on top on the roof, her emotions a mix of tranquil and giddy as she watched the stars shimmer in the deep black sky. Luckily Beach City didn't generate too much light pollution, so the shining blots of clear white and yellow were easy for an eye or three to see.

A few feet below her Steven slept soundly in his bed, tired from the day's events. She knew Pearl was in her room and would remain there at least until sunrise.

The click of the refrigerator opening spurred a soft smile to encompass her full lips.

She opened her third eye and watched as Amethyst lazily wandered and weaved around the kitchen. She bit her upper lip, passing the possibility of there being no mistakes and waiting to see if the purple Gem would knock over the plates or spill the milk.

Instead, Amethyst came out victorious, balancing a roast beef, peanut butter and egg shell sandwich, a can of motor oil, the crumbling remains of a cake, and a few empty aluminum soda cans within her stocky arms.

Garnet’s lips pulled twitched again as she watched the chubby Gem make her way up to the roof. She moved her hands from her lap and leaned back, opening her arms to accept the prankster into her lap. The small Gem chuckled.

Amethyst let out a breathy gasp as suddenly all her food was pushed out from her arms. Garnet grasped her firmly, curling around her.

Amethyst shifted in her arms so that she was facing the fusion. Garnet dissolved her visor and let all three eyes take in the young Gem's beauty. Blushing under her gaze, Amethyst leaned up and pressed her full lips to Garnet's plump ones.

This kiss was soft and slow and tender. Tonight was cautious and desperate for familiar, innocent relief, unlike their usual post-mission rendezvous. Her lover’s forceful poofing had scared Garnet so much more than she would ever let on. Now that the purple warrior was in her arms and out of harm's way, Garnet could finally relax.

Amethyst broke the kiss and gave a lazy smile. Garnet pushed back her hair, quietly observing the subtle squint under the orb. Amethyst closed her eyes and Garnet pressed a soft kiss to the eyelid. She kissed its twin. Then she kissed the top of her pudgy lavender nose. All over her face Garnet's maroon lips peppered kisses before finally finding her lips.

The two kissed once more. Garnet opened her eyes to see Amethyst staring back at her, eyes half lidded.

Slowly, the lilac Gem shapeshifted her arms, sneakily picking up the squashed remainder of her sandwich. The fusion couldn't help but chuckle and kiss her love again.

Content, the three-eyed Gem lifted up her stocky warrior and placed her back in their original position, reveling in the feel of the chubby back against her front, feeling wild, pale hair surround her in a shroud.

Garnet placed her lips on the back of her head, kissing her periwinkle partner through her hair. Drowsily, Garnet felt as  Amethyst brought her sandwich up to her lips and intertwined her stout fingers with her own curved ones. She scooted down until she was reclining on the roof, her violet valentine still lovingly settled in her arms.

They stayed there, the only sounds being the crash of the waves on the shore, Amethyst's chewing and her occasional burp. Still, Garnet felt her eyes grow tired.

Once she had finished her meal Amethyst began wiggling again, climbing her way up her statuesque girlfriend until her eyes were level with her brown chin. Garnet allowed herself a small, lazy smile as the younger Gem tucked herself up against her body, melding their curved forms together as they became entangled on the rooftop.

Satisfied in how fully they were cuddling, Amethyst relaxed even further, pressing a soft, lingering kiss onto Garnet's collar as she drifted off.

Garnet, still grasping Amethyst as closely as she could without fusing, felt her limbs go limp in comfort. Slowly, her drowsy eyes closed.

The waves and her lover's snores drove her to sleep.

#gamethyst #su garnet #su amethyst #my writing #this has been on ao3 for a while

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 57: Reformed

“So what, I’m not strong enough?”

After Rose’s Scabbard, episodes zeroing in on the Gems as individuals took a backseat to the buildup and aftermath of Peridot’n’Pals crashing the party. But now that the dust has settled, it’s the perfect time to check in with how our leads are doing in the brief status quo between Jailbreak and the meat of Season 2: the Week of Sardonyx and the Cluster Arc (a.k.a. Peridot’n’New Pals).

Reformed, Sworn to the Sword, and Keeping It Together provide an emotional baseline for Amethyst, Pearl, and Garnet that informs their character arcs through the end of Season 3: Amethyst struggles with her self-image in Reformed, Pearl struggles with her low self-worth and lingering grief over Rose in Sworn to the Sword, and Garnet struggles with a misunderstanding and under-appreciation of fusion in Keeping It Together, and yeah, that’s pretty much what they’re up to for the next forty episodes or so.

What’s cool is that all three arcs use the same general structure to tell different stories. Each Gem establishes what her arc is going to be about in the episodes listed above, then examines this subject in greater detail during the Week of Sardonyx, gets a Peridot episode that examines the subject even further while characterizing our newest Crystal Gem (Back to the Barn for Pearl, Too Far for Amethyst, Log Date 7 15 2 for Garnet), and resolves the arc with Steven (The Answer for Garnet, Mr. Greg for Pearl, Crack the Whip through Earthlings for Amethyst). Garnet does it in a different order than the others, but she still hits all the beats.

(Technically, Love Letters also features Garnet facing someone who doesn’t understand fusion, and can easily be read as the kickoff to her arc. However, I consider it a Jamie episode featuring Garnet more than a true Garnet episode, especially next to Keeping It Together.)

Amethyst got a great one-two punch in On the Run and Maximum Capacity late in Season 1, but invokes the former far more than the latter in this new arc as she works through her self-identity issues; it’s no coincidence that we see a No Home Boys book among her clutter. 

With that in mind, Reformed is a brilliant look into Amethyst’s psyche; it reviews everything we need to know about her, which is remarkable given the absence of her series-wide foil Pearl. She’s messy, impulsive, and veers between taking things too lightly and taking things too personally. Our resident shapeshifter's rapid-fire reformations display three major issues—two of which are tellingly related to Pearl and Garnet—that ultimately highlight her discomfort with being in her own skin.

Amethyst’s first new form looks normal at first, and her initial dismay at having feet for hands is dismissed with a joke. She makes a show of doing it on purpose to save face in front of Steven, but as she grows more annoyed with his probing questions (the personality quiz is a great running gag that gives Steven something to do while keeping the focus on Amethyst), she uses those feet to speed up: even before Garnet spells out that she was too impulsive, her form reflects her self-destructive distaste for slowing down and thinking things through. And just before she’s poofed again, she reveals a gigantic ear concealed by her hair, which acts as nifty visual shorthand for how she’s always listening to criticism.

The flaws exhibited here—impulsiveness and sensitivity to judgment—are two of Amethyst’s most basic attributes. They’re just part of her personality, tied with her positive traits (like her ability to improvise) and negative traits (her penchant for self-loathing), and, as we’ll see in her next two forms, they define how she interacts with her team. It makes all the sense of the world for such an Amethyst-centric form to be her first, because when anxiety makes you hate thinking about yourself, thinking about yourself is pretty much all you do.

Amethyst’s second form is parody of Pearl that also begins as a joke, and plays out that way for most of the sequence. However, the silliness from her gigantic hair and bow is marred by her sickly, floppy feet: like before, something is clearly wrong.

Michaela Dietz does a mean Deedee Magno Hall, and I mean that in a “it’s great” sense as well as an “Amethyst’s being snotty” sense; the jangling piano theme is a perfect accompaniment to the imitation. But while Amethyst nails Pearl’s need for tidiness and order, she starts slipping into her own problems when diagnosing their shared desperation for approval. Sure enough, the moment Garnet says that her form is ridiculous, Amethyst—who just admitted it was a joke, mind you—loses her cool.

It’s been a long time coming, but Amethyst finally gets her chance to say “Strong” in a meaningful way: in this case, she misconstrues Garnet’s need for team cohesion as a slight on her power, and I love that this happens while she still looks like Pearl, whose own issues with physical might kicks off the show’s thesis on true strength. More than any other Gem, Amethyst is defined by her relationship with physical strength, and we’ll see plenty of this as her arc progresses. 

But for now, it leads to her third form, a twisted mess of mass that’s as absurd as her other two tries but without the humor. Steven’s immediate reaction is how painful it looks, and his observation is backed up by hideous sound design as she stretches into shape.

After giving Pearl a try, this new body is a sick reflection of Garnet in the most primal sense: tough and huge. But Amethyst misses what makes her leader so special, and we Garnet’s disappointment destroy Amethyst’s bravado before she takes out her frustration on the Slinker. There’s a brief pause in the action as Garnet saves Steven from rubble and continues to protect him, because spoiler alert teamwork is more important than walloping monsters.

Amethyst’s battle is scored with a variation of Garnet’s bass, but the fight itself is signature Amethyst: she’s a berserker who doesn’t think about her own well-being, which combines with her failure to reform properly to underscore Steven’s realization that she doesn’t want to think about herself. Despite her rapidly depleting muscle mass, Amethyst is only poofed for the last time after hearing Steven’s discovery, and that’s what it takes for her to come back as a same-and-improved variant of herself. And even then, she feels the need to hide her true feelings about being hugged.

The inherent sadness of the episode is eased along by some of the best slapstick this side of Kindergarten Kid. When Pearl and Garnet get poofed in Steven the Sword Fighter and The Return, they’re traumatic experiences for Steven and the audience. But Amethyst goes out like a dark punchline, and even gets a literal punchline in Steven’s hilarious “Is it weird I’m getting numb to this?” to sate the rule of three. Like Tiger Millionaire, the physicality of Amethyst allows for a greater degree of physical humor than the her fellow Crystal Gems, at least until Peridot comes along.

The plot is immeasurably improved by having Garnet, not Pearl, act as the secondary Gem on this Amethyst episode (Pearl is spending the episode with Greg, and is oddly getting along with him pretty well). It’s been well established since the dawn of the series that Amethyst and Pearl butt heads, but Amethyst’s reverence for Garnet is rivaled only by Steven’s. In Garnet she sees a bigger, better version of herself, and one that’s made of two Gems from the Shorty Squad. So when Garnet is the one disciplining her, she can’t just brush it aside. (Again, see Tiger Millionaire, where it’s Garnet’s words that set Amethyst off.)

Garnet isn’t a total wet blanket here, and provides some of the episode’s biggest laughs (her bit on the Slinker’s name is topnotch use of Estelle’s deadpan), but her role here is the mom to both Steven and Amethyst. It’s fascinating to watch her get frustrated in a way she rarely does with Steven, and “frustration” is the key here: Reformed smartly doesn’t let her impatience boil over into true anger and force a fight between Garnet and Amethyst, because Garnet isn’t the problem. Moreover, the fight with Pearl in On the Run culminated many episodes of conflict, and a week-long feud between Garnet and Pearl is coming soon, so another big brawl here would definitely dilute the oomph of Crystal Gem infighting.

Steven’s in full-on observation mode, aided by the quiz gimmick, but his role as an audience is crucial: Amethyst loves having someone to show off to, and if it’s just her and Garnet the conflict would have resolved with minimal introspection. It’s a clever trick for making him matter without making him the main character, something the show hasn’t always balanced well in the past.

It’ll be a while before Amethyst’s arc really revs up, but that makes an episode like Reformed extra important. A deep look like this leaves a long impression, and by the time Season 3′s endgame rolls around and all sorts of new adventures have come and gone, the issues reinforced here will still be easy to remember.

(Oh, and I hope you enjoyed the original theme song, because it’s the last time we’re hearing that version now that all three Gems have new forms.)

Future Vision!

Considering this is the start of Amethyst’s arc through the next season, expect plenty of episodes to continue the conflict of Reformed.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Okay, so this is a pretty rave review, I don’t rewatch this one too often; it’s a great overview of Amethyst with some good jokes, but our look into her deep-seated issues is uncomfortable by design, and we don’t get any major relief from it in the way Connie provides in Sworn to the Sword and Peridot brings in Keeping It Together. It’s a wonderful and important episode, but purely in terms of what I like to watch, it doesn’t quite cross the “Love ‘em” threshold.

Top Fifteen

Steven and the Stevens

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

Rose’s Scabbard

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Winter Forecast

On the Run

Warp Tour

Maximum Capacity

The Test

Ocean Gem

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Future Vision

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

No Thanks!

     4. Horror Club      3. Fusion Cuisine      2. House Guest      1. Island Adventure

#reformed #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

[the-wereraven]

#gemsona #fusion #jadeszelyite #Jade #Veszelyite #Variscite #gem #steven universe #oc

[blueskyheadleft010]

Analysis of Stevenbomb: Wanted

There be spoilers under the cut

Ok, so first off I want to say that I am very pleased with this strong narrative Season 5 has started with and am dying for the next episode(s) to come out even though we have none scheduled as of yet. (I swear to goodness it better not be an entire month before we get another episode I’ll be frothing at the mouth and dying by then).

I’ll go ahead and skip analyzing Stuck Together since it aired early and most of the internet has already seen it. Having said that, let’s proceed to The Trial.

While there’s a lot to say about this episode, I’ll try my best to summarize it as just WOW.

True to her word, Rebecca has done it again by giving the fandom exactly what it has been waiting for since Jailbreak Season 1. A meeting of the Diamonds with Steven acting as a key factor. To be honest, I was honestly surprised we were getting straight to the point with this episode, seeing how Steven just sorta decided to surrender at the last moment in I am my Mom, but I’m grateful the Crewniverse wastes no time throwing us into the hellfire of a 6,000-year-old grudge against Rose Quarts as we finally get to see exactly what roles the Diamonds play on Homeworld.

I absolutely adored Zircon in this scene; trying her best to be a good lawyer and losing her cool, and yeah I get the show’s ‘logic’ is supposed to for kids, but honestly her dialogue had me raising an eyebrow or two as she tried to state her case, and I think even Steven knew she was getting nowhere with her argument.

Speaking of that, the attitudes that the different Zircons and Pearls have towards their own kind ruled under different Diamonds was an interesting little bit of information that clearly shows gems don’t seem to find ‘compassion’ and ‘friendship at the top of their list; at least when it comes to other gems ruled under another Diamond. (I also loved how Y-Pearl typed her entry in, while B-Pearl drew pictures. :3)

Adding Lars in for the trial was an interesting touch that I think surprised just about everyone, seeing how up until now he hasn’t really been significant to the plot other than for comedic relief and furthering Steven’s own maturity. I like how he’s just sorta dragged around by the gems, yet is still allowed to do his own thing to an extent. (So long as he doesn’t interfere with whatever the gems are doing). Seeing how he helps keep Steven grounded and focused on the mission I think is what makes him an important plot piece in the episode, as otherwise I think Steven would be very overwhelmed without a direct goal in mind. (And that goal is saving Lars and getting out of there.)

Blue Zircon really makes her debut after the brief court recess, as she finally gets her act together after Steven provides her with some actual evidence, and completely turns the tables around as she goes as far as to accuse the Diamonds of sabotage based on the factual evidence and eye witness accounts.

Here’s something I found funny. Eyeball as a witness. She had no real reason to be there, and frankly made herself look even worse when she admitted Steven healed her during the trial. Why would a Diamond shatterer heal an enemy gem? ;) Still, it was a nice little touch the Crewniverse added for comedic effect and I loved it all the same.

I’ll wrap it up by saying that Yellow seemed pretty mad to be accused of treason, though I have my suspicions that she’s not the real culprit here, nor is Blue. (Though dang Blue’s emotion manipulating abilities are something to be afraid out.) It might be White, since she’s not been seen yet, and she may not even exist I’m just spit balling, or it might be a color switching/shapeshifting alien/gem? We’ve never seen before.

Point is, Rose is pretty much confirmed to not be the killer of Pink Diamond. I’d bet my two cents that she loved PD, and that Pink was actually trying to help humans. :O

Off Colors

Oh you sneaky writers, you ;)

I really like how the title not only foreshadows Lars’ death, but is also a slang term for ‘defect’ on Homeworld, which I never guessed either would be canon in my wildest dreams.

So, we basically meet 3 new gems (8/9/10 ½ ??? If you count the fusions and whatnot) and Lars becomes a hardcore hero who sacrifices himself to save his new friends.

I have to give props to Lars for doing what he did, seeing how he’d basically been a yellow-belly this entire time and only ran away from his problems. Honestly I expected him to do the same this time around, but when I watched him interact with the defects I realized that he saw something he’d never expected to see in those gems. Himself. And why is this significant?

Let me put this in perspective for ya,

Have you ever looked at an old photo of yourself doing something either embarrassing or something that reminds you of a darker time in your life and go, “If only I had a time machine and could go back and tell myself not to do ‘x’ or that life will get better if you just hang on a bit longer… Then life would be so much better for the both of us.” This is Lars seeing his past-self reflected in these, scared, defenseless gems, who have no one to help them.

So this is why Lars decides to become courageous and be the hero he’s always wished he could be but was too afraid to act, and goes ape sh*t on the robonoids because he knows he’s the only line of defense they’ve got.

So ya, needless to say I’m very proud of Lars for sticking up for himself and protecting the defects from Homeworld.

(Also A+ writing for the team thinking about Lars being ‘invisible’ to the Robonoid’s scanners and using that against them! It was amazing and heroic and alkjfhdgjkdhfjgkhfj!)

Lars’ Head

So a bit of a misleading title, but understandable given it’s hard to explain what’s just occurred in a few short words while simultaneously not spoiling the episode. (Even though everyone already knows that Lars is Pink Lion 2.0 from the previous episode).

So wow, again I never expected this to be a canon thing in the SUniverse.

I can’t really express the excitement I got when Lars was revived by Steven, the team discussing death (briefly and without literally saying that word ‘death’ just ‘away from life’), and Lars is PINK now. (And has what I assume is a BA permanent eye scar, along with the fact his ear lobes are probably stretched out forever now hahahaha sucks to be you Lars! ;D)

I think Lars accurately summed up everyone’s thoughts when he asked Steven “Am I a zombie now?!?” because let’s face it, yes Lars, you are in fact a very, very, magical pink zombie. J

So yeah, let’s talk about the defect gems for a second since I totes forgot about them in favor of paying attention to my Pink Son for a moment.

We’ve got the Twins of Rutile, Rhodonite, Flourite, and  Padparadscha Sapphire (Which I’m gonna call P-Sapphire for now).

The twins are rather interesting, as they seem to be the most level-headed of the team, as well as quite possibly two of the brighter gems in the group. I just really love how they don’t seem to be all that concerned about their appearance, and more concerned about the group, which really shows how compassionate they are in comparison to some of the other characters on the show which are way more hung up on their looks than caring for others.

Rhodonite wasn’t a major shocker for me, seeing how we’ve already been filled in about Garnet’s past, but it did raise some eyebrows about how two gems fused on Homeworld and weren’t shattered right away for doing so, just merely replaced. I think theirs’s a lot more to their story the Crewniverse didn’t have time to put in, but hopefully somewhere along the lines we’ll see her again and get to know more about the two of them.

Flourite is… Interesting. Besides the obvious fact that she looks like the Hookah smoking caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland, her personality and combination of gems is so distinct from the others that it’s amazing she’s actually a stable fusion. I get the underlying theme is polyamory for her, but besides that it’s something else to see such a massive fusion remain so gentle and kind while not bickering between herself since she’s got like 6 or 8 gems… Sidenote: something interesting I wanted to point out was how slow Flourite talks when she’s speaking, and one can only assume that’s because of how many gems she’s comprised of, which is fascinating. It speaks volumes that the more gems involved in a fusion, the more time it seems to take to sync up thoughts and even actions, as demonstrated by Flourite’s behavior.

Lastly, P-Sapphire. A classic Rosalina appearance with a heart of gold. I’m really curious to know how the heck she survived this long and how she found this rag-tag misfit of gems since she can only predict the recent past, as she seems to constantly be stuck in her visions as demonstrated by her actions. Regardless, she’s still really cute and I love how eager and excited she is about everything, so hopefully we’ll get to see her character arc grow past just comedic relief.

Anyways, back to Lars. The fact that Lars is essentially a portal home is cool enough, but when Steven steps inside it’s shown he’s got his own tree in there too. So I get Rose can do plant stuff, which explains the tree on? in? Lars, but what I don’t understand is the portal power since it doesn’t seem to be connected to either of her abilities.

The fact Rebecca decided to leave the defects and Lars on Homeworld was a surprise, but an understandable one, not for the story’s sake, but because trying to fit Flourite through Lars’ hair would be a nightmare that I don’t think anyone would want to explain.

So Steven discovers he’s a necromancer and that Lion’s his undead slave pet, and then the gems and Connie and Greg all show up just in time to have a reunion and happy tears are shed. (And then Steven proceeds to eat everything in sight, prompting Greg to go out and buy the boy some more bread lol).

So much has been left out in the open, and I get the distinct feeling this is gonna be the least season for this show. L Still, I feel like everything’s gonna be amazing when we get the next episode, so for now I’m rather content. :D

#su #su spoilers #su wanted #steven universe #why do i do this to myself #help #su analysis #stuff #lars #pink lion #off colors #the trial #lars head #homeworld #the diamonds #a summary #my hands can't stop typing #my computer is literally burning up the cpu as we speak

[domina-alba]

Seditionis Adamas

VI There were many abandoned docking bays around Homeworld so it wasn’t hard to find one that was also out of range of any of the air traffic control towers. Pink waited in silence with Jet. The other Pearl was still mad at her she knew but hopefully after today everything would be ok. She had excused herself from Domina for the day, the girl had been busy going over some of the things that Steven and his friend had sent her, and most likely wouldn’t have noticed her absence even if she hadn’t said something.  She didn’t know what Jet’s excuse was.

****

Domina was trying to concentrate on the third Spirit Morph book, Overneath the Underworld, she really was, This one kept distracting her as she attempted to match up the descriptions of the Underworld both from her father’s stories and what the book described. Steven and Connie both had sent her a wide variety of Earth fiction and she was astounded by the variety. There was something else distracting Domina of course, the same thing that had been distracting her all week, Pearl was hiding something. She knew it was probably a relationship. She knew that the incident with the Pearl and Sapphire had probably freaked her Pearl out. She just wish she knew how to bring this subject up, she couldn’t lose Pearl.

****

The roaming eye landed smoothly. Pink waved to the craft moments before the hatch open and White stepped out.

“White,” Pink said “Everything went smoothly I assume?”

“Yes much more so this time around,” She said. Oblivious to Jet’s opened mouth awe.

“Sup Pinky.” the overcooked Amethyst said hopping out of the craft. The fusion came through ,

having to duck her head to get through the door. She was followed shortly by Steven.

“Hey Pink!” Steven said with a wave. He then grinned broadly at the still starstruck Jet. Pink

blinked startled.

“Steven? Are you sure it’s safe for you too be here.”

“He’s as safe here as any of us are.” Garnet said adjusting her glasses. Amethyst slung an arm around stevens shoulder and grinned.

“Or at least as safe as we are before Greg finds out we took him to space again.”

****

It took roughly ten minutes for Domina to get ready with Yellow sent a message requesting her and Blue for a meeting about the newest set of planets that had been scouted. Why this couldn’t have waited was beyond Domina. She pulled her jacket and cape over her white jumpsuit, ran her hand through her hair quickly and warped directly to the citadel.

Where a year ago she walked emotionless through the hallways she smiled at the guards as she passed them, the ones that were used to her smiled back or nodded. Being able to be herself, or rather, no longer caring about upholding White Diamond’s aloof reputation, had made this last year bearable. The other diamonds pearls were inside the room when Domina kicked herself up into the air. Out of the corner of her eye she could see them talking.

“Where is your Pearl?” Yellow asked after Domina had landed on a platform that put her roughly level with the other diamonds.

“Busy,”

****

“So if I remember right there’s a service entrance at the back.” Pearl said projecting a holographic image of the building in front of them. “Amethyst, You and Pink should be able to get us through the door and hallways with limited issues. After you’ve distracted the guards the rest of us will enter.”

“Right,” Amethyst said shapeshifting into a form that was closer to your average quartz.

“Pink you have the location’s?” White asked. Pearl nodded and pointed out the levels.

“Excellent. Garnet and Steven go with Pink to the lower levels. Jet, Amethyst, and I will got to the upper levels. Guards are posted here, here, here and here.”

“They’ve never been particularly vigilant” Pink said. “If we’re careful we should be able to sneak right by them.”

****

These kind of meetings were tedious, and repetitive. Yellow and Blue knew the formula as well as Domina did but even so having to repeat that there was little to no way of predicting successful implantation numbers for silica based gems was beginning to wear on her.

“This would be why I’ve been pushing for scrutinizing shattering case more closely, perhaps even allowing for some gems in certain cases to move outside-”

“White I told you we are not doing this.”

“And just why not Yellow?” Domina asked.

“Because the empire thrives on order.” Blue said from where she had been sitting, mostly just watching Yellow and Domina argue. Blue Diamond gave Domina an indulgent smile. “I understand your accustomed to the colonies, but here with gems that are much closer to the mold it simply will not work.” The cape over White Diamond’s shoulders started to billow slightly.

“‘Closer to the mold’?” she asked coldly. “And just exactly what are you implying by that?” Before Blue diamond could respond the door opened. Yellow shot a glare at the Fire Agate that had dared to barge in on a Diamond meeting, Blue sat a little straighter in her seat, White forced the air around her still.

“What?” Yellow asked.

“Forgive me your radiances but a situation has arisen that I believe should be brought to your attention.” The Fire agate said with a salute that perfectly formed around the white diamond on her jumpsuit. “There was an incident within the cell block in the white-”

“Domina!!” Steven’s voice shouted from the hallway. Domina felt her face go pale as the eyes of the other two diamonds and their Pearls turn on her.

“Oh shards” She muttered.

“White care to explain?” Yellow asked her voice as disapproving as it had ever been.Blue Diamond stood at the sound of Steven’s voice.

“Bring them in” She ordered. Domina felt every curse she had ever heard run through her head simultaneously as Steven, the renegade pearl, the Overcooked Amethyst, a ruby and a sapphire were corralled into the room by a group of Jaspers. And then her heart stopped as Pearl was brought in, her pearl.

Yellow’s eyes were burning a hole into her back.

“Rose Quartz.” Blue diamond said looking down at the group.

“His name is Steven.” Domina said unable to stop staring at Pearl who wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Leave us.” Domina said. The Agate and Jasper Guards bowed and left the room.

“Care to explain exactly what’s going on White?” Yellow asked. Domina could feel every instinct inside her screaming to wipe the minds of everyone here and start from scratch, but she saw the renegade’s gem, shaped not unlike Pearls. She needed to use her words for this.

“That applied to both of you as well.” Domina said turning to face the other two diamonds.

“Excuse me?” Blue Diamond said.

“I said leave,” Her mind was racing like a computer program pulling up files up any scrap of information that could help her. “ I will explain later.”

“You can’t expect us to just leave White, These are the ‘crystal’ gems, whats left anyway, this matter is far beyond you.”

“These gems are mine.” Domina said, she had remembered something, something that might just get them out of this.

“The pearls, are yours. The sapphire and ruby belong- belonged to my court.”

“And now they dont” Domina stepped into the air. “Domestic law, 73.962, Criminals whose records have been on file for an excess of 4 millenia are immediately placed in whichever court the member of which has returned them. The recipient court is therefore responsible for dealing punishment as they see fit.” She recited.

The two Diamonds stared at her and then Yellow pulled up a screen and quickly searched for the law. Moments later Yellow Diamond frowned and nodded.

“She’s right.”

“That’s impossible you-!” Blue started to protest glaring ferociously at the Ruby and Sapphire.

“Ha! Take that you Sha-” The Ruby yelled before being cut off by the Sapphire pulling her back and putting a hand over her mouth.

“Technically according to that law Rose Quartz belongs to Blue and I.” Yellow said, she raised an eyebrow Domina.

“That’s not Rose Quartz, I will grant you he is ‘A’ Rose Quartz but not ‘The’ Rose Quartz, he is in the same category as the amethyst.” Domina said. “Steven how old are you?” She didn’t turn to look at them. She needed to be focused.

“15, Domina I-” He said.

“Time from emergence to report to the nearest commanding officer is 1 decade in extraneous circumstances” Domina cut him off. “He and the Amethyst are both AWOL, and military law 56.2217 dealing with this matter redirects back to the domestic law in the case of off colors, placing them both in the high diamond’s court so that they can either be shattered or reassigned.” Domina finished clasping her hands behind her back like she had seen the Zircons do countless time upon winning a case.

Yellow was already bringing up the military law she had cited. Blue stared at Yellow unblinking the entire time until her fellow diamond frowned and nodded.

“We will speak of this later Domina.” Yellow Diamond said.

“I’m sure.” Domina said. Blue Diamonds face had gone dark and domina could feel her emotions twist slowly, into unadulterated rage as she moved towards Domina, Suddenly Yellow slammed her fist on the arm of a chair.

“Enough! Let’s go Blue, we’ll get our answers later!” the rage was gone, Blue Diamonds face retook a relatively facade but she still shot Domina a murderous look as she and Yellow left the room their pearls trailing behind them staring at the party until the last possible moment.

Domina sighed allowing the stress to leave her body as she slowly turned and lowered to the ground to face her next problem. Garnet had reformed by the time she alighted on the ground, and was now giving her the same disapproving look that the renegade was. Steven chuckled nervously.

“Funny how we keep meeting like this...” he said twiddling his fingers. Domina didn’t smile, she stared at Pearl, then looked over the crystal gems.

“Well,” she said lowly “Is someone going to tell me what the frack is going on?”

#Steven Universe #Fanfiction #Seditionis Adamas Chapter #White Diamond #Pink Pearl #Homeworld #Diamond Authority #Vulgaris Adamas