#Figured id get this out before Gems thing happens later :)

[lizzie2dyefor]

It starts with an innocuous job, the two of them break into this rich lord's house and steal a magical pendant. They are young and brash but no less skilled.

The plan goes off without a hitch. That isn’t what this story is about.

Now they weave through a busy city. Despite the late hour, some kind of party is still going strong. Someone hands Lizzie a warm glass of cider and passes Ren a wrapped sandwich they pass through.

She doesn’t remember the name of this city, Camia? Cradia? Something like that. It's beautiful whatever it's called, brightly decorated in a wide array of colors.

“Any idea what they're celebrating?” Lizzie sips her cider, it’s quite possibly the best thing she's ever had.

“Maybe harvest? It's the right time of year.”

“Yeah, plus all the fields are empty.”

She downs the last of her drink, leaving the mug on a low stone wall.

“What's the plan for tonight? Sneak into one of the barns? Don’t really want to show our faces at any of the taverns just in case.”

Ren gestures to the woods just outside of town, “Let's just camp in the forest. Probably best if we don't stay in town very long.”

Lizzie nods, “It's a nice night. Moons nearly full anyways.”

The night air is pleasant, crisp but not uncomfortably so. They walk for a while in companionable silence until Ren stops. Focused on something just off the path.

“Did you hear that?”

Lizzie is aware that her hearing is below average. She is also very aware that Ren’s hearing is abnormally good. She does not ‘hear that’. In fact, she doesn't hear anything.

“No? It’s pretty quiet.”

“I heard my name. From the woods.”

They both stand still for a moment, holding their breath. Sure enough, faintly, from deep within the trees a voice calls out.

“Ren!” Whoever it is, they sound heartbroken, voice cracking around the shape of his name.

Before Lizzie can stop him, Ren takes off in the direction of the voice.

Obviously, she follows, the two of them crashing through the forest. Lizzie does her best to stay on his heels but Ren has always been faster than her.

She chases after him for what feels like hours, calling for him to stop. But he runs with a single-minded focus, following the voice that still calls out.

Until he stops so abruptly that she crashes into him.

“Dude, what the hell?” She asks, doubled over and taking heaving breaths.

After a long moment, Ren doesn’t respond. He stands frozen as if in a trance, staring towards a perfect ring of stones.

In that perfect ring of stones stands a woman. Everything about Her hums with power. Her wings remind Lizzie of a dragonfly, flitting and buzzing as She talks.

“Dear Knight. I've missed you so.”

She looks like Lizzie.

She looks like Lizzie, like an awful second-hand collection of her traits. Her eyes are both blue, but darker than hers ever were. Her hair is a pale pink done up in intricate braids, topped with a crown of thorny roses.

The woman holds out a hand, carefully within the circle.

“It's been so long sir Knight. What has kept you?”

Ren takes a step forward as if pulled by some invisible string.

“What are you doing? Stop!” In a panic, Lizzie grabs his hand to pull him back.

In that moment something she doesn’t understand breaks. Pulls taught and shatters with an audible snap. Ren frowns, almost confused. He looks around the clearing then at Lizzie and Not-Lizzie.

“What do you want, foul beast?” Ren spits at the Fey, taking another step back to stand with Lizzie.

“That is no way to speak to your Queen, dear Knight.” She croons at him. Serene smile ruined by sharp teeth.

“I am no knight and I serve no Queen. You deceitful creature.”

Her smile drops suddenly. The air around them seems to stand still.

“If you insist on behaving so beastly, Sir Knight, then so be it.”

The fey waves a dismissive hand towards him, Lizzie feels her hair stand on end, smells iron and sap and ash.

Standing in the place of her best friend is a dog. Calling him a wolf is a stretch, though he is certainly large. Long fur and pointed ears.

Ren shakes his new form, as if settling into new skin. The fey whistles, low and beckoning. He pads over Her, tail tucked between his legs.

Before he can step over the stones, Lizzie finds her voice.

“Wait! I want to make a deal.”

The Queen turns towards her, so fast it jostles her crown. She smiles with Lizzie’s face, it stretches too wide, showing sharp teeth. She’s paid no mind to Lizzie this whole time, wholly focused on Ren.

Now, Her attention presses down on her shoulders like Atlas with the sky.

“Is that so?” She laughs, “The girl wants to make a deal! What could you possibly have to offer me? A name perhaps?”

Lizzie takes a deep breath.

“I offer you one favor. In exchange, you’ll turn my friend back and we both get to leave.”

The Shadow Queen, in this moment Lizzie does not know her title (But she will soon learn) Considers this for a moment. She taps one long, sharp, nail against her chin.

“Just one favor? Oh but he’s been so Rude,” The woman who looks like Lizzie croons, “calling me such cruel things. Do you really see me as beastly?”

“You turned my friend into a dog!” She gestures towards Ren.

“A kindness. He's still alive!” Ren growls from where he's sat just outside Her circle. She growls back so loudly it rattles Lizzie’s bones. He backs down, the Queen turns back to Lizzie.

“You owe me, for being so generous. I only turned one of you into a dog after all.” Not-Lizzie laughs, “In exchange for returning the good Knight to his proper self. You will grant me seven wishes, to be carried out when I so choose.”

“Seven favors and you’ll turn him back. Then we’re free to go.”

She nods, “Do we have a deal, Rose Bud?” The Queen holds out Her hand, Lizzie's hand.

Lizzie takes it.

All at once a splitting pain blooms across her collarbone, she cries out but the Queen doesn't let go. After what feels like hours but was likely only a moment, she looks down.

A collection of flowers claws up toward her neck, settled just under her skin. Seven closed buds sealing her fate.

[hazshit-hotel-hater]

“Excuse me sir! There must someone you’ve confused me for!”

Having Angel withdrawal again sorry guys :/ its time for some uhh… prologue stuff?? I think thats right. Anyway! As I mentioned in this lovely post, when sinners die the time it takes for them to wake up in hell and where they wake up depends on how they died. So for Angels case his body was formed in hell in a hospital bed cause thats where he died so theres like fibres and metal in his body from being formed around a hospital bed! This is also going to go into how regenerating and how injuries work so get ready! Basically whatever your body was originally formed and made out of regenerates eventually, you can have scars if theyre really big (uncommon since the injury usually kills you) but if you die again in hell they go away. Angel gets injured quite a lot and none of these injuries are permanent. That isn’t to say you can heal by killing yourself though! If you do die while injured there may actually be lasting complications since bodies in hell are typically made to regenerate while gravely wounded. Its kind of like a fucked up computer so if you have a broken leg and die by say snapping your neck the body may get confused and regenerate bones and such incorrectly. Or it may not! Its hell who knows! Ill likely figure out a more concrete plan and way that it works but at the moment I enjoy this aspect of hell to not have a random cheat code and instead include some body horror. Its hell so like some stuff is probably confusing right??

Back to Angel, later on around season 1 in the rewrite he also has throat surgery to remove his deformed inner fangs and those DO actually stay gone because certain hospitals in hell (usually expensive ones) have tools from sloth that have been permitted by Lucifer. Similar to how Stolas got that lust portal gem or whatever. Angels body wasn’t supposed to form like that and this is a common thing to happen with sinners that die “long-term” and that sounds confusing but it really just means sinners that die in comatose-esque ways like Angel. His body was dying over the course of months (December to March to be exact) so parts of his body formed over complicated or were underdeveloped like the aforementioned fangs (that were originally meant to form inside of his mouth and not his throat) that would randomly bare themselves and stab his own throat, paralyzing Angel temporarily. Other examples would be parts of his legs and smaller stomach.

This is the surgery Angel got by the way (expenses covered by Velvette but thats a whole other plot line)

On top of this I also wanted to draw Angel’s old markings (at least one of them). Prior to Valentino, Angel looked much similar marking-wise to his original comic designs where he was more purple and yellow with all the fun skulls and stripes. Though, with how contracts work in my rewrite, Angel loses the markings and they change into hearts after his contract and cannot return to normal after his contract is terminated. The same is true for Husker and Niffty. This whole piece is really just supposed to capture to horror of waking up after being comatose and you’re suddenly not yourself anymore and also not where you were for the past months and your entire anatomy is changed. Can you imagine waking up without bones??? In 1947??? Id have a breakdown personally!

I also wanted to use green for that sick gross feeling. Kind of the dread you feel before throwing up, but also to represent Angel’s later feelings of envy that I was unable to present in his design. I really like pink characters in green atmospheres if you can’t tell. If I think of more stuff to add to this post I will, but for now it’s just a lot of lore. Hopefully you all enjoy it!

[whiteoutzz]

so this post... yeah i am having alot of fun. yeah nobody can stop me and once im done with the script i might just get to the longfic i have planned. yeah its fun

[id: drawing of Arctic and Darkstalker standing in front of eachother; both of them have pointy shapes, with darkstalker's mane being much shorter and covering only the neck, while Arctic's covers the whole chest. Both of them have tufts on their foreheads and are looking at eachother angrily, Arctic bit more reserved while Darkstalker's anger is louder. Arctic has his wings pinned down while Darkstalker's are standing up. Arctic has blue string tied around his snout, while darkstalker has blue stitches around his mouth. Behind them there is a blue web on top of a purple background; but what covers most of it is a silhouette of Queen diamond, pure white with blue eyes, her wings spread out, iron crown with blue gems embedded in it. / end id]

(putting the story under the cut; cw for torture)

the general story is; before darkstalker kills arctic, he gets a vision clear enough it makes him stop. he sees his mother foeslayer, knowing she is alive. arctic still confessed but isn't physically harmed yet; clearsight confirms the vision but looks bit sad and confused, like she is hiding something from him, but can't tell why. darkstalker rips out bit of his scroll, but rest is confiscated so he can only cast few spells (breaking it would have similar effect; his spells would be very limited and small). he lets arctic go but follows him to the ice kingdom, enchanting himself to be invisible. he follows him for a while before getting distracted and eventually finds the tunnels; he frees foeslayer but almost as soon she is gone (and protected; he made sure to word the spell so she can't be taken back. he put it directly on her after all) and is caught by queen diamond. arctic is forced to marry snowflake again, and both of them are very miserable about it. its horrible. meanwhile darkstalker gets tortured in the caves. first diamond couldnt hurt him physically, but quickly she figured that one; he didnt make himself unable to feel pain, and two; he forgot to enchant his insides too. spell loopholes and all that she enchants him so his organs regenerate no matter how damaged, so he cant die trough that type of injury then stabs him through the mouth. she figures out more and more creative ways to hurt him later. one day she brings arctic, thinking that would be his final push, to kill his own son, but she is almost surprised how little arctic cares about darkstalker. he stabs him trough the mouth but inside arctic feels bit weird about it, especially seeing his son bleed blue. but he does not think about that. or tries to atleast.

but he tries to figure out a plan, especially that he was allowed to visit darkstalker after that, seeing that care wasnt there and he could be used as a tool of torture. but maybe he doesnt want his life to end like that. he offers darkstalker to make a plan to escape, but first he refuses. also maybe tries to talk with snowflake and while both still hate echother and snowflake is still rightfully angry for what arctic did to her, maybe they have shred of solidarity for once. and you know the whole thing with both of them already having partners and you know. things look bad but maybe darkstalker at some point will want out enough that he will agree to the plan, but for now; to be continued

(also "oooh why arctic now wants to escape even if he came back willingly?" sometimes u forget how bad things were until you experience them again)

(meanwhile in night kingdom there is a civil war happening, but i dont have details about it yet. but its fun)

[wildcatofgreen]

GAH!

She found her footing on the floor, standing straight up. Looked around, then breathed a sigh of relief.

Back home. Though, it seemed like it was late. Juuuudging by the sleepy Sony in her bed. Doesn't the gemerald make a sound when she teleports? Is he really that heavy of a sleeper?

Well, whatever. It's not like she was planning on staying up too much longer anyway. The talk with Tangle was nice, but anything she wanted to act on should probably get done tomorrow. Just makes more sense that way.

Spirits bless that lemur. Who knew talking to another person could be so helpful? Is this why Cory's trying to drill the idea in her brain? Because if so then she gets it, completely.

The gem pulsated a bit. Seemed like a couple things came in. Gueeeeeess she'll do these real quick. Wouldn't hurt, right?

---

She took another look at the folded paper, then smiled, before placing it in her pocket. She'll have to figure out where to keep that later.

Maybe with her diaries? Would probably make sense. Nobody even knows where they are, let alone how to get in them without the key. The key that she threw away, by the way. Claws are so much better than pesky little key--

Beep!

Put a hand to her ear. That's the sign she got a text message, right? But like, from who. She's not the type to text anyone, and most people know that about her.

She'll take out her phone and look--Milla???

alchemistdoggo: Hi Carol! 🐶 Are you okay? You were really upset about getting so many missed calls!

Rolled her eyes. She tapped a response back.

wildcatofgreen: yeah im fine dw about it mills. just didnt wanna miss stuff from those two yknow? kind of my best friend and fiance like theyre priority number uno. alchemistdoggo: No I get it! You were just really super upset about it and you usually only get like that when it's about Lilac. alchemistdoggo: Actually I guess it makes sense now that I think about it. alchemistdoggo: 🤔

...

Huh?

wildcatofgreen: i mean wouldnt you be upset too if somethin happened to purps alchemistdoggo: Of course I would! But you get REALLY upset! 😯 I remember it happening all the time back when we were all living together!

Di... Did it???

She doesn't really remember showing that side of her. Actually, wait, that was immediately after Brevon, wasn't it? If there was any time to be upset about Lilac then it would probably be then.

alchemistdoggo: I think the most upset I've seen you was when you came back from Sonar's World with Sonar! You and Lilac were crying in each other's arms, remember? 😭 alchemistdoggo: Lilac was super off when you were away. I think she was really worried about you! alchemistdoggo: 🤔 Actually she was the same way when I answered your phone today. Do you think she's still worried?

Wait what.

wildcatofgreen: milla wtf did you actually answer my phone? alchemistdoggo: Well I couldn't just let it ring!!! Everyone would be super sad if I did!!! 😢 alchemistdoggo: Actually maybe Lilac wouldn't. She got REALLY mad when I told her you were getting married.

...

What.

wildcatofgreen: fuckin xcuze me dog? alchemistdoggo: Yeah!!! It was really strange! I told her all about it and she started going on a really really long rant. I think she was mad nobody told her sooner. 😢😢😢 alchemistdoggo: I tried to calm her down but she just kept going and going and going! It was really hard! She talks so fast sometimes! 🙁 alchemistdoggo: Did you end up talking to her? I bet she felt SUPER better if you did!

. . .

Oh her fucking stones she fucking fucked it so fucking hard. No no no no no no no no no.

wildcatofgreen: mills what if i told you i hung up on her alchemistdoggo: 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 alchemistdoggo: She's going to be sad FOREVER!!!!!!! alchemistdoggo: Did you actually do that????????

Uh.

wildcatofgreen: what no id never cmon mills you know me alchemistdoggo: Oh okay! alchemistdoggo: Lilac also told me that she only has reception because of the place she's at right now! I wanna talk to her a WHOLE BUNCH while she's still able to talk to us! alchemistdoggo: I could add you to a group chat along with Sonar and we could ALL talk to Lilac!!! wildcatofgreen: please dont do that alchemistdoggo: Why? 🤔 wildcatofgreen: lemme talk to her first at least alchemistdoggo: But I thought you already did that. 🤔 wildcatofgreen: are you interrogating me? alchemistdoggo: No. 🙂 wildcatofgreen: lissen dog girl just gimmie a bit to talk to her before doin anythin craze. ill lyk when, ok? alchemistdoggo: Okay! Just do it fast, okay? I don't know how long Lilac's going to stick around there! 🙁 wildcatofgreen: ok. im going to bed now and you should too. alchemistdoggo: I'll go to bed in a minute! Me and Aaa are doing 🧪SCIENCE!🧪 wildcatofgreen: bitch wtf why is he there alchemistdoggo: We made some good progress while researching your gem and we didn't want to stop! You should let us come with you some time we could get a better idea of how it works! 🙂 wildcatofgreen: 50 crystal faire no refunds alchemistdoggo: 😐

...

She fucked it so bad. She fucked it so fucking badly. Stones she's such a terrible FRIEND. FUCK.

She pockets her phone and climbs into bed.

There's a pit in her stomach again. It wasn't going away.

She'll hug her Sony, cuddle with him.

Might have just fucked everything to the stratosphere. And apparently she doesn't have much time to make things right.

Fuck.

There's... not much else she can do, besides worry about it tomorrow.

[ryderdire]

So since ya all seem interested in my crane wives Playlists post

I figured I’d show you some of my notes because I over thought some of my choices a lot basically this post is some fun character analysis using lyrics as a guide because I am insane

Marcy

Curses

when the war starts in my heart”

Tell I am good enough

This song is Marcy

This is totally Marcy

Okay this is about Marcys abandonment issues obviously so I’m thinking pre tc got the first part or maybe post tc remnenising as the night takes over

(Could explain darling ashes dust to dust the devils after both of us)

No wait because andrais and the night are the devil who’s after both Anne and Marcys respectively

Lay my curses all to rest could possibly be a reference to her shortcomings leading to her downfall? (abandonment issues + navity + lack of love = shit ton of problems)

Strangler fig

You built your kingdom around me now I’m trapped in your walls and all I want is to be free

All your doing now is using me

So this is from Marcy to andrais i thought the castle imagery fit Marcy and andrais really well and the line “I gave you everything but now I want it back” fits scarily to seeing as Marcys arc is tied to the word everything and she gave Andrais so much and got cheated and stabbed in return.

Ribs

Listen, I just really like the implications of the line” the night doesn’t frigten me I chose to close my eyes” and “the night doesn’t frighten me I chose to let it thrive” In the context of Marcys arc okay

Allies or enemies

Honestly I almost didn’t put this one in but “now listen close- this will be the death of me” struck me as very marcy .

“You caught me in a moment of weakness” could be referring to her spilling out her heart to andrais

It works quite well with “forget it all “right before too. I like the idea of Marcy asking andrais to just forget everything she’s said if only because it adds to later betrayal

are we allies or enemies /this will be the death of me is the betrayal of andrais or even Marcys betrayal to Anne and her fear she is no longer loved. Or hell was never really loved.

Either way this will be the death of me serves as either ominous foreshadowing to the you know what or just the you know what happening

Sasha

Take me to war

listen to this song listen to it this is literally Sasha

“And I’ll rangle the beast with words”

“Dress me in red and throw your Roses// And I’ll rangle the beast with words”

It is literally Sasha like come on

It’s hard to explain exactly why this song works so well with Sasha without just repeating myself a lot. It fits with her manipulative tendency’s and her growth her role as the strength gem and how she grew to fill it and didn’t fill it at the beginning like marcanne (I could make a whole other post about this honestly but idk it ya all would wanna hear my ramblings about it) but yeah also I just the vibes are sahsa it almost Sounds like a war March at first and it slowly gets more and more complex a lot like Sasha and a lot of peoples perceptions of her

“all the words I’ve swallowed all of the sharp things I’ve kept in my mouth// honey I am always bleeding out //

id imagine it’s referring to her pretending to change in thrid temple to true colors (notice the first time this line is used it also has the singer using violence give me something to break with my fists in the next line)

all of the ire I’ve swallowed all of the coals that still sit on my gut

I am always burning up//

I like to think of this line in reference Turning point and more speffically Anne’s return to wartwood in comander Anne and Sasha still making an effort to change and it being hard on her sometimes

Take me to war honey I dare you!

Hehe sahsa is at war to save her gfs

-

Metaphor

Another Sasha song

Do…do I even need to explain this one?

Like this is Sasha “lies manipulation and backstabbing are her whole thing in s1-s2

“you can't trust a single thing I say” Okay so this to me changes from a prideful boast to a pained realization throughout the song and like seeing as andrais”s manipulation is part of what pushed her to change it’s really fun to imagine that’s about when it happens

I cant trust a single thing you say

Is either from her to andrais or Anne to her either way it works really welll

OR MAYBE TO MArcy??? Oooh that’s fun actually and then maybe directly regretting it with the next couple of lines where Marcy gets stabbed and maybe a singer switch here to Marcy idk

Allies or enemies

I think the beginning fits sasha (post reunion maybe post turning point) really well seeing as her main thing is relying to much on manipulation and shit like (I swear I didn’t mean what I said I swear i didn’t mean it) is absolutely my favorite line in the context of Sashas arc

Remember when I could tell you not to smile /when you where mad and you would crack /and we’d both be laughing in the end /now your not so quick to forget

So this is current Sasha looking back To pre amphibia times and then the and reunion (possibly true colors maybe like seeing the consequences of her actions like Anne hating her and Marcy d wording from her pov).

All is fair in love and war /but I can’t fight with you anymore .

Still looking back but specifically when Anne catches Sasha and right before Sasha falls definitely what Anne says or maybe even what is going through Sasha's head at the moment

Anne

Not this ghost

This song is super fun In the context of Annes character and especially her earth arc

My dear there are secrets here //there are secrets here

And I will carry them home

Carry them home

I thought this line was really interesting because Anne directly after being lied to by Marcy for good intentions lies to her parents to protect them and don’t get me wrong I get why but the idea of Anne carrying on the lies for good intentioned reasons the realization she’s doing the thing Marcy did is… just really interesting

This is about her trust issues and carrying the weight of everything that went down in true colors

“If only I could break the chain of disappointment waying me down” I think this fits Anne being stabbed in the back (metaphorically and honestly it’s terrifying I have to specify) over and over by people she trusts

//It’s the fear not the ghost that leaves me haunted// haunted

Anne had the least danger to deal with after true colors Imo which is saying something because she was being chased by killer robots and the government but she also did have a lot of time to think about what happens and Process it probably more then Sasha did it’s not the physical danger that leaves her afraid it’s the memories

Allies or enemies

What happens now/do we have another go?or do we bow out and take our separate roads/

So I think this is Anne before the third temple she’s looking back on all that’s happened and wondering if things CAN be fixed between them and if they even should be. Obviously she wants Sasha back in her life in some capacity but not the same Sasha who was such a toxic infulance.

I’ll admit I had my doubts I want to be their In not out x2

This is Sasha and Anne’s reunion in third temple and Anne growing to trust her again before the betrayal in tc this is basically like Anne’s POV of some of the Sasha stuff so far and her thoughts on it.

Are we allies or enemies

This is mostly about how Sasha and Anne went from besties to enemies to having each other’s back in tc

That’s the last one check keep reading for thoughts

Thats all I have unfortunately some of this has been in my docs drafts for months and some of it is newer I had a lot of fun with this i enjoy character analysis a lot but I do find it difficult to organize my thoughts alot of the time which is why it was so fun to use songs as a way to start thinking and building on. Plus I doubt I’d Thought of these without the prompts of the lyrics

I had a lot of trouble Anne and tbh I’m not exactly sure why but she was the Hardst

Marcy was the easiest though Sasha was the one I enjoyed the most

[tortilla-of-courage]

Describing it as being like home is actually pretty accurate yeah.

And YES! I am totally willing to talk about my modern AU.

I've been calling it the Adoption AU because Time ends up adopting all of the boys. It mostly started as, I saw an edit for a tweet someone did with Wars and Wild that involved Taco Bell (cannot remember the blog or post for the life of me though), and so I wrote a thing about Warriors sneaking out of his university dorm to pick up Wild, who snuck out the window despite his broken arm, and then got extorted by Legend in exchange for silence at 3am.

This was followed by a fic where Groose decided spray painting a public building was a good idea and got himself and Sky arrested, set earlier in the timeline.

So then I made a timeline. Twilight is Time and Malon's biological son, and he found Wild on the side of the road one day (Wild's backstory involves a bad car wreck and an underground hospital, but no conspiracy bullshit. Yet). Wild has no memory, so they keep him. Wild brings home Legend, who was told his uncle died at school before a holiday. They then also keep Legend. Malon finds Four in her barn one morning for complicated reasons, and they keep him too. Twilight finds Warriors, who is in his class, hiding in an alley one day after he ran away from an abusive home and brings him home too. SS Impa (who I've nicknamed Shield because there are enough prominent Impas here that they should get nicknames too) is a social worker who's trying to find Sky a home and has run out of options, and turns to Time, who has a record of successfully housing 'unhousable' youths, and asks if he can take one more. He can. Wild finds Hyrule and brings him home because 'Rule needs a shower even more than Wild does. Hyrule stays. Wind's grandma ends up with Wind and his sister but can't financially take care of both and so Wind ends up with the boys and everyone is +1 Grandma.

Twilight has a fic detailing how he knows Midna and Dusk and I ended up shooting him (oops) but at least their social project gets handed in on time.

Then I started hashing out Time's backstory and suddenly this AU had plot. And organized crime. And a conspiracy. And secret societies.

The summarized version is that the gems from OoT are like, Idk what they do yet. Haven't gotten to a point where I need to figure that out yet. But they are Important and have to be carefully guarded. The Great Deku Tree (just called Deku because he's not a tree here) was Time's foster father before Ganondorf killed him. Also, Ganondorf is Deku's half brother. Because. However Time 'stole' the Emerald and he and Navi ran until OoT Impa (Sage) and Lullaby found them. So Time got adopted into Lullaby's family. Ruto inherited the Sapphire from her mother who also died from mysterious circumstances, and Darunia has the Ruby. Lullaby got the Ocarina from her late paternal grandmother.

Then Ganon finds them and tries to steal the Emerald from Time, so Lullaby goes looking for help and thus finds the sages. Saria is an anonymous hacker who uses the screen name 'Kokiri'. Time reveals he didn't steal the Emerald, he was Deku's heir, and then Navi goes missing. Time is home worried enough that he's physically sick, and Ganon decides to try and attack the home. Only Lullaby's family is Olde Money, and they live in a big, old manor, so Lullaby as Sheik decides to play 'Home Alone' with the secret passages in the walls and they piss off Ganon because when did that brat get a sheikah bodyguard??? Sage and Rottla (Lullaby's mother, who is fully sheikah as well) rush home from a thing and Kokiri is running a play by play watching the security cameras.

I pull in my headcanon that Time was killed in the Downfall Timeline by getting impaled on Ganon's tusk and Ganondorf stabs him with the tusk of a mounted boar head and then Sheik shows up to protect his brother, and then Mama gets home and is not happy to find this man in her home attacking her kids. Time is fine, but Navi stays missing. (She's alive tho.)

Also, Time's foster dad was the last leader of a secret society known as The Order of The Lost Woods, and Time learns this upon meeting Tatl, who gets him sucked into another event that would probably make a good action movie. I have thought too much about the Order and it's hierarchy, but what's important here is that Time ends up with a standing job offer and Tatl and he remain friends and we find out how I fit FD into this AU. It's not pretty. This is where Time loses his eye too.

The AoC came out and I added that Link in as Wild's twin brother and he shows up during the main plot.

Which starts with Twi getting kidnapped. (I'm not really meaner to him than the others, I swear, he's just the most logical choice to be Time's heir. Which he is. He doesn't know this though.)

So he's kidnapped by Ganondorf, who broke out of jail, Zant, who shot Twi in highschool, and Ghirahim, who has some history with Sky I haven't fleshed out yet and a very public rivalry with Warriors over twitter. About six weeks later Sage finds him in an abandoned warehouse (because of course) with a shackle on his left arm and a lot of new injuries. He ends up fine, but he tells Time later in the hospital what happened and he's both message and messenger and Time is this close to just committing murder. Tatl talks him down.

Somewhere here is the half finished fic where I introduce AoC Link as Luke/Knight, and this is as far as I've plotted thus far.

Other tidbits: Wild and Lullaby/Sheik are both genderfluid, Lullaby/Sheik married Ruto, Wild has a very popular YouTube channel, Twi does drag racing sometimes, Sky has a pet bird, Four has DID to explain how the Colours are here too, and Wolfie exists in the form of a random wolf-dog Wild found and brought home that Legend somehow convinced half the family was Twilight. Also, Warriors has somehow befriended an entire sorority and he doesn't know how this happened.

This... got long. As you can see I have a lot of thoughts about the Adoption AU. It's gotten a bit away from me, I'll admit. This went from 'Wild does stunts on his motorbike and keeps breaking bones but somehow not the bike' to 'Twilight got kidnapped and Time is the target of a mafia that Ganon runs and also maybe killed a man once' and I don't know how that happened. Also, this is the condensed version of the summary. My actual summary/outline is much, much longer than this. So if there's any detail you want more on, feel free to say so and I'll happily go into more detail (there are so many things I didn't even mention....)

And yes, Robbie having a bong is very important to my best friend, for some reason. He has one in a modern AU and he probably invented one in canon. I happen to agree that this makes sense for his character, if anyone would invent a bong in LoZ it's Robbie (this is such an anticlimactic end to this ask after the stuff about the modern AU...)

Also, sorry for the long ass ask. I genuinely don't know how to condense the Adoption Au down any further. There's a lot of important plot beats to cover, and I still skipped things.

-Attllhak

oh my GOD???? if you ever write and post this somewhere id love to read it, the level of "crazy" conspiracy/action movie elements implemented sound sosososo cool, from Ganondorf being Deku's half brother to trying to "send a message" via Twi and- just- all of this is SO good.i sat here and reread this ask like 3 times as if that would magically spawn more info about it ahaha

there's so much to unpack here but it's honestly so worth it i love every single detail!!! i can imagine the actual outline being way longer, nad honestly that just makes me the more excited/curious about all that might be missing from this ask - i cant believe it started with Wild and Wars going to Taco Bell of all things

also i can totally see Robbie making a bong, no matter the setting or AU. fits him a lot I'd say

and dont worry about long asks!! i adore opening up my askbox to see one ask take over the entire thing, it makes me really happy aha

[enigma-im]

Free Bird

Rating: Mature Relationship: Aarakocra X Female!Human Warning: Vulgar, minor abuse, backhand a woman, fluff, confrontation, friendly banter, bird and human relationship, established relationship

Word count: 2889

Sometimes parents don’t like the person their child is dating. in this case it’s a little bit more than distaste

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I try to snort back the blood dripping from my nose. It does nothing to help so Instead I wipe it away with my sleeve, no doubt leaving a gross trail on my face. I walk through the hallways, fist clenched, and shoulders tense. I try to make it to my room quickly without bumping into anyone. I know if anyone saw me like this it would get back to the prince. I didn’t want to explain to him how it happened, giving him ammo for any argument we have in the future.

I spot my door ahead and rush towards it. I grab the annoyingly bright handle and quickly get inside. I close the door behind myself and sigh. Now to go to the bathroom and get clean.

As I step further into the room I see my boyfriend sitting by the window at his desk. I freeze when I notice him. His back is to me so I assume I still have a chance to get into the bathroom unseen.

I don’t get what I want.

He glances over his shoulder at me before turning fully around. He looks me over then cocks a brow at my face.

"See a picture of me in the hall and got some adult thoughts," he smirks.

I glare at him as I walk towards the bathroom," No, I saw a picture of your cousin and figured I picked the wrong prince."

"Like Dearth could handle you," he scoffs," he can't stand the sight of blood anyway, faints like a child. Even does the hand to head and fall into someone's arms bit. Such a dramatic man." I smile to myself at his joke, imagining the dainty man falling into someone's waiting arms. I turn into the bathroom, still annoyed that he saw but appreciative that he made a joke against someone else for a change. I make it to the sink, turning it on and wetting a rag. As I wipe the blood from my face I see him enter the bathroom from my view in the mirror.

"What happened anyway, not every day I see you bleeding outside of bedroom stuff," he walks to the counter and rests his back to it. He watches as I scrub the smeared blood off my cheek and chin.

"I realized I chose to be with you and bashed my face into a wall to try to knock some sense into me," I tease.

"Hey, you had a choice. With sound mind and body if I recall. Though it wouldn’t hurt to get us a professional to look us both over. One of us is bound to be insane, my bets are on you," he pretends to ponder the thought. I bite my cheek to stop from laughing, not wanting to end the game yet.

I manage to get the blood off my face and switch to throw away papers to blow the rest out of my nose. He watches, crossing his arms as he regards me.

"Honestly, what happened," he asks. I finally turn and look at him. Seeing he is all serious.

"Honestly," I ask. He nods," before I do, you aren't allowed to tease me later for it. This will not be part of our game, understand?"

He chuckles before answering," Well now I'm very interested. Did you lose a fight with a door?"

I roll my eyes," Har-Har funny as always. No, I got into a disagreement with your father. You know how opinionated he is about me, about us."

"I'm aware," he answers tense. I ignore him, knowing to mention his dad is always a sore subject.

"Anyway, today got more heated and I underestimated the old fart. He backhanded me before I could react. I still got him in the leg, knocked him on his ass before he could spit out some insults. Still you would think those feathers of yours would be like being slapped by a pillow more than a bony hand," I glance over at Artimus, hoping he got a laugh out of that. He was anything but happy about the news.

"He hit you," he shouts as he steps away from the counter. He turns to me and crowds me against the sink.

"Yea, it's fine. Man hits like, well, how id imagine your cousin would hit," I try to joke. He still isn't having it. He grabs my chin and looks over my face. Looking for bruising or scratches I assume. I know I will have one over the bridge of my nose, where his knuckles popped me. Still, as I said, the man can't hit for shit.

"This is anything but fine, he should have never laid a hand on you," he growls. He snatches the rag from my hand and goes to cleaning my face. Scratching off dried blood near the corner of my nose, on my lip, near my ear. "He can hate you all he wants but this is too far," he says in the most serious tone I've ever heard from him. I stare up at his clenched jaw, noticing him grinding his beak. I've never seen him so angry.

Once he is satisfied with his care he throws the rag down into the sink. Then he turns and charges out the room. Confused, I rush after him. I just see him march out the bedroom door and into the hallway.

"Hey," I shout. I jog after him, catching up to his angry walk quickly. "Where are you going," I ask him as I try to grab his arm. He jerks himself out of my weak hold and continues forward.

"I'm going to talk to my father," he growls. His brow furrows more and a sneer poisons his face.

"What, why? Seriously, you don’t have to do this. I can fight my own battles," I step in front of him, pressing my hands to his chest. He grabs my hands and pushes them aside before walking past me. "Damn it Artimus," I snarl as I chase after him again.

He makes it to the main office before I can stop him. Without pausing he slams the double doors open. Marching into the room with clenched fists. I turn into the room just in time to see him grabbing his father by the feathers. He pins the man to the wall and seethes near his face.

"Don’t you ever fucking touch her again or so help me I will kill you," he screams at his father. The man holds his son's hands near his neck with a tight grip. He quickly rips Artimus' hands from his collar, pushing him away. He smooths his feathers and adjusts his clothes before glaring at his son.

"You do not talk to me that way young man. You may tolerate such disrespect from her but I will not allow it from you," His father growls out.

"You do not touch her, do you understand me? I don’t care what your feelings are for our relationship, you will show restraint," Artimus gets back into his father's face. I walk around the desk and stand a good distance away from the two.

"Excuse me for not enjoying the idea of my son sullying himself with a human. Sleeping with some degenerate as well as that, some peasant whose novelty will surely wear thin," his father spits out. I don’t take his words to heart, not really caring about the man's feelings for me.

I just barely react in time for when Artimus lunges at his father. I bolt over and step between the two. I press my hands to Artimus' chest, stopping his forward momentum. He tries to grab me and push me aside but I wrap my arms around his waist. He attempts to slide me around him but I stop at his side.

"You know nothing about us, do not pretend you do," Artimus shouts at his father.

"I understand you use her to get back at me. Flaunt this insufferable child around like a beacon for people to see my lack of control over you," his father snarls back. I hold tight when Arti tries to lunge again.

I understand his father's words, even recognize them as my own fears. I'm not exactly top tier picking for someone such as Artimus. I'm everything a royal shouldn’t be; loud, impolite, human, and vulgar. So trying to wrap my head around Arti being interested in me is boggling. Still, I enjoy his company despite our differences. I will take this time as short as it will be. I figure I'm not a lasting thing, I'm just a passing fetish. I'm fine with that. At least I think I am, it will still hurt when he tosses me aside for some royal to wed.

"Again, you understand nothing," Arti keeps trying to lunge. Trying to break from my hold.

"Then explain it to me. Why do you spend your time with this lesser when you can have anyone you want? Then to touch on your relationship, you two bicker worse than an unhappy married couple forced together by a diplomatic union. I can't imagine you are even happy with her," his father says. He pretty much lays it out, sure he is missing some stuff like our late nights. We are kind to each other, teasing the other in friendly banter. The sex is great, the aftercare is soothing. Still, we debate like crazy.

"She gives me something you others don’t, honesty. She is refreshing to this hosh posh lifestyle that I loathe. Then at night when we are alone is my favorite time. Holding her as we both go to sleep is calming. Talking to her beneath the sheets is like living in our own little world," Arti relaxes in my hold and looks down at me," She is my world because I love her. Our arguing is but conversations only we understand. Her vulgar personality is like looking at the world with new eyes. Her softness that rivals our own, her humanness is all the more appealing. I know others don’t see it but I know this diamond in the rough. The most beautiful gem." I don’t notice when I stop breathing. I don’t remember when he wrapped his arms around me. I can't recall much of anything besides his words. The thoughts running through my head pause, holding onto his rant with purpose.

"What," I find myself gasping like an idiot," you love me?"

"Of course, my precious spit-fire. How could I not," he tilts his head with a grin.

"I-I," I stutter, not used to this much feeling. "I thought I was going to be just a phase, a chapter in your life." he drops his smile and regards me concerned. He lifts his hand and cups my jaw.

"You could never be just a passing fad, I promised you I wouldn’t make you just another notch in my bedpost. Did you not believe me," he asks. I take a second to collect my thoughts, still really not believing him.

"Yes- no. I figured I'd just be a really big notch," I answer.

"Then why did you agree to be with me," he furrows his brow. He almost looks pained at my answer, it pulls at my heart.

"Not every day you can bag a prince," I try to joke. Stomping down the emotions rising to the surface. He doesn’t find it humorous, scolding me.

"Be honest," he chides.

I sigh," I wanted to take what I can get. If it is a couple months or weeks, I just wanted to be here."

"So you only want me because of my status," he drops his hand from my face. It feels like a stab in the chest, worse when I look at his betrayed face.

I quickly snatch his hand," No, never! I would never do you like that, I wanted to be with you. You know I don’t care about this lifestyle, I'd be content living in the middle of the woods. I've told you that was my plan before I met you. I never needed or wanted to be part of the higher class. I'm here because I want to be around you," he stares down at me, looking between both my eyes as he thinks. He drops the hard look with a sigh. Going back to cupping my face before resting his head against mine. I look up at him awaiting his next action or words. Sitting on the precipice of stress and panic. I watch as he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

"Do you love me," he squeezes his eyes tighter. My brain doesn’t even let me think about it. I know all those shared nights after some rather feverous sex are treasured in my mind. Sometimes I stay up just to watch him, pecking him on the face before snuggling back in his arms. I know what I feel for him, clear as ever.

"Yes, I love you," I huff with a smile. Feeling my eye water as I finally say the words that sat buried in my heart for the longest time. He chokes on a laugh as he smiles. Opening his beautiful blue eyes to me.

"Then that’s all I need, never stop being yourself or loving me and we will be just fine," he nuzzles my cheek," Keep being the disgusting troll I know you can be."

I roll my eyes," And you keep being the pompous snob with more money than sense."

"With the undeserved large cock," he raises a brow. I hit his chest as he laughs.

"As long as you never disappoint," I lean down and bite his neck. Kissing it soon after.

"You know first hand I won't," he rubs his beak to my head. I pull him close and pepper his jaw and cheek with kisses. He chuckles as he pets down my back, reaching for my ass.

A throat clears making my eyes snap open.

"Please refrain from spreading your 'love' around my office," Artimus' father calls from behind me. I quickly let go of Arti and turn to face his father. Before I could step away he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me close to his chest. Resting his chin on my head.

"Do you understand now that my love will not be disrespected in this house," Arti growls at his father.

His father regards us both with a bored expression," I still do not approve of your relationship, it is a burning ship in the middle of the ocean. It cannot be saved and it's doomed to sink. Still, I will respect your choices and refrain from striking her as long as she agrees to stay in line with visitors. I can only tolerate so much," His father glares down at me. I sneer back at the crooked old man.

"Hit me again and I'll do more than have you on your ass. Expect an equal payment next time for the bruised nose," I snap.

"Again with that foul mouth, your mother should have beaten you harder," the trashy man growls.

"And yours should have loved you more, maybe you wouldn’t be such an insufferable tyrant," I shout back.

"Alright, we are getting off track. Father you ever even think about striking her again, I will have your head before any rebels can. She will agree to put on a kind face for visitors on the account that you two barely interact with each other, deal?" Arti cups his hand over my lips before I can snap up at him for putting words in my mouth. I lick at his hand but he just wipes the spit across my face before covering my mouth again. I wince at the saliva on my cheek and the feather stuck on my tongue.

His father watches us with a barely contained smirk," Deal. Now leave my office." The man turns away from us and walks over to his chair by the hearth.

Without a word Arti drags me out of the office and into the hallway. We stop a bit of way away where he pushes me against the wall.

"I don’t want you ever for a second doubting my words, do you understand," he rests his forearms on either side of my head. Our noses just barely touching as he stares down at me.

"No promises, you tend to say a lot of bullshit," I smirk up at him.

"Nothing I say regarding my feelings for you are bullshit, my love," he traces his beak over my nose," you stubborn dragon." I reach up and grab his collar, pulling the fabric in a tight grip.

"You are an ignorant twat who has my heart in his hands. You threatened your father for me, therefore, I demand you take me to our room and make rough nasty love to me," I kiss the corner of his mouth," I'll even let you be on top this time." He growls, his chest rumbling against my own.

"As you wish," he grins. I pull him down by the shirt and kiss him. He grabs my thighs and lifts me. I hug my legs to his sides as he whisks me off to our room.

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Anyone notice the name of lover boy is the drummer from Lynyrd skynyrd? not the one who did free bird but we ignore that bit cause i will not name him something like ‘Gary’. i already have too many generic names for characters, like Ben or Daniel.

Check out my Archive | Masterlist | Main Blog

[novantinuum]

Crack the Paragon, Chapter 9

Fandom: Steven Universe

Rating: General Audiences

Words: 7.2K~

Summary: In another world, he doesn’t have his mother’s sword or shield to hide behind when Bismuth lands her strike. The bubble pops.

Steven falls apart.

Chapter summary: In which a diamond is a girl’s best friend.

You can find the first/previous chapter and AO3 links in the reblogs! (I have to omit them from the original post these days to ensure this will show up in the tags.) If you enjoyed this, I’d greatly appreciate your support through reblogs here, or kudos on AO3 as well.

Chapter warning: There is a fairly in-depth depiction of a dissociative flashback. Nothing I'd consider particularly extreme or deserving of a ratings bump, but I figured it'd be courteous to make a specific warning for it anyways.

_

Chapter 9: Symmetry 

On literally any other day, folding laundry would be relaxing.

There’s something comforting about falling back into predictable rhythms, hands running on automatic through assorted piles of clothes as her thoughts take a wandering vacation. Chores are boring, sure, but compared to the non-stop drive of the rest of her life Connie can at least appreciate how mindless they are. In a world filled with things like honors algebra and violin recitals and sword training, falling into the arms of subconscious repetition every once in a while feels nice, like a much needed mental break from the rest of reality.

The only problem is exactly that: it’s mindless. It doesn’t force her to use an ounce of brainpower. It doesn’t block her thoughts from waltzing down dark alleyways, or taking sharp swerves into territory unknown. It doesn’t distract her from obsessively checking her phone every other minute to see if she’s gotten any new calls or texts.

It doesn’t stop her from worrying about Steven.

Normally steady fingers twitch as she folds a sock inside its proper pair. Her pocket nearly feels like it’s burning. Groaning, she tosses the pair into her suitcase and pulls her phone out. The lock screen illuminates, showcasing a photo of a pretty sunset she took from the hill above the temple. Her mouth tightens. Once again, nothing. Giving in to the distraction, she unlocks her phone and taps to reach his latest message. Tired eyes gloss over his photo and those words for the thousandth time.

Accidentally got separated from gem—

I’ll call later, some kinda scary stuff happened—

Please don’t worry too much.

Well, too late for that. She’s not fooled by his blasé, chipper attitude in this text, or the forced grin of the concerningly pale-faced Steven (one of two! How can he claim he’s fine when he’s literally lost a part of himself??) at the forefront of the photo he sent. No, no. She won’t be convinced until she audibly hears it or can throw her arms around him in person, which is harder said than done when he hasn’t returned her calls and Mom won’t let her take the bus over to his place for the morning because she’s supposed to be “packing.” Ugh. As far as she’s concerned, visiting extended family in India can wait its turn. Something terribly wrong must have happened in Beach City last night, and the suspense of not knowing is nearly suffocating her.

But logically, she knows worrying about it nonstop won’t be of help to her or Steven. He’ll call when he calls. She just hopes it’s before she leaves the country. Her dad's a bit of a tightwad when it comes to the idea of upgrading to international call and text, to her chagrin. If she’s honest, it’s the one part of this trip she dreads— having zero contact with her best friend for a week.

Connie hastily breathes in and out, attempting to forcefully will the stress to dissipate. Let it go. Stop thinking about it. She gently tosses her phone on her bed where she can’t reach it, and pushes herself back into the dependable rhythm of laundry folding.

Licking her chapped lips as she works through the pile of newly clean clothes, she folds the turquoise colored silk choli bodice her mom arranged for a relative to hand weave for her on her last birthday and carefully places it with its matching saree. The decorative border running the length of the saree is embroidered with little flowers and swirls in gold thread. Connie smiles faintly, reverently running her hand across the smooth fabric. She’ll be wearing her typical shorts, overalls, and blouses for most of this trip, but she’s super excited to have the perfect excuse to bring this outfit out of her closet for once. It always makes her feel beautiful, with her hair pinned back and the saree draped around her, but she still can’t help but fear she’s ridiculously overdressed whenever she wears it anywhere outside of family events. A shame. Maybe she’ll build the courage to wear it one day when she goes to Steven’s house for sword practice. She’ll change into her usual training clothes during the practice itself, of course— she can’t risk tearing silk or restricting her movement— but it’d be cool to share a piece of her own family’s culture with him like that. Her cheeks heat up as she imagines his reaction. He’ll probably think it’s pretty. Pearl, too. Her teacher definitely has a flair for artistry, after all.

...but of course, that’s assuming Steven and the Gems are okay.

Her previously giddy thoughts wane like a withering petal. Sitting with her legs criss crossed on her bedroom floor, she hunches over with a heavy sigh, propping her chin into her hands. How long is this morning going to last?

Muffled amidst the cocoon of thick blankets adorning her bed, her phone’s ringer picks that very moment to blare into existence. Her nerves electrify in an instant, though whether that’s more a symptom of surprise or anticipation is anyone’s guess. Chest pounding, she shoots to her feet and scrambles across the room to pick it up. She sighs a breath of relief as her eyes skim over the caller ID. It’s him. And he wants to video chat! Without thinking twice she jabs her thumb against the screen to answer.

A handful of seconds pass as her phone attempts to connect over her family’s spotty wi-fi, heart twisting painfully in her throat as she steels herself for whatever potentially bad update about her friend’s life she’s about to receive, but then—

The video pushes through, and her friend appears on the screen. His hair is notably mussed, (more so than usual, that is), with wild curly locks sticking up from his head at weird angles.

“Mornin’, Connie,” he says, exhaustion evident on his face but besides that, appearing physically well. There’s actually color in his cheeks for one thing, unlike in the photo he sent before dawn.

“Steven!” she exclaims, subconsciously gripping the sides of her phone tighter in the absence of an actual hug. “You’re okay!”

“More or less,” he says in confirmation, the corner of his mouth turning up for a glimmer of a second. His expression quickly becomes tinted in shades of remorse, however, his voice on the brink of cracking. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t call back earlier! My phone died on me, and then I forgot to plug it in, and then I got distracted by a bunch of crazy family stuff, and that’s probably not a good excuse, but—“

She tries to feed him a reassuring smile, pushing down the blatant depth of her worry for his sake.

“Hey, don’t fuss about it. It happens. And anyways, you’re here now, right? So all that doesn’t even matter anymore.”

Her friend deals her a noncommittal shrug in response, and slouches against the rough hewn stone she’s only now noticing in the background. If she has to guess, he’s sitting on the beach, leaning against the sheer cliff walls where they first met almost two years earlier. Interesting, she muses, her brow furrowing. Usually when they do video calls Steven makes a point to stay in his house because he gets better reception there. On top of that, there’s an undeniable melancholy brewing within his eyes that would be amiss to ignore. He’s not even trying to mask it for once, which speaks volumes in and of itself about how heavy a burden it’s become, whatever it is that’s bothering him. Geeze, what on Earth happened over there last night?

“So, your gem,” she starts, edging towards the topic carefully. “Are you still—?”

He shakes his head, seemingly already catching on to what she’s gonna ask. “Nah, we’re together again! Turns out I can still fuse even without without him.”

“Hmm, I—“ Connie pauses, mind fixating for a second on the specific way he referred to his gem half, ascribing an undeniable sense of individuality to him— “well, I’m super glad you figured that out. But I still don’t understand, how can you get separated from your gem in the first place?”

“It’s, uh- a pretty complicated story, fair warning.”

“Pshhh, that’s no problem, I’ve got all morning,” she says, and props her phone against her bedpost so she can continue packing while listening. Freed once more, her hands seek out more unpaired socks to join.

“Only if you’re good with it, then.” The boy sighs deeply as he begins to prepare his words. The infamous drama zone kicking in, he lets his head lull backwards at gravity’s command against the cliffside’s face. She can’t help but cringe at the audible smack of his skull against smooth rock. “Ow!” he whines, immediately jerking forwards again. He rubs the back of his head in clear disbelief, softly laughing at his own folly. “Well, that was a pretty dumb idea.”

“Not gonna disagree,” she says with a giggle, glancing between her clothes and the screen in intervals as she folds. “Now, tell me everything. From the beginning. I still gotta pack, but I’m listening, I promise.”

A soft smile brightens his face, sunlight glinting off his dark brown irises. It’s enough to capture her stare, to make everything else in the world freeze to a stop. Just for one magic moment. Her heart almost flip flops at the gentle way he gazes at her, his eyes filled with a shy reverence that honestly, speaks volumes to his nature as a person. Because while he’s grown undeniably strong as a half-Gem, he’s far more than that. He's kind. He’s sensitive, and caring. So, so caring. More than anything else he tries his hardest to be extra empathetic about the needs of others around him, and she adores this about him, she truly does. Her only wish is that he could be this receptive about his own needs all the time, too. With her firsthand knowledge of the stressful stuff he and the other Gems deal with on a weekly basis, she can’t help but worry sometimes.

He breathes in, chest rising and falling as he prepares to tell his story. “Okay. So it all started yesterday morning when I was playing video games with the Gems…”

______

“—and then that’s when I figured out I could still fuse, right after I texted you. So we did, and- and well, that’s pretty much it,” Steven finishes with a bit of a waver in his voice, absentmindedly twirling his finger around a short curl at the nape of his neck as he adjusts his grip on the phone with his other hand.

With his story more or less complete, barring a few recent occurrences he’s hesitant to speak of right now, he pays careful attention to the minute fluctuations of Connie’s expression as everything he’s told her sinks in.

(He intentionally left out some of the more intimate bits, of course— like softly crying himself to sleep before Dad warped back, or having a near breakdown on the beach, or his conversation with half of himself. Some moments simply aren’t for others to know.)

Her voice wavers as she finally makes to respond. “Wow, that’s… a lot.”

“Yeah. And like, I wanna believe it’s over now, but everyone’s still acting so weird.”

“Mmm, and then there’s everything about your mom, and Pink Diamond…” She balls her hand against her mouth as she mulls over this information, her sobered glance shifting from him to some unspecified point in her bedroom.

And at seeing the subtle aversion of her gaze, he frets for a second. He squirms in the seat of the cold metal chair he’s made his temporary home in, toes curling inwards much like the creeping dread that’s trying to inch its way ever further into his heart, stifling any last hope of peace or calm. Replacing it with fear. Like, what if his real talk is too real? Too honest? What if he’s freaked her out, or overloaded her with the sheer weight of everything that’s happened to him, what if she’ll wanna keep her distance from him because of all this, what if—

“I’m so sorry you have to deal with all this,” she says softly, slashing the cord that’s restraining him within his frantic thoughts.

His shoulders relax, tension fading.

“I- is there anything I can do?” his friend continues. “To help, I mean?”

“Nah, don’t think so. Not right now, at least. Honestly, just having someone to talk to about all this means a lot.” He begins to slowly swing his legs back and forth, and leans against the coffee stained table top. “Normally I’d talk to one of the Gems, but. Well, y’know.”

His friend bobs her head in the affirmative. “Mmm.”

“It’s just…” he begins, pausing with a long sigh as he tries to organize all his jumbled emotions into something remotely explainable. His eyes drift away from his phone, focusing instead on the soft, tantalizing glow of the ice cream freezer across the shop. “I think I almost died, Connie. For real. I was shivering, a-and scared, and cracked, and- and yet they couldn’t stop fighting about whatever happened in the past. I don’t know anything about Pink Diamond, or what terrible things Rose apparently did, but now it’s like… even if they don’t mean to, that’s all they can think about when they look at me?”

Steven groans in exhaustion, slumping forward so the side of his face is pressed against the table. It’s comfy, never mind how dirty the surface probably is. He shifts his phone in his hands so Connie’s image is still parallel to him. “I dunno. I should’ve never popped that bubble in the first place. If I didn’t let Bismuth out, none of this would’ve happened.”

“Steven!” a loud voice calls from across the shop. “Are you gonna buy a donut or what?”

“Whu- huh??”

Startled, he shoots upright in the chair— knowing all too well from the faint thrum dancing under his skin that he’s on the brink of summoning his bubble on sheer impulse— before realizing that no, it’s only Lars, everything’s fine, I’m fine.

The surly teen is slumped against the counter next to Sadie, (who’s counting the money in the cash register on sheer compulsion, as if rifling through it one more time might cause the cash to magically multiply), both employees marinating in the boredom of yet another low traffic mid-September day at the Big Donut. He pauses to catch his breath, in retrospect feeling super silly for his near freak-out. His two favorite donut people have been here this whole time, of course. How he managed to become so sucked in by his call that he forgot is beyond him.

“Are you okay?” he hears Connie ask softly, obvious concern in her voice.

Lars on the other hand, apparently wasn’t finished calling him out.

“You can’t just- loiter here all morning and not buy anything!” he says. Brow threading together in perplexion, he whirls towards his coworker. “Right? Isn’t there a law for that? Sadie, help me out here-!”

She rolls her eyes so far they almost disappear back into her skull. “Oh, leave him alone, he’s fine...” “Yeah, I’m not loitering, I’m having a nice conversation with my friend!” he chimes, holding up his phone screen to them as proof.

“Hi Sadie, Lars,” Connie says.

The young lady behind the register smiles warmly despite the bags under her eyes, and pauses her task to wave to the camera.

Unimpressed, Lars leans his chin against his balled up fist, elbow propped on the counter. His tired eyes narrow into thin slits, exaggerated by the squish of his cheek against his bottom eyelid. “A ‘nice conversation?’ You’ve been sitting there for half an hour rambling about the misfortunes of near death,” he says, deadpan.

“I—“ His eyes grow wide as he combs back through the— now that he thinks about it— admittedly dour mood of everything he’s recently said. “Is that really what it sounded like...?”

Is he just being a killjoy to everyone? He thought it’d be okay to be real about it with his friend for once, since he usually keeps his deeper issues to himself, but perhaps...

“No, just ignore him,” Sadie says as she diligently sorts the coins, cutting in right before his mind can continue its downward spiral.

On the screen, Connie nods in wholehearted support. “It’s just venting, I don’t mind.”

And despite everything else he manages a smile at that, small and thin but filling him with a needed burst of energy all on its own.

“Huh,” Lars mutters, scrutinizing him closely. “Well, whatever it was, dark and brooding is a surprisingly good vibe for you. We’ll make a teenager of you yet.”

Steven blinks in confusion.

“But I already am a teenager,” he says, perhaps a bit more defensively than he ought have.

“Yeah!” chimes his friend over the phone.

“Wait, really? Aren’t you like, nine or somethin’?”

He squirms in his seat upon reference to his inability to physically age, feeling the flush touch his ears. “Uh, actually…”

“Dude, he’s been a teenager,” Sadie says. She stuffs the last of the quarters in their slot and securely shuts the cash register drawer. “He turned fourteen a few weeks ago, don’t you remember?”

“N- no… I just—“ Lars lets out a scoff, shooting her a moody sneer. “Whatever, okay? I don’t have the time or the patience to remember everyone’s birthdays in this dead-end town.”

“Only twenty-nine people even live here year round.”

“So? Your point is?”

“My point is that it’s kinda common courtesy to look up and pay attention to your surroundings every once in a while?”

He turns up his nose. “Ugh, well you know what—“

Steven purses his lips as he watches the two of them devolve into yet another round of petty squabbling. (Why all of these fights lately…? What’s wrong with everyone, what’s in the air?) Suddenly feeling very much like high tailing it out of here, he shifts in his seat. He and Connie share a knowing glance, one that quickly lets him knows they’re on the same page. Originally, he came here to use the store wi-fi since he didn’t want to be at home right now, but he can probably still use it just fine sitting at the table outside. Without any overt announcement of the fact, he stands and makes his way to the door. Lars and Sadie are too caught up in their spat to notice him leave.

Only when the cool breeze greets him outside can he relax. He kicks back in one of the chairs set out front of the store, adjusting his phone in his hand. Gulls call loudly from the boardwalk in their endless search for trashed food. A handful of people he doesn’t recognize— tourists!— splash in the water or play in the sand, a pair of young men holding hands as they cross the public beach. Sunlight is finally breaking through the cloud cover, brilliant blue overtaking dreary grey. He smiles faintly. Despite everything, it truly is a beautiful morning.

“Sorry about all that!” he says to his friend on the line, glancing back at the doors of the Big Donut. “They really are cool people when you got to know ‘em, but they kinda disagree about stuff a lot.”

Connie stifles a laugh, her expression unreadable for a moment. “I know you keep saying they’re probably dating, but I honestly don’t believe you.”

His skin grows clammy all of a sudden.

Don’t… believe...

He's frozen. It’s almost like he’s with Sapphire, trapped again in that old motel room shivering amidst her frost powers. And yet simultaneously he’s not, ‘cause… because he’s burning up, hand clutching at thin air. He’s terrified. He’s completely alone, he’s—

He’s back in the forge.

Bismuth’s there, looming like a reaper above him, arm shapeshifted into some sort of curved saw blade and held aloft. Thick, viscous lava boils angrily in the pool surrounding the platform he’s on, and more than anything it’s a warning, a constant warning, and he’s stupid, he’s so unobservant and stupid, he should have paid heed to it when he came down here in the first place, why didn’t he—

Heat blasts almost violently at him as he shuffles away on hands and feet, scooting backwards on the blistering stone. He heaves for breath amidst his panic. Meanwhile, the channels of hard light running parallel with his veins buzz alongside the rush of adrenaline keeping him alive. Sweat beads on his forehead, sticky and unnaturally cool.

No matter how hard he tries, he’s too weak against her. His shield isn’t strong enough.

He knows this for a fact now, knows that Bismuth can dissipate both it and his bubble with enough force, and that’s a super scary thought but it doesn’t stop the primal instinct pulsing insistently at the back of his mind, pushing him to stand back up, to summon his weapon anyways and try to defend himself. It’s nothing but a lost cause, though.

Now, his only true shield is his words.

“Wait, I’m not my mom!” he cries in desperation, shielding himself with his arms. “I don’t know what she did, but I’m sure she didn’t want to hurt you!”

The stark shadow obscuring the rainbow haired Gem’s eyes grows darker.

“It’s too late,” she spits, preparing to swing her arm down. “I don’t believe you anymore!”

And then with a shallow gasp he’s here again, here at this dingy plastic table sitting under the bright and blue hope of morning, his phone clutched in a vice-like grip. Breath passes through his lips shakily. What the heck was that?? Was his gem feeding him old memories like what happened in his sleep, or something? Whatever it was, he’s genuinely not sure how much time has passed during the vision, a realization which unnerves him. Seemingly not too long, as Connie hasn’t moved to speak yet. Yet still her too-familiar words echo in his mind, pulsing with the thrum of inflamed blood vessels at an open wound, and without the blessing of inhibition he blurts out the first thought that reveals itself.

“That’s fair,” he says, voice cracking. “I probably wouldn’t believe me about a lot of things right now.”

Her brow creases with obvious concern. “Hey... Hey, I didn’t mean that personally. I was just messing around with ya’. You know that, right?”

“I know,” he sighs. “I’m sorry. I guess I just feel... really on edge.” Jittery fingers card through thick curls as his chest softly rumbles in the absurdity of it all. “Geeze, I’m being a real sad sack today, huh?”

“Well, you’ve been through a lot.”

“Yeah, but to be fair ‘near death scenarios’ are pretty much just an occupational hazard at this point. And I’ve handled that fine before, so…”

“Still doesn’t erase the fact that it’s impacted you hard this time,” she says softly, leveling her gaze squarely on him, her intuitive brown eyes disassembling his insecurities and then putting them back together like a puzzle.

He flushes, shrinking where he sits. He pulls his legs up onto the seat, clutching them to his chest. Intuitively he knows she’s right, he knows that all this has messed with him more than the danger of Gem stuff normally does, but he still can’t help but feel… ashamed? That he’s feeling this way in the first place? It’s bizarre. It’s completely dumb, and the more he fixates on it the more dumb it becomes. Eventually he decides he’s not in the right mental state to try and weave a halfway rational response to her and elects to swerve the topic.

“So there’s also another not-great thing that happened,” he begins, hugging his knees. “Should probably mention.”

“Yeah…?”

“Garnet unfused over all this. Maybe for good this time.”

She gasps, and in an instant her face shoots closer on his screen.

“Wait what? She- you mean that Ruby and Sapphire aren’t—“

“Yup.”

Connie covers her mouth in shock, eyes glistening. “Oh, no! Steven, I’m so sorry! And you don’t think they’ll be able to work it out?”

“No, they made it seem pretty permanent.”

“That’s… really rough,” she sighs in solidarity. “‘Cause I mean, at least since it’s fusion she’s still there in spirit, but- you grew up knowing Garnet.”

“Exactly,” he nods. “I love Ruby and Sapphire a whole bunch, but it’s still different, y’know? Like, it’s like I lost someone important to me. Maybe forever. And... it feels so awful,” he says, pushing past the lump in his throat that he wishes more than anything would go away. “All of it. It’s like everyone in my family’s falling apart. The moment she unfused, Sapphire immediately shut herself in her room, and then Ruby was so upset she ran away, and Amethyst and Pearl started yelling at each other about everything, so… I left. And called you,” he explains, gesturing at her. “And now I’m here, chillin’ at the Big Donut. And that’s pretty much it.”

“Gosh...”

“Yeah.”

“Again, I’m sorry you had to deal with all this. I mean, outright getting cleaved from half of yourself? I can’t even imagine…” She bites at her knuckles for a moment, deep in thought. “Makes me wish I had more than sympathy to offer.”

“Nah, just you listening to everything means a whole bunch. I really appreciate that,” he says. “I—“ his voice wavers a bit as he feels the heat of the blush blossoming across his cheeks— “I really appreciate you. A lot. You- you know that, don't you?”

She giggles, the sound a beautiful reassurance to his ears. “Of course I do! And anyways, you always take time to listen to me when I’m down. That’s what jam buds are for, right?”

“Right,” he says, the word reverberating in harmony in the deepest reaches of his heart.

“Steven!” a voice calls from the distance.

Connie’s brow furrows. “Is that…?”

He whips his head around, squinting in the sunlight to catch a clearer glimpse of the figure running towards the edge of the Big Donut’s patio, his long hair rippling behind him. At the sight of family, his eyes light up. He waves his free arm in greeting.

“Dad!”

“Hey, kiddo!” his dad says, crossing the last few steps to the patio chair he’s curled up in. Gasping for breath, he plops himself in the chair adjacent. “I thought I’d find you here. You doin’ better now?”

He makes a half grimace, and shakes his flattened hand in a so-so gesture.

Dad’s hopeful smile fades, quickly replaced with a compassionate sense of understanding that could only come from years of hard earned age and experience. “Yeah. Yeah, I getcha. Seeing people you love fight like that’s never fun. Do you wanna talk about it?”

He presses his mouth into a line as he contemplates. To be honest, after venting about everything to Connie, fixating on negative emotions more is the last thing he wants to do, but he doesn’t wanna be rude to his dad. Thank goodness he has a valid excuse to avoid it altogether!

“Uh, I’m kinda on the phone, here,” he says, showing him his phone screen as proof.

“Oh, by golly, so you are! Hey, Connie. How are you hangin’ in there?”

She flashes a smile. “Hi, Mr. Universe! I’m okay, thanks.”

“Heh, Mr. Universe, huh?” he chuckles softly, scratching at his beard. “Such formalities! You’ve known me for what, how long? Please, you can call me Greg.”

“Thanks, but my mom says I’m not allowed to call grown ups by their first names.”

“Dr. Maheswaran has all sorts of weird mom rules,” Steven chimes in, nodding.

“Hoo boy, do I know about those,” his dad commiserates in a flat tone. He makes a big show out of mulling this over, humming as he taps at his chin. “Well then, don’t think of me as a grown up, but more of a big kid with, erm… slightly bigger responsibilities.”

“Uh, okay!” Connie says, hesitantly glancing between him and Steven. “If it’s alright with you, then, Mr. Greg!”

Dad‘s mouth turns up in a fond smirk, and then he glances back at him. “Anyways, I wanted to let you know that the Gems have cooled down. I had… a bit of a talk with them, let’s say,” he mutters, clear exhaustion betraying his otherwise content demeanor. “Should be fine to go back when you’re ready.”

“Did Ruby return??”

“Nah, she’s still MIA. But Pearl and Amethyst are on the case.”

He sighs, disappointment flooding his heart. He’s not sure why he ever dreamed otherwise. She’ll come back eventually, of course. She’s gotta. According to Garnet, Rubies are very social Gems, which means they prefer sharing in the company of others over being alone. And even when she’s not fused with Sapphire, she’s still a part of his family. He dearly hopes she knows that.

“I hope her and Sapphire will be okay,” he mutters.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine in the end,” he says with a shrug. “They’ve come apart before, after all.”

Connie hums in agreement. “Yeah, sometimes even my parents need some quiet time away from each other. That’s totally normal!”

Dropping his legs to dangle from the chair again, Steven watches an orange spotted butterfly flutter between the beach umbrellas set up on the patio tables, meeting with its other half before both journeying away in the wind. His cheeks lift at their attempts at reassurance, and boy, does it feel so much more natural than frowning pensively.

“D’ya really think so?”

Smiling softly, his dad affectionately musses his hair. “All we can do is wait and see, bud. Wait and see.” He stands to his feet then, grunting as he uses the table’s surface to help push him up. Gaze growing somewhat weary, he peers with purpose towards the far side of the hill. “Anyways, your old man will be over at the car wash, scrubbing soap scum off the floors. Eughh, right? But hey, if you need anything… a hug, an ear, some classic fatherly advice… come and find me, okay? Take it easy this morning.” Grinning, he turns back to wave goodbye to the girl mirrored on the screen. “Nice seeing ‘ya, Connie. Take care.”

“You too!” she waves in return.

And with that farewell his dad begins his casual jaunt down the sidewalk, leaving the two of them alone once more. Except, he supposes that’s not true at all, is it? Even without Connie, even without Dad, or the Gems. Because if he can take away one good thing from this whole messed up experience, just one hopeful message, it’s that he’s never been alone a day of his life. That’s simply the nature of fusion, you see. Even in the darkest, scariest moments...

I’ve never actually been alone, he marvels. I’ve just been me.

______

Once Steven’s dad leaves to scrub down the floors at his car wash, their conversation evolves considerably from its bleak beginnings. Enough about all this Gem stuff, Steven says, what’s new with you? Besides, uh- folding underwear, of course!

Connie laughs, rolling her eyes at the visible blush on his face as she pushes the aforementioned undergarments out of frame. She eagerly shares some of the finer details of her India trip, telling him all about when she’s leaving for the airport, (late this evening, on a red-eye flight across the Atlantic), what area of the country she’s visiting, (Punjab, where some of her extended family lives), and how long she’ll be gone (just a week!). From there, the topic shifts between a variety of themes, ranging anywhere from her anxiety and excitement at starting school again when she gets back, the pride of finally figuring out a challenging song she’s wanted to perfect for a while on her violin, to this super compelling Unfamiliar Familiar fanfic she found where Lisa discovers she’s secretly heir to the throne of the corrupt society she’s always been vying to escape from underneath the authoritative thumb of.

“Wow, this is the story I never knew I always needed so badly in my entire life,” Steven says, brown irises turning starry-eyed in the sunlight. He’s sitting atop the hill now, resting content on his belly in the grass in front of the lighthouse.

“I know, right?? I’ll send you the link,” she promises, dangling her feet in the air behind her as she lays on the carpet.

He pumps his fist in the air triumphantly. “Woo, free infinite books!”

“Well, keep in mind, it’s not finished yet. Apparently it’s supposed to update bi-weekly, but I think the author got a bit boggled down by life stuff recently.”

“Aw, that’s too bad. I hope they’re doin’ okay.”

“Same… But hey,” she says with a soft laugh, “at least it’s a long fic, right?”

“Y’know,” he interjects the current topic suddenly, rising to his knees. “I wonder if I can see your house from here! D’ya think that’s possible, ‘cause I wanna see if that’s possible!”

He switches his camera’s view from front to back, the image of his face replaced by the scenic vista of the cozy beach town below, ridged by the peaceful waters of the Atlantic and Rehoboth Bay. She can see everything, from the gigantic pastry shaped facade atop the Big Donut, to the water tower clear on the other side of the peninsula. Beyond, lush green grasslands— dotted with clusters of small residences, humanity’s touch on the Earth— stretch as far into the horizon as far as a young dreamer can imagine.

Connie picks up her phone from the bedpost she leaned it against and squints at the screen, trying to map out the precise scale of the countryside between them in her mind. “Hmm, probably not. I think my town’s pretty hidden by the surrounding hills.”

“No silly, not from right here, here! I meant, from up here!”

She yelps as the view of Beach City on her phone screen jolts in a burst of sudden, rapid movement, shrinking smaller and smaller as the seconds tick by.

“Steven!! What are you—“

But internally, she finds the answer to this question before she can even finish asking it. Clearly, he jumped into the sky, so… so he’s using his floating ability. Even though she’s never seen him utilize it to leap to this extreme, it’s the only possibility that makes any ounce of sense. Her mouth falls agape at the picturesque view below, the town beginning to looking more and more like a blurred watercolor painting. Distantly, she wonders what it would feel like to be up there with him, her hands clutched tight in his, the wind dancing through her long hair.

"Consarn it! Your house is too small to pick out. Hmm..."

Or even as Stevonnie, can they float too? she wonders. Maybe one day she can ask!

“Oh my gosh, this is just like I’m on the giant slingshot they used to have at Funland,” she says, averting her eyes as her best friend continues his ascent into the shimmering blue sky. She lets slip a slight grimace, finding the stark contrast between the movement on the screen and the still permanence of her bedroom dizzying the more she watches. “And I’m starting to think there’s a reason they shut that ride down…”

“Hey, my floating powers are way better than The Comet,” he chirps playfully, having finally reached the apex of his leap. “Hah, maybe that means I should start my own attraction at Funland!”

“Doing what?” she says, unable to keep from laughing at the absurdity of the very concept. “Bubbling people on the tracks of the rollercoaster like the day we first met? I’m pretty confident that’d be a major health and safety violation.”

“Aww, but those are the best kinds of attractions!”

She hears him grunt with minor exertion, and suddenly the aerial glimpse of the countryside she’s watching on her phone drops out of sight, replaced in an instant with a sweeping panorama of the boundless sky, the line of the horizon with the sea, the ground looming ominously hundreds of feet below. Rinse and repeat, over and over. Everything is spinning, she realizes in alarm, and there’s no end in sight.

“Whoa-oH, it’s the Stevencoaster!” he cries in childish glee as he somersaults.

His lighthearted joy is so contagious she can’t stop the grin stretching wide across her face.

“Careful, you doofus, you’re gonna make me motion sick and I’m not even there,” she giggles breathlessly.

“Nooo! And the Stevencoaster makes everyone toss their cookies! Words truly cannot describe the culinary carnage left in its wake.”

She rolls her eyes in fondness at his antics, and sits up on her carpet. “No, but seriously,” she reaffirms, “that’s making me pretty dizzy.”

“Oh, sorry!”

Soon enough she watches him level out from his spin, his camera focusing for a moment on the ground a hundred feet below his sandaled feet before flipping to show his face once more, framed by wild dark curls. His irises are shimmering an unnatural pink she’s never seen before. It's enough of an unexpected shock that her smile fades, ever so slightly.

“Better?” he says, beaming at her as he continues on his slow descent to Earth.

They’re still pink. And his pupils… She’s not just imagining it, right? She blinks heavily.

“Y- yes, much.”

“Connie? What’s wrong?” he asks, landing upon the grass. His brow furrows.

Even more notably, his eyes are just as normal and brown as they ever were. Connie balls her hand against her chin as she deliberates this. Hmm. Curiouser and curiouser.

She shakes her head, silently mulling over how best to explain this. “Nothing, it’s just… I could’ve sworn your eyes were… different, for a second.”

“Different?” Steven‘s grin stretches so wide he looks like he’s about to burst at any moment. “Eye don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Well, if you become my pupil I could explain it to you,” she giggles.

“I’m listening,” he chimes eagerly.

“Okay, so honestly it could’ve just been a trick of the light, but… it’s almost like they flashed pink for a second. And your pupils were all funny, kind of, uh- slitted! Like a cat’s.”

“Pink?”

“Yeah.”

His face goes shockingly pale. “Connie, when was this?”

“Just a second ago,” she shrugs. “You were still floating.”

“Floating,” he repeats under his breath, seeming haunted by the very thought.

“Steven?” she calls, a sudden twist in her chest at the sight of his clear distress. “Steven, what’s wrong?”

“I, I—“ he stammers, unable to even meet her glance. “I’m really sorry, but I gotta go. I’ll text you later?”

“Uh- okay. Thanks for calling—“

He hangs up.

“...back,” she finishes softly, shoulders sinking.

She sighs heavily, dropping her phone into her lap and sitting back against her bed frame. What did she say? What could be so scary about the idea of glowing pink eyes to make him react like that? Sure, it’s a bit strange, but it’s no more unusual than any of his other unique abilities. She only hopes she didn’t ruin his good mood all over again by bringing his attention to it.

Her mother knocks on the doorframe outside, signaling her presence.

“Come in,” she mutters glumly.

The door creaks open. Mom steps through, and leans against the wall with her arms crossed, glancing knowingly between her and the phone still clutched like a lifeline in her hands.

“Are you still worried about that boy?” she asks.

Connie can almost hear the capitalization inherent in her tone. 'That Boy.’ Even though she and Steven are just friends, she knows full well who her mother thinks he is to her. (Not that she’d complain if that were the case, but that’s simply not a thing with them, and really that’s fine, she’s fine, their status quo is comfortable how it is—)

“Yeah… I just got off the phone with him," she says, letting her head sink into the folds of the covers trailing off the side of her bed. "It sounds like he’s been through a lot lately.”

“Well, when a child spends all day fighting monsters instead of going to school like he’s supposed to, I can’t say I’m surprised,” her mom says under her breath.

“Mom, come on, this is serious!”

“Yes, sorry, you’re right,” she says wearily, pressing her hand to her temple. “Just because I don’t understand it doesn’t mean that it’s fair of me to say.”

She turns away, and hugs her knees to her chest. Like a storm on a late summer day, her mind brims with so many things she wishes she could admit, so many things that need to be released if she wants to find any peace about this. But how to start? How can she make her mother understand?

“I’ve really been looking forward to this trip, y’know?" Connie says, feeling oh-so vulnerable sitting on the floor just like she always would as a young child, eyes glistening as she calls upon her mother for support. "Really. And I know we gotta leave tonight, but just knowing he’s hurting and I won’t be able to text him at all makes part of me wish… that I could stay here."

Unable to dam it up anymore, a few tears spill over to roll unbridled down her cheek. Her chest quivers uncontrollably as her face screws up and she begins to cry.

"Oh, honey," she breathes, moving to kneel on the floor next to her. She rests her hand on her upper back, gently kneading the stress out of her tense muscles.

"He's always been there for me when I needed someone to talk to, o-or somethin' to feel better," she sniffles, wiping the damp from her eyes and nose. "A- and then- the moment he needs me, I can't be there for him at all, an' it's not fair!"

Upon seeing the trail of snot beginning to drip towards her upper lip, her mother grimaces. She reaches across her for the small square box perched atop her nightstand. "Tissue," she says firmly, passing her the box.  

She accepts the gift, pulling one out, and blows her nose hard.

As she's dabbing away, cleaning up the evidence of her tears, Mom's fingers shift to comb through the length of her hair. She twirls through long dark strands and pulls them out of her face. "Even if I don't get all this magic stuff you're both dealing with," she begins, voice brimming with compassion, "believe me, I understand more than most what it feels like to be cut off from the people you love. So... I’ll change your phone plan to international, how’s that? That way, at the very least you’ll still be able to contact him.”

Her eyes light up. “Wow, really?? But that’s super expensive!”

“Says your father,” she scoffs with soft laughter. “We can afford it. And anyways, I’d hate to see you miserable the whole trip.”

“That’ll be perfect!” she says, throwing her arms tight around her mother. And although she can’t see her face, Connie knows from the reassuring solidness of their embrace that every bit of the love she has for her is returned in full. “Thanks, Mom,” she whispers, her anxious heart finally finding a glimmer of peace.

[shinneth]

The Gem Ascension Reference Tour 4: Anime

(relevant bit starts around 2:38, but the 12 year old in me insists all of this is worth watching even if it’s sub-less)

Not that many anime references pop into mind right now, but the few that do are pretty poignant, so I’ll go ahead and talk about them. 

Short version: Late GA3 where Peridot lets out a piercing cry along the lines of “IYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”... that’s from here. You see this line, you better fucking believe Kotono Mitsuishi subbed in for Shelby Rabara just for that. 

Long version:

Unless the latter could pull this off. She’s honestly among the best VAs in the Steven Universe cast and definitely knows when and how to put in the emotion where it truly needs it. This kind of cry is something very few could truly nail, so that’ll forever remain a mystery.

(also, heard that she recently had her first baby! Congrats to her! And... not at all surprised she’s very close to my age; just a few years older than me)

Yeah, when I decided (surprisingly late in the game) to kill off Pumpkin, this moment from the final season of Sailor Moon is what I had in mind. This is something that’s stuck with me since my internet infancy back in the late 90s; back when clips could only be found on fansites and downloading things even a few megabytes in size was an ordeal because dial-up internet. And the clips were very tiny and rather grainy on top of that. This clip probably feels very tame today, but in 1998, it hit my 12 year-old self hard. 

It’s astonishing that since then, there still isn’t an English dub for this season. I mean, one is actually FINALLY forthcoming now, but... yeah. It’ll probably be a few years before I can even see it. It’s taken 20+ years for Sailor Stars to get a proper English dub. 

The sparkly glowing balls of light were also a thing for Pumpkin’s death, just to really drive that reference home. Honestly, be grateful this is the ONLY thing I gleaned from the Sailor Stars finale arc. I could have been a real bitch and incorporated something like the subplot of Uranus and Neptune betraying their friends in order to lull Galaxia into a false sense of security in order to score a killing blow (this required them to kill fellow teammates Pluto and Saturn, by the way)... or even worse, incorporate the manga equivalent of this storyline where pretty much everybody fucking dies, gets their corpses reanimated and completely possessed and fight Sailor Moon to completely fuck with her mind, then Galaxia just kicks them all into the Galaxy Cauldron to completely erase their existence and any chance of being reborn/revived.

Speaking of the manga...

This was a pretty minor plot point, but it was derived from this part of the Sailor Moon manga (act 24). This was first explained in the side-story, but basically, I just simplified the matter of Rose having to die to bring Steven into the world. Simple rule: no two gems of the exact same code and cut can exist simultaneously. So there can’t be two White Diamonds just as much as there can’t be two Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-5XGs. Should this impossibility be made possible, then for the love of god don’t let the two make physical contact, because that will induce a universe-obliterating paradox. 

I couldn’t really find a suitable way to incorporate this into the main plot, but I figured it’s fitting enough to give some full, concrete reasoning as to why Steven and Rose can’t exist simultaneously since they share the same diamond. 

tl;dr: time travel should definitely never be a thing in the GA canon. 

At least one reviewer was savvy enough in Sailor Moon knowledge to catch this reference! And I give kudos to that person, since this one is relatively obscure. So, Iridescent Diamond - the fusion of Pink Diamond 2.0 and Chartreuse Diamond. Technically a Stevidot fusion, only not really since it’s their alter egos and it’s established in-story that an actual Stevidot fusion would produce something different.

When Iridescent Diamond first arrives and Alexandrite asks for her name, she basically paraphrases Sailor Neptune’s introduction. In a way, it’s also somewhat of a reference to one of Peridot’s lines in CYM where she declares herself as Homeworld’s savior (which, ironically, she literally becomes in GA canon - she and Steven do the heavy lifting for saving every gem on Homeworld by transporting them to Earth), because ID is here to “save you all with elegance”! And another part of this speech references something else entirely that I’ll get into later.

So, outside of Sailor Moon... only one other series comes to mind right away.

(relevant part starts at around 1:00)

The entirety of White Diamond begging Steven for energy to heal her wounds and leave her dying planet, only to use that energy to get one last shot on the Crystal Gems when their backs were turned... yep, this was from the final moment of the Goku/Freeza fight in the Namek saga. Freeza was way more badly damaged, obviously, but he and White Diamond are about on the same mental wavelength here for why they throw that mercy right back into the heroes’ faces. And both times it’s met with a massive backfiring (still amazing that this didn’t actually kill Freeza, either). 

Most notably, when Peridot notices what’s going on with WD, when she’s screaming “YOU CLOD!!!!!”  - that delivery is definitely like Goku’s “YOU FOOL!!!!!” point for point.

Also, a small joke when WD earlier mentions the Crystal Gems have only 5 minutes left before Homeworld goes kaput, but that obviously doesn’t happen. Consider that a slight reference to DBZ Abridged when Goku says Freeza has no idea what a minute really is. (and that’s in reference to the 5-minute countdown part of this fight lasting a full three hours in real time for us)

I feel like I’m missing something, but again, if I did, I can always bring in a part 2 for this.

[injuries-in-dust]

Steven Universe Shield

A prop I made for Halloween. Finished today. Two days of work. Since I was winging this for the second half of the build I’ll be admitting my errors, so you know what not to do.

Do note that I was going for passable, rather than a perfect replica of the shield. Mostly due to my limited skill and equally limited funds. 

Sorry, I didn’t document every step, I only figured I should when I was in the later stages. 

Start with these instructions for making a Captain America Shield, following only up to step 12. 

https://www.instructables.com/id/Flying-Captain-America-Shield/

Except you don’t have to use coloured duct-tape due to the painting that will come later, all regular silver will do.

Next, add masking tape to the top, at least three layers, Layer one should criss-coss, to make a union jack, or asterisk, shape. An X on top of a +. 

The second Layer should be vertical strips. 

The third layer should be horizontal strips. 

Do make sure all the strips are long enough so that they can be wrapped around the edge and stick onto the back side of the shield, it helps them be more secure. All of this is because duct-tape is supposed to be water repellant and spray paint may not adhere to the surface.

After this should come the painting. Spray Paint, I found a Fluorescent Pink on Amazon. It may seem too bright to some, but it seems to be the colour most other people choose on their replica shields.

A nice, thick, coating. While this dries, you can begin working on the stencil for the shield. When it’s dry, add a second coat to better cover the masking tape. 

Not an easy task. I couldn’t find stencils online, so had to hand draw this using an image of Steven’s shield for reference. 

Basic cardstock, A4 size, four pieces attached with masking tape on the front and back. 

The size of the shield should come to 56 inches, give or take. Always make sure you have the size of your shield noted down. Pencil, tied to a string, attached to a pin in the middle will give you a nice circle. 

Reduce the size of the string by about an inch (I went a little larger, so I know this to be wrong) and draw a second circle inside the first. 

Next, I made the centre circle, which was just drawing around an everyday mug. Once that circle was in place, it helped me make the rose design. Draw three straight lines at 11 o’clock, 7 o’clock, and 3 o’clock spots and you can carefully draw lines to attach the three of them. 

Keep an eraser on hand and it should go without saying that you should draw in pencil. Gentle curves, take your time and redraw until it looks close to the reference picture. 

The spiral can be done easier if you can access a bendy ruler. Also known as a Flexible Curve Ruler. It’s a 12-inch strip of round or rectangular rubber or PVC, usually with a metal wire core, so it can be bent and stay in that shape. Found in most office supply stores. Or, if you don’t have one you can do what I did and make it with a combination of a string as a guideline, and a lot of slow, careful, freehand. 

This will be one of the most time-consuming steps. 

Using a craft knife and a cutting board, cut out the shield along the inner edge. Cut out the ring along the outer edge and save this for later. 

The following is something you shouldn’t do. Taping the central stencil to the shield will not work as the flat surface does not match with the domed shield at all. 

Attempting to spray around the stencil in order to create the outer edge of the shield will only result in a messy, uneven border. 

For the outer edge of the shield, I chose a spraypaint with the title of Lake for its colour shade. It looked more blue in its amazon picture but, as you can see here, it came out more green. It’s the downside of shopping online for supplies. 

A much better thing to do it to create a ring of masking tape. It’s best done by placing the outer ring from the stencil above onto the shield and running along its inner border. Very time consuming but necessary for a cleaner border.  

Carefully spraying the edges of the shield will result in this. Some of the paint may mist onto the pink. 

While you can do this next step, it is something of a waste of time, as I discovered. I’ll be telling you a better solution later, around the time I figured it out. 

What I did was place the ring over the green, to act as something of a shield, and spray the pink again, to cover up the green which had misted onto the pink. It worked well enough, but some pink did land on the very edges of the shield, spoiling the flawless green. At the time I chose to come back to this later. 

While All the paint is drying you can start cutting out the stencil. At first, I thought to take this in stages, cutting out a bit at a time, but I quickly found that cutting out the whole thing allows it to sit on the shield much better. Placing loops of masking tape on the undersides of the stencil will better fix it to the surface of the shield for a tighter fit and better protection against the paint escaping the edges.��

Before placing the stencil on the shield make sure that the paint is dry. Next peel away the masking tape which had separated the pink from the green. No matter how carefully you do it, some paint will be peeled away. Don’t worry about this, it’s fixable. This is the same fix that will work when you tape down the stencil and will likely peel away some paint when the stencil is removed. 

Sadly I did not photo the next step. 

You take a plastic cup and a paintbrush. You spray the spray paint into the cup until a sizeable puddle gathers in the bottom of the cup. You can then use this as a normal paint and simply paint the gaps where the paint has peeled away. 

It’s also how we will cover any paint which has misted over onto the other sections of the shield.

Do use a different cup and different paintbrush for each colour. Washing them out with hot water doesn’t clean them enough and you’ll end up contaminating one colour with another. Stronger cleaners like white spirit or turpentine will clean the brushes but it takes time and I was working to get it done as soon as possible.

 A 1-inch or a 1/2-inch brush will suffice. 

What we see here is the beginning of the spiral, when I was trying to take it in stages, one bit at a time, in the hopes of getting some accuracy. I figured quickly that actually cutting the whole thing and placing the whole spiral onto the shield leads to better accuracy. 

Note the ring piece is still in place to keep the green clear of the spray paint from the spiral segment. You can’t paint it again after your done to cover any misting that happens to make it through. 

The colour of the spray paint I bought was called Amanita. It’s close to flesh coloured and is probably not the right shade of pink. Again, it’s the downside of buying supplies online. It looked fine on its Amazon picture. 

When you’ve cut out the stencil, save the circle from the centre and use a large loop of masking tape to affix it to the middle of the shield for the- I’ll call it the- gem-space.

Spray with the nozzle aimed straight down, it can stop the paint getting under some of the edges of the stencil and spreading further than you need to. 

After the spiral portion has dried, peel away the stencil and you should, more or less, have something resembling the above. 

Using the cup and paintbrush method can cover any spreading, patch any peeled paint and cover any droplets that have landed on a different colour. 

In the final stages, you need a permanent marker, some white card and glue. The white card makes the glint of light on the gem and the black marker makes the colours really pop and stand out more.

You may spot a slight purple shade on the 7 o’clock position on the shield. This is where I learned, the hard way, to use sperate brushes and cups. The green and pink mixed into purple and it was impossible to cover up with further layers of pink, the darker colour always bled through. Lucky it was just a small spot. 

To finish the whole thing, spray with a Spray Paint Gloss - Clear Acrylic. As you can see, it helps to add a shine to the finished product and adds a layer of protection to the whole thing against some general wear and tear. I can also guarantee that it adds waterproofing against a light drizzle, at least. I’m unwilling to test on a heavier rain. 

Like I said, I wasn’t going for a perfect replica of Steven’s shield, what I was aiming for was something that was passable enough to be recognised as Steven’s shield. I think I achieved that quite well and so did others. I’ve received a few compliments on it and people seem impressed when I tell them that I made it instead of bought it. 

[zutara11thyear]

Day 5: Crystals

Continuation of Day 1, but like after the invasion and blah blah

They needed more supplies for the beach house, and somehow Katara and Zuko were picked to go into town. Never mind that fact that Zuko looked unbearably suspicous with his black hood, everyone else simply couldn't be bothered to alter their plans for the sake of the group.

If she and the firebender got captured, it'd serve them right.

She angrily marched all the way into town with a silent Zuko two steps behind her. When they made it there, she took several calming breathes before stepping into the village, then walked in at a calmer pace and an easy smile.

Getting supplies was a breeze, since the ex-prince didn't wine and complain like her brother usually did. He just held their shopping bags and followed behind her. Occasionally, he'd pause and pull his hood a little futher over his face, and Katara would fill a twinge of pity for him. Having such a distinct mark made hiding almost impossible.

The only one that could sort of relate was Aang, but he could just grow his hair out a little to hide the tatoo. Zuko's hair would have to be really long to cover his scar.

They were half-way done with the list when she saw the the table lined with color crystals. Walking closer, Katara could see that the crystals were actually attaches to string to form necklaces. One in particilar called out to her like water in the desert.

The gem was a familar glowy-green that made her heart race. She approached the vender, a middle-aged woman, with small stuttering steps.

"Where's this one from?" She asked pointing at the it.

The lady smiled at her warmly before holding the neckalce in her hand, letting the crystal dangle down.

"It's from the Catacombs of the new territory in Ba Sing Se."

She could feel herself blushing at the mere mention of the catacombs.

"I see, thankyou."

Katara hightailed it from the table without checking to see if Zuko was behind her. He knew his way around town just fine and didn't need her to lead him around. She got the rest of the supplies as quickly as she could, while steadily beating down the memories of warm hands and rough scar tissue beneath her palms.

If she thought of those little things, she'd inevitably think of the one big thing that happened down there. The thing she had steadily refused to mention under any circumstances. Thankfully, Zuko didn't bring it up either, or the waterbender might have hid at the bottom of the ocean.

The firebender in question met her outside of town with the rest of the supplies, and the two made their way back to the beach house. Katara was too embarrassed to have a straight conversation, so she idely rambled about what to make for dinner and missing the her blue clothes. He didn't seem to mind, and she found it was nice to be the one talking rather than being the listener. The other three always got to go on and on and on about how boring everything was or how hungry they were. Katara, Zuko, and Suki were always stuck nodding along pretending to listen.

That made her hesistate. Maybe Zuko was as tired as listening as she was and wanted to talk to? She looked over at him and forced her whatever down long enough to formulate a question.

"So Zuko, how do you like being here."

He tripped. He actually tripped over nothing before steading himself and leveling her with a small glare. It didn't stop her from laughing at him.

They continued walking in silence for a while, before Zuko slowly started talking about his day. He mentioned how Aang was progressing, and how he had spent some time with Toph messing around in the sand.

Katara listened with a soft smile and laughed at some of his more awkward encounters with Sokka and Aang. Something about being menly men.

When they finally arrived back at the house, the green crystal was long forgotten, and she was teasing Zuko about his so called 'manly strut'.

Sokka almost ran them over to get the food with Toph and Aang right behind him. Suki came in at a slower pace and gave Katara a sympathetic look. The waterbender waved it off as she handed out some fruit and jerky for the three to eat. They happily munched away on their respective foods while she started making dinner. Suki helped Katara out by cutting the vegetables and seasoning the meat.

Dinner was finished a little while later, but Zuko was no where in sight. Thinking back to their earlier conversation, Katara excused herself to go grab him. She figured he'd be on the beach.

As she expected, the firebender was sitting in the sand facing the ocean. Why'd he have to go brood at her element? He should have made a bone-fire to mope at instead. She came to a stop a little behind him and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Zuko, food's ready, so no more pouting."

He leaped up into a fighting stance, but slumped over when he saw it was just her and not Azula or whoever would attack someone from behind.

"I do not pout." He pouted as he sank back into the ground.

She rolled her eyes before coming over to stand next to him.

"Pouting or not pouting. You need to come eat."

"Now who's pouting."

"Zuko, don't make me bring you in a bubble."

Golden eyes shoot her a dry look before the firebender stood up again. Katara smirked as she turned to go back into the house.

"Wait." He called out.

She paused and moved to turn around; however, Zuko pushed her back in place to face the house. The waterbender was about to fumble out a sarcastic remark about how this reminded her of a certain tree incident, but a small weight being drapped around her neck made it freeze in her throat. The firebender stepped back into her line of sight, and Katara looked down to see the crystal from the market gleaming up at her.

"We should..uh talk about it-when you're not confused anymore." Zuko stammered out while raking a hand through his hair.

She wanted to implode into nothingness. How dare he bring up two of the most awkward and embarassing moments of her life up at the same to. How did he even hear her say that to Aang?

Katara took several deep breathes before looking up at the firebender. She didn't see any signs of him teasing her or even pushing her for anything. He also said that they should talk about it-not would or must or any other command like word. She sighed as all her pent up aggression evaporated.

The crystal necklace was long enough to hide in her shirt, and she tucked it underneath her top layer with gentle hands.

"Yeah we'll talk about it." She pushed past her nerves and smiled lopsidely at him. "After we kick Azula's butt."

He returned the smile with one of his own, and Katara figured everything was back to normal. Later after everyone finished eating and disbursed, she pulled out the crystal and watched it slowly start to glow in the darkness. With the green tint of the crystal surrounding her room, she conceded that things were probably better than normal.

Tag: @zutaraweek

~~ Aye DONEEE

[djangounchaine]

New life chapter 1. Unexpected guest

My first ever crossover story I did having Crona stuck in the world of Steven Universe also just a disclaimer I have crona as a male cause I'm not good using them/they and I have a little bias thinking that crona is a guy cause of the anime and so of the translations in the manga

Beach city at the temple

Steven is sitting on his bed with his best friend Connie who is wearing her casual dress watching the latest episode of Crying Breakfast Friends oh her laptop.

"Can't believe the finally release a new episode," Steven says with glee while Connie on the other hand is confuse over the sight of seeing varies breakfast characters crying. She turns to steven

"Uhm steven?" connie asks "what's so good about this show?" she asks after seeing the first minute of the main characters crying

"Well you see you have to watch it from the beginning to understand it and - huh look at this", Steven says as he gets a notification of someone wanting to video chat. The caller ID user is PERIDOT5XG. "Oh it's Peridot," he says as he accepts the video chat and a small screen appears.

"STEVEN!" Peridot screams in front of the screen. Steven and Connie eyes are widen open as they wonder what is going on.

"Peridot what's-" Steven says but Peridot cuts him off

"SOMETHING IS IN THE BARN", Peridot screams as she moves away from the screen to show the inside of the barn. It shows Lapis looking around trying to find something. All of a sudden there is a shuffling noise Lapis looks to her left and turns behind to Peridot

"Peridot it's over here." Lapis says and points

"GRRAAAWWA that's were it is. Ta ga I'll show that thing you don't come and invade our home!" Peridot grumbles as she moves the screen to show a figure moving fast and out one of the windows. "Graaw oh no its not getting away", Peridot leaves the computer down and she runs outside. "LAPIS HELP ME CATCH IT," Peridot screams

"Peridot it left we don't have to chase it!" Lapis yells back as she goes after Peridot. Steven and Connie eyes are wide as they couldn't tell what was going on but regardless they had to do something. Connie closes her laptop and the two run to the warp pad

"Wait where's the rest of the crystal gems?" Connie asks

"They went on a mission somewhere", Steven responds, "Lets hope it's nothing serious", he hopes as Steven activates the wrap pad. A few seconds later they arrive near the barn. The two run towards the barn and call out for either Lapis or Peridot

"LAPIS." Steven yells

"PERIDOT," Connie yells but there was no response. They yell again

"LAPIS," Steven yells

"PERIDOT," Connie yells. This time they got a response

"Aaaaggggghhhhh"

Connie and Steven look to where the direction of the scream

"Wait who's that screaming?" Steven asks himself as that scream was something he never heard.

"Aaaaaaagggghhhh" Connie and Steven look to see Peridot attacking someone. Steven and Connie ran towards them and they got a better look on whats happening, They see Peridot wrap around a pink hair boy wearing a black rob. The boy is frantically trying to remove Peridot by waving their arm where she was and tries to push her off with his free hand . Connie and Steven look at the scene with confusion, then Lapis shows up and goes up to the two.

"Sorry I lost her when she was chasing the human," Lapis explains

"aaaaggggghhhhhh GET HER OFF. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH THIS," the pink hair boy scream

"oh boy let's go get Peridot," Steven says and the three grab Peridot but as they try to pull her, she tightens her grip on the kid's arm. The pink hair boy lifted his free hand and lifts it to the air

"RAGNAROK SWORD MODE," he yells. Steven, Connie, Lapis, and Peridot stop and look up to the boy's hand in the air to see nothing. Said boy also looks ups to see nothing in his hand. "Ragnarok?" he says weakly. He looks back at everyone else and now looks more terrify. Peridot now realizing that the boy is probably harmless, she begins to loosen her grip on the boy's arm. Steven, Connie, and Lapis immediately grab her and pull her towards them. The boy just stood where he was and was still looking at his hand in the air. "Ragnarok?" he says weakly but it's almost sounds like a whisper. The boy then sits on the ground and hugs his legs. "Th-th-this bad I d-d-don't know how to deal with his," he stutters completely ignoring everyone else. Steven looks at everyone else and shrug his shoulders and walks closer to the boy

"uhm hey are you okay?" Steven asks

"I-i-i d-d-d-on't know to deal with this. I'm useless." the boy whippers to himself ignoring Steven

"Um hey are you okay?" Steven asks again. The boy again ignores Steven and continues to whipper to himself. Connie walks closer the boy herself and kneels down to his level and place her right hand on the boy's shoulder. The boy now finally turns his attention to Steven and Connie, he is still terrified and Connie

"Hello" Connie greets, "My name is Connie," she says with a smile on her face.

"I'm Steven," Steven happily greets. Steven extends his right arm for a hand shake. The boy looks at Steven's hand and stares at it. He then looks away. Steven is a bit confuse so he was about to ask the boy before he spoke

"C-c-c-Crona," he stutters

"Your name is crona?" Connie asks because the stuttering made it hard for her to understand what he said. Crona looks at Connie again.

"Yes, my name is Crona," he replies without stuttering this time. Crona takes one good look for the first time at the two and then looks over to Lapis and Peridot, he stares at them for a while causing another awkward silence

"um who are t-they," he says nervously as he points to them

"Oh" Steven runs towards Lapis and Peridot, "this is Lapis," he says as his arms point towards her and then points to Peridot. "And this is Peridot", he finish.

"W-Why are they weird l-looking?" he asks

"Well you see there Gems," Steven says and Crona just stares at them and tilt his head. "Its a bit complicated," Steven responds nervously while scratch the back of his head.

"Okay I guess t-that makes sense," Crona mummers to himself.

"So Crona I was wondering. Who's Ragnarok?" Connie asks him. Crona looks at Connie with a sad look before responding

"H-h-he's my weapon p-p-partner," he stutters

"Weapon partner?" Connie says

"H-h-he comes out of my back," Crona says. Connie arches an eyebrow finding a bit odd on what crona just said but she returns back to her happy face.

"Okay can you tell us how or why you were in the barn?" she asks him politely

"um i um don't know I-i-i want to know," Crona stutters nervously

"Wait you don't know how?" Connie asks and Crona shook his head 'no'. Connie then looks back at Steven, Peridot, and Lapis.

"Hey Peridot, Lapis what exactly happened?" Steven asks

"well me and Lapis were watching the first episode of Camp Pinning Hearts," she says and then looks at Crona, "Then all of sudden a bright light appears and then HE appears," she says with a dark tone and points at Crona. Crona reacts by shaking nervously.

"So did he attack you guys?" Connie asks. Peridot was about to respond before Lapis cut her off

"No, no he didn't," Lapis states. Steven and Connie were now confuse at what Lapis said and Steven looks at Crona

"So what did you do?" Steven asks Crona

"w-w-well I was afraid and run around the barn trying to get out," Crona responds weakly. Steven facial expression went blank and turns to Lapis and she nodded her head 'yes'.

"ok so that clears up everything," he says to himself and looks at Crona, "hey crona can you tell us where your from?" he asks him. Crona looks at Steven and scratches his head

"well I know where I-i live," Crona says weakly

"That's great," Steven says with joy

"but I don't know where to go," Crona says

"Oh ok then we can help you," Steven says with a smile

"R-Really?" Crona stutters

"Yeah we can help you," Steven says while extending his right arm in front of Crona. Crona looks at Steven hand and wonders why was he putting near his face. After waiting for a few seconds, Steven realize that Crona wasn't going to shake his hand and move his arm away from him

"So I guess you don't do handshakes?" Steven asks but Crona remain silent. "Ok then, Connie lets take him back to the temple and see if the Gems are back," he says

"yeah hopefully so we can get him home," Connie says. Steven looks to Lapis and Peridot

"Bye Peridot, Bye Lapis," Steven says as he waves his hand

"See ya steven," Lapis says

"See you two latter," Peridot says and the two start to walk back to the barn.

"ok Crona just follow us well take you to back home", Connie says

"o-o-okay," Crona stutters and gets up and follows Connie and Steven. They walk to the warp pad and Connie and Steven got on the pad. Crona didn't step on the warp pad and just stares at it

"Its okay just stay in the middle," Steven says as he moves a bit so that the middle of the warp pad has more space for Crona. Crona still stares at the warp pad but he gulps and finally steps in the middle of the warp pad. "Alright lets go," Steven says with a smile and he activates the warp pad. The pad lights up and Crona starts to freak out

"WAIT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO-" Crona screams but the warp pad activates and teleport the three away

[threenorth]

TW: just avoid it.

Please just do one of the those flick scrolls.

"the darkside"

I remember being 4 they selected for greatness i remember putting shaving cream on mirrors and all the figure eights and swivel boards.

I remember all these tests they wanted answers for and i didn't understand what they we're asking me.

I remember the smell of the white bleached white lab coats.

I remember told me i was different i remember they said life's going to be hard whatever that was supposed to mean I'm not even able to understand what your saying.

There was some underlying issues but they couldn't fully determine all of them but that was the start of my mental/medical journey.

I knew something wasnt right but I wasn't sure what because i only could feel like i was lip reading them, i later found i had an audio sensory issue.

It started so early i wish i had time to prepare to meet them unfortunately life didn't want me to have that and i was about to loose myself.

I was just a a mear boy just only 2 feet tall hadn't fully understood understood my feelings and I was I was criticised and ridiculed I was bullied my life was made a living hell, couldn't run as fast like the other kids so they broke my legs i couldn't write my b's and d's so they broke my arms i couldn't think clearly and understand what was being said from the teacher when i herd everything in the room from every whisper to the toilet being flushed with my head reminded of the time it was in the bowl so they broke my mind they laughed and kicked me to the ground, they punched my face they pulled my pants down they robbed me of my childhood.

I started unknowninly self harm putting the pencil into my arm as i tried to do the test of multiplication as it it an easy task for some bit for me i couldn't think with all the pain of unable to do this thing called school.

I'm greatful that some days i had bucky, he tied my shoe laces when i couldn't he would slow down and run slow with me and we would play play games, i found my escape from my reailty it was in places that weren't of this earth it was a folklore of wizards and knights and demons and dragon's and the occasionals it was 2003.

One day in school i had to fight for my life i had enough, enough was enough they pushed me so i pushed back i was in detention having to explain i didn't start this and i wanted it to stop and all they told me is violence isn't the answer yet that's all that i received for 6 years of my life was the cruelilty of strangers who I'd never be able to see again it was only 2005 and i started listening to green day and my parents separated and i had a trial for my adhd, they gave me Ritalin i got psychosis i was pulled off the trial but that's when my nightmares of my dreams became my reailty i saw them but refused to admit they are of this world i started lying it was my only way to survive i couldn't tell people the truth they wouldn't believe me if i told them.

One day i got a cane I could walk then they kicked it over and they beat the living shit out of me with hateful words and left me for dead i tried to stand but the damage was done, i stopped eating my lunches ultimately giving them to the freind i had who had less then me and i started cutting my wrists actively i was only 12 listening to my chemical romance and panic at the disco and fall out boy it was 2007. The black parade sent me a phantom, i listened to him i followed his voice, I started actively listening to my voice of reason but it was voice of treason and motive wasn't seen the only voice telling me how to cope with all the problems unfortunately he wasn't the right voice but i herd him before telling me how to survive school and that's all i knew how to survive and school.

I met bucky again, it had only been two years but ultimately i wasn't there unable to operate fully my life again made a living hell, i found my escape in the books at the library looking for answers on the computer looking online for anything to ease the suffering one day i thought computers are repairable by humans so what do humans do to repair humans i found psychology and i diagnosed myself reading the DSM it was 2010.

By now I'm lying and waiting to get home to play my video games of lies as it's all I've known and try to my best in school and maybe be something lying one day ill be like Richard Branson he's dyslexic he got something from this life so i can too... It was 2011

When i was 16 i tried to kill myself but i couldn't bring myself to it i tried, i tried another three times in that year but god forbid anyone would even notice me everyone hated me anyway i wouldn't be missed I'd just be another tragic story untold.

the time we met I had been walking again and i tried fight and suppress my emotions to protect people and some habits ultimately hadn't ever stopped. This time they broke my ribs too and I couldn't breathe and my only air was from the darkness that once consumed me he gave me my legs and i carried on breathing hoping one day it would stop... Some days it stopped other days i was fighting for my survival, and bucky said "no he's not worth it" i replied "if i don't now,I'll never get another chance" and violence isn't the answer,I'm glad now i never did but for years i wish i had.

I decided after many years of thinking about it i left school and went to try get into computers and some how got my qualification but never made it into the feild, i started working at a bar.

I also picked up tumblr it was a nice way to have my own slice of internet but Boose seemed to taste good on the nights when it was hard to find peace when you finish at 5am.

I some how found a girl, she wasn't like the other girls i knew she liked my chemical romance and seemed to be a gem in the rough we talked a little then more and more while His voice telling me to come home Reborn his prince. Rebirthed a lie. Destroyed by it. Every night i worked i got a free drink a nice thank you but ultimately destroying my life but i stopped self harm she asked me to so i did but she had a way to break through my walls and show me the life i never had only with bucky at my side who we hadn't seen each other in awhile because of work and life journeys.

One day in 2014 i was given the opportunity to go to America again and we will vist my brother i also soon remembered that this girl lived there and thought it might of been fun maybe to just wave from the car we had three beautiful good and bad days, but she was there through them. One day we watched a movie and the flashing lights and screams dragged me back to death bed i saw her dying and she was the only thing i cared about and i had bloody hands it was me who killed her i was a monster but her voice calmed me down and tried to remind me that everything is going to be okay, we watched a movie where a boy leaves the girl and she was happy, i knew then to make this girl happy i would have to leave her but i didn't want to i just had to it was the only way she would smile because i wouldn't be the one that kills her by my arms and i wasn't self harming but i was in pain of loosing my favourite person in the world except bucky.

And i said yep, this is it. You have to now or it will happen the way you saw in the cinema Walls up and not look back, she went to Michigan and i went to the darkside the phantom he was the only person who had taken me and helped me and fed me lies of everything you ever said.

I tried keeping tabs on her blog because i could see she was alive and then one day it just stopped and i thought the darkness had gotten her she had stopped breathing it crushed me and i blamed myself for not seeing the signs earlier enough ultimately it turned out she was with a new boy god she looked happy so i tried messaging her, i was told that i should leave so i left because that's what she asked of me it was all i could do it was 2015 So if she wanted me gone i will be gone because she asked me. I finally becoming what i thought i wanted to be surrounded by my darkness i lied to survive to my ultimate demise and getting answers while looking to the future in all the wrong places i believed my disillusions they consumed me they taught me everything they knew and had to try to figure out how to try get back to her however i could so i decided why waste time when i can get a degree of something that let's me do something while i think about everything finally at peace so i went to university and there was some beautiful days but almost everyday i wondered how the girl was doing with out me by her side and she knows that i promised her I'd never leave her but if wanted me in her life she would of messaged and i had to live with some promises you can break but ultimately I'm glad i never self harmed because she had asked me to. In 2016 i was offered another trip to see family in Florida and i was glad she was happy and because i had a few months before college i thought id work the mountains that's where her face was, but i blamed myself for not being her reason to be happy but i could try once more unfortunately again told to leave i guess that was the sign i should leave forever and make peace of what was.

I graduated university and was looking for jobs in San Francisco like i thought id end up being a technology guy hoping maybe one day she would remember everything i said it was 2018 and i was about to be diagnosed with autism, this crushed my world because now i have to tick yes to a disability and no one likes disabled people it's like an unwritten law i spent a whole year trying to get a job and got no where almost had a job that would of been nice and could of led me to where i expected she would of been in the forrest writing novels.

In 2020 i had to work shitty jobs again and pray this wouldn't be my life forever knowing I'm Richard Branson. One day i got a call that a company wanted to offer me a job but k had to survive one more year until 2021, Karen covid, retial, depression triggers.

I survived and packed up my life and moved cities one day i thought holy fuck.

I got the degree, i got job i just didn't get the girl.

By now it wouldn't surpise me if she was married.

And she wasn't i followed her instagram and decided now it's time i seek.

I saw her and herd her voice and finally understood all the things I didn't before.

I went to the gym, i got a trainer I got need shoes with my new orphodeics i got glasses to see i got a beard, i was getting my life that i wish i had.

Ultimately i made her a letter and now the dark times are lingering I've had 3 panic attacks and 5 axinety episodes, and a fuck ton of executive dysfunction I'm fighting because she asked me.

I'm screaming but keep going i can do this.

I can do this.

If you read this.

Just a few more months.

Bucky, im with you till the end of the line.

Closing the door on the past.

Hoping that...

[calmingforthemedicalcaregiver]

WELCOME!!

WARNING:  Near the end, talk of depression, implied talk of suicide and hurting yourself. (I never hurt myself, just so you know.)

Hello one and all!

    This is my new blog for caregivers. It’s a little inspired by some website I ran across around 2007, the year after I first started caregiving for my mom. (War flashbacks.) The site had funny jokes and things, intended for something for caregivers to do when they’re relaxing. I thought I’d do a similar idea, and throw in what I’ve learned over 10 years, (16 years this year), of doing this. Everyone needs a break sometimes.

About my experience (long!): My mom had multiple sclerosis for a long time. I remember her symptoms were starting to hit hard when I was in JR. high, but I think she first developed the disease in the late 80s or early 90s. For most of my life, we thought it was what’s called remitting-recurring, but it was primary progressive, which is just what it means. Her health declined over time. She went from walking, to being bedridden in 2006 sometime after a bad fall, with canes, wheelchairs and walkers in between. There was also this whole thing in 2005 when we were taking on a job and the stress may have brought on a flare up for her. We were never really sure. Unfortunately, her neurologist was frighteningly old. To this day I don’t know why she picked him. I will always blame him for misdiagnosing her, and I don’t even remember what the guys name was.

So, longer story, eventually her legs just gave out, but it got worse. She stopped eating and talking. As it turned out, her GP was on maternity leave, and on top of that, it took the better part of six months to even get her admitted into the hospital.  I know, it all sounds scary and it was scary. During those months BEFORE the hospital, I was sinking into depression and so was she. There was a lot of crying involved. (Also an incident where our roof was leaking and we had to stay at a hotel. Fun times (sarcasm.) I have mentally blocked a lot of it out, but that’s what happens with traumatic events. Your brain is so in shock, you’re so in shock, that your brain deletes those files. And that’s okay, for the most part. If you remember the basics of how you started caregiving and what’s going on with your “patient”, you don’t have to give doctors and nurses every single detail.

After she was finally admitted (and frick that whole hospital by the way), it was months she was there. We thought the worst was going to happen. Eventually she was released, and that’s when the denial started. You see, there’s things you don’t think about and no one tells you. When you’re 22, you don’t think about caregiving. And you don’t think about how the months your relative was drugged up on painkillers and how it’ll effect them after months. So, my mom came out of the hospital...how to put this...out of it and not there mentally. Like someone with Alzheimer's I guess. She was talking again, here and there, but everything was off. This lasted for months and we had no clue what to do. Eventually, we got her to her doctor, now back from maternity leave, and I asked about it. Her answer? “The (name of drugs) have been absorbed by the fat in her arms and that’s why she’s acting like this.” What the actual frick? So, more months of being lost and no answer if she was going to be like that forever or what. Cue sometime later and we’re having nurses come in. This nurse suggests putting her on X drug to stabilize her mind or whatever. (I can’t remember exactly what was said, it was so long ago.) I was ecstatic, but I was also in denial. I thought one day she was going to pull out of it and be back to normal mentally. Not sure if I felt the same about her maybe walking again, but it’s a moot point. So, got her on it, and it worked. She was now making more sense, but pretty euphoric all the time. Chatty. And eating again and off the feeding tube. (Yep, that happened.) I forgot to mention that she has dementia, but it’s not “true” dementia. As far as we can tell, the MS and lack of food just ate away at her brain, so brain damage.

So, things progressed and life went on. In situations like this, life does tend to get worse though. My attitude changed a lot. I went from being angry and depressed all the time to being less angry and sad sometimes. (I suspect-surprise-I may have functioning depression.) But my mom is miles from where she was. She doesn’t talk as much to us, but you get a new person in the room and they ask her the right questions, she’s awake and wants to talk. A year ago, she didn’t have ticks, but now she sucks in her lips about every three seconds. (I’ll be honest, it drives me insane.) I know she is bored, but her eyesight isn’t that great (nearsighted), and her hands are failing her to the point where we have to feed her if it’s not a finger food. And, as you may know, it’s hard to keep a bedridden or old person awake for long. If she’s tired, there’s no fighting it. I have tried to provide her with puzzles and things, but it depends on the time of day and how awake she is. I have NO IDEA how to keep her entertained. She used to love reading, but you hand her a magazine and she just stares at the cover. How do you entertain someone who can barely see with weak hands who wants to sleep all day? I’m still figuring that out. (I’ve looked at suggestions online, but haven’t done a lot of them. But, she does like music and listens to the TV more than really watches. That’s another thing, she’s gotten to the point where she repeats random things from shows. I’m not sure why, guess it’s just the degeneration. 

And as for me, I take it one day at a time. We’ve had 100+ nurses over the years, and our latest is a gem. Some nurses were “okay”  to “Please stay forever, here’s a bonus”.  My point with that is, I have so many stories I want to get out, but I’m not sure if that’s slander even if you keep the person anonymous. Back to me, I’m less upset, but I have a lot of resentment. I find it very hard to connect with my mom again. She doesn’t remember me at all, thinking I’m her mom (whut?) or her sister. (I look nothing like her actual sister.) So, the repeating soundtrack in my head is that my mother is gone. It’s heartbreaking, I know. It’s horrible. But horrible things happen. I’m still here. Like most caregivers, in the beginning I had a lot of bad thoughts and they scared me, but I wasn’t in so deep to want to act or hurt myself. Sure, I was miserable, but I had no outlet and many of my friends around my age at the time were, for the most part, not my friends. (Three of them got married in like the first five years I’d started caregiving. Never heard from them after that. That’s another rant I held with me for a long time after.)

I have repeated my mom’s story to various doctors, nurses, and inquiring friends over the years. Now I’m sharing it with the internet. If you’re a caregiver, you’re not alone, even if you feel like it. There’s thousands of us in the US, of various ages, and probably millions more the world over. (It’s popular in Asian countries for the elderly parents to live at home.)  I encourage you to have an outlet. Forums, support groups, chat rooms, it’s all out there. I don’t do forums anymore for the most part, but I enjoy a good twitter rant or just a good cry. And, of course, I believe in prayer and recommend it. 

My mom is 65. She used to be a nurses assistant. She liked British sitcoms, music, movies, loved reading, animals and spending time with my dad and family.

I’m almost 36. I’ve been taking care of her since I was 22. I like anime, drawing, reading, and lots of other stuff.  I’m strong and you are too. Rely on others, take breaks, connect with your charge the best you can and you’ll get through this. 

Avatar is from:  https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/set-card-people-various-occupations-take-photo-id-cartoon-character-isolated-flat-illustration_13330845.htm

[cow3survivor]

Ep. 4: “Trying To Cover Ur Murderous Tracks” - Jones

JENNET 

nash isnt on my tribe but i cant help but feel bad for them :((( the last two days that we were together as old calumma i actually started to connect with them. they will be missed 💔

(a little later)

why am i obsessed with ethan ? *insert meme of that tiktoker just standing there*

(after building a bamboo bed)

super nervous for immunity, if we end up losing i think i might try to push for pennino bc he pissed me off the other night saying he wouldnt be available for the comp and literally SITTING THERE watching us do the comp... i really like sam and ethan (tbh more than i like lindsay and jabari) but thats only bc of how much we communicate with each other idk i do know lindsay wants to push for pennino too bc she was annoyed it too so maybe let her do all the pushing and if it backfires, just push for her to go😳

JESSICA

No song 4 today Last round we voted out Nash. That was not my ideal choice (I wanted Nicole to go) but Pete was paranoid Nicole may have an idol, that Nicole/Mikey/Nash were secretly working together, or just that something might go down. He also trusts Nicole for reasons unknown. I didn't love leaving Mikey in the dark (I think that really only helped Pete, not me) but I was nervous that if I pushed Nicole too hard as the vote, Pete would vote Mikey and then that was really the worst case scenario. If we lose this round, I am voting Nicole no question. She asked me what happened after the vote + if we could talk which I thought was great! I sent her an explanation that basically said I didn't trust Nash because they did not talk to me, I was worried OG Calumma was still a thing, and I didn't trust Nicole because she didn't start talking to me until after we lost + she left me on read a lot. And what does she do right after I sent that? Leave me on read again! I was excited to work with her when we first swapped but I don't see that happening at all now. The nice thing is because Pete lied to her, Mikey and Nicole voted each other, AND Lovelis was already initially down to vote Nicole, I'm hoping if we lose the vote is really easy. I also don't think Nicole has the idol because.... ...I found it! Okay, no I didn't. I did find a ruby though. I think that in each quadrant of the adventure, there is a gem and the four gemstones combined will make an idol. I already have 1, I have a good idea of where it could be in the north, and most importantly I am pretty sure Nicole has no advantages. I think if she had an idol, she might have played it last round, but my guess is that there is only one idol in the game and no one has it yet. However right now I'm not sharing this information with anyone. I hope that if we lose, Pete votes for Mikey out of paranoia (and that Nicole does as well) which means moving forward, Mikey really only has me and that's an alliance I can keep long term. I do also think that we are potentially swapping after this OR we will do a double tribal after this and swap then. I do not want us to lose twice because that's when things get tricky but if we do, I think I will be set up well enough that no one is coming for me.

PETE 

so my og Brookesia alliance of jessica and lovelis (plus me) they want to vote out Nicole but i reeeeaaally don’t wanna do that. Nicole and I had this talk of moving on from our past so if I just vote her out first chance I get that’d just be a huge dick move. They for some reason believe Mikey which I honestly don’t, I think he may be a little weasel. Nash doesn’t talk to me at all, so i’m hoping maybe I can shift the vote onto Nash by scaring them with the thought of Nicole having and idol

(after dropping his rice into the sand)

AAAAAAAAHHHHHH IDIDIT I DID IT IDIDIT literally i have THE biggest fucking knot in my stomach i was SO fUcking NERVOUS this is so fuckignw crazy i cant skdjdbxsjkdb i’ve NEVER been in control of a vote before like everything i told someone to do they did like i’m not gonna get all like egotistical and all that but like sjkdsxkdbsjjdjxjdkdb ive never been in this position before it’s wild i’m usually like the mikey. like i’m just there, hoping people include me but kinda just scraping by until they decide it’s my turn to leave and NOW!!!! I JUST BLINDSIDED SOMEBODYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

JENNET

trying really hard to do this comp and my arthritis is making my hands spasm :(( powering thru and hopefully we dont go to tribal. if we do im afraid that im going to be voted out :((

JABARI

So i scored for the tribe which is great but then we tie and there is tower of hanoi. Lets just say ill never play that game again but I swear im not giving up no sir....they said they wouldnt boot me because of it but ima make sure of it.

JENNET 

in love with ethan hes the best person in the world

(after staring at Ethan)

really sucks going to tribal council and i know i let my team down so now im trying to find a way- SOME WAY to remind them that old calumma wanted to go after pennino next and to hopefully keep ethan out of the fire. sam approached me about an alliance with him and ethan and tbf idc what anybody calls me or what they think but im honestly closer to the too of them than to anybody on the tribe- closer to ethan than i was to jake even😳

LINDSAY

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12YzvXBooOu3lndrE99YopPOcO4VEAYYB/view?usp=drivesdk lmk if this works also fun fact i just tried to open the camera on the computer im borrowing and the computer bluescreened lol i hate it here

SAM

https://youtu.be/M4E00bmBj0A

PETE

The way this game is going Id say that I’m probably closest with Jessica just because we’ve been talking since the start, she’s really nice & enthusiastic, and we’ve agreed so far on the things that need to happen so we share a lot of information with each other. Lovelis is a little bit of a wild card because he never really talks that much so I’m going to try to bond with him more so that he doesn’t feel like just another number.

LOVELIS

Who knew we’d pull out a win with flash games! Maybe we need to stop shitting on then and start praying for more of them to pop up here LMAO. So glad I can just have this day to speak to people a bit more and just relax a little - I feel like me Jess and Pete are in a comfortable position within this tribe so I’m praying for no more funny business with another premerge swap but I’m tryna stay on my toes!

ETHAN

Ok so tribal time: I am in a minority position right now and it is looking sketchy. I feel like I am going because of how Jabari and Jennet have not talked to me at all today and instead have ghosted me. I have something, but not sure if I want to play it. Do I trust people, or do I just full send and blow it up? Time shall tell

JESSICA 

Yay we won immunity! I love getting my Dolphin Olympics redemption arc, it's been 6 years in the making.

PENNINO

Now, it's 4 hours before the first tribal as Furcifer, and I think that us from OG Calumma will go and do a Pagong to Ethan and Sam. Since Ethan was a beast in  the comps, and we want to keep tribal lines, that puts Sam up for the chopping block. As for Nash leaving, no surprise. Honestly, I feel pretty safe and now i'm just waiting for another swap.

MADISON

I don't know how I've survived four rounds but here we are. I think I've legit gotten the lowest score in the past 2 challenges but everyone else is a beast so I get to stay safe for another round. The downside to being safe so long is that there isn't really a lot of gameplay happening over on Planet Brookesia and some of us might be a little bit too comfy so that when swap time comes or we lose the next challenge, it'll be scramble city to figure something out.

JAKE

https://youtu.be/Hz-Ix0ZeQ7E y'all when I tell you i'm manic just thinking about crazy fringe theories related to this game lmaoooooo

JONES

ok bet lets get strategic:tm: i feel like a lot of my confessionals are rlly like ,, , , ,me just talking ab "wow i rlly like this person, not this person so and so and whatnot" and i haven't rlly gotten to bare bones like ,, what i'm thinking ab game wise ? for starters - i think i'm in a rlly good spot surprisingly? LIKE don't get me wrong its fking dangerous being in a 4-2 but i think i'm set up super super well? i'm officially working with all of Daisy, Sammy, Shane, and Jake, and am in an alliance w everyone of those people besides Sammy. but sammy has vouched saying that he does want to work w me and has my back and i don't have like,, any reason to doubt that rn ? unfortunately the only way to rlly like ,, ,, have everyone prove their trust to me is by going to tribal aldksfjasdlfj but i dont rlly see a reason for them to like ,, , lie to me ? esp when we haven't gone to tribal? i don't see the point in marinating someone this isn't among us and ur trying to cover ur murderous tracks,,, but ya ? i'm in a good spot. i think based on my alliances and allies and whatnot, and i've stated this already so this isn't rlly a surprise, but madison would probs be the target if we'd have to go to tribal. and Jake has stated to me too that he hasn't rlly talked to madison that much either so it doesn't seem like an uncommon thought process. after the challenge tiebreaker yesterday , the newly formed ALLEANCHE! kind of came together as the 4 most active people on the tribe so it SEEMS like it would be madison AND sammy getting targetted and , ,, , sammy going for me isn't rlly cash money bc if sammy DOES have my back then that's me losing one of MY allies,, but i don't think we're going to enough tribals before another swap for that to actually be a thing ? so hopefully if we do go to tribal it'd be madison and not sammy, but i think i, if not i then maybe jake LOL, can make a good case for madison to go over sammy. speaking of jake i have a rlly bad gut feeling that i'm gonna have to think ab cutting him soon - or at least before merge. i've kinda been letting him take the reigns since preswap to make him kind of look like a leader ish ? so i'm rlly hoping that like ,, , hypothetically speaking. lets say i'm AGAIN put on another tribe w jake (bc lbr we're swapping again),, and lets say hypothetically they wanna split up the supposed "duo" of myself and jake,,, whos the smarter person to take out - the leader whos kinda been calling the shots and making the alliances since round 1, or the person whos proven themself to be reliable and to keep their team safe and be able to go to bat for their team ? idk IDK that's just me but i definitely think like ,, in terms of a building threat level i think jake is definitely the easier target asldkfjasd which is UNFORTUNATE like i LOVE JAKE but i feel like if it comes to me and jake and jake is putting me in DANGER then , ,, well,, :( i gotta do what i gotta DO i'm pawned as old reliable for a reason :katenails: but ya uhm,,, shane/daisy/jake/i were talking on call after the tiebreaker ab what could happen and we all basically agreed theres no way in hell that there ISN'T another swap on the horizon or at least like,, a twist or something. u can't just swap at 18 on a 20 person cast and just expect us to sit like lil ducks on sunday brunch, if anything we're probs gonna swap at like ,, , , , 15? OR hosts are cracked and swap us NEXT ROUND bc they're sadistic. but ya there's def another swap it rlly just depends on when and whos there to experience it - i.e whether or not i'm gonna have security from my allies or not ya feel? i feel. also there's definitely probs like ,, , ,a double tribal. or smth. or like, smth crazy and dumb and stupid that i don't have the brain capacity to rlly comprehend. but ya hope i win this was a good strategy talk #fruciferandcallumathrowchallenge

NICOLE

Hello!!! Nash went home and I'm sad so I am PROTESTING confessionals! You won't know anything that is happening with me! Nothing! (Just kidding nothing happened this round, everyone ignored me and then we won immunity so they had no need to)

SHANE

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TxoVh69i2GPA-agNAfyW0G-Bu07weXyZ?usp=sharing

SAMMY

so I had to write a paper and I'm rushing to get this in...blinks...whats new anyways I have been so off in like the idol hunting and I have felt so detached from this game since I have only been to tribal once? but I think the people in danger would be like Madison or Jake? they have both been brought up to me by daisy...and in all seriousness I would be fine with that? I honestly really am only prioritizing Jones and Daisy in this tribe. I feel fine with my position in this game and I even got a point from the flash games. Luckily Daisy won for us in the tiebreaker and we were able to barely escape tribal. I really do hope I can continue to avoid tribal so that I can get as far into this to make it to the more individual stage of this game.

DAISY

https://youtu.be/3kCYnxDIdQY

TRIBAL COUNCIL

[kevinames]

To me, the backdrop or background of a photograph is its foundation. The backdrop sets the stage, the tone and reveals or hides things that might add or detract from the subject respectively. The go-to backdrop is seamless paper in its myriad of colors. Many companies sell custom painted backdrops on canvas or muslin for the “old master” look. Still, others, use big printers to make backgrounds. Backdrops can be made in Photoshop. Then the subject can be inserted in front of it. Rather than shooting backgrounds yourself, there is a vast library you can access from within Photoshop itself–Adobe Stock.

Adobe Stock in Photoshop

Go to the Libraries panel in Photoshop. If it’s not showing you can reveal it from Photoshop’s Window menu.

One of the choices in the Library drop-down is Adobe Stock. After the Adobe Stock Library shows, you’ll find a search field. Enter a keyword or two to see some selections.

I’ve made a custom workspace in Photoshop just for Adobe Stock. I pulled the Libraries tab out of its group and then made it as big as Photoshop’s document area. This size on a 27″ monitor is almost the first page of a search on a browser using stock.adobe.com. At the bottom of the panel is a link to “see more results on the web”. Click it to open into Adobe Stock with the same keywords already set in the default browser. I saved the workspace by choosing Window > New Workspace…

After looking at the offerings in the Adobe Stock panel, I went to their website for more choices. I have a library for Adobe Stock previews and purchases. If I’m not sure which image I want to use for a composition, I’ll download the preview and work on it. When I like the result, I license (a clever way of saying “pay for”) the photo and the watermarked version is replaced with the licensed photo. Easy! Pick several photos then download their previews. They appear in the Downloads Library. I prefer to drag them to on I made named Adobe Stock Previews. Here’s my process…

Which comes first? The subject or the background?

Best case, the background photo is chosen first. Then the subject is lit to match it. While ideal, this rarely happens. Usually, a new background is chosen to replace an existing one. Pay attention to the shadow direction when choosing a backdrop photo to be the foundation of any composition. In this case, the subject is a photo of a model dressed in red is jumping in the air. It’s time to replace the white background with something a little bit, well, more.

Considerations when selecting backdrop photos

The first part starts with thinking visually not literally. Some questions to think about:

What will ground my composition?

Will abstract work?

What about realistic?

What changes will make the background more appropriate for the composition?

Will the colors in the backdrop work as they are?

If not, which colors would be better?

Make some choices

With the photograph of Amy on the screen in Photoshop, I entered “wall painting” in the search field. I avoided the obvious term “backdrop.” I was thinking about where I might find a location in real life. That informed my search terms. Did I see a lot of possibilities that just would not work? You bet I did. And I found some gems. Here are a some of the choices I found. Tip: Download the “preview” version to see if it works with the composition. At this point, ignore the colors of the background photos. They can be changed afterward. If a stock background checks all the requirements even if its color is not ideal, keep it in the running.

Room with brick wall

Sunlit room with red wall

Painterly backdrop

Realistic or representational backgrounds

Two of the previews from Adobe Stock are realistic–a brick wall with a wooden floor and a room lit by a window that has a red wall and white floor. The other one is representative of a painted canvas backdrop. I did quick composites to see which one would work for my concept. Let’s look at all three.

White brick wall with wooden floor

This image is from a lower camera angle. The small amount of floor in relationship to the wall is the indicator. I placed Amy in the room. The image just doesn’t look right. What’s wrong here?

The problem is there are two different perspectives. The first one is the background. The second perspective is of Amy. The camera that created the wall and floor combination is lower than the one that made the photo of Amy. The net effect is that she appears to be positioned almost completely back against the brick wall.

Sunlit room

This is a beautifully simple interior. The sun is streaming in, casting a shadow of the window frame on the red wall behind Amy. This one works a lot better because the perspectives match. Amy now appears to be closer to the camera and a good distance away from the red wall.

There is something wrong with this picture too. Do you see it? Yup. You got it in one. The light on Amy is on the opposite side from the sunlight entering the room. A quick trip into Photoshop and Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal fixes the lighting issue. I chose to flip the room. This works well as long as there is not type that will get reversed in the image. The copy seen in this version is from an Adobe Stock preview image that will be replaced with the non-watermarked version later. Another option is to flip Amy’s photo. This is fine if the side the window is on matters.

Painterly backdrop

The third background is a portrait-oriented choice. It’s a wall with a grungy, distressed look in blue. The original is a horizontal (landscape) format. For this version of my portrait of Amy, put it in a vertical (portrait) orientation using Photoshop’s Edit > Image Rotation > Clockwise. Then I added the photo of Amy. I positioned her in front of the brightest part of the center of the background to give the hint of backlight that is part of the original photograph. When using this abstract type of background the direction of light on it is usually not an issue.

Creative and aesthetic decisions

I like both the red room and painterly backdrop versions. I believe there are still a few ideas to add to finish each one.

Painterly background

Here, my thinking is all about the color of the background. I’m not certain that the blue tone serves Amy as well as something a lot warmer and perhaps, with more contrast. Maybe a greenish version. What about cyan? It’s the complementary color for red. I wasn’t sure so I made all of them.

[envira-gallery id=”85251″]

I’ll have to live with the warm and cyan backgrounds before I decide which one really makes me happy. I’ll print each one, hang them up and look at them for a week or so, then choose.

Realistic background

I noodled around with this one quite a bit to get to the version I used in this post’s opening photo. While the red wall in the room definitely works, I believe the contrasting cyan wall makes Amy jump both literally and figuratively in the photo.

Adobe Stock is an idea goldmine

I’m finding that the more time I spend browsing through the pages of Adobe Stock, more and more ideas come to mind. These ideas are not only about finding photos that will complement my work, the ideas for making new photographs are coming to me in abundance. I’m busy. You are busy. We are creatives, you and me. We must invest the time in activities that expand our creative base. Where better to wander than a place where thousands of our creative fellows are contributing millions of visual, still and video, ideas?

Photographs of Amy Patterson are ©2018 Kevin Ames. All other photos are from Adobe Stock.

          Creating custom backdrops for your photos using stock images To me, the backdrop or background of a photograph is its foundation. The backdrop sets the stage, the tone and reveals or hides things that might add or detract from the subject respectively.