#su amalgam fic

[al-the-remix]

Random fandom thoughts/feelings

The reblog button is turned off on this post but I think it's another incredibly important one to be thinking about. I enjoy their framing of how the profit economy of other social media sites has been bleeding into fandom spaces on both tumblr, and like this post focuses on, Ao3. It's something that I've been noticing more and more and it really rubs me the wrong way and I feel like OP's post words it perfectly in a way I've been struggling to express.

This sort of connects the previous post I reblogged on the topic talking about how fandom is not a good in road for becoming internet famous.

A facet of this that's really bamboozled me recently is that I feel like i've been seeing more and more of is the idea that a singular person has a right to call "dibs" on a specific piece of media. Which is honestly totally fucking wild to me and if I'm being totally frank kind of dumb.

Every single one of us who interacts with fandom and by extent and IP is flirting with copy right law, the consequences of which everyone should be extremely familiar with by now with the fall of LJ and various lawsuits by authors, dmca notices, etc.

We have all heard the adage "there's no such thing as an original idea"; the idea that everything we create is the amalgamation of all the things that influence us, good and bad.

This is totally normal and good, actually.

For example, if I and another person both watch a TV show, see a production photograph that we really like and decide to draw it and post them one after the other it would be considered extremely bad behaviour to then turn around and make a big stink about how someone else had the gall to turn around and draw the same thing that I did. We can all look at a picture, video, lyrics to a song, become inspired and create something wildly different based on our tastes and influences--but we also are equally, if not more so, likely to create something nearly identical to our peers, especially in a fandom space where ideas are concentrated and we are all consuming each other's thoughts, opinions, and creations. More than once I've come up with an idea for a fic or a drawing that someone else had had a nearly identical execution of without us communicating or viewing each other's work. That's just the way the human brain works, we're hard wired to make connections in a fairly similar way.

You do not have a right to call dibs on any one photograph, clip of video, song lyrics or any other bit of media you might consume.

This stands for artists, writers, gif makers, AMV creators, and any other way you choose to express your love of fandom creatively.

If you are really hard pressed to focus on the numbers and work at being ~influential~ the burden is on you to distinguish yourself creatively.

There's a reason why not being able to see follower counts is so important to the way fandom and tumblr functions. The concept of ~small creators~ and ~big creators~ or BNF or whatever are all burdens you place on yourselves. No one is taking anything away from you by engaging with the same bit of media you are in a similar way. We all have a right to express ourselves creatively and emotionally through any snippet of media that sparks our interest. You do not get to "own it" just because you happened to pump something out first. There are no creative "dibs". This isn't even some sort of "fandom" etiquette thing that has gone thus unspoken. It's a strange possessive thing that I've seen crop up more and more as the idea of being a capital "C" Creator brain rots people's minds and atrophies their ability to be creative.

Sort of on a tangent, but I have a bunch of other personal random thoughts about how this push to be prolific stagnates fandom, but these are more complicated for me and I'm not as clear on how I want to express them. On one had I am completely on board with the "there is no such thing as cringe" mindset and that everyone has a right to create whatever super indulgent thing they want to without having to suffer people being snobby about it. But, on the other hand I feel very strongly that the cycle of people seeing one trope or characterization being repeated repeated over and over and gaining popularity, reading only that--writing only that--leading others to also only consume that, really stymies creativity and makes it harder to grow the fandom if people that are trying to enter aren't into That One Thing, while also ostracizing people who are already in the fandom that aren't into That One Thing. I strongly believe that people's tastes are at least 70% just what they're exposed to, and obviously not everyone is going to be into whatever weird niche concept they're exposed to through fandom, but the more they are the more opportunity they have to expand that horizon. I don't know how many times I've gotten a version of the "I wasn't sure I would like this but I gave it a shot and it turns out I really love it!" and how good that feels and how much I wish other people were emboldened to do the same instead of being so wrapped up in how their work may or may not be received.

This is mostly a subjective thing though, so it's less cut and dry. Like for example, I really struggle with engaging with transgender fic despite being transgender myself because of the way most AFAB fic is written to the point where I avoid it now almost entirely. Which, frankly, really fucking sucks but also I will be the first person to fight for other's ability to write transgender characters wether they appeal my personal feelings and taste or not.

Anyway, this is one of the reasons I'm so protective of fandom community events, especially ones that employ aspects of the fandom gift economy such as exchanges. There are one of the few wholly un self-centred places left where the focus is on gifting someone something they will love and giving back to the fandom at large by flooding it with art and opportunities appreciation and engagement with each other. It is not supposed to be an opportunity for you to think about yourself and "getting something good" in return or using it a convenient deadline. It also offers you an opportunity to engage with fic tropes and genres that you've never considered writing or reading before.

TL;DR if you've found yourself recently squabbling over how many notes your gifs, art, writing, etc. has been getting compared to other people instead of focusing on forging community ties and your own creative expression, I'm sorry to say you're doing it wrong.

#mostly word vomit but it's a topic i think a lot about since both my job and most of my hobbies are creative focused #and after coming off a nearly two year burnout (that was not caused by any of these things) but effected my ability to participate in fando #and some of my hobbies in favour of others like working out in order to focus on work and stuff that would help my brain heal #I just do not think brining a profit economy mindset is really what's going to make fandom engagement /better/ #again why are you acting like capitalists on the socialism website #anyways i'm really trying hard not to go full “parade of shame down the main street” but this behaviour is so appalling to me and while #i understand it i don't understand the appeal of participating in fandom in that fashion

[where-does-the-heart-lie]

You're probably getting bombarded with asks right now so sorry to add to the clutter - but I am a huge rock nerd - that goes beyond like Steven Universe and Houseki no Kuni. So I just want to share some stones and stuff that have cool properties and maybe could provide some inspiration (mainly tho so I can list off rock facts)

Mercury: Mohs 3.5, Toughness: Brittle - Malleable. Technically Mercury is always found in it's liquid form unless amalgamated with other elements, etc. But Mercury actually can be solidified, creating a "rock" with a 3.5 Mohs scale. What's interesting about this is that this solid Mercury produces an awful echo-screeching sound when bent. Idk how this would apply for a SU One Piece Character, but having the abilities to liquify, solidify, as well as being a very heavy metal which corrodes or amalgamates with many other rocks, a character like this would be a difficult opponent, or a powerful ally.

Calsilica: This ones funny because it's not a natural gem, and has an extensive history of people trying to claim that it is. Rather, Calsilica can be made from the run off byproducts in plastic, epoxy, wax, etc, condensed so hard it becomes a rock. I've had character ideas of this kind being a gem who either feels like they're lesser for being man-made, or even having imposter syndrome.

Painite: Mohs 7.5-8, tough. An incredibly rare, red-orange gem, which though is a lesser "hardness" then diamond, could easily break or shatter one.

That's another interesting thing about diamonds that was less included in the show, but they are very brittle - while sapphires, rubies, jade may be of a lesser Mohs scale, they could easily crush a diamond. Especially Jade. Jade may be one of the toughest, naturally occurring gemstones out there (hence why there are so many carvings made out of it) and can even be stronger than steal, also with no known cleavage point (point where the gemstone easily fractures most) it's a kind durable to both blunt and pin-point force.

Rutile: Rutile itself can be pretty thin and weak, but they usually occur inside of other gemstones, as needle-like fractals and growths. Their possibilities are endless and they're gorgeous. Hundreds of gem kinds can be "rutilated".

Carbyne: The. Strongest. Material. Known to man. Taking Graphenes place. I have OC's made of this, but the possibilities for character development are endless. Because, technically, only a 100 atoms of carbyne exist. They have to be contained by a graphene tube in order to stay in existence. These could be extremely powerful characters, but say their outer coating of graphene is gone? They'll vaporize. Carbyne, Graphene, and Buckminsterfullerene are all in the carbon family along with diamonds, and so modern experimentation has led to their creations, and thus, gemstones both harder and tougher than any diamond.

Though, having said all that stuff about diamonds, there is one kind that is incredibly difficult to shatter and that is Bort or Bortz. It's technically a term for any diamond that isn't jewel-grade, or natural diamond, used for cutting tools and abrasives, but as a gemstone, it would be the top tier of diamonds. Their crystal structure is smaller than a normal diamond and so blows or damage are spread out evenly through the material, rather than a regular diamond which will often take force over one point of cleavage and completely shatter.

Ok I will be quiet now I've literally been typing this for more than an hour - I just love gem Au's and your designs especially. Idk if you've heard of Houseki no Kuni but it's basically a manga/show where the characters are completely made out of the gemstones, unlike being manifestations of light in Steven Universe. I'm working on a fic/head canon au of HNK One Piece characters (once again because I'm a rock nerd)

Good lord. That's a lot of rock facts.

I def will be using this information in the future so I'm posting this as future reference/ getting this long thing outta my inbox/ showing everyone else these rock facts

Thanks for the ask and tips!

#ask reply #@just here for the art shit #9 paragraphs of rocks

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

They do use just Fusion in dragon ball z fics too, so even though they and the ones SU fics use probably show up in the Alt universe - fusion tag, the important thing is what it conveys to the person looking in pla fics. It's not perfect, but it's what works best I think? That tag is kind of a mess anyway, I don't think you'd be adding too much to the chaos lol. Undertale has an amalgamation tag too, and you could probably get away with putting it as amalgamation au without it showing up in that tag (not that there are many so I don't think it'd really matter, probably nobody is looking in just that tag, they're adding it to their undertale search). You definitely picked a concept that's not easy to put into just one or three words lol, it's like the opposite of a bodyswap and there's definitely no tag for that

yeahhh i'll probably just go with fusion au i guess. it's sure not perfect but you're right, it gets the general vibe across

#the nemesis speaks #the nemesis answers #anonymous #SIGH #alright i gotta go to bed #warden fusion au

[veilchenjaeger]

It's that time of the year again and this is my SXX Exchange letter! Just keep scrolling if u see this on the dashboard!

Hello, nameless friend! (And hello mod who might check this for matching reasons!) Thank you for joining me at the Yi City campfire! The following novella contains some hopefully helpful information on what to get at the farmers' market and inspiration for what you could make for dinner. I hope you won't have to threaten any potato merchants! ||-)

General DNW:

Incest (Mentions of Jin Guangyao and Qin Su are okay, but nothing explicit, please.)

Anything to do with age play or DDLG

Explicit underage sex or adult/underage relationships

Noncon between the main ship if there’s a happy ending

A/B/O or animalistic traits

Bathroom kinks or emetophilia

Feminisation as a kink

Pregnancy

Infidelity

PWP (I’m a lesbian and don’t enjoy porn about men for the porn’s sake, so I prefer my smut plotty/with a focus on feelings.)

Quick “fixes” for disabilities (e.g. Song Lan magically getting a new tongue instead of learning how to speak without one)

First person POV or POV switches within the same scene (I’m always confused when that happens. POV switches in separate scenes are very cool tho!)

A’ight here come the oddly specific ones:

Violent sex or sexy punching/fistfighting/whatever you call that, especially involving Song Lan. (Rough sex is fine, especially between Xuexiao!) Generally, portrayals of Song Lan as an aggressive or violent person are not my vibe.

Fics set in the US.

Mean Dom (or generally mean) Xiao Xingchen or Song Lan. (Xue Yang can be as mean as he likes. He’s a free spirit who does what he wants.)

Exclusive sub Xue Yang.

General likes:

Mysophobic Song Lan

Blind Xiao Xingchen

Xue Yang being a terrible person <3

A-Qing is one of my favourite characters in MDZS and I adore her (potential) dynamics with all of the Yi City boys, so if she fits into the story/art, I’d love to see her!

Closed triangle SXX :,) <3

Songxiao’s BDE (Big Divorced Energy), no matter whether they’re exes or still/back together.

I periodically go feral over how Songxue spent all those years together in Yi City and thus probably know each other pretty well, and how they and A-Qing are the only ones left who loved Xiao Xingchen. I love odd Songxue companionship, is what I’m saying.

Catharsis and tenderness born from pain, and any mixture of dark themes and softness.

Found families and close platonic relationships.

Non-sexual (and non-physical!) intimacy. Not that sexual intimacy isn’t great too, of course.

Genderbends! (In the “All of them are always women” sense.) Feel free to make SXX girls for any of the prompts.

I vibe with both novel and CQL canon as well as amalgamations of the two.

Any setting/AU is good! My personal favourites are canon verse/jianghu, historical settings (especially if they teach me something about that period in time), and Modern/Modern with Cultivation, but if inspiration strikes for, like, a SciFi AU, that’s cool.

Dead doves are fine! I currently kinda prefer happy endings, but I’m also not opposed to being hurt if you have a really cool idea to hurt me with.

Kisses. Honestly, if you just give me a sketch/1000 words of them kissing, I’m happy.

A word for a nameless artist friend:

My brain is extremely focused on storytelling, which is probably obvious from how I write prompts. I adore fanart so, so much tho and I want to make sure you, hypothetical artist friend, aren’t overwhelmed by the storytelling focus, hence this section. Anything inspired by the prompts would be awesome to see, whether it’s something with the same aesthetic or a scene from one of the prompted scenarios. Pick and choose whatever vibes or details inspire you; I’m excited to see the results.

Art-specific general likes (though I like all art): Intimate moments and intimate touches, visible emotions, fashion designs, symbolism and compositions with Meaning that I can analyse like an art historian, fun homages to aesthetics like Tarot cards or Art Nouveau or, idk, medieval altar paintings, and yet again the kisses.

The requests for your convenience:

All of the details included in these prompts are meant to inspire, not to limit you! Feel free to ignore what doesn't work for you.

Request 1: Xue Yang re-ignites Songxiao’s passion for their old dream

I so want to see Songxuexiao sit around the Yi City campfire (or somewhere else), discuss politics and ethics together, and collectively bitch about the Great Sects. That's enough of a prompt already, but I picture the following scenario:

Things in Yi City have somehow worked out in everyone’s favour, no one is dead, and Songxuexiao and A-Qing have decided on some sort of truce. (Whether or not it already involves SXX kisses is up to you.) However, the events leading up to this fragile peace have left Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan disillusioned, and although they are slowly rebuilding their relationship, they no longer believe in their old dream of founding a sect. The fact that they did go through a divorce and have grown apart in the process probably doesn’t help.

Enter Xue Yang, who has strong opinions on the established sects being hypocritical bastards and the backstory to back those opinions up. Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen are shocked to find out that they agree on a lot when it comes to politics, although they obviously have vastly different approaches to reacting to this unjust system. Even worse – discussing this with Xue Yang (and possibly finding out about Chang Ci’an) lights a spark of old passion – surely someone should DO something about this – and suddenly someone’s having persistent thoughts of sect-building again.

Optional wants:

It might be fun if initially, only one daozhang experienced a Xue Yang-induced activism relapse – especially if it’s Song Lan; just imagine him reacting to the fact that Xue fucking Yang made him feel like he could make a difference in the world again.

The results of all this (Songxuexiao sect?? Dreams of one? Taking the first steps towards building one?) would also be very fun to look at, especially for the art side of things.

Request 2: Song Lan and Xue Yang take care of a distressed Xiao Xingchen

That’s it, that’s the prompt. I have a specific scenario in mind (see below), but if inspiration strikes in a different way, go wild.

I’m imagining a setting where Xiao Xingchen is pretty fragile and questioning his ability to be a good person, and Xue Yang is sort of aware of how fragile Xiao Xingchen is and knows that he doesn’t want to lose him. So, post-fix-it Yi City or something the like? Where Xiao Xingchen is either back from the dead or got very close to shattering himself? It can also be an AU with similar vibes, of course.

The idea is that Xiao Xingchen fucks up and accidentally really hurts Song Lan and/or Xue Yang. Because he’s Xiao Xingchen and his entire self-image is built around being a good and helpful person, he can’t deal with that at all. (This is the guy who ripped his own eyes out and then left Song Lan on a celestial mountain to make up for something that wasn’t his fault, and also the guy who didn’t kill Xue Yang but shattered his own soul upon learning that he’d been tricked into doing awful things! He’s a mess!) Anyways, I’d like to see Song Lan and Xue Yang deal with that by gathering up the puddle that is Xiao Xingchen and showing him – in their own odd ways – that he’s forgiven, he’s loved, and he’s allowed to make one (1) mistake every now and then.

Optional wants:

Song Lan and Xue Yang having very different styles of comforting Xiao Xingchen, and both of those maybe not working super well! Xue Yang probably hasn’t comforted anyone in his life! His goal is to make Xiao Xingchen happy again (so that Xiao Xingchen doesn’t do stupid things like shattering his soul) and otherwise he’s completely out of his depth! Song Lan’s sort of idealized image of Xiao Xingchen might not be super helpful either! It might be fun if they’d both fail on their own, but manage to make it work together. Two negatives make a positive.

I’d love to see that very odd careful/caretaking side of Xue Yang that he shows when he’s cleaning Xiao Xingchen’s corpse or offering A-Qing advice on how to take revenge on her enemies.

Generally, I like Hurt/Comfort and complicated emotions better than pure fluff, so lean into the angst if you want to.

An A-Qing can be freely added to this scenario.

Request 3: Xiao Xingchen comes down from the mountain, but it’s the 21st century

Everything’s the same: Xiao Xingchen, disciple of the immortal Baoshan Sanren, leaves the celestial mountain never to return, hoping to be able to help the people of the world – only that it’s 2022 (or 1950 or another year of your choosing) and he ends up in modern China. Baoshan Sanren’s mountain, meanwhile, is firmly stuck in ancient ways, and Xiao Xingchen has thus never even heard of electricity. Cue one confused Xiao Xingchen, on his own in this strange world until he runs into some handsome boys (and possibly a cheeky girl), an equally confused Song Lan who’d like to get this beautiful man a goddamn ID, and a probably delighted Xue Yang who just gained a new, very ethereal toy.

Optional wants/further musings:

I adore Modern with Cultivation settings and thinking about how a world where ghosts and demonic beings are an observable part of reality might be different from our own, so if you like that, too, I’d love some worldbuilding details.

Wei Wuxian might be fun to add as a supporting character! I enjoy the thought of him and Xiao Xingchen being friends, and Xiao Xingchen might try to look for his shijie’s son? That’s like, super optional tho.

I’m imagining this with Ghibli vibes/visuals. No idea why and this as well is super optional, but maybe it’s inspiring.

Request 4: Resurrected (?) Xiao Xingchen is miserable, and Song Lan tries to bring back Xue Yang

Somehow (Wei Wuxian? An old plan of Xue Yang’s? Time and patience?), Xiao Xingchen’s soul gets restored and he is resurrected. Song Lan gets to apologise, Songxiao get to travel the world together again, it’s all Song Lan hadn’t dared to hope for in his wildest dreams. The only problem is that Xiao Xingchen is doing horribly. He 1) obviously isn’t over what happened in Yi City 2) still blames himself for the innocent people he killed, Song Lan’s and A-Qing’s deaths, and having trusted Xue Yang 3) probably also blames himself for the fact that he misses and mourns his nameless friend, and no matter what Song Lan does to make things better, it doesn’t work. Maybe his earnest devotion isn’t what Xiao Xingchen needs. Maybe Xiao Xingchen needs someone who can take his mind off things, someone who makes him laugh. Maybe he needs Xue Yang.

That’s the idea Song Lan gets, anyways. Maybe Xiao Xingchen (or A-Qing or Wei Wuxian?) told him a little about how Xue Yang helped Xiao Xingchen recover after Baixue Temple, or maybe Song Lan just remembers Xue Yang’s unexpected devotion to Xiao Xingchen and figured he might be able to help? Or the reasons are less emotional and the resurrection went wrong in a way Wei Wuxian can’t fix? Either way, Song Lan is desperate to find a way to make Xiao Xingchen not try to shatter himself again, and getting Xue Yang’s help is his last resort. So he sets out to find/contact/resurrect Xue Yang. Xiao Xingchen might or might not be horrified by that.

The Xingchen resurrection part is optional; it can also be another brand of “Xiao Xingchen lives after the events of Yi City” OR even a complete AU. (Song Lan tries to contact Xiao Xingchen’s horrible ex bc he can’t figure out how to make Xiao Xingchen less depressed?)

Optional wants:

If Song Lan is a fierce corpse, it would be fun if his insecurities re.: being dead played into his decisions here. How could he, a monster, ever be what Xingchen needs?

Some odd sort of companionship between Songxue (+ A-Qing) as the ones who’d do anything for Xiao Xingchen and know that about each other would be dope.

DNW:

Xiao Xingchen immediately forgiving Xue Yang.

Zichen is my dearest beloved, so the flavour I’m looking for here is “Song Lan has a hard time helping Xiao Xingchen, blames himself and goes overboard looking for a solution bc Songxiao are bad at communicating” rather than “Song Lan is actually incapable of helping Xiao Xingchen/not what Xiao Xingchen needs”.

It wouldn’t sit right with me if A-Qing weren’t mentioned at all. I’d love to see her involved in all this, of course, but even if she doesn’t end up playing a role, I feel like there should be a reason for that? I’d have a hard time believing that Song Lan would try to get Xue Yang to help if A-Qing were an option.

Request 5: Fierce corpse issues

This one’s super vague! I’d like to see something focused on the specific trials that come with Song Lan being a fierce corpse, both for Song Lan himself and for the rest of the Yi City crew. Here are some optional ideas:

Song Lan dealing with the fact that he runs on resentful energy now and that his control over said energy can slip. I bet that’s scary for him specifically, seeing that losing his temper usually doesn’t go well for him!

Fierce corpse maintenance! Either in the form of regular maintenance, or Xue Yang “updating” Song Lan with new features, adding things that he finds useful or “installing” updates Song Lan would like to have (better control of his resentful energy, less rigor mortis, a working dick – something like that).

How does being dead (inherently unclean!) interact with Song Lan’s mysophobia? How does he feel about maybe having to be touched regularly for maintenance?

Xiao Xingchen and A-Qing could learn some basic demonic cultivation, if so inclined, to help with fierce corpse maintenance or to be able to calm Song Lan down if he ever loses control. (How would Song Lan feel about Xiao Xingchen learning demonic cultivation for him?)

Fierce corpse management as (platonic, romantic, or sexual) intimacy! That might help Song Lan with any insecurities he might have regarding the fact that he's dead.

Speaking of insecurities, a potentially fun dynamic: Song Lan, who avoids touching Xue Yang because 1) he is mysophobic 2) he is dead and would potentially contaminate others with his unclean energy vs. Xue Yang, who already took Song Lan’s mysophobia reaction extremely personally in the Villainous Friends extra and assumes that Song Lan avoiding touch = Song Lan thinking Xue Yang in particular is disgusting.

There’s of course the option of Xiao Xingchen (or someone else) also being a fierce corpse and Song Lan maybe helping out as the senior fierce corpse.

Wants/DNW/further musings:

I’m imagining either a (fix-it?) setting where they’re all alive/undead, or alternatively a more depressing version where Xiao Xingchen is a shattered soul in a bag, and fierce corpse maintenance could go hand in hand with soul fragment maintenance? I’m not picky.

I’d really like to see A-Qing here, with her and Song Lan platonically bonding. Maybe she’s part of the fix-it crew, or she is working together with Xue Yang and Song Lan to bring back Xiao Xingchen?

I’m not into explicit gore, but feel free to go grotesque with this if you want to!

I hope something here piqued your interest! Have fun creating <3

#[talk less smile more] #/i always feel like my letters are way too long but i physically cannot make them shorter #/trying to talk less is very stressful for me please forgive me dear nameless friend

[amalgamau]

Chapter 4

It’s been a while! A lot has gone on! There’s a TON more of you than last time! Hopefully the chapter makes up for it. And if you aren’t caught up I added a handy little set of links to help navigate the chapters of the story! Especially since the early stuff is buried pretty deep at this point. But for now, enjoy the story! May we soon be out of the first day.

Directory First | Previous | Next

“And that about sums it up,” Steven sighs, staring at his family. Looks of horror, confusion, and pain bled onto their faces as they processed the events that led up to this moment. 

Steven takes a breath, then adds,“Blue and Yellow are waiting by the warp pad. We should head over when we’re ready.”

Garnet freezes for a moment, unmoving, then growls lowly.

“I won't do it,” she snarls in seething rage. Everyone turns to her as angry tears stream down her face. “They took everything from us! They took our lives from us. They put us through so much pain. I will NEVER forgive them.”

Steven saddens looking at her.

“Garnet... I know...” he begins but is cut off by Garnet.

“NO! You can’t know how this feels! Dying and becoming a twisted SHADOW of what I was! A reminder of what we LOST!”

Amethyst and Pearl step in front of her.

“¡uʍop ɯlɐɔ 'ʇǝuɹɐפ” Amethyst calls out in her unintelligible gibberish.

“P̴̯͒̌͐l̸̹̥̠̃̊e̶̢͕͛͝á̴̼̃̆s̷͙̩̰͝ë̶̪́̍,̶̺̜̅ ̷͕̹̆b̸͇̥̅͊e̵͔̤̝͋ ̶̨̟̜͑͊̕r̷͙̹͝è̴̩̀̑ả̴̠̈͠s̴̠͗̄́o̵̜̚ṇ̸̬̘̊ǎ̸̫͐b̸̢̒͐l̶̦̯͙͝é̸͍͍̂ ̶̱͖̐G̸͈͈̣̿̚ã̵̟͉̞̈̚r̵̤̮͇̚n̷͔̟̐e̶̩̰̿t̶̯̂̃!̶͚̍͝͝” Pearl adds softly.

“YOU’RE DEFENDING THEM?!” Garnet calls out.

Bismuth steps solidly in between Garnet and the others.

“No. We aren’t,” she states firmly, “but they’re listening to Steven. So while we regroup, we should play along.”

Garnet remains silent, angry tears burn each of her eyes as they stream down her face. Steven embraces Garnet, hugging her tightly. Amethyst and Pearl follow as Steven manages to choke his words out.

“I’m so sorry Garnet... If I had been a little faster or stronger... none of this would have happened...”

Garnet sobs softly, clinging to Steven.

“No... I’m sorry. I... don’t see any timeline where this didn’t happen.”

Steven takes a moment to process this, then clings tighter to Garnet, tears stinging his eyes as he whimpers.

“I just want them to leave. I don’t want anything to do with them.”

Bismuth puts a hand on his shoulder and softly tells him,“We don’t like it any more than you do. But if we want them gone, we have to try something different. Like it or not, this is our best chance to get through this.”

With a long and heavy sigh, Steven wipes away his tears.

“Ok. Let’s do this,” he mumbles, the exhaustion in his voice evident.

The group makes their way out of the now ruined fountain. As Yellow and Blue see Steven step out, they perk up in excitement. However, the moment the newly revived Gems step out, the Diamonds reel back in disgust.

“Stars!” Blue cries out in shock and appall.

“What in the world are those... things?!” Yellow cries out in disgust. The Crystal Gems recoil in a mix of shame and sadness, Garnet specifically turning away to hide her seething hatred. She suddenly freezes with a thousand-yard stare as she becomes locked in her Future Vision, seeing suddenly every horrible thing that might happen in the next exchange. The visions mortify her, so much so that she finds herself frozen in terror. Steven, meanwhile, looks at the Diamonds with a furious gaze that burns holes through their forms.

“That,” he states through clenched teeth, “is my family.”

“Oh my!” Blue gasps in shock.

“Pink, what did you do?!” Yellow asks in shocked horror. 

Steven’s eyes widen with rage.

“What did I do?!” he shouts in anger.

“Yellow, please.” Blue pleads, putting a hand on her shoulder. Yellow ignores her, staring at the gems.

“Those THINGS are abominations! I never should have let you try to heal them.”

Steven’s anger boils over, balling his hands into fists as he tears up.

“QUIET” he howls in anguish. The ground shakes around them as all eyes turn to Steven. “You don’t GET to talk about them. This is YOUR FAULT!” he wails, creating a crater under him. Everyone is blown back as shockwaves whip wildly from him, emanating in a burning energy, his tears fly upwards from the radiating aura.

“My fault?” Yellow gasps in shock at the accusation. “I didn’t make those things!”

“I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT!” Steven shrieks, his crater being dug larger and deeper as everyone stares, dumbfounded. “IF YOU HADN’T COME HERE NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED! YOU HURT THEM! YOU HURT ME! I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER FUCKING WORD!” The ground cracks further from the crater as the air whips wildly around him, pushing against everyone.

Bismuth pushes her way towards Steven through the shockwaves and wind as Blue calls out with tears in her eyes, “Steven! Yellow! Please stop!”

Steven ignores her, continuing to scream as if she weren’t even there. 

“NOTHING YOU COULD EVER SAY WILL FIX THIS! IF YOU CAN’T HELP, THEN LEAVE US THE FUCK ALONE!”

Bismuth manages to get past the shockwaves and wind, grabbing Steven and pulling him into a tight embrace.

“Steven! It’s going to be okay! Please! You need to calm down!” she shouts to him through the sound of the winds as she holds him close to her, putting his head to her chest. As Bismuth holds him, his rage melts into anguished sobs. The gems and Connie join in the embrace. Blue and Yellow stare as Steven sobs into the arms of his broken family, the group tearing up in the embrace. Connie finds herself in the middle with Steven and in the embrace, begins sobbing as well as the weight of what has happened fully hits her, all the while the gems hold the two children. Blue turns to Yellow, her eyes wet.

“We hurt her. We hurt Pink,” Blue says tearfully.

“We didn’t know! How could we have? She faked her shattering!” Yellow counters.

“No!” Blue responds. “We hurt her so often on Homeworld. Ignoring her, locking her away when she misbehaved, punishing her in those awful ways. This is just like then!”

She begins sobbing.

“It was for her own good!” Yellow counters as she holds back tears of her own.

“If she was miserable enough to fake her own shattering and run away without any remorse, how much good could it have done?!” Blue sobs “She left to be happy! And she was until we ruined her happiness here, too!”

Yellow slams her fist into the nearby cliff as she begins to cry.

“How dare you use your powers on me Blue! Why would you try to manipulate me like this!”

“I’m not!” Blue responds. “You know I wouldn’t! We have to make this right.” Yellow sniffs as she asks, “And how do you propose, we do that?”

“However we can,” Blue states.

The two return to the broken family, wiping their tears as the sobbing winds down. Yellow takes a deep breath as Blue places an encouraging hand on her shoulder.

“Steven...” Yellow begins in a careful and soft tone. Steven looks up, glaring daggers into her through his red, tear-filled eyes.

“What?” he hisses.

“We...” she starts “I... am so incredibly sorry for the pain that I... we both caused. I know that means nothing... but please know that we both will dedicate ourselves to making this up to you in any way we can.”

Steven remains silent, his expression unchanging as Blue chimes in.

“You are our family. There is no excuse that we can give to ease the suffering we have caused to you and those you care for... but please... allow us the chance to try and make things right in any way we can.”

Steven stares at them for a long time, then looks to the gems and Connie. He speaks up, his voice raspier than before.

“Fine,” he huffs. “If you want to help, then help my family. You hurt them. You fix it.”

Blue and Yellow flinch at the request, then Yellow sighs.

“Steven...” Yellow starts as he resumes his glare. “I promise to do everything in my power to find a way to help them. But the best chance of that are the resources on Homeworld.”

Blue adds, “Our ships were destroyed... we may be stuck here.”

Bismuth speaks up for the first time since the Diamonds approached them.

“I can repair them. It won’t be pretty, but it’ll get the job done.”

Steven looks sadly at Bismuth.

“You don’t have to help them Bismuth,” he says softly.

Bismuth smiles warmly at him then looks up at the Diamonds with a grimace as she speaks.

“Believe me Steven, I don’t like the idea of working on a project for the Diamonds. If it were up to me, I’d send the upper crusts packing a different way entirely.” She slams her fist to the ground to make a point. “But seeing as they want to help. I can put my pride aside to lend a hand.” Blue and Yellow look uncomfortably at the group as everyone gets up.

“Very well,” Blue says softly. “We should depart for the ships and begin repairs.” Bismuth looks at them with a scowl.

“You can start without us. We still have to tend to the things You two made a mess of.” Yellow opens her mouth to speak, but closes it as she reflects on the situation. She walks to the warp pad.

“Very well,” she huffs. “We will begin salvaging the wreck. Tend to whatever you must and offer whatever help you feel so inclined to give.”

With that, the two Diamonds warp away as the Crystal Gems walk to the warp pad. Steven holds Connie’s hand as the two look at each other with unease.

“How do I explain this to my parents?” Connie asks. Steven looks down in sorrow.

“I... don’t know...”

The group looks at each other as Pearl suddenly begins to panic.

“Pearl, what’s wrong?” Steven asks in concern.

“Ǐ̸͉.̵͓̉.̶̻̊.̷̹̎ ̴͈̎Ǐ̵̼ ̷͈̋c̶͉͝a̶̛͇n̸̩̈́'̶̪͑ṫ̸̪ ̶̰̐à̸̗c̵̳͘t̵̹̽ȉ̶̭ṿ̴̑a̷͂ͅt̷̟͝e̶͔̊ ̴͈̉ţ̵͂h̸̦̆e̵͙͗ ̵̺͑w̶͕̐a̴̪̕r̵̳̊p̶̛͙!̸͍̿” she responds in a panic.

Amethyst and Garnet look to each other in concern as they both attempt to do the same.

“I-I can’t either!” Garnet adds fearfully.

“¡ʞɹoʍ ʇ,uoʍ ʇI” comes Amethyst’s terrified voice.

Steven turns around and looks at them.

“Please calm down! Let me try!” he says as the group tries to relax. Steven activates the warp, returning them to the ruins of the Beachhouse.

“I̸̫͋ṫ̸̳ ̶̺͗w̴̖̓o̵̱̓r̸̺̈́k̷̟͑e̷͉̔ḑ̴̿!̶̨̈́” Pearl says relieved. But it is immediately followed by the realization. “̶͍͐S̴̨̓o̷̹͆.̴̯͆.̸̳̎.̷͉̾ ̶͍́ẅ̷̟́a̴̯̋s̴̖͋ ̴̜͝i̵̳͒ẗ̶̩́ ̵͓͝u̶̻͝s̵͔̀?̴̞̑”

Garnet looks at her four hands and wonders out loud.

“What else about us has changed?”

#steven universe #steven universe au #su au #suau #su au amalgam #su amalgam fic #writing #fanfic #emotional whump #su pearl #su garnet #su amethyst #su bismuth #su bismith #su yellow diamond #su blue diamond #su connie #su pink connie #amalgam amethyst #amalgam garnet #amalgam pearl #tw: mental breakdown

[ismaet]

"Mirabel Madrigal, eh? That girl... she's a little sus, to be honest." Hey guys how you been? I'm doing GREAT! I made a friend and we made a fic together!!! And it's a combination of both our fics, too! Introducing the... Imposter!Mirabel AU!!! Come join me and @anotsomysticalnight in this eldritch horror of an amalgamation borne between their MamaMira! AU and my Housekid! AU. And be sure to bring a seat belt while you're at it! Cuz' it's gonna be a wild ride.

#housekid!au #encanto 2021 #encanto au #au #mirabel madrigal #digital art #encanto #collab fic #collab au #reverse papa bruno au #mama mira au #fanfic promo #a03 #Also yes I'm currently working on Chap/Part 5 of Housekid #Don't worry #EldritchGift!AU #There's murder! #And Cannibalism! #And Found Family all around! #ImposterVerse

[drysdaales]

Hiya! Would you be willing to share more of your thoughts about the lawsuit arc? I am rewatching it now and I'm having all sorts of new feelings about it!

hi there! i can definitely share them! i will say that a lot of my thoughts (especially on my first rewatch) were colored by my experience in the fandom at the time, which is a lot of why i left the fandom in the first place (but i'm back and better than ever!)

disclaimer: these are my thoughts, and i don't think that many of the people i interacted with/read posts from back then were doing or saying things maliciously, but taken together, it left a bad taste in my mouth. (also it got long sorry anon u did not ask for an essay lol!)

a lot of it stems from a gross mischaracterization of buck. if someone grossly mischaracterizes buck, then it follows that they will, in response to that, likely mischaracterize eddie and bobby, especially surrounding the episodes 3x04, 3x05, and 3x06.

hindsight is 20/20, and i think, now knowing what we do about the buckley parents, eddie, bobby, etc, there's a better grasp on the situation, but it's become this fodder for a fight because there's an inability to distinguish nuance from "right and wrong." and tbqh, maybe this is a hot take, but their actions aren't ooc to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

to start: bobby keeping buck from work without an explanation? that's kind of brutal. i think we can say that. bobby and athena inviting buck over for dinner and buck finding out that it was bobby who kept him out? also brutal! we can say that bobby's motivations were good while knowing that maybe the way he went about it was not so good. that doesn't make bobby a bad person! it makes him human, prone to overthinking. that's his trauma rearing its ugly head.

buck seeing lena's name taped over his? when we know (now?) how much he fears being left? another sting! that, coupled with finding out about bobby's "betrayal" in his mind, leads him to make an impulsive (and very bad) decision to sue bobby. like... in his right mind? i think he wouldn't have done that. but he wasn't in his right mind. so neither of them are right, but neither of them are wrong. and sometimes that can be hard, but nuance exists for a reason. he's not a bad person, just impulsive, didn't think it through! again, human. that's buck's trauma rearing its ugly head.

eddie finding out that buck is suing the department, therefore going no contact with eddie (and christopher) and has shared personal information with his (awful) lawyer? i think eddie has every right to be mad about that. eddie calling buck exhausting? NOT great. we know that. we know that! but you know what else we know? that eddie was grieving, and eddie was hurting, and he was missing someone he'd come to rely heavily on since his wife's death. so again. he's not right, but he's not wrong. this is, you guessed it: eddie's trauma rearing its ugly head.

the lawsuit arc is excellent writing, because it's an amalgam of good people in shitty situations making poor choices because they're scared and letting their traumas affect their reactions (a very human thing to do, imo). bobby's scared he's going to lose buck permanently (i.e. in 3x18 "i'm tired of being on the wrong side of those hospital doors"). buck's scared he's going to lose his whole family (see: his entire life pre-joining the 118). eddie's scared that someone is leaving him again, just after he'd reaffirmed his trust in them (see: him proposing to shannon again and her telling him she wants a divorce and then also dying.)

the lawsuit arc also makes my skin crawl because of how people just...refused to see any nuance in it, and instead painted the entire 118 as villains, and "rewrote" canon to have buck being angry and calling it "fix-it fic." i say often that we tend to re-litigate (no pun intended lmao) the lawsuit arc every few months because there's a misunderstanding somewhere with "ugh why would bobby be so mean to buck! why would eddie call buck exhausting buck doesn't deserve this!" there's no need to keep rehashing old arguments. we can all interpret art the way we so choose, but there is a difference between interpretation and foregoing canon entirely, and it's made that arc a difficult one for me to appreciate.

tl;dr: the lawsuit arc is great and NOT ooc but people don't understand nuance and have therefore made it difficult for me to watch.

#anonymous #dead at people wanting my insight on the lawsuit arc my beloathed #i don't actually hate it #fandom disk horse #kind of #thanks anon! #tell me your thoughts too!! what are your new feelings about it??

[sanjuno]

Meta Fic rides again

I'm a little stuck on how to word something in my Nano 2020 project so I decided to take a break by trying to read “Scum Villain’s Self Saving System” again and failed horribly because I got to the part when Binghe comes back and my interest died a quick and messy death for yet a third time. Someone write me a giant pile of gen-fic and LiuShen AUs to heal my heart.

Here, I’ll start us off:

Spite and Fury (or; PEDW is a hive of Scum and Villainy)

So bitter-old-man!Madara dies of old age after he passes his Epic Revenge Plot over into Obito’s keeping, and the Sage’s knockoff-brand cycle-of-transmigration peels Indra’s chakra out of Madara’s soul - which results in dying!Madara having a screaming ragefit that sends his spirit-and-chakra careening through the void between worlds

At which point shattered-and-fragmenting-more!Madara gets into an altercation with the System and since the System is a little bitch it tosses Madara into the worst possible Fate it can think of (see: PEDW)

Transmigration bullshit and Sharingan fuckery smash into each other in a gigantic clusterfuck of asspulls

Madara is missing bits because Indra’s imprint got ripped out

The Shen Jiu base soul is missing bits because torture and previous abuse of his character by the System

The resulting villain amalgamation is Not Pleased

Instead of landing in the divergence point chosen by the System - aka the Qi deviation fever shortly after Binghe arrives at Cang Qiong Sect – we instead have the jigsaw puzzle mashup of Mads-and-Jiu land in baby-slave Jiu’s body

The good news is Madara and Jiu stop fragmenting because they end up woven together - they’re stuck together as an almost-single person only with two different sets of memories

Character exploration is going to be an EVENT

Also the Madara part of them is really happy with the silky smooth hair

Also Yue “lets-Binghe-kill-him-because-he-thinks-Shen-Jiu-is-dead” Qi is cast is a much better light when compared to Senju “stabs-his-sworn-brother-in-the-back” Hashirama

So Mads-Jiu plays it close to canon for the first few years - the only real difference is that he tags his Jiejie with a tracking seal for after he escapes from slavery - he’s not leaving his ability to find her again up to chance or developing a reputation as a whoremonger if he can help it

When he gets bought by the Qiu is when Mads-Jiu starts being a manipulative little shit like we all know he is

Xanatos-pileup-or-bust!Mads-Jiu basically lets Yue Qi escape alone because he NEEDS Yue Qi to become Cang Qiong Sect Leader for his long-term plans to work properly

So Mads-Jiu warns Yue Qi that if he has to be CAREFUL because cultivating is dangerous and if Yue Qi comes back missing any pieces then Jiu will cut the EXACT SAME BITS OFF HIMSELF

And so Yue Qi is EXTREMELY safety conscious and the life eating sword drama is avoided entirely

Of course he’s also taking longer to reach his initial strength levels than in canon because he isn’t rushing

So there’s nothing like Yue Qi showing up early to trigger a plot divergence alert in the System

</mwahahaha>

Mads-Jiu is more pragmatic regarding Qiu Haitang’s so-called innocence this time around - and so he arranges for her to catch the Creeper Qiu bro abusing and assaulting Shen Jiu

Haitang is HORRIFIED AND DISGUSTED to see what her brother is doing to her fiancé and also TERRIFIED by the fact that he talks the entire time about how sweet it’s going to be when it’s HAITANG under him

The Qiu burn on schedule but Haitang kills her fair share - double Qi deviations FTW!

The system does not notice such a minor change in the background events - Jiu kills the Qiu, burns down their house, and Haitang survives the fire with vengeance raging in her heart

Mads-Jiu kills the demonic creeper that was hanging around because ew no and also keep your hands of Haitang

Again, it’s too close to canon for the System to notice - Jiu killed him in defense of a “childhood friend” so hahaha again

Instead of being used as a stalking horse by an evil master Mads-Jiu runs off with Haitang to track down and rescue his Jiejie

Shenanigans ensue

Afterwards Mads-Jiu “has an idea to help find Qi-ge” by asking around for him at the Immortal Alliance Conference

Of course there are more shenanigans and Yue Qi saves all three by claiming that they’re Cang Qiong disciples - so of course he drags all 3 of them back with him and wibbles at the current Sect Leader until he lets them all join

Still (mostly) following canon! Ha! So no “punishment” events get triggered in the System (which is mostly dormant because the Protagonist isn’t born yet XP)

Qiu Haitang was supposed to join a Sect! Jiejie got sold on schedule! Shen Jiu killed the Qiu and his “first master”! Yue pesters his Shizun into letting his sibling(s) join the Sect in an unorthodox fashion!

But the devil is in the details

And the devil’s name is Uchiha Madara

Jiejie ends up as Peak Lord for Talisman Peak because magic and seals saved her before

Haitang ends up Peak Lord for Hidden Peak because she refuses to be caught unawares by a dangerous secret ever again... also because she’s a mean sneaky bitch and owns it

Having more than one sibling for the Sect Leader to blatantly favour means less wholesale resentment directed at Mads-Jiu as well

However the Jiu part of them has memories from PIDW and also SVSSS - so he knows that shit is going to get horrible once Su Xiyan gets knocked up

Obviously the answer is to seduce all of his fellow peak lords into a glorious polyamorous clusterfuck so as to promote skinship and pack bonding and harmony among the sect leadership

(It worked for PIDW Binghe with his wives and SVSSS Shen Yuan with getting Bing-mei to chill his tits after all and nobody can trip you into bed quite like a shinobi)

And so Cang Qiong’s family aesthetics get rocked so hard that instead of panting after his Shizun baby disciple Binghe decides to seduce his peers...

... and his rivals

... and other sect’s disciples

... and the occasional demon

Mads-Jiu is really proud of his baby demon lord but makes sure not to single Binghe out - instead every Qing Jing disciple gets rewarded and punished at the same time

It promotes bonding! And teamwork!

And prevents the utter destruction of Mads-Jiu’s chrysanthemum via oversized demonic pillar!

There is totally going to be an extra where Mads-Jiu realizes that the average size of a male cultivators pillar is DANGEROUSLY EXCESSIVE

NOBODY NEEDS THAT MUCH PILLAR

Even HIS pillar hasn’t escaped the curse

BIGGER IS NOT BETTER!

How the fuck is he supposed to fight if he can’t even wear pants comfortably!?!?

(No wait come back Mu-shidi this shixiong is sorry it wasn’t mockery it was a perfectly reasonable tantrum that was a long time coming now stop sulking your dick is very pretty let shixiong make it up to you~)

And at some point there will be a wild Bing-ge who appears to cause trouble with a mirror that’s intended to temporarily transform people into the form of their last life - he aims it at the native Bingbing to get him out of the way so he can steal the “nice” Shizun

It would have been Pom time for Bingbing but Mads-Jiu pushes him out of the way

And cue giant explosion of dark Qi as a bonus expansion pack of Madara’s 10-tail Jinchuriki time with powers-and-memories gets downloaded into Mads-Jiu

Mads-Jiu the “Heavenly Demon Demi God” drops several mountains worth of flaming meteor rock on the invaders and then goes on a giant flaming skeleton rampage against Bing-ge

... Bing-ge has changed his mind he doesn’t want this Shizun take him back and oh gods the shrieking

How does he shriek so loud? Doesn’t he need to breathe?

... ok so Shizun breathes fire that’s good to know

Whelps time to bravely run away

And then the amassed sects need to figure out how to calm down the rampaging hell beast

The youngest Qing Jing disciple is brought out and told to cry for Shizun

Actually-a-broody-hen!Mads-Jiu whips around and starts fussing over his baby student

Because baby why are you crying stop it tell Shizun who hurt you and he will BURN THEM TO ASH

The last bit I have an idea for involves Mads-Jiu getting yanked though dimensions because Edo Tensei where he instantly twigs to what is going on and pushes the “righteous cultivator” skin to maximum strength

He shoves all the baby ninja behind him and keeps barrier spamming the zombie army - because ew no stay away from the children resentful corpses

Zetsu is included in the zombie army shall not pass smack down

Zombie!Tobirama is appalled because wut? Wasn’t this supposed to be Madara’s zombie? What is happening?

And I dunno something where he “notices” the resentful energy surrounding Danzo because stealing the eyes of the people you murdered is bad karma

So Mads-Jiu does a spirit thing and the ghosts of the Uchiha rips Danzo apart while screaming about his guilt in full view of the entire Village

And then Mads-Jiu goes home because filial little Bingbing came to get him and he’s not enjoying upending the shinobi social order nope not at all whom exactly do you take him for?

... Yes he’s done and ready to go back to his spouses now he’s sure the ninja have all learned better than to raise living corpses now anyway

The end

=/=

#Sanjuno's ficwork #fic I haven't written yet #Spite and Fury #PEDW is a hive of SCUM and VILLIANY #Madara and Jiu are sharing a body #System done fucked that revenge plot up #Villain Team Up cranked to 111 #sanjuno's metafic #NRT x SVSSS

[s1utspeare]

shuffle challenge

I was tagged by @psychic-waffles and @hils79, and i always love subjecting people to my music tastes! >:) For a lil something different I'll put on my fic writing playlist (which can be found here if you're interested!) rather than my usual amalgamation of kpop and sleeping at last songs (i say as though there aren't kpop and sleeping at last songs on this playlist) :P

you can usually tell a lot about a person by the type of music they listen to. put your favorite playlist on shuffle and list the first ten songs!

1. All That Is or Was or Ever Will Be - Alan Silvestri

2. 光 (from Age of Legends) - William Chan (hell yeah i was hoping william would sneak his way on here)

3. Neptune - Sleeping at Last (see what did i say)

4. Jupiter - Sleeping at Last (there's a lot of sleeping at last on here tbh)

5. All That You Are (from Lost Ember) - Solid Audioworks

6. Will I Find My Home - Juniper Vale, Vian Izak (this was the Zhang Rishan/Su Baiyin theme for Swiftly Tilting)

7. Escape from Us (from Vincenzo) - Song Jin Suk, Hwang Seung Feel

8. Up All Night - Alex Clare

9. Moment's Silence (Common Tongue) - Hozier

10. Broken Heart of Gold - ONE OK ROCK

I'm going to tag @jockvillagersonly, @humanlighthouse, @gaiahenshin, @pissmeoffanddie, @highpriestessofjogan, and @vishcount, if any of you haven't been tagged yet!! As well as anyone who wants to tag steal and give me some more songs for my fic writing needs lmao

#tag game #music

[martellthemandalor]

Hey! I've read some of your fics and they're so good! could you do a din X reader one where the reader is a part of dins 'crew' and he keeps offering to teach her to fight but awkwardly declines, and does this until they find another clan of mandalorians and at first they don't like her and question din for having someone 'weak' on his team. And defensively she says she can take down one of their warriors and dins asking her not to do this but during the fight she reveals she's force sensitive?

*Hia darling anon!! firstly thank you so much, that means the world to me :)). secondy i hope this is what you had in mind, i got a little carried away (hello word count of 3.8K+ oops) hence why this has taken a while to get out to you. enjoy! <3

Far From Weak

He wasn’t meant to have found out like this. Hell, he wasn’t supposed to have found out at all. You’d been doing a good job at hiding it so far, though the kid seemed to have sussed you out. Look once into those big eyes and it’s like they knows your deepest darkest secret and it’s terrifying, until they waddle off to swallow a whole frog that is.

You’d been on Mando’s ‘crew’ for a good five months now, initially brought on as a mechanic. A desperately needed mechanic, so you’d noted once you stepped onto the razor crest. In reality there wasn’t much of the actual crest left, parts having been removed and replaced with cheap knockoffs and thrown together amalgamations over the years. There was even an alternator that looked as though it had actually been patched together using a literal medkit.

He’d really downplayed how much the place was falling apart when he hired you, but you didn’t exactly mind. You enjoyed a challenge, and fixing a ship that was falling apart at the seams was certainly that.

Your job had evolved somewhat by month two, the little green baby Mando was caring for had won your heart over. It was like you were drawn to them, finding it impossible to ignore them and all their adorable little traits. You didn’t fully understand why you were feeling so attached to this cute womp rat, not until you caught them with a small outstretched hand in the direction of a levitating silver ball. They had turned to you with a knowing gleam in their face, cooing at you to join the fun. Not that you ever did when Mando was around, of course.

But the days when he wasn’t there? When you knew that he wasn’t coming back for a long time? Then you could play with the child all you wanted. Your games varied, one of their favourites being floating the ball from their little claw to your own hand, in a gentle game of catch. Another was playing guessing games where they had to guess which crate you had put your wrench behind, then lifting it to you. You loved it. It was a chance to flex your skills, to relieve some of the tension of hiding them.

By month four Mando had started asking if you wanted some fight training with him. He knew that life was starting to get more dangerous, he had begun encountering more and more imp scum trying to get the child while he was out hunting quarry’s. The two of you had become rather close these past few months, he’d be lying to himself if he said that he didn’t look forward to seeing the smile that lit up your eyes when he returned from his jobs or the way you eagerly asked for a report on how he captured this bounty.

In fact, the Mandalorian had become rather enamoured with you and with the discovery of these new bounty hunters, wanting to make sure you could keep yourself and the child safe was his next priority, and teaching you to fight would ensure that.

The first time he asked it had been painfully awkward. He had stridden up to and flat out told you he wanted to give you fighting lessons. You were sure it was probably a big deal that he wanted to teach you the fighting techniques of Mandalorian’s, but you knew that you could never accept.

You could hide your force sensitivity when concentrating, ignoring the pull of it on your instincts, but when fighting? There was no way. You literally couldn’t help it. It felt like you could predict what was coming during a fight, which fist they were going to throw at you, which way they were going to dodge round to. He would be able to tell you had the upper hand and if he knows what the kid can do, then it’s hardly going to be a stretch to figure out that you can do it too.

You tried, maker you tried, to be as tactful as possible while turning him down. Telling him that you could take care of yourself, you can handle a blaster and that would be enough if anyone tried to grab the kid while on the crest. He had grunted some form of disappointed response back at you, the likes of which made you feel inescapably guilty.

You had hoped that that would be the only time he would try and ask you, but if there was anything this Mandalorian was, it was most definitely stubborn.

He would present the offer to you pretty much every other day, the question getting more and more demanding as time went on. You knew that he would never force you to do anything you didn’t want to, he wasn’t like that, but you could feel his frustration building with each of your awkward refusals.

Eventually he drew back on any other conversation with you, choosing only to speak when pressing the question to you, outside of that he would only voice short remarks on urgent matters. The only other time you would hear the rough lowness of his speech is when he would speak to the child, you were glad in that respect that at least he was engaging them in some form of conversation.

It went on for days and you were beginning to feel worse and worse. It was strange, he would approach you in the mornings, his voice soft and probing, practically pleading for you to let him teach you and then when you declined you could almost see the frustration pouring out of him.

You weren’t entirely sure why he hadn’t kicked you from the crest yet, a part of you terrified that one morning would be your last, he wouldn’t want to put up with your own apparent stubbornness any more.

If only you could tell him, yell at him that it wasn’t stubbornness, that your survival depended on keeping a secret that was damn near impossible to hide. It didn’t help that Mando wasn’t one for ambiguity. If you revealed you had a secret then maker knows he’d find a way to coax it out into the starlight.

The silence was torture, but it was necessary.

And so you kept quiet, the two of you falling into this routine that satisfied neither party. The atmosphere on the crest became stifling, almost unbearable, even the kid could sense something was wrong though that wasn’t exactly surprising.

You’d arrived on Tatooine, the last stop of this latest run of quarry’s, when Mando finally broke the cycle.

“I need to go to market, would you like to come with me?” The question came out robotic, the words detached from the familiar soft tone of his morning request. To say it threw you off was an understatement, but you eagerly nodded regardless, after all you did have some parts to get to repair a few blown thermal couplings.

Mando was on high alert as you walked through the stalls of the busy market. You could practically feel how tense he was, wound tight and ready to spring at the smallest sign of danger. You watched him from the corner of your eye, saw the way his helmet would lock on to whatever would walk just a little too close to you.

The imposing and dangerous manner in which he presented himself was a stark contrast to the small green eared bundle that he gently cradled in his arm.

The thought that you were the only one who got the privilege of seeing him be truly open and caring with the child made you smile to yourself, a warmth settling in your heart at the notion that he trusted you that much to see him in that way.

Given enough time to fester and that feeling would have quickly turned to guilt. Maybe that would have been better than what happened instead.

As you reached the edge of the market your gaze was caught by a familiar silhouette glinting in the sun. Actually, three familiar silhouettes, all of which had apparently noticed you to and were now making short work of closing the distance between you. Before you even had a chance to open your mouth and alert Mando, you found yourself very carefully situated in his shadow, his hand wrapped lightly round your wrist to keep you behind him.

“Su cuy'gar burc'ya!” (“Hello friend”) The largest of the trio greeted Mando, green helmet nodding at him. Mando nodded back, a slow and exaggerated bob of his head.

“Su cuy’gar,” He replied simply, defensive stance unwavering.

You didn’t like this. You assumed that Mando would’ve been happy to see his creed siblings but it was clear from the slowly tightening grip on your wrist that he truly wasn’t. Something twitched in you, a short tug on your soul to reach out, reassure him that it’s okay without having to say a word. But that would unravel everything you’ve worked to keep hidden.

Instead you twisted your wrist out of his hand, only to quickly replace it with the palm of your own. The response was immediate, his hand curled round yours, fingers locking together.

You gave him a soft squeeze and the affect was akin to throwing a spattering of water onto hot coals, you could almost see some of the tension release from him, hear the gentle hiss of it evaporating away.

“We weren’t expecting any new clan members,” The red painted one speaks this time, his tone almost accusatory. You couldn’t see it, but Mando had clocked the way his visor had fixated on you as he spoke. Unease blossomed in his belly. He could see where this was going.

“We aren’t new clan members, we came on world to pick up supplies and fuel up, we’ll be gone by morning.” He tried to keep his tone as even and final as possible, an inexplicit warning for these three to leave him and his clan in peace.

Green head didn’t get the hint. Instead he strode towards Mando and clapped his hand onto his pauldron.

“Come, you can spend the night at the covert, it’s been a while since any of us have seen fresh blood.” You do catch it this time. Green’s helmet shifts to look at you, the pointedness of it making your heart beat a little faster in your ear. You stare him down though, no way in hell was a faceless look enough to make you back down.

You see rather than hear the deep breath your crew leader makes, shoulders rising and falling steadily. Then he nods his head.

“It would be a privilege to meet more clan siblings,” Mando replied, his helmet dodging in front of Green’s stare. You gave his hand a squeeze, a silent thank you.

-

The journey to the covert had been spent in silence on your part, a rare occurrence given Mando’s aversion to making conversation, often leaving you to fill the gaps. But here he was doing most of the talking, working hard to divert conversation whenever it felt close to being focused on you or the child.

You suddenly got it. Mando wasn’t happy to see them, because of you.

The guilt got worse then, was he embarrassed by you?

Yes Green head had been kind of intimidating when he had stared at you, but it was no different from how you used to feel around your Mandalorian at first.

In the covert things got twice as tense. It felt like every pair of eyes was being trained on you, probably because they were. You were a stranger in their midst, not only that but you were a non-mandalorian in their covert, in their shield from the outside worlds. From people like you.

You hadn’t really been paying attention to what was being said, nor to where you were being lead to, your focus had been on looking straight ahead and answering the squeezes of Mando’s hands with ones of your own.

Only now, when the din of the rest of the covert had been shut out by the closing of a door, did you realise that you had entered a final room. It was empty save for a round table surrounded by straight backed durasteel chairs, a single light hanging low above the set. The room was small, though the lack of decoration made it feel strangely cavernous.

The three other Mandalorian’s had sat down. Red head held his hand out in invitation for you and Mando to sit.

This time you’re the first person to speak.

“Why does this feel like we’re about to be interrogated?” You commented, eyebrow raised at the three visors sat stoically across from you.

“Maybe because we are,” Mando muttered beside you.

“Nonsense,” It was the first time you’d heard the purple helmeted one speak. It surprised you how soft their voice was. “We simple need to know what your situation is before we take you to the armourer.”

“Situation? What the hell does that mean?” You asked, gaze flickering between the three Mandalorians, making sure they each got a healthy dose of the heat behind them.

“What we mean is, we need to discuss what you are to this Mandalorian, if you are safe to see our inner workings and meet his siblings. That is all.” Green spoke nonchalantly, as if this was evident. It shouldn’t have hurt you as much as it did.

If Mando trusted you to bring here, surely that was enough? Apparently not.

The conversation from there continued without your participation. The other three spoke as if you were not there, their words dipping between Basic and their mother tongue. There were some words you understood, mainly the curses that were falling from Mando’s vocoder, the likes of which you had become familiar with while patching him up after rough jobs. Most you didn’t though.

There was one moment, a word uttered that made Mando practically seize up next to you, his hands fisted and pressed firmly against the table. Riduur (Spouse). You took it to mean some sort of insult, from the way Mando had reacted it must have been. Whatever it meant, it wasn’t mentioned again.

The back and forth went on for some time, until-

“We just can’t understand why you would choose someone so weak to be on your crew. What on earth can they offer you?”

Something in you snapped. You don’t know why on earth you thought saying it would be a good idea. It was downright dangerous to even entertain the idea. But you couldn’t bear the idea that Mando was being criticised, mocked even, for choosing you.

The moment the words left your mouth you regretted them, but you would never dream of taking them back.

“I am far from weak. I may not wear armour or adhere to a code, but I am stronger in ways you can only dream of. I would be more than happy to show that I can take any of you in a fight, but it can’t be here. We go somewhere private and far from strangers eyes.”

They had accepted, with some amusement, and taken you, the Mandalorian and the child to a reclusive spot outside of town. Gnarled rock structures rose up on either side of you, providing the privacy you desperately required.

The whole journey there had been spent with Mando pleading and begging you not to do this. The strain in his voice was almost enough to make you give in, to take the hand he kept trying to close around your tensed fist and let him lead you back to the crest. But this was a matter of pride now and you weren’t going to cave in, not for anything.

It seemed that the trio had chosen Red for you to fight, it seemed fair to you given they looked a similar height and build to you. Not that it would help them mind.

They took their place within the makeshift rink that had been drawn in the sand, shaking themself out in an attempt to look ready.

You were about to step in when Mando grasped your wrist, pulling you close to his visor.

“Please, please, don’t do this, you don’t have to, not for you and least of all for me.” You didn’t need to see his eyes to know they were locked onto yours.

You opened your mouth to reply, but his own words tumbled out before you could speak. “I’m sorry if I’ve made you feel weak with my constant asking, I’m so so sorry. You don’t need to prove to me that you are strong by doing this, I know you are, I’ve always known,” His voice was quiet, almost ashamed of this outburst of emotion.

Your heart clenched, a dull ache that made you want to wrap your arms around him, wrap the force around him, and tell him it’s okay to feel. “Please cyare,” (“beloved”)  he croaked, his final attempt to get you to walk away.

You leaned in, pressing a kiss to the forehead of his helmet.

“Trust me.” That was all you said. All you needed to say. He gave a soft squeeze to the flesh of your wrist, then guided you into the rink.

Now or never then.

You stood opposite the Red painted Mandalorian. You settled into a fighting stance, centring your weight and your spirit.

For makers sake, please don’t let me down now.

You felt it before they moved, the energy beside your face surged in the direction that the fist flew mere seconds later. You easily parried, then landed your first blow to their ribs, just beside their chest plate. You span on your heel to face them head on again. You felt the gathering at your chest so you dodged to the left, only to feel the impact of a heavy fist colliding with your right shoulder. Pain exploded across the flesh there, causing you to reel back, stooping slightly as you clutched your shoulder.

Well it wasn’t an exact art at any rate.

Energy swirled below your stomach. Knee. As their knee flew towards your stomach you curled your hands under their thigh, using the momentum to surge forward and throw them onto their back. Their hands came to your hips, and flipped you over them as you fell forward, launching you to land harshly a few feet above their head.

Kriff this.

You both scrambled to your feet. You watched as they began to charge towards you. You didn’t brace yourself or try to run away. Instead, you merely extended your hand out towards them. Somewhere in the distance you heard Mando yelling at you, his voice muffled by your focus the swirling barrier of force you felt building up around you. The energy curled in on you, just as Red was about to make contact, you used all you had to throw it from your body, projecting it all towards the oncoming Mandalorian.

They flew backward, cape billowing with grace around them as they flailed through the air, landing with an unceremonious thud on the coarse ground.

You held them there, tendrils of force curling round their limbs to fix them to the ground as you walked calmly towards them. You were the epitome of control in this moment, you knew that you held the attention of everyone in attendance, even the air was still for your presence.

Towering over the restrained Mandalorian you could see every ounce of tension they were holding, their muscles in preparation for whatever onslaught you were about to rain down. Instead, you ran a casual hand through your hair.

“Do you concede?” You quipped.

Red nodded their head viciously, panting out “Yes, yes, yes.”

A wave of your hand released them. You watched as they scurried back to their creed siblings, gathering yourself for what you knew you had to do now.

You strode over to the trio. You flayed your hand towards them, fisting the fabric at their collars using the force.

“You say a single word to anyone about what you saw today and I will find you and personally rip those helmets off of your thick heads. I will do it in front of the whole planet and don’t think for a single second that I won’t.” You hissed at them, before releasing them and watching as they hurried away from you and back to the safety of the covert.

You hoped that the threat of removing their helmets would be affective enough in keeping their mouths shut. If your secret got out then you’d have bounty hunters on your trail in no time. You couldn’t put that on Mando, not when he’s already protecting his own foundling from them.

You took a breath to steady yourself, turning slowly to face your Mandalorian. He was stood stock still, frozen beneath the heat of the double suns. You tentatively walked towards him, reaching out when you were close enough to lightly trail your fingertips down his arm.

It was like your touch broke the spell. His arms came out and pulled you against his chest.

You let out a breathless laugh, your own arms coming up to wrap around his armour clad form.

“Don’t you dare scare me like that again,” He said, resting his helmet on the crown of your head.

“I’ll certainly try not to,” You responded in a sigh, relaxing further into his embrace, the adrenaline from the fight slowly dissipating.

He pulled you away and held you from him, visor directly in front of your face.

“And no more secrets like that.”

“I promise.”

The two of you stayed like that for a moment, staring at each other. The both of you trying to gauge where the hell this new thing between you was going. That was until Mando’s arm was hit by a small metal ball.

You looked over to see the kid stood a little away from you, giggling hysterically. Glancing around, you then flicked your fingers, all three of you watching as the glinting sphere flew its way back to the child.

Mando shook his head, walking back over to where the child was and picking them up. You followed suit, the three of you now making your way back to the crest.

“So you and the kid, you have the same…abilities?” Mando eventually asked.

“Yes, at least I think so. To be truthful Mando, I have no idea what it is. All I know is that I’ve seen other people with it, good people, get captured and killed for it.”

“That’s why you couldn’t accept my lessons,” The realisation was evident in his voice. He looked at you, then at the kid, then back at you. “We’ll figure out what it is, how to protect you,” there was a pause, like he was contemplating something. Then he reached out and took your hand in his. “We’ll do it together.”

You smiled at him and nodded. Together.

Yes, you liked the sound of that.

#din djarin x reader #mandalorian x reader #din djarin fanfiction #the mandalorian #din djarin #star wars

[theregoesjodariel]

Supergem: Writer’s Notes, Chapters 1-10

Hey gang! It’s a long time coming, but I finally got off my ass and finished the full notes for chapters 1-10 of Supergem, my big huge SU fic. I’m just about to finally get to work on the next batch of chapters, so I figured now would be a great time to look back on what I’ve done so far and provide some hopefully interesting commentary. Read on for that stuff!

Chapters 1-5

Right off the bat, chapter 1's title is a reference to the now-famous single-page retelling of Superman's origin story from All-Star Superman #1. There, "kindly couple" was used to summarize Clark Kent's crashlanding on Earth and discovery by the Kents.

Chapter 2 features what I feel would be the natural result of trying to fire bullets at a Gem: absolutely nothing. While Gems are obviously made of hard light and have been shown to be capable of being hurt by conventional means-- see Peridot getting Wile E. Coyote'd by the corrupted Gem in Beta-- I like to imagine that bullets are simply so small and so high-velocity that they'd pass through Gem bodies harmlessly. The science is probably wrong, but let me have my Rule of Cool.

Aside from sporting the amalgamated personalities of Lapis and Peridot, the two superheroes Turquoise takes the most inspiration from are Superman and Spider-Man. She shows at least some compassion for all people, even bad guys, like Superman, and she throws plenty of quips, especially when getting it handed to her, like Spidey.

As stated in the notes, I do not have a set design in mind for Turquoise, but I DID end up canonizing elements of a couple of designs I really like within the story. She sports the unique five-pointed hairstyle and orange suspenders of ahhween's design, as well as the cool cyan color scheme and water cape of cheerkitty1410's. Those two are just fantastic.

Axinite is a Gem OC of mine, a gladiatrix who fights in arenas on Homeworld, which function as the world's equivalent of recreational sports. A lot of the lore I have for her is regurgitated in the narration.

There are, of course, a couple of lines from "Stronger Than You" in chapter 4. There's the title, plus Turquoise correcting Val that the fight is one-on-two.

When I created the character, I actually completely failed to notice Val's considerable resemblance to Jasper, both in appearance (big, bulky and orange) and personality (haughty, judgmental). Naturally, when it hit me, I wrote in a nod to it in chapter 4.

Chapter 4 sees Turquoise and Val's fight spill into a mall, the very same one from Pearls' Night Out, currently my only other multi-chapter work. Rhiannon and Diane, both OCs from there, also make cameos (Rhiannon is the employee who points Turquoise in Val's direction, Diane is the journalist who interviews her on the street).

Pearl and Jasper handle city planning like military tacticians, because, well, they are military tacticians. They're also very overdramatic about it, natch.

Amazonite is a close friend of mine's gemsona, a former Crystal Gem who retired to become a seamstress after the corrupted Gems were all cured.

A couple of things involving Jasper take inspiration from the excellent Back to Beta. Pearl acts as Jasper's parole officer of sorts, rewarding her with Pearl Points for doing a good job and Jasper has an attachment to Earth music for its ability to say what cannot be said through simple speech, just like in there. Go read Back to Beta if you haven't, it's outstanding (it's also Jaspearl-- look at me go).

In one of many instances of Jodi Doing Too Much Research Into Things That Don't Matter, I actually broke out my copy of SU: Art & Origins to study its map of Beach City to determine just how nitpicky Pearl and Jasper were being.

Why do the Nephrites want to talk to Pearl? Maybe we'll find out....

Garnet "borrowed" Andy's plane to go to Empire City. That's a step up from "finding" a phone, don't you think?

I like to imagine that Bismuth has been rooting for Lapis and Peri to get together since the moment she met them. Her gaydar is just that good.

Believe it or not, I genuinely considered having Turquoise adopt a secret identity at one point during planning. I call myself out on it through Steven in chapter 5.

I knew I just couldn't do this story without Jasper since she is, in a way, the villain (or at least a villain) in Turquoise's origin story. As an abuse survivor, showing the ramifications of her and Lapis' time as Malachite as best I could was tantamount to the main storyline.

Chapters 6-10

The foreshadowing in chapter 6's identity should make Ms. Knight's identity a no-brainer for seasoned SU fans. No one spoil it if you figure it out, though!

Ronaldo is absolutely, positively, 100%, one of the guys who doesn't shower before the convention. That's so him it hurts.

The generally meta premise of chapters 6-9 were the result of me drafting them right after I got home from my city's local big convention, which I had a wonderful time at. I did my first ever cosplay (I was Pearl!) there and managed to hold decent conversations with Zach Callison, Deedee Magno Hall, Michaela Dietz, and Estelle. The layout of DelmarvaCon is even copied from the layout of that convention center.

In one of many moments of narrative intersecting with reality, I did some sleuthing and found that Paulette was, in her very brief on-screen appearance, voiced by Deedee Magno Hall, Pearl's voice actress. As said above, I met Deedee at the con I went to. You know how everyone on and off set never stops talking about how nice she is? They're not exaggerating, she's a fantastic person. Kim Tan is fully based on her, taking her name from a couple of Hall's other roles (Kim in Miss Saigon and a bit character named Lori Tan from an episode of Third Watch) and Lapis and Peridot's encounter with her is based on my own; while she didn't usher us ahead of the line to meet her, she did take pictures of my friend and I's cosplays for free when she was supposed to be charging for them. Seriously, nicest celebrity I've ever met.

Chapter 7 has Peridot riff that she can "observe 800 moving objects and compute their direction of travel," a phrase long used to describe Prowl in the Transformers franchise. It has no character significance here, I was on a Transformers kick at the time of writing.

The uncomfortable pulling sensation mentioned in chapter 7 is called an "itch," a callback to The Itch, the oneshot serving as prelude to this fic. There, "the itch" is used to refer to the deeply unsettling feeling a Gem gets when fitted with limb enhancers-- think the feeling you have or would have felt from a dentist fitting you with those awful rubber bands to help with the braces process, it's that kind of feeling. The feeling being given off by Ronaldo's control device is similar, "adding" to a Gem when nothing need be added.

The long opening narration in chapters 8 and 9 were inspired by the writing style of comic book writer Scott Snyder, who has a tendency to start, end, or intersperse his comics with long, expositional comparative musings on seemingly simple or mundane things (seriously, count the number of times one of his Batman comics opens with narration explaining the philosophical meaning behind the rocks used to make buildings in Gotham City).

The cost of Connie's sword is, as stated in the story proper, a rough estimate borne from around half an hour of research. While there are other pink stones that could've been used, I picked pezzotaite because of its extreme rarity, just to drive home how absurdly all-out Bismuth went on it.

Give Jasper a metal-style song in Season 6, Crewniverse!

I like to think Jasper and Greg would be good friends. Think about it: you've just found out your former moral enemies were not only led by, but had close relationships with, the person you spent your whole life idolizing. Who do you talk to about it? Why not the person who knew her more intimately than anyone else?

At the end of the Turquoise and Steven segment in chapter 10, the two sit down to watch Crying Breakfast Friends' extra-length season finale, in which a number of characters get new outfits. Now what could that be referencing?

The narration of Jasper's thoughts makes reference to the exiled Hessonite, antagonist of Steven Universe: Save the Light and a criminally underrated character.

I'd like to preface this point with a content warning for abuse, as I'll be discussing that a bit here.

So, as I mentioned briefly in the 1-5 notes, I'm an abuse survivor; I broke up with my abuser, who I had been with for just about 3 months, in February of this year. An acquaintance of mine has since drafted a document exhaustively detailing all of the bad shit they did for which receipts could be found, and my abuser has reacted with avoidance, victim blaming, and a refusal to apologize. I wasn't yet aware of just how in denial of her own mistakes they were when I wrote chapter 10, so I tried to write Pearl and Jasper's conversation as how I wished the conversation my abuser had with themselves would go, in a perfect world.

To get reflective for a moment, writing that has taught me, in a way I hadn't seen before, how Steven Universe's real, heartfelt redemption arcs, as fantastically-written and just generally good as they are, don't always apply in real-world scenarios. My shitty ex is not Jasper and they never will be.

#imadethis #intel files #su #lapidot

[sibillascribbles08]

Oh shit I knew I forgot to do something, namely this. Can you talk a bit about the development behind Clone Verse and Toby?

Uuuh laslkdf well hell it’s story time I guess

SO ONCE UPON A TIME my friend sus was like I’m gonna draw a scruff kid because of idk some discussion that was going on and I was like okay that’s cool and so this came into existence.

And I can literally never see concepts and not have my brain go running off with it and was like “oh man what’s his name going to be” and my friend Nora was like “Toby” and I was like perfect

But then it raised the question of like… how does he exist. Despite my trans hcs for Ronin he can’t actually have kids and would literally never be comfortable with doing so so not doing that.

Cloning, the obvious fucking solution. Immediately afterwards my brain is like “Clones from an alternate universe wherein The Overlord won in season 3 and was trying to make a clone army in this hell universe and SOMEHOW Toby managed to escape with some friends and end up in this other fic universe of mine where he happens to run into the very people he was cloned from and they adopt him.”

Like, it’s such a simple solution right??

I considered this universe, where Toby came from, how bad it was (hint: It’s REALLY fucking bad) and what his character would be like. He found Dareth and Ronin when he was ten and he was a VERY angry smol. He constantly tried to run away, would steal food or hide it, wouldn’t talk to either of them, the first person to get to him was E and the rats. Eventually Dareth manage to gain his trust through the rodents.

It took him two whole years to get to the point where he completely trusted them, considered them parents, despite the fact he was afraid if they knew who he was they’d kick him out, but even when he confessed all of it they just held onto him tighter.

I debated if he would ever go back to this hell universe but came to the realization he would, or at least he’d be determined to do so thanks to the stuff he’s learned from his dads as well as his memories of his friends. He first got the power through the shards of the realm crystal (a stone that allowed people to jump between realms). It shattered during a fic I haven’t written. He actually had to steal the shards and then went to the cloud kingdom to see another OC of mine named Ruta.

She then puts the shards in his arm with a spell that allows him to absorb and use the power of the crystal which allows him to tear open a portal to his home universe.

He does all this at sixteen btw

And then I was like well damn he GETS there but how the fuck is he supposed to be The Overlord because for the record the guy has the power of creation and is also huge as fuck.

Me: ONE PUUUUUUUUUNCH

No, literally, I realized he can basically make wormholes now so why not have him trigger that out of desperation and he just spaghettifies the overlord (yes that’s a real term)

My brain: If the overlord is space dust what if that gets all up in his arm

Woops he has space arm now, well technically it’s dark matter and golden weapons but whateverrrrr

And well, after that the obviously conclusion is to start working on making shit better

Not sure if I can map out how all that went down. I had to consider what I had, where it would go from there, what I wanted out of it. Cryptor and Mindroid were obviously around, but what about Echo? If he’s been on the island for 20 years what condition is he in? Pixal would now have the ice element since Zane is gone. Who’s even alive after this mess? Some of the ninja who were being controlled, sure, but a lot of the people who were cloned are likely dead by now. How many kids manage to last considering the whole “falling apart” nonsense? What about the amalgamations that are still alive? (Yeah, those are still around for the record, they live in the old factory. Toby visits them a lot)

And like, Toby’s sixteen. He can’t do all this himself. He can’t run a city. So he convinces the others to help.

There’s trauma, everywhere, so much emotional baggage. It was a bit staggering when I realized just HOW MUCH. Pixal never got to grieve properly and keeps clinging to ghosts. Borg is torn between wanting to invent and help, and considering his inventions started this whole mess. Echo’s not only haunted by what happened to him but never properly gets help for it out of distrust. Cryptor’s just drowning in guilt, as is Mindroid. The ninja as well.

But, you know, by now I’ve covered YEARS in this universe in my head. Stuff gets better, even if slowly. I considered the events in the canon story line and how they might differ in this universe (i.e. Acronix still falls out of the time portal but never fights Wu obviously. Morro never escapes the cursed realm. Would Nadakhan still get found and released? What about the oni?)

Toby and Cryptor weren’t initially a thing either. I did a design for Cryptor for fun, consider that if he’s running security that would probably be who Toby goes to first (plus thanks to having E as an older brother he feels comfortable around nindroids). Their friendship starts out rough, but it gets better, and the more I listened to them chatter I realized that oh man… Cryptor’s in LOVE.

And Max, well, he came far later on. Me thinking about how tasty the friends to bitter enemies trope is. That it’s something I could pull off if there was, say, some other universe where Max absorbed the overlord instead.

Welcome to the boss level.

#scribs speaks #clone universe #that's all I'm dumping out here for now am sleepy #amuseoffirebane

[beyondthetemples-ooc]

Fanfic Asks

Found here: https://itsreallylaterightnow.tumblr.com/post/615345458657771520/

1. who is the hardest character for you to write? Oh gods, it's gotta be Gar. I don't do the Spontaneous Goofy Silly thing. I just have absolutely no idea how to write a goofball because I really don't connect to Being a goofball whatsoever, especially one who's So Totally Opposite of myself. Although, if OCs count, it might also be Kary, because she's also spontaneous, but she's pretty rage-y about it and has a VERY sour attitude towards strangers, she's totally silly and teasing around friends, flirty around cute people-- she just takes a lot of energy to keep up with.

2. who is the easiest character for you to write? Dove? Does Dove count? Because she's my OC baby and I've written more for her than any other character in any universe. But if OCs don't count, it's gotta be Raven. I can write for HOURS about things like empathy, meditation, reading, the ins and outs of what emotional control does to your mind and relationships, and having A Dark Side that you're too compassionate to ever give in to. I've spent more than 15 years of my life obsessed with her, analyzing her, noticing her traits and extrapolating as much as I can based on a wealth of canon glimpses into her deeper layers. She's the character I "get" more than any other character aside from the ones that spawned from my own head.

3. How do you know if your writing is “in character”? If I can read the dialogue and hear it in their voice, I've got 'em down. c: I overanalayze a LOT about the characters: their phrasing and linguistic quirks especially, but also their actions, their motivations, their personality-- though, to be fair, Marv Wolfman did a lot of Deep Dives into what makes each character tick, which makes writing fanfic for the Titans a bit of a cakewalk. It's still tricky, especially given that I write in a sort of amalgam universe stuck between the comics and cartoon, so characterization is always a bit of a gray area. But I can generally tell if Something Is Off about a line or action. Don't always know how to fix it, though...

With only such very, very RARE exception. Some scenes are inspired by my own experience, some are inspired by other media (even if I didn't really enjoy it, if I liked a particular line of thought, a scene might sprout from that planted seed). The Final Journey was heavily inspired by a book called Toes by Tor Seidler, at least the very last part of the book.

I have no fucking idea where DDD came from though, that one honestly just spiraled way out of Dove's control, and then out of MY control, and the entire writing process was just a desperate scramble to capture her breakdown and PRAY she'd get out of all this madness alive. Yes, my own experience informed HOW to write about it, what it might feel like, but the idea for "Dove slips up So Fucking Badly she kills people"? What the HELL.

5. Do you tell the people in your life that you write fics? Everyone who's REALLY close to me knows about Dove. Some of them know about Srentha and Kary, I think few of them know about Leyla... I tell everyone I'm a writer though. And if they ask, I will proudly proclaim that I write fanfics about my original characters.

6. What has been the hardest fit for you to write? "Fic", I think that's supposed to say? But uhhhh, probably DDD. Watching Dove go through that has been... really rough. Really, really REALLY rough. (To put it into perspective, I used to write for 3-7 stories every single week. But once DDD started going downhill hard, about the time Dove's first victim happened, I became absolutely OBSESSED with figuring out how she gets out of it.

7. What fic of yours makes you the most emotional? Honestly, that depends entirely on my mood. Lovey-dovey mood? Probably either all the fluff of secretshipping, or the tragedy in Spellbound pt. II. Self-doubt and PTSD? Raven's counsel at the end of DDD. Mystical or spiritual mood? The Final Journey because of Dove being guided by Azar.

8. What is a scene you wrote that you are most proud of? Holy hells bells, the climax scene in DDD! The battle! Between a really powerful empath and a totally unhindered telepath! In a mindscape! I haven't managed to make myself really proud of the ~style~, but the CREATIVITY. The "weapons" they used! The scenery! The escalation, the drama, the consummation of everything Dove had been fighting and Raven had been fighting with her over, and then the ENDING? Gods. Writing such an abstract battle scene was a HUGE challenge, because I've never seen any precedents for it. But I really, really love the way it came out.

9. Is there one character that you refuse to write? why? ...Rrrronaldo? Not that I've done much of anything with my SU ideas, but his arrogance and Totally Missing the Real Actual Meaning of things would probably just make me angry. Come to think of it, that's also the reason I refuse to put Terra in my stories. (Aside from the fact that I would go fucking insane from trying to figure out what the HELL her mindset is alone, what's her plan, what the hell did "Things Change" mean, etc. I just can't do it for her. And I don't forgive her.)

10. When you write fics, how much of canon are you willing to ignore/skip over? Veeeery, very little. I only have Three Anti-Canon Rules in my fanfics: 1.) The Brotherhood of Evil wasn't able to break an ancient and powerful curse that took Raven A FUCKING WEEK to LEARN how to break! So Malchior can't have been released by them. 2.) Sons of Trigon was a bad fanfic and doesn't exist in canon. I absolutely 10000% refuse to acknowledge anything in that story. And 3.) We don't talk about Things Change.

11. Do you prefer to be cold or hot when you write? Oh, cold, absolutely. I've written in an 85F room with two cups of ice water and three fans before, so it's not like I can't write in the heat when I'm really inspired, but I'm so sensitive to heat that I have passed out while sitting when it was just 75F outside. But cold... Cold I can THRIVE in.

12. What is your ideal writing area? My room. Somewhere quiet, peaceful, calm, separated, and where I know I won't have people trying to read over my shoulders.

13. How do you come up with your titles? I try very, very hard and hope I've come up with something that Sounds Nice AND Makes Sense. (I'm still debating the title of "Fire and Flight: The Keys to Igniting a Pacifist Heart". 'Flight' because that's what Srentha's name means, and it's his debut story, but like.... Fire only means Devastating Things to Dove, so I'm reeeeally fighting myself on that. I love the poetry in the title! But like.... couldn't the poetry be a little less devastating? But my brain refuses to spit anything else out. And also, that Day of Fire was a pretty important plotpoint, since it's the whole reason they were separated...)

14. How do you come up with chapter titles? Usually picking something that Sounds Cool and Has Relevance to the most important aspects of the chapter. I'm still really proud of calling a chapter of DDD "Sins of the Father" BEFORE Marv Wolfman used that phrase for Raven!

15. At what point in writing a fic, do you decide to quit? Who says I quit? The only way I'll quit a fic entirely is if I don't want to write it anymore. But because of the aforementioned Curiosity and Drive to Learn about what the heck is happening in these scenes in my head, that rarely ever happens. There have been exactly Three (3) fics that I quit writing. ~ 1.) The Titans/Pokemon crossover, because I realized I had no idea what to do with a Misdreavus in Titans Tower. (That one actually got published, but then deleted in a fit of Self-Consciousness because I was convinced people would find it cringey. I really wish I'd kept it because it was a cute idea, at least... and nowadays I can think of so MANY things! I never even wrote her meeting Silkie!) ~ 2.) The shameless self-insert where comic!Raven showed up in my room one day because I realized I had no plot ideas whatsoever, I really just wanted to write about meeting Raven in an actual physical sense. ~ 3.) Misery's Company, my Ruby Gloom fanfic, because frankly that was another shameless self-insert fic, and I realized I had no idea what to do once we got Misery back to Gloomsville. And then I realized I didn't have any particular motivation to even write it THAT far. I just totally lost interest. I didn't want to write about the rest of the Gloom crew. And I utterly lost touch with the magic in the show. I couldn't write in the style that meshed so WELL with that fic anymore. It's actually still up for adoption, I just have to find someone willing to actually adopt it.

16. How much of your personal life do you put into fics? Mhhhh, only as much as is relevant. Mostly writing from experience With Situations and Feelings, though I don't insert my reactions into how others would handle their experiences. DDD probably got the most so far. Although I can't lie, I've also found myself consulting some of my own experiences when writing for Raven as well. Like what empathy feels like... but it's mainly for things like Deciding Which Descriptive Words to Use.

17. What is the most supportive comment you have gotten? Ooh, that's hard! I've gotten several good reviews that really motivated me-- they were all on fanfic.net, but maybe the one that was like "The originality is too great to be lost" on DDD? Or the review I got for the Unforeseen revamp that was like "It flows like silk" and talking about how much better it was than the original!

18. What is the most negative comment you have gotten? All the accusations of Dove being a Mary Sue? Yeah. She never WAS, but I didn't know how to write a bio about her without comparing her to Raven, so nowadays I can see why they went there.

19. How do you handle negative comments? Back then, I sent a pm and asked them to clarify. Nobody ever did... 8F But nowadays I mostly just ignore it.

20. What story that you have written makes you the happiest to re-read? Either really triumphant or really soft moments. I love the gentle moments between Dove, Srentha, and Leyla. I love the plot progression in Something Special. I love the revamp of Mystery Sickness, seeing how far my writing has come. I love reading any tender scene between Srentha and Dove. Dove's memories with her mother are so formative and important and sweet and special. I love how peacefully Dove and Srentha's marriage scene came out. There are just so many that make me happy...

I also wrote a really cute scene between Steven, Lapis, and Amethyst where they made a sort of roller coaster for him because he was banned from FunLand and that's just an adorable sweet idea, but I never fully wrote it, whoops.

#rhs writing #rhs fanfics

[amalgamau]

Chapter 3

When we last left off Bismuth reformed and the shards were placed in the fountain. Also there was less thank 200 of you holy crap! Thank you guys for being interested! Without any further wait! Welcome back to the Crystal Gems! >=)

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The bubbles rested gently on the water, drifting off into the pool for a moment before popping and sinking into the water. For what felt like an eternity, nothing happened as the shards began to sink to the bottom of the fountain. The silence was deafening, only the sound of the water's currents were audible as the Fountain poured. Beneath the water’s surface, Amethyst's remains piled together on the fountain floor. Ruby and Sapphire's shards were stirred together by the slow moving currents. The dust that was once Pearl became a foggy cloud in the water, mixed with muddy sand and sparkling shards.

As the last of everyone's hope faded, and tears fell, choking sobs beginning to break the silence, a sudden light hum, and a pink glow rose from the water. Everyone turned and looked, suddenly full of anticipation and excitement. The hum grew louder. As the moment dragged on, the pink light faded into a sickly pale green, becoming near blinding before fading away.

Every second felt like hours. The longer nothing happened, the more agonizing it was for the group. After what felt like forever, Steven steeled his courage and peered over the corner into the fountain hoping to see any good news.

Before Steven could get a good look, a hand burst from the water, startling Steven as he stumbled back, falling on his rear. He recognized Garnet's hand as it gripped the ground, breaking the tile as it dug in with a loud and lengthy CRAAACK. 

"Gaaarnet?" Steven asked in sudden concern as a second hand reached out through the water and dug into the flooring. Steven scooted back slightly in concern as he realized that both hands appeared to be right hands. Something was wrong. Another arm shot out of the water, this one split into two at the elbow as the two hands slammed into the floor beneath it, cracking it. Slowly the figure lifted its head from the water, its head aimed at Steven, beginning to slowly peel apart its eyelids one at a time to reveal its five eyes. It stared through Steven as he scrambled back in fear.

"G-garnet? What's wrong?" Steven stammered in fear as he got to his feet. Garnet opened their mouth to speak, but the only noise that could be heard was an echoed moan turned into a scream, the voices of Ruby and Sapphire wailing in tandem.

Garnet crawled out of the Fountain, maintaining eye contact with Steven and the group as they did. Once fully emerged, she looked down at their hands and then further at the shards that were once Ruby and Sapphire, permanently fused together. The two rings that had symbolized their union and their brightest moment were now embedded into the stone that held together all that was left of them. She gripped her head tightly with all four hands as tears began to leak from every eye. She then let out an inhuman wail. The sound of torment in their voice was obvious as Ruby and Sapphire screamed through Garnet's mouth. Steven got up and began to walk towards her, hand outstretched in concern when a figure erupted from the water, landing next to Garnet on all fours.

Pearl had emerged and looked up at the duo, half her face a smoothly polished sandstone-esque gem hybrid. The spot where her eye would have been was sunken in and covered by a shadow. The other eye appeared glassy and blank, as if there was no mind behind it. She opened her mouth, the half not covered by her new sandstone-like gem. From her mouth came an ear-piercing, staticky scream. 

The group flinched at the noise, clutching their ears as Pearl wailed in tandem with Garnet. Pearl crawled out of the Fountain, hunched over staring at the group with an empty and feral expression. When the screaming stopped, Steven moved his hands from his ears, holding out a hand to Pearl.

“Pearl... it’s me... it’s Steven.” He said softly. Pearl looked at him with a blank expression and charged at him. Steven flinched as Pearl jumped at him, when another figure burst from the water. Amethyst shot out, her body a long snake-like appendage that snatched Pearl from the air, wrapping around her. Amethyst's head faced Pearl's as she struggled against the grapple. Amethyst let out a high pitched screech that sounded off, as though reversed. She spun sideways, letting go of Pearl mid spin and launching her into the fountainhead. The statue crumbled as Pearl slammed against it with a loud crack. Piping snapped from inside the statue causing water to gush out from the mechanism in hissing sprays. 

Pearl screamed a loud, agonized scream full of static and noise. As Amethyst turned to Steven, Bismuth and Connie tried to calm Garnet down. Steven looked up to Amethyst's eyes, one much larger than the other that seemed to move with the head's momentum, the other trained on Steven. She leaned back, ready to slam into him. As Steven moved in towards Amethyst, she swung at him full-force. Steven put up his shield, blocking the attack, then dropped it and grabbed her in a hug.

"Amethyst! I'm here! It's ok! Please calm down!"

Amethyst froze, turning so her eyes met Steven’s, her one regular eye tearing up.

“¿uǝʌǝʇS” 

She spoke slowly, but Steven was unable to understand her.

“A-Amethyst... I... I can’t understand you... If you’re in there... please...” Amethyst pauses, then nods. “˙˙˙ǝɹǝɥ ɯ,I ʇnq ˙˙˙ʇɥƃᴉɐɹʇs ʞuᴉɥʇ ʇ,uɐɔ I puɐ sʇɹnɥ ƃuᴉɥʇʎɹǝʌƎ ˙˙˙ǝɹǝɥ ɯ,I-I” Steven sighed in relief and sadness.

“I have no idea what you’re saying... but at least you’re still there... I don’t know what to do! Everyone was shattered. I tried to help them!” He began to tear up as he looked at her.

“Something is wrong! I need to get through to them!”

Amethyst bent her body so she could put a hand on his shoulder

“˙noʎ uo ʇɹɐdɐ llɐɟ ʇ,uoʍ I ˙˙˙ǝɹǝɥ ɯ,I” She turned to the fountain, Pearl swinging wildly and crawling around the ruined fountain. Amethyst jumped up and charged at Pearl, wrapping her body around her again and holding her down.

“¡ʞo ǝq oʇ ƃuᴉoƃ ǝɹ,ǝM ¡ǝɯ oʇ uǝʇsᴉ˥ ¡uʍop ɯlɐƆ ¡lɹɐǝԀ”

Amethyst dragged Pearl to Steven, while Pearl struggled to get out of Amethyst’s hold. Steven reached out to Pearl, putting a hand on the gemstone half of her face while she struggles, grunting and growling with her static filled voice.

“Pearl! It’s Steven. I’m here, please... I love you! I’m here for you!”

As Pearl turned to Steven, her one eye began to tear up.

“S̷͎̓̃t̶̗̱̭̿́-̷̣̼͙͐Ṡ̴̩̆͗t̶͚̖̫̿̿e̸͓͔͔͒v̴̬̓͜ě̵̦̜͝n̸̜̥̼̉̆?̵̬͛̇ͅ” she asked, slowly going limp.

He sighed. “Yeah Pearl... It’s me... I tried to save you guys... I’m so sorry... I wasn’t fast enough.”

Pearl looked at herself in the water below as Amethyst lets go

“Ö̷͙̦̠́̒́-̵̛̗̯͙̽ó̸̹h̶̪͔̅̈́ ̴̟͈̔̂́s̴͚̿t̶̜̄a̸͕̽̌͘ȓ̸̫̰̖̅s̶̲̜̐̈.̷͕͎͛̕.̴̢͒͜.̵̨̠̐̓͘͜ ̷͔̄͝Ĩ̷̞̥.̶̲̋͗͝.̶̛̹̜̖͐͘.̶̦͍͛̓ ̷̳̣̫̃W̸͖̑e̴̢̤̔̒͊.̵̰̞͌͑̚.̶͕̰̬͂.̷̖͈́ ̴̬̔̃͛I̸̞̬̓͑ ̸̛̗̖c̵͙̐a̵̝̟͓͐̈́n̶̤̭͊'̵̺͌̄t̵͇͆̓.̸̟̲̄̄̃.̶̻͑̋.̷̠͔̋̉̅ͅ” she trailed off as Steven wipes tears from his eyes.

“P-Pearl.” he manages to choke out. “I’m so sorry...”

Pearl froze and looked at Steven, tears streaming from her one eye. She got down and put a hand on his cheek.

“S̴̢̑ṭ̸͑e̸̖͈͐ṽ̸͙̭́e̶͖̮͛͝n̷̻̮̒.̴̞͍̀.̶̥̬̈́.̵̘̟̋ ̵̝͒̿I̷̹̋̋'̶͕́m̵̻̈ ̶̤͑s̷͇̿o̴͋̎͜ ̸͓͍̾̿s̸̤̝͑̈́o̸͚̪̊̉ŗ̷̉r̸̬̍ỷ̶̰͌.̷̅͗͜.̴͖̚.̵̞̈́͑ ̴̗̟̀̓N̴̡͈̈o̵͚͊̀n̸̙̟͆̀ĕ̴͕͈͘ ̸̩̪̂̾o̸̮̯̍̋f̵̤͗ͅ ̶̘̆ͅṱ̶̐̍ĥ̸̬̟̈́ì̵͕s̸̺̀ ̵̟̇ï̶̲͝s̸̹̹̔ ̷̻̠̍y̴̻̰͐̇o̸͔̱̔u̸̮̼͊r̷̡͒̂ ̷̛̤̤́f̸̛̥ͅǎ̶̠͝ư̴̪͠l̴̛̠̅t̴͈̭͐̽.̵̨̑̔ ̶̨̥̃Y̴̹̬͐̈ǫ̵̙̌͘u̵̘̜͒ ̶̨͙͂ḋ̷̙͋͜i̸̟̳͗̆ḑ̷̬͆͋n̶̖̽͒'̶̰̅͘ţ̶͉̌̃ ̴̞͖͌̎d̵̹́o̴̢͛̅ ̴̛ͅt̴͍̅h̵̜͙̅i̵̘̳̎s̴̫̍̇.̸̙̙̊ ̴̛̙̯̆Ị̵͓̑́t̵̻͖̀̓'̵͔͋́s̴̪͇̈̅ ̷͕̀o̵̹͍̕ḵ̴̈.̵̻͂ ̵̉͜Ŵ̶̠͇̄ḛ̷̿̕ ̷̜͕͗̐d̸͉̟͘o̸̥̲̍ǹ̷̳͗'̸̮̰̈́͐ẗ̴͍̩́ ̴͓͐͜b̸̡̑͂l̶͔̭͐a̷̦͘m̷͇̐̏e̸̢͙̊ ̷̭̦̾y̶̪̒o̷̟͚͂ủ̴͎́.̴̟̥̓̾”

Tears streamed down Steven’s face as he put a hand to hers and then held it tightly.

“I... need to help Garnet too...” he said slowly. Amethyst and Pearl nodded and followed behind as he walked to Garnet. 

The trio walked over, with Connie and Bismuth standing next to Garnet, who was on their knees staring at their hands, crying in a mixture of fear and frustration. Steven walked around to her front as he reached out to her.

“Garnet... it’s Steven...”

Garnet flinched and turned away, once again crying out in the voices of Ruby and Sapphire.

“Go away! Steven please! We don’t want you to see me like this!”

Steven backed away for a moment before reaching for her shoulder.

“Garnet... I’m here for you.. I’m so sorry I couldn’t stop this... I didn’t mean for this to happen...” Garnet flinched and pulled away.

“They’re gone! Ruby and Sapphire... We... don’t exist anymore I... we... are all that’s left... I’m not a fusion anymore, I’m a MONSTER.”

Steven flinched, choking back tears and guilt.

“Garnet... no... You aren’t a monster... You’re made of love, remember?” Garnet turned to him, all five eyes streaming tears as they glared at him in frustration.

“THEY ARE DEAD AND GONE. I can’t be made of love if there is nobody left... I’m a shell of what I was...” 

She sobbed and buried her face in her hands.

Steven froze, looking down guiltily as he swallowed his emotion.

“I... couldn’t save them.. And I’m so... so... so sorry... But... you are still Garnet... and the things... the people... that you love... are still here... so there is still hope... right?” Steven’s encouraging speech trailed off into a search for his own reassurance.

Everyone was silent for a long time. Garnet didn’t move for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, she stood up, looking at everyone as she wiped her eyes. Steven swallowed before speaking up.

“We’ve... all been through so much... what happened... and what was taken from us... there are no words... but we’re still here. For better or for worse, we’re still alive. We’ll make the best of this, I’m sure... We’ve always found a way before... we can do it this time, too.”

Everyone looked to Steven, sad smiles shared by the group. The family embraced into a hug. 

Everyone stayed in the embrace for a few minutes, just comforting one another. When everyone finally pulled away, Steven took a deep breath before mumbling.

“So... about the diamonds...”

#steven universe au #Su Au #suau #steven universe #su garnet #su pearl #su amethyst #su amythest #su steven #su bismuth #su bismith #su connie #tw: major character death #TW: character death #tw: death #tw: horror #tw: body horror #su au amalgam #su amalgam fic #writing #fanfic

[amalgamau]

Prologue

Welcome to the Amalgam AU! Let’s start at the beginning. This takes place during the attack of Blue and Yellow Diamond during Reunited. As an aside, during the evacuation Connie’s parents and Greg all evacuate with the rest of the people. Cat Steven as well, for as cruel as I am.... I can hurt no kitties.

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The last thing Steven remembered was Yellow Diamond charging at him, her foot coming towards him, then nothing. As he came to, he could hear Connie calling to him, but it sounded distant and muffled. 

He opened his eyes to see Connie above him.

“STEVEN!” she cried.

“Connie, what’s wrong?” he called in response.

As tears filled Connie’s eyes, she continued to plead as if she hadn’t heard him.

“Come on, please wake up!” “I’m up, I’m up! What’s going on?!” Steven replied, but to no avail.

Steven sat up.

“Connie... I’m right here,” he said in a comforting tone, but as connie looked down, she didn’t seem to notice.“Come on Steven,” she continued. “We need you...”

Steven turned behind him to see himself lying on the ground behind him. He shot up and stumbled, scrambling to his feet with a shout. “What the hoo-hah?!” he exclaimed, startled. He examined himself, and the version of himself lying on the ground.

“Huh...” he thought aloud, “Well, this is new... What is this place?”

As Steven looked around, he saw large statues of each of his friends standing at attention with their eyes shut. Atop the head of each statue stood the person it signified, brandishing their weapons as they fought an invisible threat. The sound of their attacks echoed in the otherwise quiet realm. In the distance, Steven could see Lapis rising with pillars of water as she called out into the void.

“What else have you got?! I’ve only just begun to fight!”

Suddenly, Lapis was enveloped in a yellow energy as she convulsed and cried out in pain. A cloud of blue dust erupted and enveloped the area. As it cleared, both Lapis and the statue were gone, and a Lapis Lazuli gemstone floated up in its place next to the gemstone of the already poofed Peridot. Steven gasped and called out to Lapis before looking higher at the towering figures beside hers to see the imposing statues of Yellow and Blue Diamond, with the equally imposing figures towering above them, their aura radiating off of them from above.

Steven turned back to Connie in disbelief.

“Connie, are you seeing this?!” He cried out in shock, but much to his dismay, she seemed unable to hear him, instead responding by calling for him to wake up once more. However, suddenly he heard her voice in an echo, her mouth didn’t move but he could hear her talk, as if in her head.

“We’re supposed to be in this together, remember?”

Steven stepped towards her in concern

“Uh, Connie, I’m o-kay?” as he spoke and reached for her he stumbled in shock as he stepped entirely through her, he spun around in shock as Connie seemed to suddenly become aware of his presence, calling out into the void for him in confusion.

Steven grabbed her hand, shouting.

“Connie! It’s Me!” “Huh? Wh-Where are you? How are you doing...” she stammered.

“I’m not sure...” Steven replied. “But I think it’s a classic psychic ghost type situation...”

“Ah, of course... So, what’s the plan?”

“The Diamonds won’t listen to me out there... but maybe I can get through to them in here. They’ve got to know Pink Diamond wasn’t shattered. Please protect my body while I’m gone.”

“Got it! Good luck out there, Steven.”

With that, Steven let go of Connie’s hand and walked to the edge of her statue, staring ahead at the statues of Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Bismuth, then past the gems of Peridot and Lapis, at the looming towers of the Diamonds. With a deep breath, Steven leaps forward to Garnet’s mindscape. As he lands, he hears Garnet’s thoughts.

“This is it, I’ve got to hold it together. I’ve got to hold everyone together!”

“You can do it Garnet! Remember...” Steven cried out as he jumped through Garnet’s form “You’re made of LOVE!”

“Steven?” Garnet asked in shock before smiling to herself. “Huh. Always full of surprises.” She then returned to her assault on the invisible threat, much more empowered than before. Steven smiled as he turned and jumped on to Amethyst. Upon landing he could hear Amethyst chanting to herself, “Don’t get shattered, don’t get shattered, don’t get shattered!”

As Steven ran through her and jumped onward he called out to her.

“You can do this Amethyst I believe in you!”

“Steven?”

She paused in shock before returning to her attacks with a heightened fury, now chanting to herself, “I can do this! I can do this! I can do this!”

While landing at the next Statue, Steven heard the voice of Pearl reassuring herself.

“I won’t give up! Everything I do, I do it for her! I do it for him!” As Steven runs through he interjects.

“Don’t forget about yourself, Pearl!”

“I do it for ME!” she added as she continues her fight.

Collecting himself on Bismuth’s statue, he hears her inner doubt.

“I just got my friends back, and now I’m gonna lose ‘em again?”

Steven places a hand on her shoulder before diving forward and continuing his journey.

“We can still do this!” he cries out. “Together!”

Bismuth stands determined and reaffirms, “What am I thinking! We haven’t lost yet!”

Standing on the floating gemstone of Peridot, Steven pauses.

“Hang in there, Peridot. You, too, Lapis!”

Steven gathers himself before launching himself with all his might and pushing himself to the figure of Yellow Diamond, radiating her electrical Aura. As he approached, he heard her thoughts.

“How miserable. I knew Pink couldn’t handle her own colony, but I gave in, and now I’m to blame for her fate.”

He turned and saw Blue next to her and heard her thoughts as well.

“What good will any of this do? The more I make these gems suffer, the more I long to see you again, Pink.”

Steven pushed his way through the aura surrounding Blue Diamond and placed a hand on her head.

“Blue Diamond, please listen!” he managed to squeak out before being blown away by the aura surrounding her. As he caught himself, Blue looked around with a tear in her eye.

“I-I felt something! Someone...” Blue gasped in shock.

Steven pushed back through with a determined look, placing his hand on her again.

“Pink isn’t gone!” he cried.“I can explain everything if you just stop this fighting!”

“There it is again!” Blue stuttered in confusion.

“What are you jabbering about?” sighed Yellow in annoyance.

“A presence!” Blue responded. “It feels like...”

“Please Blue, you’re being hysterical. More so than usual,” Yellow once again sighed before Steven managed to push through her aura, laying a hand on her cheek.

“Listen, Yellow, Pink’s fate is different than you think! She faked her shattering!” 

Steven was blown away from them by Yellow’s aura as the two diamonds stood back to back.

“This feeling, I know it!” Blue stated with concern and confusion.

“It must be a trick!” Yellow cried out. “You gems would dare mock us like this?! We’ll destroy you for this!”

In a tsunami of energy, the two diamond’s auras ripple throughout the mindscape, and in an instant, all the gems below Steven scream in anguish before poofing. Steven cries out in shock as he looks to see his family fall.

“Please! Stop! Listen to me!” Steven cries, trying to force his way through the waves of energy and raw emotion pushing him further from the Diamonds. A loud crash, like the sound of glass falling apart as it hits the ground echoes throughout the void as Steven whips around in desperation to see the Gemstone in Amethyst’s slot break apart and crumble into the inky depth below.

“AMETHYST! NO! PLEASE STOP!” Steven cried out as next the gems of Ruby and Sapphire, next to each other as Garnet shatter and drop. Steven whips back around blasting himself forward with strength he didn’t know he had. Tears filled his eyes as he screamed gutterally, pushing his way to the Diamonds. As he does, he hears the gut wrenching sound of glass once more as something... someone... falls... He desperately hopes it doesn’t mean what he thinks... what he fears. 

“I NEED YOU TO STOP. YOU NEED TO KNOW. WHO. I. AM.”

As a pink aura explodes outward from Steven, it instantly absorbs the aura surrounding Yellow and Blue. As they both turn, a loud, sickening crack echoes from behind him.

Both Diamonds utter, “P-Pink?” as Steven slowly sinks to the hands of the Diamonds, his eyes begin to flutter open as Steven prepares for the worst.

#steven universe #steven universe au #su au #tw: character death #tw: major character death #writing #fanfic #su steven #su au amalgam #su pearl #su garnet #su amethyst #su amythest #su blue diamond #su yellow diamond #su bismuth #su bismith #su connie #su amalgam fic

[amalgamau]

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Is here quicker then most updates will be! I felt like posting it quickly so that there was a bit more content out there for ya! Expect more updates for the actual story to be closer to a couple times a week, but lets go all out for the start Eh?

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Steven’s eyes slowly opened to see Yellow and Blue standing above him. He jumped to his feet and looked around in desperation. His eyes landed on Connie, lying in a crumpled pile with lion at her side gently nudging her, trying to get her to move, but to no avail. As Steven crawled to his feet with tears in his eyes, he was suddenly snatched up by Blue, who clung to him, sobbing.

"Ohhhhh, Pink! I can't believe it! You've been here all along!"

Steven, however, entirely focused on Connie and forced himself away from Blue in tears.

"CONNIE! C-CONNIE!!"

Steven rushed to her and looked down at her lifeless body, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Connie... you can't.... you can't die... you just said we're supposed to be in this together! You can't leave me..."

He pulled the limp body into a hug, his tears fell onto her and, writhing a moment, she began to glow and slowly turn pink. Steven was taken aback before remembering what happened to Lars, the realization dawning on him. He pulled her tighter, sobbing in relief as Connie slowly opened her eyes.

"St-Steven? What happened...?" she mumbled with a groggy tone.

"Connie! I'm so sorry! I w-wasn’t fast enough.. the gems.. and you... you were..."

He breaks off into sobs unable to speak as he clings tightly to Connie, who hugs back, looking down at her arms.

“I was....? Wh-wha? The last thing I remember was running at Blue Diamond, and then.... It’s all fuzzy... I-is my skin... Pink?” Connie asked as she looked at her arms, which were wrapped around Steven, who couldn’t stop crying. While Connie collected herself, Yellow was trying to get her hand ship to take off, but with no luck. Blue watched Steven cling to Connie  as he cried in concern, but, in fear of upsetting “Pink” even more, she decided to stay silent.

Meanwhile, Connie pulled Steven back to look him in the eyes and spoke to him in a slow and calm voice.

“Steven. It’s okay. I’m right here. Take deep breaths and walk me through what happened slowly.”

Steven nodded and gulped, taking deep labored breaths.

“While I was in the psychic mind place…” he began, "I was trying to get the Diamonds to listen to me... but their thoughts were too strong... and then they poofed everyone with an attack... and then... the.... Gems... the gems got...” He paused and choked on his tears.

“Shattered...” Connie recoiled in alarm and looked around her; she could see indents in the sand where each of the Crystal Gems fell before poofing... and in the indents where Garnet and Amethyst had collapsed, shimmering shards were scattered. A fine light powder, slightly off the color of the sand, dusted the hole where Pearl had fallen. Connie felt tears in her eyes as her mind raced. However, she was able to see the Gemstones of Lapis, Bismuth, and Peridot still unscathed along the beach. As she tried to process what had happened, she turned to Steven in concern.

“Steven... do you... do you think you can heal them? You brought Lars back... You brought....” she paused, gulping as she realized what she was about to say.

“Y-You brought me back.... Can you do the same for them?” Steven sniffled as he looked up at her.

“I-I don’t know... they’re in pieces... even if I tried, I don’t know if I could get all of them...”

Connie paused and looked back at the shards that littered the ground.

“What about Rose’s fountain? If you put them there do you think it would fix them?”

Steven looked down and mumbled “I don’t know.... Maybe...”

Connie grabbed his hands and stood, looking him in the eye with an uneasy smile.

“Then let’s try it! It can’t get much worse can it?”

The pair scrambled to collect the remains of their friends while Blue stared in confusion.

"Pink, what are you doing?" she asked, but was ignored as Steven and Connie focused on grabbing everything they could and bubbling them for safe keeping. As they finished gathering the unshattered gems, Yellow turned exasperated to Steven.

"How could you do this to us Pink? Why did you let us think you were shattered? Why the strange disguise? Why are you doing a voice? Why didn't you say something at the trial? And what are you doing with those gems?"

Steven turned to Yellow with an angry and cold expression.

“I am NOT my mom,” Steven stated in a matter of fact tone.

Yellow in exasperation and confusion asked, “What in the cosmos is a mom?” 

“By its simplest definition,” Connie interjected, “a creature that births another creature, typically of the same species.”

Yellow coughed and ignored her, however, turning to Steven and asking,“Pink, could you PLEASE tell your pet to stop its incessant yapping?”

Steven snapped and turned fully to Yellow in a rage, a sinister aura in the air, causing Connie to slowly back away, holding the remaining gems and bubbled shards.

“CONNIE. Is not my pet. And I am NOT. PINK. DIAMOND!” As he screamed at the top of his lungs, a shock wave erupted from him, blasting the sand around him away in a cloud and shaking the entire beach. Steven took a step towards Yellow, his imposing presence even catching the diamond off guard as she recoiled slightly.

“I. Am. Steven. UNIVERSE!” he cried, as another shock wave sent everyone to the ground,the earth rumbling beneath them. Both Yellow and Blue were stunned into silence, Connie desperately clinging to the gems.

“YOU. KILLED. MY. FAMILY. SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME!”

As Steven gave out a final shock wave, the cliff side by his home cracked with the power of his words. The deafening crack of stone snapped Steven out of his rage momentarily, long enough for him to gather his priorities.

Steven takes a long deep breath and walks over to Yellow, the diamonds both gathering themselves to get back on their feet. He looks her directly in the eyes and, through gritted teeth, he growls at her.

“Pink Diamond is gone. I am half gem, half human. I was raised by the Crystal Gems who saw the beauty in life and living. You MURDERED them in cold blood, and You. Will. Help. Fix. It.”

Yellow slowly stands back up before looking down at Steven, scowling with his eyes full of tears. Yellow sighs defeatedly.

“Pi- errrmh... Ste-vahn... Even if I wanted to, they were shattered. They can’t be fixed!”

Steven gives a chillingly cold glare as he wipes the tears from his eyes, staring through Yellow with a look of hated. “I don’t care. Either you fix them. Or you stay out of my way.”

With that Steven turned from Yellow and walked back to Connie.

“Let’s go Connie,” he said in a very matter of fact tone.

“O-okay...” Connie replied with a nod, still shocked by his outburst. She adjusted her hold on the gems, Steven taking the bubbled shards to help carry his friends as they walked toward the wrecked house that was the Temple. As they walked away, Blue, climbing to her feet called out to them.

“Where are you going?”

Without turning or stopping, Steven calls out,“To Rose’s Fountain. You can either come with us, or sit here and think about what you did.”

Blue and Yellow look at each other and both begin following Steven and Connie. Upon reaching the Temple, they help clear the debris from the warp pad before all getting on and warping away.

#steven universe #steven universe au #suau #writing #emotional whump #tw: character death #tw: major character death #fanfic #su steven #su lion #su connie #su blue diamond #su yellow diamond #steven #su au amalgam #su amalgam fic