#Obviously he couldn't have anticipated the summoning was real

[that-ineffable-devil]

I really appreciate that, in Charles' wrap-up of "the pennies dropped" he specifically uses the word "murdered" in reference to Niko. Because she was murdered. She didn't sponteously die. She wasn't killed by accident. She was murdered. It was intentional. Esther threw that bolt with the intention to kill whoever it hit. It doesn't matter that it was meant for Crystal.

Words are powerful. Words have meaning.

And of course he would use the right word. After all, both he and Edwin were murdered. Maybe the boys who murdered them didn't have that exact intention, but their intentions were no less lethal and no less malicious.

[rivertheshimmerscale]

Continuing from a different post, but I decided not to reblog because this would be one long-ass reblog, plus it kinda goes off topic as well.

I also don't know how to use the "read more" so... Well, fuck. Sorry.

@localblueslinky

Apparently by "a little," my subconscious meant to dump all of my OC's designs, evolution and backstory at your feet. I'll try to summarize lmao.

I had gotten this idea at the beginning of 2019. Maybe a month after CYM was released. I really wanted a SU OC and my favorite color was blue at the time, so, naturally, I ended up researching a ton of blue gemstones and minerals. The very first name I contemplated was Blue Spinel, which I thought sounded kinda dorky written down and I preferred Kyanite. But the name grew on me and I couldn't decide on Kyanite or Blue Spinel.

Here's a referenced version of Kyanite's very first concept:

I briefly had an idea where she was bubbled on Earth and still got hit with the Corrupting Light, but it only half affected her because of the bubble. This was because I wanted to make her design really feral and monstrous because frankly, I love those designs. Then I decided not to because that idea had too many inconsistencies for her backstory.

Instead I settled to changing her name to Cat's Eye Kyanite, - after discovering that was a thing - using this as an excuse to give her some catlike features. Cats are cool.

Kyanite gets fangs and claws.

I know she looks a little like Lapis, and this is probably because I have some annoying drawing habits. I can only draw Peridot, Spinel and Lapis, so I tend to lapse into these habits when I try to draw anyone else.

Kyanite/Blue Spinel's main power was:

Dissolving her form into a beam of striated light, which resembles actual raw kyanite. It's kinda ironic because the beam is just a simplified, liquid version of her physical form. Raw, primitive light. She can only move in a straight line while using this attack, as light only moves forward.

This reflects off of Steven's shield and bubble. He unintentionally curb stomped her attack the first time they met; she simply ricocheted off his shield and went flying in the opposite direction.

After lately discovering Sonic, this ability has been removed since the coincidence was a little too much for me lmao.

She was a very insecure, melodramatic Gem prone to anxiety, though very protective of those she cared about. She would leap in front of a poofing blow without a second thought, and could be a little scrappy at times.

Kyanites can detect a falsity from miles away, so never lie to her. She will know.

Her full gem name was Cat's Eye Kyanite Facet-8 Cut 3YK. Quite a mouthful, huh?

Her original backstory is kinda janked, so after this I'll share her scrapped one that's still kinda in progress.

Basically, she was made alongside a team of cabochon Kyanites, but was a defective deep-cut. Her Gem was faceted instead of smooth, she was shorter than she should've been, and instead of being calm and balanced like all other Kyanites, she was nervous and impulsive. Despite being off-color, her defects had benefits. She was a brighter color and slightly stronger than her fellow Kyanites, so her superior ended up keeping her anyways. Though a lot of abuse was still directed at her from said superior and teammates. She also had limb enhancers.

At some point, the Kyanites' manager got sent to earth to help with the colony's construction. While the Corrupting Light was being initiated, 3YK ended up being left behind and bubbled in the Facet 5 Cluster lab. In this version of the AU, the Crystal Gems found her bubble after destroying all of the force fusion shards. They took it back to the temple and Steven convinced them to pop it in case it was an innocent Gem. After all, if it was just another corruption or Homeworld Gem, they could catch it again and no harm done... Right?

I ended up just kinda putting this OC down for a while and never came back to it, but after the movie came out, things got interesting. I never would've anticipated an actual canon Spinel, and, to my mild surprise, my own OC had some obvious similarities besides part of the same name. Some of which include a widow's peak or whatever it's called, similar stature, short hair/fur and then longer tufts, similar coloring system, personality, and some more subtle things.

But I liked both of these characters so much that I just have 2 sub-characters; Blue Spinel and Cat's Eye Kyanite. They each have their own individual AUs, I guess, as well.

Ok, for Blue Spinel now!

I have a headcanon that there are other Spinels on Homeworld, but they're not necessarily the same as the Spinel everyone knows and loves.

As you might know, spinel in real life is rather rare and as such not many people know about it. One could say it's underrated. Gem hierarchy on Homeworld seems to be primarily based on Gem worth and popularity on earth. For example, Diamonds being the highest rank gem. Diamonds are actually one of the most common gemstones on earth; and they're very well known by the community.

Ask someone what the most important gemstone is (not in the context of Steven Universe) and they'll probably answer "diamond" without skipping a beat. So by this logic, Spinels on Homeworld could be kinda rare, and not of a particularly high rank but still important nonetheless. Like Pearls, they could be considered the expensive pets or toys of the upper classes.

Take Pink Spinel. She was made for Pink Diamond, especially customized to look and behave like her. She was made to entertain and be Pink's best friend.

In the movie, Pearl sings:

"This will be fun

Aren't you the lucky one?

Her cut is perfect and she's pink, as well

She'll bring you endless entertainment

Your new best friend, Spinel!"

Steven is lucky to have a Spinel? Are they rare? Perhaps only for the highest of the elites, and most likely much more important than Pearls.

Pink Spinel is, in a way, the ultimate or Diamond quality Spinel. Like Jasper is the Ultimate Quartz.

She's the same color as Pink Diamond/Steven, but, how would Pearl know that Steven was Pink? He shows no physical traits of her, besides her Gem, which is also covered and not obviously even Pink Diamond. Pearl was also reset and completely disregarded Steven in all scenes, as Greg was her new owner.

Is there something different or special about Pink Spinels that deserved a mention in Pearl's basic description of these Gems?

These are, as it seems, in an order. Lucky to have a Spinel. She's perfect and,

Pink.

She'll entertain you.

It's unlikely that these two are connected, but it could be possible that different color Spinels have different purposes.

Pink gems, as a stereotype, might be more fun-loving and goofy. Take Pink Pearl and Pink Diamond. We haven't met very many Pink Gems, but they all seem to share this trait. This could also be because they were modeled after Pink Diamond, but hear me out anyways. Blue Gems tend to be rather solemn. (Lapis Lazuli, Blue Diamond, Blue Pearl, Sapphire.) Green/yellow/orange/red Gems tend to be more sassy, energetic and/or egotistical. (Peridot, Yellow Pearl, Yellow Diamond, Ruby.)

Why wouldn't there be a trait for pink Gems?

Homeworld could've utilized this to create a naturally happy-go-lucky Spinel whose purpose is to be happy and entertain other Gems.

But are all Spinels entertainers?

Entertainment seems like a foreign concept for Gems, and within the busy hierarchy, who would ever have time for fun?

In real life, spinel is known as the copy gem. It can mimic almost any crystal because it comes in such a wide range of colors and has a hardness of 8 on the MOHs scale.

So I created an adaptive theory.

Real spinels can be used to mimic other gems. Homeworld Spinels are one of the customizable "accessory" Gems, which take an appearance and personality very similar to that of their owner.

If this were the case, they would be like a higher quality Pearl with more diverse skills. Programmed to have a base personality exactly like their owner, and if their owner screws up bad, they could just be replaced by their Spinel if they're essential to the hierarchy.

Spinels can be entertainers, friends, substitutes or replacements.

Possibly, not all Spinels are solely entertainers. There could be others out there either way, and with this they could be much more relevant in the Gem society though still very rare.

Anyways, it's just a theory. I hope that made sense.

I might put that specific theory on a separate post as well since I'm rather fond of it lmao.

And now, for her backstory.

Celestine was an important Gem. Her role was to manage a portion of Blue's court, and give reports on how her Diamond's colonies were progressing. She, along with all the other Celestines recorded everything that happened and acted as messengers for higher elites. She oversaw colonies when Blue was away and aided her Diamond in their managements. She specializes in this position of great responsibility.

Alongside their roles, Celestines in general can quickly freeze liquids and control them in their solid state or at a certain temperature below freezing. Unlike Sapphires, however, they cannot generate ice out of thin air. Celestine has a pair of ice wings she can summon from her Gem. These Gems also have construction jobs on colonies. They typically work alongside Lapis Lazulis, who use their powers to excavate Kindergardens. Celestines either froze or evaporated the excess water for later use once the Kindergarten was completed.

At some point, Celestine made an error in her job managing Earth's resources and was threatened by her manager, an overreacting Aquamarine, to be replaced. She couldn't be rejuvenated or harvested because she needed all of her documents of colonies, so her Aquamarine instead requested Blue that she be given a backup Gem as a warning. This was Blue Spinel. Blue Spinel was programmed to behave like Celestine, and replace her immediately if need be. She was also meant to record and report her behaviors to Aquamarine.

Celestine was both terrified of and hated her new little replacement snitch. Spinel had to follow her everywhere, which sometimes tested Celestine's temper. The feeling was mostly mutual. Spinel had been occasionally hit and threatened by Cryolite/Celestine, and would try not to interact closely with her. Though, Spinel had a rather calm demeanor and never retaliated.

The two Gems got sent back to the Earth Colony alongside a few Lapis Lazulis to build the Beta Kindergarten. When the corrupting light was being initiated, Celestine found an opportunity to ditch Spinel and they both took seperate ships back to Homeworld. But as they were leaving, Celestine shot at Spinel's ship and knocked it offline. She was on the ship while the Gems were corrupted.

And Spinel's been stuck in the ship for a couple thousand years, eventually giving up trying to fix it. It circled in a slow spiral pattern towards the planet before finally being sucked in and crashing.

She met the CGs and now lives in Little Homeworld or something, this most likely took place after the movie. She had nothing against Steven or the CGs aside from the fact that she had to fight in the war a little bit at some point, but it was all fine and dandy. She didn't cause any problems when she ended up on Earth.

I don't actually have a finished design for Celestine, but I expect she'd have snow colored hair in a sort of angel wing shaped bob, feathery looking shoulder pads, sorta pale bluish skin and a blue-gray dress/skirt. Sorta sharp white boots like Holly Blue. Her gem is on her naval like Spinel, and of course she's really tall.