#it worked somewhat. yay =w=b

[autism-corner]

waugh

[theonottsbxtch]

Can we get oscar x teacher smau since school is starting over here in America?

Professor Piastri? | OP81

an: thank you so much for this request! i had so much fun with it. i had to remake this three times because tumblr kept deleting my progress 🫠. good luck with the start of school soon!

fc: pinterest

requests: open

messages between oscar and yn

oscarpiastri

liked by landonorris, logansargeant, mclaren and 983,836 others

only 34 days left 🙃

*tap to load comments*

userone: I WANT MORE B&W PHTOOS 💳💥💳💥

usertwo: what is op81 doing in a library?

landonorris: summer break is in 15 days you muppet

oscarpiastri: i know, i can count

landonorris: right and i’m world champion

userthree: i need more photographer oscar content

logansargeant: i swear it was 28 days the other day?

oscarpiastri: no ☹️

userfour: what does logan know🤨

userfive: me 🤝 oscar, both having important things in 34 days

usersix: ooh what’s yours!!

userfive: school break!

twitter

imessage between oscar and yn

ynprivate

liked by yourbestfriend, oscarpiastri, logansargeant and 19 others

getting to see the hubby live at work 🥰

*tap to load more comments*

yourbestfriend: HOW DOES IT FEEL FHAT OSCAR PIASTRI, YOUR HUSBAND, IS NOW A GRAND PRIX WINNER

ynprivate: SHUT UP SHUT SHUT UP I CANT EVEN CELEBRATE WITH HIM

oscarpiastri: you can celebrate with me in the hotel room

logansargeant: ew get a room

oscarpiastri: i’m trying to

yourcoworker: THIS is why you didn’t want to meet up for coffee and mark papers?!

ynprivate: 😅🤭

logansargeant: my favourite secret wag i swear

ynprivate: how many secret wags do you know?

logansargeant: 🤐

twitter

f1wags

liked by userone, usertwo, userthree and 981,264 others

BREAKING‼️

the shock. the disbelief. the dismay for some. oscar piastri married?! today the world is shocked to find out that one of the grid’s most charming drivers has been secretly married for years! that’s right, married. the news was bought to us after a screenshot was leaked on twitter from yn (his wife)‘s private instagram where she was seen posting him with the caption “getting to see the hubby live at work🥰”. the woman identified as yn ln, still goes by her maiden name was a girl he met while at boarding school.

yn ln is currently a teacher in england, and the couple has managed to keep their relationship entirely under the radar. sources close to the couple reveal that they chose to keep their marriage private due to her career in education, wanting to protect her from the intense public scrutiny that comes with being associated with an f1 star (hence the reason she has kept her maiden name)

the screenshot, which shows a sweet picture of oscar looking into her camera, has sent the f1 fandom into spirals!

despite the sudden exposure, oscar and his wife have yet to comment on the leak. the secrecy surrounding around their relationship only adds to the intrigue, leaving fans and media outlets waiting with bated breath.

who is oscar piastri and what more is he hiding?

*photos credit to yn’s instagram*

oscarpiastri

liked by ynprivate, landonorris, logansargeant and 923,746 others

cats out the bag now, mrs piastri everyone. only 11 more days until her summer break!

*tap to load more comments*

userone: that’s what the countdown was about 🥹

usertwo: oh hell nawh they both hot

userthree: how long have they been together what?!

logansargeant: married for two years but together for much longer, i’ve known since 2019☺️

landonorris: oscar we are NOT friends

oscarpiastri: i am sorry, i had to respect the mrs’ wishes

landonorris: LOGAN HAS KNOWN FOR SIX YEARS THAT YOU HAD A PARTNER

landonorris: i was low-key starting to think you were gay mate

ynprivate: i’m so sorry!! i just didn’t want work and private life to get mixed up

landonorris: i guess i can somewhat forgive him

ynprivate: yay! maybe we can meet for coffee to get to know you better, osc talks so much about you :)

landonorris: he talks about me 🥹

userfour: i think they broke the internet for good this time

userfive: helpppp lando in the comments 😭😭

usersix: imagine your teacher being oscar piastri’s WIFE

userseven: i hope nicole didn’t find out through instagram

nicolepiastri: no, but i did find out he got engaged three weeks after it happened!

alex_albon: @/landonorris take this L and hold it you dweeb

landonorris: 🖕🖕

[yanderecrazysie]

Wishes (Yandere Oikawa, Kuroo, and Bokuto)

Another Commission, yay! Thank you so much!

Title: Wishes

Pairings: Kuroo Tetsurou x Reader; Bokuto Kotarou x Reader; Oikawa Tooru x Reader

WARNINGS: yandere themes, demons, NSFW, consensual sex, chubby reader, somewhat goth reader, aged up characters as always

“You know those things don’t work,” your best friend said with a roll of her eyes.

“I know,” you replied. Still, you felt oddly drawn to the beaten-up ouija board box. You took off the lid and stared down at the board. It was in perfect condition and had a black planchette included.

Your friend had already moved on to look at the rest of the yard sale. You approached the lady sitting at the check-out table, which was just a fold-out table with a lockbox filled with money.

“How much is this?” you asked, holding up the box.

The woman’s eyes went wide for a moment before she said quickly, “You can have it. On the house.”

“Huh?” you didn’t expect that reaction, “Why is it free?”

“Look how beaten up it is!” she said shrilly, “No one else would want it.”

“But the board is in perfect-”

“Take it, please,” the lady interrupted with a tone of finality. You shrugged and thanked her.

Honestly, it just made you more interested in the board. Creepy things were totally your thing. Not that anyone would be surprised by that by looking at you: all-black clothing covering your chubby form, hair dyed black, and plenty of piercings…

You tucked the box under your arm and went over to your friend. She gave you an “are-you-serious” look. “You’re actually going to take that thing home?”

“It’ll be fun to mess with,” you shrugged, “Maybe I’ll summon a demon or two. You know, spice things up a bit.”

Your friend shook her head, “Just don’t let it eat your soul or whatever.”

—----------------------------------------------------------------

You opened the box and pulled out the ouija board and planchette, placing them on your kitchen table. You turned off all the lights and lit a few candles so you could still see the board. Setting your fingers on the smooth black planchette and taking a deep breath, you said, “Alright, let’s see if this works.”

“Is anyone here?” you asked loudly. Your heart beated violently in your chest.

Nothing happened. The room was completely silent. You were about to give up when the planchette suddenly moved. Slowly, it slid to YES.

You stopped breathing. “Who are you?” you asked.

The planchette moved under your fingers, deliberately spelling out: B O K U T O.

“Bokuto? Are you alone?”

NO.

Your heart beat faster, “Who is with you?”

The board responded fast this time. K U R O O and, after a few second, O I K A W A.

“What brought you here?”

The planchette was still for a few moments. Then, it spelled out Y O U.

Before you had time to process that answer, the candles flickered violently before blowing out completely. You swallowed in complete darkness.

The ouija board began to glow, then, with a loud CRACK the board split in half and the room filled with a swirling red mist.

You scrambled backwards and flicked the light switch on to see better. Three figures now stood in front of your table, smiling at you deviously.

The first man, his silver hair streaked with black and his golden eyes glowing with excitement, said, “Hey hey hey! You called and here I am!”

The second man had dark hair and a sharp grin, “Well, well, looks like someone has a thing for danger. Lucky us.”

The last man stepped forward, his charming smile not putting you at ease, “You must be the reason we were dragged here. And what a reason you are!”

You backed up until your back hit your couch, “Who are you?”

The first man pouted, “I’m Bokuto, remember?”

“Kuroo,” said the dark-haired man.

“And I’m Oikawa,” purred the last man.

“What do you want from me?” you asked.

“You summoned us,” Oikawa pointed out, “Surely you had a reason.”

Your breath hitched, “I-I didn’t think it would actually work,” you stammered.

Bokuto grinned wide, his sharp teeth glinting, “Doesn’t matter whether you meant it or not. We’re here now!”

Kuroo stepped closer, “Summoning us ties a little connection,” he said, “And we don’t take that lightly.”

“You must want something, cutie,” Oikawa crooned, “Companionship? Power? A little danger in your life.”

You stared at them for a moment. As someone who had been bullied mercilessly in school for your weight, power was definitely something you would like.

“Do I have to give up my soul?” you asked carefully.

“We’re incubi, so all you need to get what you want is to offer your body to one of us,” Oikawa explained.

“What if I want three wishes?” you asked.

“Then you would need to sleep with all of us,” Kuroo replied, looking intrigued, “That would be a first.”

“Fine,” your voice wavered, “I want people to respect and fear me. I want success in everything I do. And I want someone to love me for me, instead of expecting me to change.”

The demons exchanged amused glances. 

“Be careful what you wish for,” Oikawa crooned, “Are you entirely sure.”

“Absolutely,” you said, hope flaring in your chest. This may be the best decision you’ve ever made!

Oikawa reached forward and laid his hand on your clothing. In an instant, it disappeared, leaving you completely naked. The clothing on the demons disappeared as well. Your heart caught in your throat. This was a rather… ambitious decision. Could you really take all of them?

“You’re in for a treat, my dear,” Oikawa purred, lifting you into the air and placing you on the couch. His fingers pinched your nipples and Kuroo’s mouth found yours. You moaned into the kiss and Kuroo’s tongue slipped past your lips, making out with you as though he needed it more than air.

Bokuto, meanwhile, was making his way down your body. His warm breath on your cunt as he began kissing the insides of your thighs. Kuroo’s hands roamed over your ass. You could feel yourself getting wetter and wetter.

Oikawa’s fingers finally released your nipples and he took Kuroo’s place, kissing you passionately. Kuroo’s fingers began probing at your back entrance, teasingly moving them in and out. 

Without warning, Bokuto’s tongue was on your clit, licking and sucking until you cried out in the best orgasm of your life.

The demons weren’t done with you yet. “You ready, my dear?” came Kuroo’s husky voice. You nodded, still trembling from your orgasm.

Kuroo’s cock slid into your ass at the same time as Bokuto’s slid into your cunt. You moaned loudly and Oikawa’s cock pushed its way into your throat. 

You never imagined taking three cocks at once but you were in heaven. Which was ironic, considering these men most certainly came from hell.

They began to thrust gently, all in unison as though they’d planned this from the start. And maybe they had.

You gagged a little on Oikawa’s length, drool dripping down your chin. You were struck dumb by all the impressively-sized dicks and, once one of them hit your g-spot, you were lost to a world of pleasure.

You came even harder than before, the vibrations from your moan and the squeezing of your walls causing Oikawa, Kuroo, and Bokuto to cum too. You swallowed every drop of Oikawa’s thick cum and licked your lips. The other two men pulled out and you could feel their cum dripping from your holes.

You laid back down on the couch, panting. The three demons stood above you, grinning down at you.

“My wishes,” you managed to ask, “When will they come true?”

The demons exchanged amused glances once more. “They already have.”

“Who is the guy that will fall in love with me, then?” you asked.

“There’s actually three. Take a wild guess who,” Oikawa snickered, kissing you gently on the neck.

Your blood ran cold, “But-”

“I told you to be careful what to wish for.

[applestorms]

do you have lawlight fic recs

*cracks knuckles*

(Not) According to Plan by FlamesRise: this fic was Fundamental to me figuring out what my ideal light (smut) characterization is. fun lawlight lawyers au that is also mostly kinda just about light manipulating himself into an uncomfortable sexual scenario yay👍(this really sets the stage for what the rest of these recs are gonna look like so prepare yourself lmfao. aka these are gonna be like, 90% questionable smut and/or dead dove, i just don't read much else... 🫠 oops)

blood in the walls of the yagami house (series) by qu_ilinn: gotta put the lawlight brocon on there since this is basically what got me into the DN fandom. grins. one of the best Terrible Horrible L depictions ever, i love this series sm lolol <33

rewards for fools by autumnstar88: cough. and so we notice a trend. this is once again light putting himself in a horny situation he's uncomfortable with and then freaking out as he likes it too much LOL, this time set immediately after he gets his memories back during yotsuba. light in a skirt, what else is there to say.

caligula would have blushed by findingsaturn: medical kink going wilddddd this blew my fucking mind the first time i read it. an absolutely delectable ratio of body horror to weird sex stuff, chefs kiss. i also rec corrosive wash and self-surgery, by the same author.

literally anything from the alignmentverse by praise_lilith and tsukinousagi: this is easily one of my favorite lawlight series, every single fic in this collection is absolutely fucking golden. 10/10 some of the funniest light and L characterization ever.

A complex fool and a simplex fool. by gomikyun: also some hilarious lawlight characterization, this time in the canonverse. i don't usually go for bottom L but this is The Exception. shout out to that one time i took like three hours searching for this just to find this stellar quote:

Why, why didn't I do this before? L has to hold himself back from letting out a whiny groan. He should have just pushed Light down and fucked himself ontop of him instead of playing tennis on that stupid fucking court. Would have been a great icebreaker. And made headlines, probably. ‘Hideki Ryuga and Light Yagami, top scorers on the To-Oh entrance exams have a friendly game of… gay sex on the tennis court. This year is looking to be quite interesting!’

Diamond by exAm: another top 3 for me in terms of lawlight being funny and horrible. one of if not The best het lawlight dynamic i've ever read (man light/woman L, in this case). light is such an egotistical, stupid asshole here, hubris through the fucking roof, and it works fantastic. also fun to see L dealing w/ canon-typical DN sexism LMFAO

Back to then by LiveLongEatWell: this one just has great smut idk what else to say. shrugs. also L obsessively fucking himself into the worst possible scenario lolol here's how KIRA could've actually won

Trading Blows and Idle Hands by gayraito (Mercurial_Magic): more yotsuba smut shenanigans, very fun. honestly most things by this author are great, hard to pick just one... The Gift is also great and somewhat inspired some of my own android light in superegos (read my lawlight fics too 🫵 boy)

draw it out by emmerii: VERY noncon no-memories light. smiles. this one makes me actually insane hides in my evil little corner

actually if we're doing the more heavily dead dove ones, there's also Take Me With You or Let Me Follow by WhyDoesEverythingHappenSoMuch and I will take what's mine, create what god would never design by FlamesRise for the specific concept of L being a freak over L's corpse. necrophilia warning? :]

Kouyaku by Not_default: basically a KIRA wins au where L doesn't actually die. sometimes L deserves to be the one locked in the basement ig. very very nice

The Dreadful Need by the_gabih: somewhat non-traditional omegaverse au that is also just about very dubcon prison sex. this makes my brain fucking melt please don't ask why

Perfect Life by foreskinsmoothie: probably the longest thing on this list, this one Fucked Me Up when i finished it a couple weeks ago. OCD light to the extreme, which is additionally Made Worse by L kidnapping him for shits and giggles 👍 that being said, i absolutely adore the ending of this one, so. if you can get past the graphic self-amputation, this is a (very fucked up) lil treat :>

Kira's Guide to the Munchies by plant1r: ok this is more like matsulight but i have to include it for light's characterization alone, AND ALSO NEAR. one of the best near depictions ever. this is hysterical, my favorite weed light fic everrr

praise the sweetness by cxtangerina: read my fic boy 🫵 cult leader L au. unreality apocalypse world wammy's cult weirdness. what more can i say. this is probably gonna have a meronia sequel in the near future so watch out for that (after i post this other lawlight fic anyway, which is ALMOSTTT done uwu everybody clap)

that enuf for you anon?

[hauntingsunshine14]

SPOILERS FOR ALIEN ROMULUS

no seriously like spoilers for the ending not just a bit in the middle

It's just a funny (hilarious) bit of foreshadowing but still spoilers

I'm driving home from watching this movie with my mother, and we're both just yapping about how we liked it, and I was suddenly reminded of what I noticed about Isabela Merced's character Kay!

Early on in the movie, we get a shot of her in bed after she tells Rain that she's pregnant, with a flat oval necklace clearly displayed.

This isn't the exact scene, but example:

you can kinda see the necklace once you zoom in

This medal is easily identifiable even from the distance/lack of detail thanks to Catholic guilt! yay! This is a Miraculous Medal (pictured below)

This is a necklace that centers Mary with a whole bunch of lore attached that details how St. Catherine Labouré saw Mary in a vision (twice technically) and the second time was instructed to

 “Have a medal struck upon this model. Those who wear it will receive great graces, especially if they wear it around the neck. Those who repeat this prayer with devotion will be, in a special manner, under the protection of the Mother of God. Graces will be abundantly bestowed upon those who have confidence.”

tldr: it's a very common and recognizable representation of Mary, they often have these medals at catholic churches as back when I worked at mine they were literally just sitting in the lobby.

What made me laugh so profusely in my car ride home is that Mary is considered literally THE mother in Christan lore and Kay does in fact give birth at the end of the movie... to what is essentially Weyland-Yutani Jesus.

Technically she took David's goo injection and produced the 'Offspring' (apparently what the horrifying human/xenomorph is called) (I prefer W-Y Jesus)

This is a wonderful bit of foreshadowing for the ending sequence, coupled with the engraving of Romulus and Remus and the Capitoline wolf, as well as the painting that was zoomed in on right before of a mother and child. And kinda as well to the whole thing about Weyland-Yutani trying to 'play God' with humanity's evolution.

But, on a larger more franchise-wide scale, this foreshadowing continues on with some of the themes from the previous two movies concerning origins and beginnings, as the whole Mary/Jesus thing is technically speaking, the 'origin/beginning' part of the New Testament. This is shown very plainly in the titles (Prometheus, Covenant, Romulus) which are all pulled from various origin stories - Greek, Abrahamic, and Roman. Prometheus stole fire, the covenants in the Torah/Pentateuch, and the founding of Rome. All different stories about the growth of humanity, ranging from how to live all the way up to founding empires. These ideas somewhat parallel the actual events of the movies.

B/c we watch David - and therefore Weyland-Yutani - discover the goo, experiment on it, learn how to interact with it, and then attempt to build a new empire with it.

It's a very messy analogy and kinda? does not fit with the Mary thing in Romulus, but in very broad strokes it ties in well enough, which for the whole confusing Prometheus/Covenant situation is par for the course.

Overall, Alien: Romulus is an amazing addition to the franchise and at the risk of sounding cheesy is literally a breath of fresh air. Right down to the pacing of the movie, it's classic Alien. I loved it, and even if you haven't seen any of the alien movies or even if you've only seen the first, and even if you have these spoilers, it's a fantastic experience!

(and for all the alien: isolation lovers there's such a cute nod to the game in the movie)

[lightlycareless]

So HOTTT of Naoya to be an equestrian champion... *bites lip*

Heya anon! Sorry for the late reply, oof. I wanted to post this a while ago but in-between me just lazying it up, working on the main fic, and dealing with other emotional things I just... didn't lol.

But I'm here now! And I gotta say, I enjoyed writing something different from the usual :> I'm actually working on something else, which I hope to post soon... we shall see.

Anyways, your ask reminds me of this one fic I absolutely love 😭!!

Just to hear someone being the champion of something, regardless of what it is… I don’t know, fascinating. I’m like wow they’re the best in the world in that particular niche. And it makes you wonder if they’ve always been inclined to that, if they’ve always been good and whatnot. Wow.

But moving forward, here are the warnings for this 2-part (yay!) oneshot: explicit content, a bit of smut, Naoya is in it so either expect him to be a complete a-hole, misogynistic, objectifying, rude, yadayada, the usual lol.

Now onto the good stuff:

Let’s imagine that you were somewhat related to the “equestrian/horse jockey/racer” lifestyle since you were a child because you come from a long line of racers. Your dad was a horse jockey, your mom too, your grandpa, so on and so forth. You’re kind of royalty at this point, however, none of your relatives held the title of champion until your brother (Ren gashgkjhasjk) came along, that finally put your family on the map, cue your somewhat of a celebrity status. A… D-list celebrity, compared to your B-list almost A celebrity of a brother, in a universe where horse racing is very, insanely popular.

You were never forced to partake in the family tradition, after all was said and done, they were competitive but not a-holes when it came to their own relatives, so instead you decided to pursue somewhat of a normal lifestyle, get a career, whilst supporting your brother.

Cue rising star Naoya Zen’in, heir of the prestigious Zen’in clan that everyone suspected to be involved in shady business and often kept to themselves, so who would’ve thought they also liked to partake in competitions?

Because of his sudden apparition, as well as his exceptional skills, you’re naturally attracted to know more about this mysterious man who seems to give your brother a run for his money when obtaining the title of champion—or at least, that’s what the tabloids want it to appear, of course, until he inevitably does.

Having achieved what no one has ever done before (or at least as close as he had, since other racers like Gojo and Geto often take more of a… calm approach towards the competition, as if this was a pastime rather than a career), your interest in him reaches a new record high.

And you couldn’t be blamed—the more interviews you saw of him, the more you found him fascinating. The way he expressed himself when talking about his work gave you the impression that he was highly dedicated to his career, and you’d only seen that once or twice in your life.

But what caught your interest the most… was his charisma, and handsome appearance.

Naoya just carried an aura which forbade your eyes from straying away, even with the warnings your brother gave you, you just… couldn’t stop thinking about him.

“He’s a complete asshole— arrogant, snarky, and overall petty. I don’t want you getting near him.”

To which you quickly disregarded, telling him that: “Well, he’s obviously like that with you because you’re his direct competitor!”

You’d go against his warnings by attending his training sessions, which were only made available to other competitors or close relatives—you, being sister of the past champion, gave you the necessary access to see him up close and personal, although there wasn’t much closeness when it came to it, because although these interactions weren’t prohibited, they weren’t encouraged either, limiting yourself to observe him from the bleachers instead.

That, of course, and the shyness that rendered you immoble whenever realizing how close he was to you settled in.

This distance wouldn’t last long, however, for it was only a matter of time that he’d notice he was being observed by his rival’s sister, and that fact did not sit well with him at all.

Naoya didn’t like your brother, for according to him, he was too arrogant, evidently because he believed no one would ever dare take the title of champion out of his hands, growing confident, sloppy even, until harsh reality came crashing down onto him when it finally occurred.

The look on his face when the score ended in his favor was one Naoya would never forget, nor the roaring screams from the crowd when the verdict was finally announced.

He doesn’t presume your brother to be having the time of his life, and desperate to retrieve the position he once held, he retorted to deploying all kinds of methods to find a weakness of his to exploit.

He’s highly aware of how the families of competitors tended to work, thanks to some nasty experiences and growing up in such treachery too.

Their means were simple: they’d either mess up with the rider’s equipment, bribe the judges, or to the worse felony yet, directly attack the horse. Some have even died through these dirty altercations, and all to ensure victory.

It would be hypocritical of Naoya to deny he hadn’t done something like that before, considering the reputation of his family and the extensive possibilities at his command, but he can confidently say that he’d never made use of them outside a few occasions, his talent doing most of the job when earning triumphs.

Taking all of this into consideration, he thinks you must be one of those schemes sent out by a jealous competitor intended to distract their rival one way or the other.

He thought of it adorable, really, as if he’d fall for something so silly as a honey pot.

Sure, you were good looking, but it would take much more than that to get him distracted more so when he could easily get what you offered from the flock of fangirls that followed him around.

For all he knew, you were probably getting trained to be a racer too, whether to replace your brother after his failure or to keep the championship within the family, he didn’t know—although he wasn’t so sure about his theory, since he hadn’t seen you around the competitions outside of cheering for your brother and friends from afar, or wishing them good luck backstage before going onto the field.

Well, whatever it was, Naoya didn’t like you, not one bit. He thought of you as an annoyingly consistent mosquito buzzing around his ear whenever he caught a glimpse of you.

Just what exactly were you doing? Trying to read his movements so you could go rushing to your brother and tell him all about it? Pathetic.

But what was more pitiful was the way you’d look at him, wide-eyed and astounded, cheeks red whenever passing you by, unable to even respond to his greetings whenever he acknowledged you, outside of a squeak and a hurried “excuse me” before disappearing.

You were the epitome of displeasure.

“—And not only that, but rude too.” Naoya would tell his closest confidant, the one that prepared everything for his training sessions, and a childhood friend. “All members of her family must be like that—If it were up to me, I would’ve disqualified them just by that.”

“I don’t think she’s acting like that because she’s rude, Naoya” Ranta dared to say otherwise, much to the current champion’s irritation who often, if not always, liked to be agreed with.

“What else then?” he hisses, twisting his face into a scowl.

“I think it’s because… she likes you.”

Now it was Naoya’s moment to be startled.

Like him?

Surely Ranta must’ve hit his head on the way there to come up with that stupidity. There’s no way someone like you, having such a close relationship with the previous champion, would find interest in him outside of contempt. That’s just not how these things worked!

But let’s say it wasn’t that— let’s say… you did hold some kind of attraction towards him.

Your shyness suddenly made sense, why you rarely spoke to him, why you’d always look at him with fascination, a smile on your face whenever you saw him accomplish particularly hard trick with his horse, silently cheering for him whenever doing the rest of his routine… all while keeping distance.

If you were in the supposed mission of discovering a non-existent weakness in him, you would’ve approached him by now.

But you didn’t, and Ranta’s speculation might be the reason why.

And from that point forward, as if by the work of a miracle, perhaps allured for having the sister of his rival seemingly head over heels for him, Naoya begins to look at you through a different prospect.

It wouldn’t take long before he grew tired of your aloofness, though, impatient of waiting to see when you’d dare approach him, so he thought he’d do you a favor and take the first step himself—much to your horror.

“Hey!”

You’d hear him call one day after his training was done; at first you thought it was just your mind making up things, victim of all the immeasurable scenarios you’ve made up in your head… However, when you heard his voice again, turning your head to corroborate your assumptions, you knew it was real.

You freeze for a quick second upon realizing he was approaching you, before your survival instincts kick in and make a run for it.

“Hey—Where are you going?! Hey!” Naoya yells, rushing to your side and getting a hold of your hand, rooting you in place. The suddenness of his movement, as well as having him touch you, makes you think you're going to faint. “Why the hell are you running off like that? It’s not like I'm mugging you!"

“I—I needed to—to go!” you shriek, tugging and writhing against his hold I'm trying to escape, all whilst keeping your gaze as far away from him. He notices that. “I'm running late to—to—!"

“At least look me in the eye if you’re going to dismiss me.” He says, a smirk on his face as he sees your struggling stop at the same time your ears turn red.

That would've been enough for many, having seen you embarrassed enough, but for Naoya there is no such thing as too much, as he proceeds to further ridicule you. “Is that how you treat your brother's rival? I thought that even after all that, we could still count on each other to have an amicable relationship…"

Your breath hitches as your worst fears materialize before you.

"I—I didn’t mean to… appear rude.” you whisper. The rumors surrounding your brother and him were already nasty as they were… the last thing you wanted was to be added into the equation. 

Although you were more concerned for not leaving a first bad impression—even if you envisioned this moment happening way differently.

“Well, that’s all you’ve been to me—staring at me from afar. Not bothering to say hello, even when I greet you… and now, avoiding me.” he laments, as if he cared for this before Ranta made it aware you liked him, and your eyes widened. 

Has he really been all that aware of you? If that was the case, then he really was impressive… to keep attentive to his training, while being aware of someone so irrelevant like you is something only talented people like him could pull off.

“…I… I’m sorry” you murmur “I…  know it’s not an excuse, but… I didn’t know what to say. I guess I was surprised you… noticed…. Me” you drift on the last part, voice growing smaller and smaller as hotness settles on your cheeks.

“Why?” he asks, tilting his head a bit to the side, a gesture that makes you feel silly, put on the spot. Exactly where he wanted you. “Am I that… unapproachable?”

“I didn’t mean that!” you gasp, rushing to reassure Naoya upon seeing his face gloom. A reaction that would instantly infatuate Naoya, prompting him to tease you whenever possible to get that flustered face out of you. “…I just… admire you. And I… was too ashamed of telling you. I mean, you must hear it from everyone already, so why would I make any difference��?”

“You? Admiring me?” Naoya blurts, a bit too loud for his liking. Fortunately, you take his response as an act of humbleness, not him reflecting on the doubts Ranta planted on his mind. Doubts… he was ready to discard, until he received direct confirmation from your voice.

Quite unexpected, but welcomed nonetheless.

“Surely your brother was far more impressive. He was the champion… until I came along of course”

“Oh—I, I mean I guess so.” You chuckle nervously,  “But… I like your technique better.”

“You ride?” by your selections of words, he has to inquire. Had it been a casual watcher, they probably would’ve said something redundant such as “you look cool” or “how do you get the horse to do that?”

But coming from you and your background, his theory of you being trained to be a jockey, if not one already, rises to the occasion, alongside the idea of you being sent to spy on him—

“No” you respond, and it’s his time to be surprised.“Not really, the rest of my family are the ones that know all that stuff, but of course, you already know that” you laugh, and he raises an eyebrow.

“Then what? Are you afraid of horses or something?”

“It’s not like that!” you laugh, shaking your head. “I just… I don't like the sensation, that’s all. Kind of ironic, isn’t it? Considering everyone around seems to love it.”

Naoya doesn’t ponder on your answers too much, outside of what he can take to his advantage, of course. Judging by your reaction, the way you were referring to him, and your words, he comes up with two conclusions:

You’re telling the truth. And that you’re undoubtedly, irrefutably stars-truck by him. If not enamored at this point, by him.

A succession convincing enough to hitch him to you, believing he can get his fair share of fun from it, see just how far your desperation to please him will get you, and who knows? Even drive his rival crazy while at it.

Oh, he can already imagine the look on his face once your brother knows about it…

Partially made possible by the tabloids, who didn’t take long to notice something was up when they saw the two together getting dinner at some nearby, luxurious restaurant, courtesy of Naoya after a few days of insistence.

“I can’t, I don’t think it’s right” you’d try to reject him, and while he found your coyness adorable, the fact that he had to insist was annoying the hell out of him.

“Come on” he persists, eyes softening and lips pouting so as to pull your heartstrings “It’s the least I could do after the support you’ve been giving me”

You end up accepting, and the rest is history… recorded on the articles that began to circulate across the internet, the words “Naoya Zen’in in a relationship with his rival’s sister?!” their main, eye-catching title.

He didn’t care about it, in fact, he thrived on the attention, fed his ego and gave him the impression of invincibility, much to his manager’s displeasure, who had grown exhausted of telling and begging Naoya to be careful with his public persona���

You, on the other hand, never being one to be under the limelight, began to suffer the consequences of said thing. Starting by your mother, who reminded you that your actions not only affected you, but your brother’s reputation, which… “You are going to be in charge in a few years, once I retire from being his manager. Remember, it’s easier to maintain than to improve.”

To your brother, who stormed through your bedroom door as soon as the rumors graced his ears, with a newspaper in hand serving as evidence, intending to seek an answer.

“D—dating him?!” You flinch upon hearing his booming voice, a tone rarely used by him, if not to express his great happiness after a successful competition. “Of all people, you’re dating him?!”

“Who?!” you gasp, heart thundering against your chest as you drop what you were doing—nothingless than paperwork, for your almost due project. If you hadn’t been distracted by Naoya, this wouldn't be an issue… “What are you talking about?!”

“Who— Who else am I talking about, Y/N, if not the man you went to get dinner with yesterday??” he frowns, shoving the newspaper to you, giving it a quick reading before jumping back to Ren. “Why the hell would you go and fraternize with the enemy after the warnings I gave you?!”

“I just… went to get something to eat… it’s not a big deal.” And maybe that’s all that it was, although you wouldn’t tell him that you’d been fantasizing with the idea of being something more, thanks to the fact that you’ve kept contact with him, already received another invitation to go eat with him.

“… did he do something?” He asks, referring to his crude nature and another rumor that circulated between racers. If he hears, even if it’s the smallest, briefest implication that he had taken advantage of you—!

“No, of course not! You know that as soon as he does something I don’t like, he’s gone!” you reassure him, or attempt to anyway, for your brother is… quite stubborn when it comes to changing his mind on something he doesn’t like. 

Well, it’s not like he can do anything about it now, outside of hoping Naoya will keep his hands to himself, if not out of respect for you, at least for the sake of their “friendly” competition.

A sentiment that would struggle to remain, for that point forward the tabloids would just get crazier and crazier with their titles the more they saw the two together.

They always presented the same thing, of course, that the two were in some kind of secret relationship, probably to stir your brother (now introducing some kind of jealous rivalry between you and him) or that you’d jumped alliances to enjoy the privileges of a champion. 

All things that amused Naoya to no end, but greatly irritated you.

“I don’t like it” you’d confide to Naoya one night while he was driving you back home. “They’re saying nothing but a bunch of lies!”

“First time dealing with the tabloids?” he smirks, but far from being cheered up, your frown deepens.

“I don’t want this to affect my family”

“Then it won’t” he says, a free hand reaching over to your face and pinching your cheek “As long as you know the truth, who cares what they say?”

And you take his words to heart—after all, what you’re going through is nothing compared to him. So he must know how to navigate these situations.

You take his hand, turning around to see him and give him a smile.

“Thank you”

The two kept seeing each other, more and more frequently—always willing to join Naoya wherever he wanted to take you, to the point that’s all you looked forward to. Not even finishing your career, or helping out your mom with Ren’s upcoming PR events.

All that you wanted was to be with Naoya, see what kind of wonderful things he’ll show you on this occasion, and be overall happy.

And as things proceeded between the two… it naturally didn’t take long before things became a bit more serious.

There were never actual words muttered to imply the beginning of your relationship with him, but one day, it just made sense.

“Wow—it’s quite late, much more than what I expected!” you say upon noticing the dark sky, whilst holding his hand as the two leave the place both got dinner at. 

It was a miracle that there was no one to snap a picture of the two as they left the building, but that didn’t stop either from enjoying themselves to the best of their ability, being able to enjoy the quietness of the night for the first time in weeks. 

“And cold too!” you shivered, unwittingly squeezing his hand, a gesture he replicates. “Makes me want to get something warm…”

Naoya doesn’t respond, like he usually does. Back then it was because he thought your conversations to be a bit too silly to engage in completely, but now, it’s because he likes to listen to your voice. 

“Think we can go to a nearby coffee shop and get something?” you ask, stopping on your tracks, releasing his grasp and skipping ahead of him, turning to face him. 

The way you look at him is endearing, with big round eyes as if pleading him to consider your proposal, and a grin on your face he can’t help but feel warmed by it—maybe he’ll skip on the coffee. “You can get something too! I’ll pay for it, to make up for dinner, hmm? How about that? I know of a very good place too, you won’t regret it”

You continue to beam, and Naoya, by some strange reason, perhaps overwhelmed by your adorableness, leans down to your level and kisses you.

It’s a quick peck, nothing less than his lips brushing over yours in a sweet, loving gesture, but it’s enough to leave you dumbfounded during and after he peeled away from you.

Trying to understand what had just occurred, you blink rapidly, wanting to clear the image before you and debunk any possibilities of an hallucination—but the lingering warmth on your lips and cheeks proves you otherwise, more so when you look up to Naoya who was starting at you with the same startled look on his face.

Neither knew why the kiss happened, only that Naoya was suddenly inundated with the urge to do it, that you were a flustered mess, and that both liked it, feeling that regardless of why it occurred, it was the right thing to do.

The relationship between the two soon began to flourish into something deeper, more intimate, and quite intense too. You’d soon discover that Naoya was nothing of a gentle lover, but rather… passionate, desperate to get the new flavor you provided, whether it be stealing all of your kisses whenever possible, hoarding all of your attention on him when you were free —even if you were not…

Or exploring places where no one else had seen before.

“Am I really your first one?” Naoya mutters against your ear, appearing skeptic of your claims, as he holds you up against him, pounding and thrusting deep into your core as you hold back your moans, biting your lip to the point you’re sure it’s bleeding, but even with the pain you don’t relent, nor does the champion when it comes to wrecking your insides. “Tell—Tell me, princess” he groans; it’s always the same, whenever he teases you with one of his thousand pet names, your walls tighten, harshly squeezing him to the point he thinks you might cut his dick off—and he can’t get enough of it. He smirks at the sensation, thrusting sharper into you.  “Has anyone else—anyone else touched you like this?”

Not that he actually cares for actual confirmation—he just has to remember the stammering, heated mess you were when he implied the faintest need of wanting to spend the night with you to know you’d been a virgin all this time. As expected of a secluded, overprotected girl like you. Oh, he had so much to teach you…

“N—Nao—yaa” you whimper, unable to do anything else but chant the name of the man that is making you nothing but a drooling mess. “Mmmhmm!”

You cry, eyes rolling to the back of your head, when he hits that spot that has you a mumbling mess, whenever the tip of his cock touches it, you see stars—you never knew such thing could be possible, always thinking of it as nothing less than exaggerations of unattainable porn standards, but Naoya proves you yet again that whatever he sets his mind into, he obtains.

As his thrusts continue to attack your womb, you’re reaching your end, mind-numbing so, and all that you want to do is keep him there, deep inside you, and never let him go, evident by the way your arms tighten around his shoulders, hands crawling against his back, urging him to keep that pace, pleading:

“Naoya—Naoya…. Right—right there, Nao—” he smiles, giving you a rather harsh trust that has you jolting, squeaking just in his ear that has him moaning too—he can feel his seed itching to be released inside, and who was he to deny himself such pleasure?

“Y/N” he mutters hotly against you, nibbling your ear “Come—I want you to come with me—!”

And then, you do. Your release is a shower of sensations, from pleasure, happiness, satisfaction, a bit of tiredness to heat when Naoya finally spills inside you, filling your cervix up to the brim, to the point you feel him up to your throat—you want to run away from this overwhelming sensation, yet your core feels as if it’s demanding you to stay, be a good girl and take what he’s giving you.

But after you milk the last of his cum, deep inside your core, and he takes your lips, hungry, eagerly, as it was the norm whenever he kisses you and takes all your moans, is that the strongest sentiment comes to light: love.

“Naoya…” you breathe, chest heaving as he falls to your side, taking this opportunity to place your head on his chest and hear his rapid heartbeat. 

Getting to experience this closeness with your favorite person, and coincidentally, the man you undeniably love… makes you feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

And you want to tell him that.

“Naoya” you repeat, low, uncertain, yet your heart is desperate to continue forward..

“What? Already ready for another round?” he teases, a sly smirk on his flustered face, and you pout.

“No… that’s not it.” You murmur, he chuckles.

“Good, I still have to recover from what we just did, for a minute I thought you were going to cut off my dick by how hard you were squeezing me.” he sighs, tired.

He’s always been blunt, a virtue you appreciate him for. But for tonight, it’s not what you were hoping to be with after being so close to each other, so… intimate, and just when you were debating whether to pour your heart out or not…

You give it a few seconds of thought, finally concluding that perhaps another day would be a better occasion. After all, you knew just how… intimidating it could be to hear someone’s feelings towards you, as well as how busy Naoya was to be for the upcoming season, and you don’t want to distract him…

So you don’t say it. 

You mean them all the same, but you don’t say them in that particular moment.

Every other day you’d be inundated with these same doubts and emotions whenever he’d take you—some of them spiking higher than the others due to the location of said acts, such as in the stables, quickly after putting his horse away.

You’d soon believe he had a knack for… taking you in public places, considering how intensely he’d ravage you, more so when given the faintest hint of another’s presence, which would always make you cower and squirm, or at least try to, because you were never be able to compete against him and his desires” 

“What? Afraid that they’ll see us like this? See you like this?” he’d husk, harshly thrusting his hips against you, hands on your hips as he sets a rough, 

“St—stop it” you’d say, to the best of your ability in between thrusts, for no matter how many times you’ve done this with him you could never get used to his roughness. “They—they’re going to see—!”

“Tell that to your cunt, princess” Naoya breathes, pulling you close to him, his breath is in your ear, hand hovering over your clit, squeezing it ever so lightly to get you just where he wants you. “The way you’re squeezing me—it’s— it’s like you—you want them to see”

He may say it with a worried tone, as if wondering if he'd be able to survive your seeming hunger for his cock, but his smile tells him otherwise.

“But that’s what you want, isn’t it? Let the world know how much you love fucking your brother’s rival”

You frantically shake your head, biting your lip when his words become too lewd, unwittingly tightening your walls against his cock. 

Your grasp lunges towards his hands, attempting to stop him from rubbing your clit and overwhelm your senses any further, or his roaming hand across your body which now settled in kneading and squeezing your breasts—although you always loved how crazy it drove you.

“Is my princess all needy for my cum?” he breathes, his trusts growing faster, erratic, while he harshly pinches your clit—he’s close.

“N—no…” is all that you manage to whimper through the knot in your throat, and the embarrassment that only makes you feel hotter and hotter when you begin to feel the familiar wave of blood rushing down to your pussy—you’re close too. “I don’t—I don’t—”

“Of course, not” he chuckles, leaning to kiss the side of your face. You moan at the contrasting difference of the obscene and the sweet, which only makes your heart skip a beat. “You’d never say that—you’re too much of a good girl to ever say that.”

And then, after a few more thrusts and moans of pleasure, reminding you just how much he loves fucking you, his hot seed spills inside you, painting every inch of your walls white and giving you that delicious, eye-rolling sensation that has you cumming immediately after— mind numb as your juices begin to gush onto him, mixing with his cum before sliding down your leg and onto the floor.

The stains of his cum leaves behind undeniably evidence of what transpired between the two, a sight that makes you flustered beyond limits, reminding you to clean up before leaving, but even then, all that you can think of is Naoya, and how much you truly, deeply, love him.

“Nao—Naoya…” you gasp, eyes watery, breath heavy, as your arms rise to wrap around his shoulders and pull him closer to you—he allows you, while doing his best to keep inside you. If there’s one thing he likes the most, outside of how you tightly grip him while cumming, is how you keep him warm afterwards. Said it felt like home. “…Naoya—”

“What?” he exhales, looking down to you as he tries to regain his breath. The person they heard approaching a few minutes earlier was completely out of his mind by this point, whether they’d seen them and left, or decided to stay and watch the show, it didn’t matter to him. Not anymore. Not when you were here. “You’re going to wear out my name.”

Maybe. You can’t help it after all—you just love how it rolls out on your tongue. Or how much you wanted to say it with the following words.

“I love you.”

You feel him tense up a bit, but you don’t think of anything else about it outside of being taken aback by your confession. He’s not very… affectionate when it comes to displaying it through words, sometimes even actions. Yet, you console yourself by the fact that he always comes back to you. You’ve become his home, and to you, that’s worth more than any “I love you”’s he could tell you.

At least for now.

[slytherinshua]

hi so idk what happened but i rambled on for way too long with an ask and then it got deleted 🙃

i think the universe was telling me to stfu

anyway basically what i said bwfore (in the erased ask ihy tumblr) was that yay! you stan tws!

and i saw your jebewon and tws reqs open so I asked for..

tws -> fluff with any of the 06's (an idea is: (dont have to write this specifically) maybe coming home after a long day? could be them or reader)

zb1 -> basically hanbin comfort?? any comfort at all but like maybe idol s/o who faints on stage

i will never have enough shb fics im not even joking. Hes so greenflag, i love that guy with all of my heart (hes 7 years older than me) and i seriously hope everyone gets a person like him as their s/o (for all the insane kpop stans out there (the extremists) i said someone LIKE him which means i do not want sung hanbin and i actually would be happy if he has a gf (he probs does bc look at that guy) because a) hes way too old for me and b) lets be real here.

Okay!! Enough rambling!! anyway my question was whos your tws bias (my guess is shinyu) ik your zb1 and bnd biases are gw and myungjae (seriously gw is bias wrecking so hard)

btw im also a shinyu bias and idk if youve guessed alr but also a hanbin bias (heh) and a sungho one (i absolutely love that kid)

uhh and i forgot to say..i forgot which anon i was :/

Im pretty sure i was 🌱 but i dont remember!!! i was the svt ask anon whixh caused a somewhat miscommunication or idk(?)

anyway just call me 🌱

zanna thank you for writing fics. seriously, i read them all the time. i recently got into zb1 (theyve taken over my life) and all i had to do was open your mlist. But again pls prioritise yourself always, stay healthy and happy pls dont burn out ily (not in a weird way, in the way i love an author's works or an artist's paintings) pls ignore the req if you dont feel like it!!!

OMG!!!! UR BACK KSJDFKSD omg i've missed you 🥹🥹🥹 i'm sorry i forgot to put ur anon tag on the nav cause i kept switching themes and having the taken anons there or not and it was hard keeping track of them all but IM SO GLAD UR BACK!!! the universe may be telling u to stfu but i say PLS DONT PLS COME INTO MY INBOX MORE <33333 ugh tumblr is literally SUCH A CYBER BULLY LIKE GET OUTTT 👹👹👹👹

omg these ideas are so CUTEEE im writing them down in my drafts immediately and hopefully ill finish them very soon <333

no so real hanbin is the DEFINITION of perfection. like hes the 5th gen cha eunwoo i saw ppl saying he looks like cha eunwoo and he got so shy and was like nononono BUT LIKE THEYRE SO REAL HES PERFECT SAY IT LOUDERRR and hes humble too which is so cute :(

lmao i giggled at ur guess im thinking maybe a lot of ppl think im shinyu biased cause ive written the most for him but ive actually been kyungmin biased since day 1!!!!!! i was there pre debut like from the minute the ohmymy video dropped and i fell in love w kyungmin immediately and learned all their faces in 5 mins 🥹🥹 i love my tws so much <333

awwww stop :(((( thank you so much for enjoying them and requesting more </3 so real zb1 are a problem i said i wouldn't stan and i tried hard not to but i failed miserably and now they're on my mind 24/7 👹 AND ILYTTT I HOPE UR DOING OKAY AND LIFE HAS BEEN KIND TO U <3333 and i'm so glad to see u in my inbox again 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹

[novantinuum]

Fandom: Steven Universe

Rating: Teen Audiences

Words: 6.3K~

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 freedom is a future worth fighting for.

Finally finished this chapter, yay! I promise I throw canon off a ravine entirely next chapter, I just needed to set up some stuff. Hopefully the Ruby POV makes things somewhat fresh.

If you read this and enjoy, I’d greatly appreciate your support through reblogs here, or kudos/comments on AO3. Thank you! <3

____

Chapter 13: system/REBOOT, Part 1

The whole mission is Garnet’s idea. 

By this point, they’ve known about Homeworld’s rushed Beta Kindergarten project for about fifty years. Frankly, its composition leaves much to be desired. The area is rich in the iron and silicon deposits necessary to produce a strong batch of quartzes, but the foundation they incubated all their new soldiers within is red clay cemented sandstone; it’s soft, and in constant danger of erosion. According to all the rebellion’s peridots, many of them top Homeworld kindergarteners before their eventual defection, this type of stone is critically unfit for Gem production. It can’t compress the inclusions of injector fluid at the correct pressure, can’t reliably bar the excess from draining through the porous material. As a result many of the individually incubated sites are predicted to ‘weep’ and lose critical volume, which will inevitably cause the emergent quartzes to be ‘off-color’ in some fashion. Some may be under regulation height, some may exhibit crystal twinning, some may be incapable of standard abilities like shapeshifting or weapon summoning, so on and so forth.

As a fellow off-color herself, Garnet carries a deep empathy for all those who are forsaken and unwanted. She can foresee the dire fate of these Beta Gems creeping over the dawning horizon even without the benefit of future vision, can foresee that despite all of these soldiers’ loyal programming, they’re ultimately cursed to be eliminated within the cruel machine of Homeworld. One day beyond the battlefield, the so-called Great Diamond Authority will see no further use in their existence, and then they’ll be purged. Harvested for scrap. Trapped within a myriad of Gem-powered objects. Crushed and used within their drop ships for fuel. 

It’s pure tyranny. 

Thus, she refuses to let their cruelty stand without a just fight. They have to give these Gems a chance beyond Homeworld’s rule, because abandoning them would be abandoning everything that their brave rebellion stands for, that she stands for. She refuses to stand powerless and idle in the face of a Diamond’s commands like the Sapphire and Ruby she once was, refuses to let another tragedy slip by without at least attempting to mend its damage. She is Garnet, she is freedom, and she is love.

And deep within her core, she believes these soon-to-emerge soldiers deserve the same opportunity for renewal and hope as any other Crystal Gem.

 __

For all Ruby’s aware, a whole geological era could have passed between that fateful moment she first set eyes on Jasper and the shards-late arrival of Amethyst and the others. All three of them duck behind the low rock formations she’s hiding in the shade of, Steven still breathing heavily from the no-doubt harried and concerned exertion of their sprint towards her. Hard light coursing from the gem in her palm to all other extremities at random intervals amidst crackling cinders of immobilizing terror, (she’s almost surprised her form isn’t flickering at this point), she desperately attempts to babble an explanation. She’ll admit— it’s not a particularly coherent one. Ask her mere minutes later, and there’s little chance she’ll be able to repeat what she said. Heck, she’s not confident about her words now, in the heat of the moment. It’s probably something about holes, something about injector scrap, about all those Gem monsters, a-and—

"Whoa, what the heck!” Amethyst blessedly interrupts, raising her head above the rocks and pointing across the clearing at the orange and red striped quartz diligently prowling the area like a true squadron leader. “Jasper’s here, too? Did everyone decide to skip on over to Beta today, or somethin’?!”

Peridot’s face scrunches in confusion as she regards her former mission partner.  “What is she doing?”

“She’s got all those corrupted Gems in cages,” Steven murmurs with realization, a tiny spark of outrage lighting up behind his eyes on those creatures’ behalf. “They’re not even bubbled, they’re just… trapped, and scared!”

Ruby brings her fist to her mouth, nervously nibbling at her fingers for a moment to anchor herself back to this present. Above all else, ignoring every thread of trepidation and insecurity she bears, there’s one burning question that pulses at her core with an unmatched luminosity about this whole scenario:

“B-but why would she want so many corrupted Gems in the first place? Doesn’t she know she can’t tame them?”

The purple quartz growls, the fringe of her hair casting a dark and menacing shadow over her features as she tilts her head down and glares at her self-proclaimed rival. “I don’t think she knows nothin’.”

And as— instinctively, mistakenly, running off of over five thousand years of deep engrained habit— she attempts to open her third eye towards the winding tributaries of potential futures they may soon find themselves wading through and fails, it slowly dawns on her just how isolated and lost they all are, without Sapphire’s sight. Without her love.

“Neither do I…” she says softly, her stature shrinking in the throes of that suffocating inadequacy. Riding an abrupt wave of frustration, she slams her foot into the coarse dirt, gripping thick chunks of her coily hair between her fingers. “Aughhh, this is a terrible time to not have future vision!” she huffs, spitting out each word staccato.

“Pipe down!” Jasper hollers at the poor corrupted Gem cornered in the distance as she kicks one of the bars of its cage, her booming voice easily reverberating off the cliffs’ curvature.

All four of them can’t help but bite back their gasps upon this clamoring startle. Peeking her head just above the rim of the rocky outcropping, Ruby watches the fur covered quartz visibly shrink back at the soldier’s command. Jasper continues, her unwavering act of confidence currently undeterred by this reaction. 

“You take orders from me now. You used to be a quartz too, didn’t you? What happened to you?”

Utterly failing to comprehend any of her words in this vulnerable, animalistic state, the corrupted Gem merely snaps its fangs at the bars, and then tilts its head sideways to begin chewing on one of them. Jasper scoffs, her lips rising in a mild sneer. Taking the risk to edge closer, she continues to verbally berate the poor thing, talking the same sort of smack Ruby’s former Homeworld commanding officer, Condor Agate, used to dish out. Ruby grinds her teeth together so hard as she watches this display that the pressure and heat alone might be enough to form a brand new batch of Gems. Jasper even finds a moment to rope Amethyst into her insults, which almost has the stone in question summoning her whip in pure unfiltered fury. It’s only Steven and Peridot’s quick clutch on her shoulders that holds her back from steamrolling into the clearing with zero preparation and potentially making a terrible mistake. Still, she’s gotta admit, the temptation to whoop this Homeworld brute’s butt right this minute is devilishly hard to resist.

Ruby growls, one of her gauntlets emerging into existence on her clenched fist with a burst of light. “Oh-hoh, do I wanna launch this baby right into her dumb, chalky face…!”

“But maybe first we should go back to the temple and grab reinforcements?” Peridot whispers hastily, whirling around to face her. Panic visibly tightens its grip on her form with each passing second. 

She pauses a moment to let the logic of this suggestion sink in, gaze hardened, and self-consciously aware of how her fellow Gems are (wrongfully) looking towards her as their leader in this chaos. What options do they even have? They can choose to fight, that’s one. They could disengage. They could retreat to Beach City and seek backup. If they were truly desperate, they could surrender. (Although she’s not confident Jasper would gracefully accept anyone’s defeat, not until it ended with their poofed— maybe even shattered— gemstones littering the coarse sand.)

As the gears are still pirouetting in her mind, she turns towards Steven, who nods in vehement agreement of Peridot’s strategy, his mouth stretched thin.

Sighing with frustration, she loosens her grip, recalling how even Garnet was barely able to match up with Jasper’s might. “Yeah, you’re right. She’d beat us into the dirt without Pearl or Sapphire.”

“Okay, so far we got three votes for retreat,” he says, holding up the appropriate number of digits as a visual. “Amethyst?”

In sync, the trio turn towards where the quartz just stood and find nothing but faint granules of recently upended dust filtering through a beam of sunlight. Both Peridot and Steven let out a fearful squeak at her absence.

“W-where is she?” the former Homeworld technician cries, craning her neck over the top of the rock formation to try and secure a visual.

“Up there!” Steven exclaims under his breath, pointing at a ridge a good ten feet above them that crosses from the arched entrance of this natural amphitheater all the way to the other side where Jasper stands, her back still turned to them.

Following the path of his index finger, Ruby catches a flash of purple, black and lavender stealthily advancing along the narrow rim towards the very soldier who reportedly poofed her with a single strike about a week back. The light sustaining her form nearly drains from all her limbs and rushes back to her gem. 

“Oh, shards no…”

Stars above, what the hell is her problem? she thinks, her mind riding in a narrow track between exacerbated vexation and dread. Does she have a death wish, or something?? Surely the last place a rational person would choose to run is directly into the arms of the Gem who clobbered them into a senseless cloud at their last meeting. Surely a rational person would instead choose to retreat and regroup. However, as she glumly reflects upon the dour happenings of the past few days, Amethyst’s actions prove she’s currently unable to think rationally about Jasper or any other kind of conflict. She’s been markedly sullen at everyone around her ever since she first got her butt whooped. Obsessed with her private training sprees. Emotionally stand-offish. Prone to making rash decisions, like letting her mouth run off at poor hapless Steven about matters that aren’t his fault, or slashing her whip right at people’s feet to push them away, or… or rushing directly towards Jasper in an enclosed space with little to no backup just because she’s desperate to show her up for the sake of her own self-worth, or whatever.

And Ruby gets it, to an extent. She understands how cripplingly powerless it can feel to be written off as ‘the weak one,’ as nothing but an expendable. She understands the vivid temptation to let one’s anger drive such antagonistic confrontations. However, she’d also like to believe that she carries enough self respect in this gem to not throw herself right on an enemy’s anvil. Whether or not Amethyst possesses the same level of restraint is another question entirely. She flexes nervous, twitchy fingers at her side as she watches her dear friend creep further along the rim, ever closer to what she fears will be her unquestionable demise. 

With the corrupted Gem’s racket still occupying Jasper’s undivided attention, Amethyst leaps from the cliff’s edge and into the clearing, pulling her whip from her gem in midair. The moment her toes touch the ground again, she slashes its barbed ends at the bars of the cage, right next to the quartz soldier’s hand. Jasper yanks her digits back. Her entire body snaps tense upon this disruption. Watching from behind their rocky cover, Ruby, Steven, and Peridot bite back the urge to gasp in shock. 

“HEY!” Amethyst yells, lowering on her haunches right behind her opponent. 

Now, there’s obviously no way to prove it without somehow obtaining intimate knowledge of her headspace, but upon external observation, Ruby swears that this big, buff Beta Kindergarten quartz is masking surprise. The sentiment is visible in the alignment of her shoulders, lifted high and tight against her neck. It’s visible in her narrow stance, light years away from the proper form of a soldier expecting battle. Flexing her thick, dexterous fingers at her side, she makes a blatant show of puffing out her chest before she turns to face her challenger, an almost predatory smile curving upwards on her lips as she regards her.

“You back away from her,” Amethyst hisses, nodding towards the Gem in the cage.

Jasper lets out a hearty chuckle. “Oh-hoh, what do we have here? You finally decide to crawl back for a rematch, runt?”

She grits her teeth, tightening her fist around the pommel of her weapon. “That’s right. I’m back, and I’mma wipe you all over these cliffs!”

“Perfect,” her opponent practically purrs, cracking her knuckles in anticipation. “I’ve been needing a light warmup.”

 __

Rose approves her mission without question, when she first brings her the idea. Of course she would, in retrospect— the hidden diamond she was. 

Garnet takes forty of her fellow soldiers and friends with her to the Beta Kindergarten. They don’t wield any weapons. These Gems are brand new, stepping into the light for the very first time. There’s no need to threaten them; all she wants is to peacefully talk, to introduce them to the concept of freedom, of choosing their own path beyond the Diamonds’ rule. 

At the time, all she wanted was to follow her beloved leader’s example and choose peace and harmony over subjugation and brutality.

But with the bitter truths they know now, and reflecting upon the horrid atrocities they themselves participated in amidst the war… despite Rose’s self-proclaimed ‘pacifism,’ despite the shaky justifications of their cause being different than Homeworld’s brand of violence... she’s increasingly unsure if any of them ever had a choice.

 __

Tragically, it only takes mere seconds for the initial triumphant beats of Amethyst’s war against Jasper to devolve into a one-sided thrashing. 

With a mighty, almost frenzied yell, Amethyst moves one foot forward for counterbalance and slings the weighted, barbed tip of her weapon directly at her opponent’s face. Jasper catches it midair, mere inches from her gem. An arrogant smile paints her visage. After winding the whip’s end around her hand, she yanks its user towards her with a snap of her wrist, swings her in a wide arc, and effortlessly slams her into the nearest cliff wall, blowing up a huge plume of pulverized rock and dust. It all happens so fast that the rest of the party barely has any time to react. As the rubble settles, Ruby finally spots her friend amidst the chaos, collapsed on hands and knees in the dirt. The poor Gem’s hands are nearly trembling as she vies to rise to her feet again, vies to stand her ground and keep fighting. 

There’s only one thing she knows for sure, watching all this: if hard light were consumable rather than indelible, she would quite literally be chipping away at her knuckles with her teeth by now.

His expression blown wide with fear, Steven breaks their communal silence to holler Amethyst’s name. Hands flexing in and out of fists, he darts away from their hiding spot. And they tried to stop him, they really did— it’s simply that he’s far too nimble for either of them to catch in time.

“Steven!” Peridot cries, trying and failing to grab his hand to hold him back.

“Steven, no!” Ruby yells, arms outstretched, as he sprints into the clearing— entirely blowing any remaining amount of cover the three of them had, placing his gem at Jasper’s mercy, and causing a thousand living nightmares to flood into her consciousness in but a millisecond. “Come back!!”

“Wait! Wait,” he gasps, waving his arms wildly to catch the larger quartz’s attention as he passes into the center of this natural coliseum, firmly planting himself at Amethyst’s side. “Stop! We don’t need to do this!”

Giving a growl that would rival that of a corrupted Gem’s, Ruby clenches her fingers around thick coils of her hair at either side of her head and yanks. “Aughh, why does nobody listen to me when I’m short??” 

A faint trail of glowing embers marks a record of her path as she leaves Peridot by their rocky outcropping and storms right into the open after him. Oh, hoh, hoh— that boy can disobey her clear, simple orders all he wants, but in his folly he’s forgetting one very important fact: rubies are stubborn Gems. And she’ll fight to protect him from the crossfire of Jasper’s hubris and Amethyst’s self-destruction even if that means braving her deepest terrors to run out there and drag him back to safety herself.

(Ideally, she’d be able to drag Amethyst with her out of the thunderdome as well, but she’s also quite the stubborn one. So try as she may, that’s not likely to happen.)

Ruby strides towards the middle of the clearing and defiantly plants her feet in the sterile soil right in front of Steven, and adjacent to Amethyst. She summons her gauntlets, her features twisting in a scowl. “Stand down and let them go!” she shouts up at that bulky orange quartz with all the Garnet-like confidence she can muster. “This is not a Homeworld controlled planet!”

“Steven, Ruby, get out of here!” Amethyst hisses under her breath, her battle-ready stance solidifying with a strange mixture of apprehension and anger as she regards the two of them.

“No!” she shoots back, tugging at her arm. “Come on, you know I can’t just leave you here.”

Jasper’s molten amber eyes narrow, her steely gaze colliding right into her.

“ You,” she says, enunciated as sharp as a dagger. “One half of that vile war machine.”

“War machine?!” Steven cries, distraught by the very implication. “She’s not a war machine! Garnet fuses for love!”

“Yeah!” Ruby jabs her fist in the air loud and proud.

The Homeworld warrior scoffs, seemingly not impressed by their display of solidarity. She folds her arms solid across the Yellow Diamond insignia emblazoned upon her chest and steps closer to address her directly. “And where’s this love now?” she spits, mockingly stooping to her level.

And despite the faint, triumphant memories of her last incursion with this quartz, (well… Garnet’s last incursion), she can’t help but cower in her presence, can’t help but crumble like the deficient sandstone of this very kindergarten under the cruel, personalized precision of her blunt words. Because... she’s right. Because that’s the whole problem, the pulsing heart of life’s cruel game. Fusion offered her a tantalizing taste of freedom, a glimpse of a reality where, together, a lowly guard and her sapphire could achieve literally anything through the strength of their love!— but that world feels like nothing more but an unobtainable mirage now. She’s absolutely useless on her own, just some pathetic waste of resources! No authority, no power, no wisdom of foresight— she brings nothing to the Crystal Gems’ cause. She never did. It was always her. Tears bead at her widening eyes, her gauntleted fists already beginning to tremble at her sides. 

“I-I…”

“Where’s any of your power now?” Jasper continues as she raises back to her full height, lifting both open hands towards the empty, cloud-streaked skies. She throws her head back as she offers them all a bright, boastful chuckle. “To think I used to view you traitors as a threat, but now even your disgraceful cause is falling apart, isn’t it… Rose?”

Still standing a step behind her, Steven’s immediate reply brims with tones of frustration. “I’m not—“

“But you’re wrong!” a high, familiar voice urgently calls out from behind them all. 

This whole messy confrontation breaks to a halt as everyone turns to gape at the lone Gem poking her head out above the rocky outcropping. Peridot gasps at the sudden influx of attention, and hastily ducks for cover again. 

“What are YOU doing here?” Jasper growls with annoyance, grinding one of her feet in the dirt as if inwardly hoping she could shift the very earth they stand on and finally gain the advantage of surprise once more.

“I-I…” the green Gem stammers, slowly creeping out from her hiding spot, summoning newfound confidence as she lays her eyes on each and every one of her friends. “I’m here because our cause hasn’t fallen apart! We live on Earth to be free, to learn new things about ourselves. Like how I can bend metal to my bidding!” she exclaims, tossing enthusiastic fists into the air.

On the cliff face over twenty feet away, a skinny length of metal from one of the injector’s legs slips from the device, falls straight down, and noisily clatters as it collides against the rocky soil. Amethyst facepalms. Meanwhile, Jasper appears so underwhelmed by this display that in any other circumstance, her glazed-over expression could be comedic.

Peridot briefly scowls at her botched handiwork. “And sure,” she shrugs, nodding towards that shard of metal, “nothing’s ever perfect here, but together, we work to help and support each other, just like we’re supporting Amethyst now. Isn’t that freedom worth fighting for?”

A few beats pass as the heart of this proclamation sinks in, the ticking seconds seeing Steven beam in pride at his friend’s progression since the beginning of her stay on Earth, and Jasper’s features scrunch inwards in an almost sour manner. Between the stifling roots of her own despair, even Ruby herself can’t help but feel a little uplifted by this hopeful sentiment. It’s a well-timed salve to an old burn, a naive yet ultimately truthful promise of lighthearted days to come. After all, hasn’t her time as a Crystal Gem taught her by now that no circumstance is permanent? That a single unifying cause can collapse empires like a wildfire, can continually reshape one’s entire understanding of existence? Her gauntleted hands shift at her side as a new spark of timid confidence ignites at her core. What was she thinking, letting this brute of a quartz tower over her and define the very pillars of her own story? She’s better than this. For the very sake of her friends she has to be!

But alas, before this newfound bravery can see its hour of triumph on this secluded battlefield, she finds herself once again cast aside by one of the very friends she’s vying to protect.

Amethyst growls in frustration at their continued presence, and summons her weapon. “UGH, you GUYS!” She slashes its barbed tips against the cliff face right above Peridot, not close enough to hit her, but certainly with enough force that it spooks her into diving behind the low rock formation again. Scowling, she then turns and plucks an actively protesting Steven right off the ground. “Get out of here!” she yells, tossing him back towards the clearing’s entrance. “This isn’t your fight!”

Ruby gives a sharp yelp as she just barely leaps backwards to dodge the business end of her whip, swinging low in a vain attempt to tangle up her feet. “Hey—!”

“It’s just you and me, Jasper,” the purple quartz breathes heavily, and abruptly whirls around to jab her finger towards her opponent. “ONE-ON-ONE!”

Silently, a consenting smirk riding over her lips, the taller Gem summons her ramming helmet in a glittering flash of light.

 __

The mission is— in the terms of the brave humans they sometimes fight alongside— a bloodbath. 

When they first warped in, Garnet only expected to find a small handful of disoriented jaspers, citrines, and carnelians roaming about. Gems they could talk to. Gems they could reason with, just as Rose reasoned with her fellow quartzes at the very start of this bold rebellion. Instead, what emerges soon after their arrival is more shocking and unpredictable than any future Garnet could’ve ever visualized.

Bursting from the very heart of this slapdash, rushed Kindergarten, despite every single locational and structural disadvantage this place stacks against one’s favor, is Her.

The strongest, most perfectly formed jasper she’s ever laid eyes on. She’s seven feet tall, built as solid as diamond, her flawlessly faceted gemstone gleaming bright and proud in the rising sun. She wastes no time in following the miserable orders the Great Diamond Authority cruelly embedded deep within her soul, immediately calling the hundreds of scattered and confused off-color Gems surrounding her to action.

Garnet and her squadron simply don’t have enough time to intervene, to try and settle this skirmish halfway peacefully. They don’t have the numbers. 

Twenty three Crystal Gems are shattered that day. Numerous more on both sides are cracked or poofed.

And yet one of the greatest tragedies, in her mind… is that these emergent Gems never got the proper chance to consider any purpose beyond their assigned station. Never got a chance to glimpse the promise of their own freedom. 

Everything happened so fast. 

She took this place for granted— thanks to her own preconceived notions about the kinds of Gems that could emerge here, utterly failed to foresee this potential turn of events— and in the end it cost lives. Both those of her fellow Crystal Gems, her friends … and those of the Beta quartzes she failed to save from Homeworld’s damaging influence.

That night, as she bitterly weeps for the recovered shards of the beloved they lost, clenches her gauntleted fists tight around her gemstones, she vows to never let such a harrowing tragedy escape her vision again. No more.

A leader like her is not allowed to fail.

 __

With the mighty roar of a lion, Amethyst stamps her leading foot to the ground to center her balance and rears her weapon-wielding arm back, wholly intending to defend her pride from this boorish bully. The first and second slashes are fruitful, one striking Jasper in the face, and the next hitting her chest with such intense force that it slams her into the cliff wall a few feet back, but Ruby can’t help but dread the litany of unknown possibilities haunting their future as she watches, powerless in her lack of second sight to influence their present. Could Amethyst win this fight? Sure. There’s gotta be at least one river of time where that occurs, where Jasper is so wrapped up within that facade of insufferable hubris that she fails to take her seriously as an opponent and pays the price. But on the other hand, she senses so many chinks in Amethyst’s armor that she can’t help but fear the opposite. She’s blinded by her anger, unable to consider consequence rationally. Her form in battle— compared to her usual performance— is notably sloppy, as if she’s throwing herself at this fight with such an explosion of tangled, raw emotion that her years of training and refinement have all but melted away in the inferno. Her fingers are trembling as she tightens her grasp on the whip’s pommel.

All of this stated, Ruby may not possess the gift of Sapphire’s future vision, but she has more than enough experience on patrol and on the battlefield to recognize a soldier who is woefully unprepared for a fight. Something terrible is about to happen, she can just feel it.

“Be careful!!” she cries, cupping her hands around her mouth.

“It’s fine, she’s totally rocking this!” Steven says with a huge grin, seeming uncharacteristically calm, given the circumstances. He whoops, and punches his fist in the air. “Go Amethyst!”

Ruby and Peridot briefly match eyes, the noted concern in their gazes pointing towards the fact that they both think that Amethyst’s insistence to fight is reckless and naive. In retrospect, of course her friend would agree with her. She spent a lot of time cohabiting with Jasper on their journey to Earth, so she’s bound to be well aware of her fundamental nature.

At the moment however, given the shorter quartz’s tunnel vision, she’s certain that any of their valid concerns would fall upon deaf ears. 

“Who’s weak now, huh?” Amethyst spits from across the clearing, flicking her wrist to activate the triplet spiked balls at the ends of her whip, an upgrade gifted by Bismuth she surprisingly hasn’t seemed to have abandoned. With a holler, she swings her leading arm back and around to build up momentum and then slashes at Jasper’s chest three times in succession. The last hit comes with enough force to push her backwards in the dirt a few feet. “Who’s powerless NOW?!”

Then, just as Ruby fearfully predicted, the winds shift. 

The firestorm doubles back upon them, Jasper merely swatting the flail ends away like they were nothing more but a momentary nuisance. Her expression narrows into a scowl. Emergent shock mingles alongside the dark cloud of Amethyst’s anger like wayward lightning bolts as she growls in frustration, the side-swept fringe of her hair shadowing her features. In retaliation she summons a second whip and immediately slashes them both against the soil, endowing them with a crackling, purple-tinged energy, almost a fire of her own making. She tucks into a ball and literally hurls herself at the quartz warrior, her form only recognizable in the heat of that moment via a dazzling blaze of light.

The resulting collision throws up so much dirt and smoke that Ruby has to throw her small body in front of Steven’s to shield him from the worst of the debris. 

When the thick curtains of dust finally part, the consequences of this overly-impulsive move are revealed. Jasper still stands proud and tall, her mettle unaffected by this attempted show of strength. Barely a scuff even marrs her uniform. Meanwhile, Amethyst lays hunched over on hands and knees, hacking up fragmented remnants of sandstone she likely swallowed amidst the impact. (Alas, that’s the price she pays for choosing to always reform with an semi-operational digestive system.)

“Is it sinking in yet?” Jasper queries pointedly, advancing towards the trembling Gem on the ground.

Amethyst is so exhausted she can’t even muster the strength to respond, her arms quivering beneath her as she vies to hold up the simulated weight of her hard light form.

Her foe roughly kicks her in the chest, her foot striking mere inches under her gem. Ruby visibly cringes at both the shallow huff of distress that this hit elicits from her, and Steven’s cries of fear in response. 

“It doesn’t matter how long or hard you fight,” Jasper boasts, her imposing figure hovering like a bad omen over her quartz sibling’s, “because I’ll always be stronger! Runts like you never had a chance. Runts like you are worthless.”

Angrily, she grinds her teeth together, cradling the vulnerable gemstone on her hand. 

Worthless.

Worthless.

Who the hell does this square hunk of stone think she is, slinging such heavy-handed words around like the blunt end of a mallet?

“Get your worthless, sorry forms back in formation!” wretched old Condor Agate used to scream at her and the others in her squad, back when she spent eternity guarding empty corridors, back before she was eventually reassigned to Sapphire’s personal guard. “You’re an embarrassment to your commanding agates, all of you!”

Ruby growls, finding her resolve. That’s it. No more. She can’t bear to stand at the sidelines gripped in fear while some bully is literally beating her friend into the ground, both physically and emotionally. She can’t bear for Amethyst to fall prey to the same type of unwavering torment she herself experienced all those years ago on Homeworld, torment that utterly deformed her sense of self-worth until recognizing any ounce of good in herself became a gargantuan, near-impossible task. Admittedly, she still hasn’t healed from those days. Not entirely. Sometimes she’s unsure she ever will. But it’s her duty to put an end to this, to what’s happening in the here and now. After all, what’s the point of being a Crystal Gem if you don’t look after the people you love?

“We have to separate them,” she says firmly, turning towards Steven and Peridot. “She’s gonna get clobbered!”

The former kindergartener’s expression warps to despair under her visor. “But how? She doesn’t even want us to be here! And none of us are strong enough to face Jasper…”

“Could we make a distraction?” Steven suggests, his voice tinged with the same sort of urgency she feels thrumming like a frantic drum line at the depths of her core.

Humming in thought, Ruby considers the status quo. To no success, she attempts to ignore her friends’ expectant gazes, trustingly falling upon her exactly like all those fellow rebellion soldiers used to look at Garnet… as their de facto leader. But she’s no leader, far from it. Garnet would barely have to think before coming up with a genius, foolproof plan, but she’s going into everything blind. She can’t weigh out potential consequences before rushing into action. She has no ability to pinpoint the most ideal outcome and work backwards from there. With all this in mind, it’s really no wonder that Garnet passed command of the group to Pearl instead of her. At least Pearl has experience leading missions solo.

And yet desperate times call for desperate measures.

She scans their surroundings for inspiration, considering what options may be open to them. At this point there’s no time to double back to the barn or the temple for reinforcements. (And she strongly doubts Lapis would care to so much as match eyes with Jasper, anyways.) One or more of them could always charge into the fray to attempt and break up this small skirmish by force, but that would risk their safety, too. The last thing she wants is to knowingly throw her friends into harm’s way. No, the best option would be breaking the two quartzes up using something in their immediate environment, something large and heavy but capable of being quickly moved, something like...

Her eyes snap wide. “That injector!” she whispers excitedly, pointing to the hulking piece of junked equipment precariously hanging from the cliff wall, only stabilized by a few legs that still penetrate the cracked sandstone. “It’s right above them. If we knocked it down, then maybe…”

Peridot flashes a hopeful smile, and nods.

“We’re on it,” Steven says, summoning his shield. The two of them glance at each other, perhaps silently coordinating their plan, and then leap into action.  

“Metal powers activate!” she exclaims, and throws her hands up in the direction of that rusted injector. 

Subtly but noticeable, its legs begin to shift and creak under the force of her ferrokinesis, loosening from the eroding stone. Licking his lips, Steven aims his weapon and hurls. It strikes the device directly at its center, clanging against solid metal. The injector wobbles for a moment, its delicate balance obviously destabilized by this force, and then begins to slide free from the porous kindergarten wall. One still-impacted leg snaps under the torque as the cylinder’s immense weight plummets towards the ground.

“Heads up!” Steven calls out, causing a bemused Jasper to flick her gaze skyward, towards the falling object staining the soil with an ever-growing shadow.

The collision of the junky old injector almost appears like a small explosion, flinging dirt a good ten feet into the air and resolutely separating the two quartzes. But Ruby barely has time to high five Peridot and celebrate their success before the kid she’s supposed to be keeping safe darts off into the clearing once more. She hisses a small curse under her breath. Drat, of course he’d run straight to Amethyst’s side again at his first opportunity! She should’ve seen that coming a whole star system away. At least Jasper’s been temporarily marooned on the other side of that busted Gem tech, though.

The real question is, for how long? 

Nibbling at her lip, she hastily sprints towards the edge of the injector to keep a watchful eye on their opponent as Steven attempts to have a mid-battlefield heart-to-heart. (At least, that’s what she assumes he’s doing. Admittedly, they kinda failed to hammer out the fine details of their plan before sprinting into action. Her fault.) Thankfully though, at first glimpse it seems the impact’s force has effortlessly knocked Jasper clear off her feet. She seems slightly dazed, but beyond that remains unscathed. Time will only tell if this strategy was a beneficial one. Briefly turning back towards the group, Ruby watches Steven crouch next to Amethyst. She’s muttering something to him, she thinks— her expression raw with fresh tears— but her words are far too hushed to make out. Whatever she shares, however, it’s clearly enough to elicit a strong emotional reaction from her companion.

“No, no!”  he pleads, hurt painting his features. “My mom- Rose, she doesn’t matter. Whatever Jasper thinks doesn’t matter. She's the only one who thinks you should be like her!”

“But-”

“Stop trying to be like Jasper. You're nothing like Jasper! You're like me!”

“But even you’re different!” she explodes at first, but any anger present in her form immediately evaporates into something more innately hesitant, more self-conscious. Her fingers claw thick troughs into the reddened soil as she curls them inwards. “I’m not like you at all, I’m not some di—”

“No, that’s not the point!” he says, tears of his own budding at the corners of his eyes. “You’re like me because we’re both not like anybody. And yeah, it sucks. Everyone always expects us to be someone we’re not, but you know what? At least I've always got you. And you've got me! So stop leaving me out of this!”

Slowly pushing herself to her feet behind the junked injector, Jasper groans, her voice strained with newfound exhaustion Ruby never imagined she possessed. 

“Y’guys, she’s getting up!” she calls out to her friends behind her, equally a warning as it is a call to action. After all, if this bold stunt finally managed to crack through the first layer of their opponent’s armor, then they might genuinely stand a chance now.

She’ll never know if they heard her, though— because in the same split second she turns back to check on them, the now embracing pair is engulfed in a blinding white light.

Even in the absence of a soldier's fire, everything turns to smoke.

[jannaphia]

i am SO sorry that i'm asking you so many questions! i've seen a lot of methods for coloring over black and white, but i was wondering what method you use? i'm a bit colorblind so i do my work initially in b/w and color it in when i'm done, because it's easier for me to work with the values that way. I'm still experimenting with methods of adding color.

Hey anon, no worries! Seriously, I like answering these kind of questions, so pls throw them at me any time.

Personally I start out in color, simply because some hues are value-bound. That means you either have to be clear about the colors you want to lay on top of your b/w painting before you start painting, or match the colors to your b/w painting - so you might not get the result you had in mind. (Or you can play around with layer modes for hours until you get there somewhat.)

Reds are especially finicky when it comes to it and not everything that looks good in b/w will read well in color.Case in point:

The set designers of the Addams Family had the opposite problem - the house was supposed to look dark and morbid but they also had to make the set read and not have it drown in shadows. If you were to put the b/w image into photoshop and tried to color it with reds and dark browns you would probably not get far, because again -

Colors are Value-Bound

Here’s a chroma value chart by James Gurney that shows what chroma corresponds to which value:

As you can see, bright oranges/yellows/greens are on top of the scale and blues and purples on the bottom.

That’s the thing most people don’t realise when they lay colors over a b/w image. It’s fine when you’re exploring and are not stressed about which color goes where, but once you have an established character for example, or just want that piece of cloth to be that shade of red, you might get into trouble if you didn’t keep the value/chroma relation in mind.

Layer Mode - Color: The chroma reacts to the underlying value.

Layer Mode - Overlay: The chroma and value react to the underlying value - which means you might get value shifts in your overall composition which can unbalance the whole thing 👌

If you already know which one of the eight shades of red you want/need, you have to make sure to pick the right value for the right layer mode before you do anything. It’s all very technical and requires a lot of planning and foresight so I usually don’t directly color over my b/w sketches/paintings.

I do often start out with a value sketch so I know if the composition reads well, then put it into a different file and paint the actual painting from scratch in color. (Here’s a step-by-step thingy.)Generally, I begin very desaturated and build up the colors as I go along. (Here’s a how-I-pick-my-colors.)

SO, I can’t really give you any secret tips on how to effectively use layer modes because I too, am an idiot when it comes to that haha

If you’re struggling with color, read James Gurney’s ‘Color and Light’ (I know I already said it a thousand time BUT I WILL SAY IT A THOUSAND MORE) and study artists that use a very limited palette (18th-19th century is always good). You don’t have to jump straight into landscape painting and shit, that can be super overwhelming if you’re already having a hard time. 

In most cases, starting out in b/w will give you a bit of a ‘washed-out’ look no matter what you do, but if that’s what you like then roll with it! (len-yan f e does wonderful stuff ♥ )

Basically it’s just another method that will give a specific look to your painting, and if that’s what you want then yay. But I honestly wouldn’t use it as a crutch. If colors are your worst enemy, try to understand them first!

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. ♥ 

[moistmailman]

Pyrrha, yawning: Oh gosh. I’m exhausted. I really need some rest.

Jaune: Hey Pyrrha, I need a favor!

Pyrrha: Huh? What?

Jaune: Look, I really need someone to help me study! Otherwise I might fail this test tomorrow.

Pyrrha, awkwardly: Well Jaune, I would love to but I kinda need to-

Jaune, looking at her pleadingly:............

Pyrrha: To uh....I need to uh.....*sighs* okay, fine.

Jaune, happily: Yes! Thank you, Pyrrha! You’re the best!

Pyrrha, putting on a fake smile: Hey, what re friends for?

*45 minutes later*

Pyrrha, walking to her dorm: Well that didn’t make me any less tired. *yawn* Well at least I’m going to appreciate this nap much more, so that’s goo-

Yang, walking up: Yo p money!

Pyrrha, smiling tiredly: Oh Hey Yang. What do you want?

Yang: Well I’m about to work out but I need someone to spot me. Do you think you can help me?

Pyrrha: What? I don’t know, Yang. I just got done helping Jaune, and I’m complet-

Yang, looking somewhat sad now:........

Pyrrha: I uhm uh.......you know what? Sure, I’ll be your spotter.

Yang, happily: Really!? Thanks P money! You’re absolutely the best!

Pyrrh, sighing: You’re welcome, Yang.

*one hour later*

Pyrrha, noticibly more tired: Oh geez, that really didn’t help me whatsoever. *Deeply yawns* At least there’s a nice soft bed waiting for me when I ge-

Weiss, walking up: Hey Pyrrha!

Pyrrha, quietly sighing: Oh no. What now?

Weiss: I need a real quick favor from you.

Pyrrha: Weiss, I don’t think I wouldn’t be able to help you right now! I’m exhausted.

Weiss: It will be real quick, Pyrrha. I promise. I just need help bringing a bunch of school equipment to Goodwitch’s class and that’s it. It will only take 10 minutes tops, no more.

Pyrrha, rubbing her forehead soothingly: I don’t know, Weiss....

Weiss: Glynda promised me extra credit for it, so I’m sure she’ll give you extra credit too.

Pyrrha:...........*DEEPLY sighs* Okay, fine. Let’s get this done with.

Weiss: Yes! Thanks Pyrrha! This is going to be much faster with the two of us.

Pyrrha, quietly: Yay, can’t wait.

*20 minutes later*

Pyrrha, drowsily walking: That did not take ten minutes at all. That took much longer. *sighs* Just remember the bed waiting for you, Pyrrha. Remember how comfy it will be when you finally sleep on i-

Blake, walking up: Hey Pyrrha?

Pyrrha, gritting her teeth tightly:..........

Blake: Pyrrha? Hello? Are you alright?

Pyrrha, reluctantly turning around: Yes, I’m fine. Perfectly fine. Can I help you?

Blake: Yes, you can. I want to move my bookshelf in my dorm, but I cant find anyone on my team to help me. Think you can?

Pyrrha, completely defeated: Really? You couldn’t find anyone on your team?.....really?

Blake: Nope. So you think you can help me? I would really appreciate it.

Pyrrha, eye twitching:........

Blake: Pyrhha?..........are you uh......okay?

Pyrrha, taking a deep breath: Yep! Everything’s just.....peachy! Let’s move that book case, shall we?

Blake, sighing in relief: Thanks Pyrrha, you’re the-

Pyrrha: best? Yeah, I know! I’ve heard already! Hahahahahahaha!

*Ten minutes later*

Pyrrha, hurrying to her dorm: Just get to my bed! Just get to my bed! Just get to my bed! Just get to my be-

???: Hey Pyrrha!

Pyrrha, angrily turning around: WHAT!? WHAT DO YOU WANT! WHAT CAN SOMEONE POSSIBLY WANT FROM ME NOW!

Ruby, wide eyed:......

Pyrrha, also wide eyed:.......

Ruby, heartbroken: I-I just wanted to see if y-you wanted t-to c-cuddle w-with me, s-since you look very tired right now and in need of comfort.

Pyrrha: D:

Ruby, tearing up: I-I’m s-sorry, I didn’t mean to b-bother you. I j-just wanted to be helpful. I-I'm g-going to go no-

Pyrrha, tearfully hugging Ruby: MY POOR BABY! I’M SO SORRY! I DIDN’T MEAN IT! I WOULD LOVE TO CUDDLE WITH YOU! I SWEAR! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE CUDDLING WITH YOU! PLEASE FORGIVE ME! PLEASE STOP CRYING! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

[cottontail20]

In Happy Times, Our Love Does Grow, Chapter 27: A Kiss Before Christmas

Summary: Viv learns that her Daddy has not kissed Wanda yet, and decides to help.

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20601530/chapters/51967873

After a quick stop by Wanda's apartment to let her change into some fresh clothes, they headed to the Mall. In an almost-Christmas miracle, it actually didn't take them too long to get a parking space, but inside, the Mall was absolutely packed with sale-goers on the hunt for bargains.

Wanda and Vision each held one f Vivian's hands as they slowly made their way through the crowds. Wanda, remembering what happened the last time the Mall had been busy, kept a very tight grip. Perhaps slightly too tight..

"Wanda.." Viv whined slightly, "You're squishing my hand.."

"Oh.." Wanda loosened her grip a little. " 's just so many people around, I didn't want you to get lost again.."

"I'm not gonna get lost" Viv huffed. She hadn't even really been 'lost' last time, anyway.

"Vivian" Vision lightly admonished her, "Wanda is only worried because she cares about you." He found himself touched by Wanda's concern for his daughter, and suddenly, he very much wanted to kiss her.. But a crowded Mall caught in the madness of Black Friday sales did not seem like a suitably romantic location for a first kiss, so he simply kissed her cheek, smiling when Wanda blushed.

"Oh.." Viv, suitably chastened by her Father's words, blushed as well. "Sorry, Wanda."

"It is okay, Fata dulce" Wanda smiled softly, bending to kiss the top of Viv's head. "I am sorry if I hurt your hand." --

Before leaving for the Mall, Vision had showed Wanda Viv's letter to Santa Claus. Wanda, with inside knowledge gained from working in the Mall, had let him know where he could obtain most of the items the little girl wished for, for the best prices, also accounting for Black Friday deals. Now, Wanda just had to keep Vivian occupied while Vision shopped, and thankfully, they had a perfect plan.

"Ooh, look Vivian" Vision pointed as they approached the 'Santa's Grotto' display that was erected in the mall every year, with a long line of children waiting to have their picture taken with St. Nick. "Santa is here!"

"Yay!" Viv grinned.

"You know" said Wanda, crouching to Viv's eye level, "I think your Daddy might have a bit of boring grown-up shopping to do. Maybe I can wait here in line with you to get your photo taken, while he gets everything done."

"Is that okay, Daddy?" Viv looked up at her Father hopefully. "Can I wait and get a picture with Santa, Daddy?"

"I don't see why not" Vision crouched to kiss his daughter's cheek. "Be a good girl for Wanda until I get back."

"I will."

"Thank you for this" Vision stood, flashing Wanda a grateful smile, and kissed her cheek again. He was increasingly tempted to go for her lips instead, but the time still didn't feel quite right.

"Cu placere.. You're welcome." Even though he had kissed her cheek quite a few times now, Wanda still blushed. "Go do your boring stuff. Miss Vivian and I will be fine here." --

The line was long, but moved quite quickly, and more of the Christmas display became visible as they shuffled along. While Wanda still found the constantly looping Christmas Carols somewhat irksome, she discovered that they did not bother her as much when Vivian's sweet little voice was singing along.

"Look!" Viv pointed. "There's mistletoe over there. Don't you gotta kiss someone if you stand under it with them?"

"Well," said Wanda, "Nobody should ever have to kiss anyone if they don't want to. But if the people standing under the mistletoe like each other, they'll usually kiss."

"So you and my Daddy would kiss?"

"Uh.." Wanda paused awkwardly. "Maybe."

"Why only maybe? Don't you like Daddy?"

"I like your Daddy very much, but we haven't kissed yet."

"Why not?" Viv's little brow furrowed. "You're his girlfriend. Hope is Uncle Scott's girlfriend, and they kiss lots.. Don't you want to kiss Daddy?"

" I do, but we.. We're just waiting for the right time, Fata dulce." Wanda blushed. "A first kiss is supposed to be special.."

"Oh.." Viv grew thoughtful.

"Ooh, look. You're next in line to see Santa!"

"Yay!"

"Yes.. yay.." Wanda was very grateful for the distraction. When Viv's turn came, she happily rushed over to sit on Santa's knee.

Vision returned just as Wanda was collecting the photo, shopping bags in hand. Viv took the picture from Wanda, happily presenting it to her Father.

"Look, Daddy!"

"That's a very nice picture, Vivian" Vision smiled. "Did you have a good time?"

"Uh-huh" Viv nodded.

"How did your 'boring grown up shopping' go?" Wanda smirked.

"All done" Vision winked at her.

Wanda's heart fluttered. And if he kept making her blush like this, she thought, her cheeks might turn permanently red.

Viv glanced between them both, then looked back at the mistletoe display. Her young mind was beginning to form an idea. --

When dropping Wanda home sometime later, Viv put her plan into action.

"Wanda" She said, "You should come over for movie night Tomorrow."

"Should I now?" Wanda chuckled.

"You'd be very welcome" Vision added. "If you're not busy, of course.."

"I'm not" Wanda kissed his cheek as she got out of the car. "I'd love to come watch a movie with you two. Just text me what time to come over."

"I will" Vision smiled. "See you Tomorrow night, then?"

"Tomorrow night" Wanda nodded.

She waved until the car was out of sight, and soon after they turned the corner, Vision's phone buzzed and he smiled. He didn't look at it, but he knew it was Wanda texting to let him know she was inside safely.

Then he spotted Viv grinning in the back seat, a cheeky sort of grin. Knowing his daughter- Sweet, but mischievous- he instantly became suspicious.

"You seem very happy, Vivian.."

"Of course I'm happy, Daddy" She immediately tried to change her grin from cheeky to innocent. "It's Christmas soon!"

"Ah" Vision smirked. "Christmas, of course.."

With Vision's attention back on the road, the mischief returned to Viv's smile. Auntie Nat was babysitting her Tomorrow afternoon. She would help. --

Of course, Vision's suspicions hadn't actually faded. But, his daughter was only five. Clever for her age, but still only five. How much mischief could she really get into?

Vision failed to account for the 'Nat factor' in his calculations, but even if he had, the last thing he had expected when he returned home from working a children's party the next afternoon was to find sprigs of mistletoe hanging from every single doorway in the house, and various other strategic positions on the ceiling.

"What.. What is going on here?"

"It's mistletoe, Daddy" Viv grinned innocently.

"Wha.." He frowned, turning his attention to Nat. "You helped her do this?"

"Kid has me wrapped around her little finger" Nat shrugged.

"But.. Why mistletoe?"

"It's to help you and Wanda kiss" Viv bounced excitedly.

"Vivian" Vision sighed, "This is very sweet of you, but I really don't think trapping Wanda into a kiss is a good idea."

"I don't think that's what Viv's trying to do.." Nat pointed out. "It's just that.. You and Wanda both seem nervous about this, and maybe you need a little.."

"Mistletoe" Viv smiled.

"I was going to say 'push'" said Natasha, "But.. yeah, I guess."

Vision thought for a moment. A very long moment. Because he did want to kiss Wanda, and he got the feeling that she might have wanted to kiss him too, But.. maybe not like this.

"Natasha, can you stay with Viv a little longer?" He asked. "I'll need a shower, and then I think there's something I have to do.." --

Vision showered, scouring off his work make up. Washed and brushed his hair. Wore one of his nicer shirts, and his best pants. Brushed his hair again.

Then, leaving Viv in Natasha's safe, if slightly scheming hands, he hopped in the car and drove to Wanda's apartment.

By now it was early evening, the sun beginning to set. Wanda had just been getting ready to leave when she heard a knock on the door. For a moment she considered ignoring the knock, then sighed, moving to answer it.

"Whatever this is better be quick, because I have pla.." She trailed off, surprised to see Vision standing at her door looking rather nervous, but handsome as always. "Vizh.. I, uh.. Thought I was driving myself.."

"I know.. and you still can" Vision twiddled his thumbs a bit. "Just, uh.. Vivian has filled the house with mistletoe. You see, I think she wants me to kiss someone.."

"Oh.." Wanda blushed.

"And I would very much like to kiss that someone too. But.."

"B-But?.."

"I share a lot with my daughter. Almost everything" said Vision. "She is and always will be my number one priority. She has to be."

"Of course" Wanda nodded.

"Even so, I think there should be some things in life.. Some moments.. that I am allowed to keep just for me. I feel like a first kiss is one of those moments.." He took a step closer to Wanda, "Don't you agree?"

"Da.." Wanda's breath caught in her throat. "I mean.. yes."

"I hoped you might.." Vision paused again, growing nervous, almost shy. His hands reached up to gently cup her face. "Can I.. Can I kiss you, Wanda?"

It was the easiest question she had ever answered.

"Yes.."

So he kissed her.

It was nothing like any of the other kisses Wanda had recently experienced. No chapped lips or hot, sour breath. No tasting of alcohol or cigarettes. No tongues shoved down her throat, sloppy and slobbery and far too eager to get to what came after.

Vision's lips were so wonderfully soft as they brushed against hers. He tasted of something sweet and pleasant, with the slightest hint of burnt toast.. So uniquely, wonderfully Vision.. And she knew he did not want anything more from her. Nothing more than this, this single, perfect kiss.

And when they broke apart, what felt like an eternity later, but was probably about forty seconds, Vision's hand was still on her cheek, and he was looking at her like she was something special, something precious, and Wanda's heart felt so full it almost hurt.

"W-Was that okay?" He softly asked.

"Yes" Wanda nodded, and then she kissed him again.

She never wanted to stop.

[minijenn]

Universe Falls, Chapter 71

Yay! Arc 8 has at long, LONG last finally arrived! And with a pretty good chapter too (half of which I cracked down on and wrote over the course of today alone I swear to god). Anyway, I still really like it all the same and I hope ya’ll will too! Enjoy!

Previous: https://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/187831200634/universe-falls-chapter-70-part-2

***

Chapter 71: Same Old World

UHV JAREH'K UHV FMMX SJ TO ZG EEXQK QEIUMPL MLT JLFF AG MEQOJFUBEI VSERZ ALW ZAMLRVZS EYJL, DRASEK EOBIKF M CAEFHE CVQS TLWBD RG FHX IFE OW NDC 8

With both Malachite and the Cluster finally subdued in different, albeit satisfying ways, the Gems and the Pines finally took the much-needed opportunity to relax and regroup. No longer needing to work toward a strict deadline to get the drill done, they all gathered out on the barn’s yard, casually sitting around and intently listening to Peridot zealously recount her, Steven, Ford, and Mabel’s recent, daring, underground adventure to the others.

“It was so intense down there. We were already a few layers into the Earth’s crust when suddenly—WA-PAMO! KA-POWIE!” the green Gem recounted with extensive dramatic flair. “All these gross Cluster limbs started clawing at the drill! So I whipped out my old photon blaster and PEW PEW! CHOW CHOW! Take that Cluster!”

“The sound effects are totally spot on by the way,” Mabel whispered to the others, completely enthralled by Peridot’s tale. “I should know, I was there!”

“A-and I guess the destabilizing hyperfield Ford added onto the drill also… ‘helped’,” Peridot remarked rather dryly. Even so, the author paid her no mind, only barely listening in as he instead casted very frequent glances towards the nearby barn. And he wasn’t the only one doing so either. “B-but anyway, then Steven was all ‘my feelings’ and then up and passes out on us! And then Mabel starts getting all bossy and serious-”

“Hey!” Mabel protested with a pout. “I was just doing what I had to. Besides, you know something’s not a big deal until I have to break Serious Mabel out. Which I don’t like doing; she’s scary.”

While this elicited an amused chuckle from the other Gems, Peridot simply looked to her, confused. “She’s you,” the green Gem pointed out, raising an eyebrow. “But you’re not wrong about the scary part. Speaking of scary, after that, everything started glowing and… well… wait.” Peridot took pause, unfamiliar with the specifics of what happened after that. Specifics that only Steven had really been apart of, given that herself, Mabel, and Ford had only really been spectators on the final leg of their mission at best. “I’m sure Steven can fill you in on the rest since he’s the one who saved us. You should’ve seen it, right Steven? Tell ‘em what happened here!”

Oddly however, the young Gem didn’t comply, his focused instead on the barn and his expression awash with muted concern. Mabel was quick to adopt that concern as she also looked over in that direction, knowing just as well as Steven did who had split off from the group quite some time ago to take up shop inside the barn with a very obvious reason as to why. A reason that, by all accounts, they both genuinely shared.

“Steven?” Peridot pressed again, urging him to pick up where she had left off.

“Huh?” Steven blinked, finally brought out of his distracted train of thought. “Oh, uh, sorry, Peridot. Hold on just a sec, I’ll be right back.”

At this, the young Gem excused himself, making a clear beeline for the barn, only to be stopped just shy of entering it by none other than Mabel. “Steven,” she whispered, grabbing his hand and pulling him back just a bit. “Do you… do you think he’s ok? That they’re both ok?”

Steven frowned at this, sparing another glance back at the barn. By all accounts, shortly after arriving back to the barn with Lapis in tow, Dipper had seemed to be in immensely high spirits, absolutely relieved to finally have his close friend back from the grasp of the toxic prison of a fusion she had trapped herself within. However, it wasn’t very long after the young Gem had healed his battle wounds, that he had quietly retreated to the barn, no doubt intent on staying by the still-unconscious blue Gem until the moment she awakened. And it was a vigil he maintained even hours still, one that rung far too familiar with both Steven and Mabel to another, much more miring attempt Dipper had made only hours after Lapis had first locked herself away in the lake in the first place.

However, things were different now. Lapis was free, returned to them once more from the unforgiving depths of her and Jasper’s once-shared mind. The thought alone that the blue Gem was finally back was incredible enough for Steven and Mabel, but they could only imagine just how much more momentous it all must have been for someone as close to Lapis as Dipper was.

“Well,” Steven said somewhat diffidently, taking the initiative towards the barn once more. “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”

Mabel nodded, opting to remain quiet as her and Steven slowly peered into the barn. They largely lingered in the door frame, taking in the silent, yet surprisingly calming scene that lay before them. Lapis was still completely out of it, softly resting on a pile of hay the kids had prepared for her as she continued seemingly sleeping. Dipper, however, was wide awake and alert, his back turned to the barn entrance as he sat just a few feet away from the blue Gem, carefully watching and waiting and most of all thinking, though about what was really anyone’s guess. Unsure of what to say or do, Steven and Mabel exchanged a brief glance, though ultimately, the latter was the one who worked up the most nerve to finally speak up first.

“Uh… h-hey, bro-bro,” she called with a gentle smile. “How are you and uh, Lapis, doing in here?”

Dipper flinched, letting out a small, startled gasp as he glanced over his shoulder at them. The briefest hint of a tear was in the middle of rolling down his cheek, though he quickly wiped it away in the hopes that neither of them would notice. Even though they both easily had. “Oh! Uh, I—w-we’re fine,” he said, looking back towards Lapis once more. “We’re fine,” he said once more, this time a bit distantly, not really addressing the pair at all as he repeated himself a third time. “She’s fine…”

The small, frail sob he let out at this was more than enough to prompt both Steven and Mabel into action. Without a second thought, they both rushed over to his side, comforting hands on his shoulders as they prepared themselves to console him, only to find an absolutely elated smile on his face instead, even amidst the still steadily-flowing tears.

“D-Dipper?” Steven asked, equally concerned and confused.

“She’s back, you guys…” Dipper said, unable to hold back a small, joyous chuckle. “After all this time, after everything that’s happened, I-I finally—we finally have her back. It’s kind of hard to believe it, but this is real. It’s not just some dream or wish or something; it’s actually happening. Somehow, through some crazy twist of fate or something, I-I guess I really did keep my promise to her after all…”

“Are… are you gonna be ok, bro-bro?” Mabel asked softly, still gripping her brother’s shoulder supportively.

“Are you kidding? Of course I’m ok,” Dipper shook his head with yet another incredulous laugh. “I mean, this is all I’ve wanted for so long now and I finally got it. It’s just…” His smile finally faded as he trained his sights on Lapis’ listless form once more. “I’m worried that Lapis might not be so ok once she wakes up.”

“What do you mean?” Steven asked.

Dipper sighed, shaking his head sadly. “Lapis was trapped down there with Jasper for so long… I may not know everything about fusions, but that’s gotta have some kind of an impact on a Gem, and probably not a very good one at that. Especially since Malachite wasn’t the most… stable fusion in the world…”

Mabel and Steven exchanged a fretful glance at this, both of them taking on the same sort of concerns for Lapis’ wellbeing in light of this fact. While the blue Gem seemed fine physically, there was essentially no telling what her mental or emotional state would be like upon awakening. What she had gone through as Malachite truly was traumatic, and chances were the mere act of freeing her from that twisted fusion in and of itself wouldn’t completely heal all the anguish she had been through. After all, that was a fact the kids knew far too well when it came to the varied trauma they had been through all their own.

“I see you’re all worried about your friend.” The kids all turned, surprised, to see Garnet, standing in the barn’s entryway and surveying the anxious group calmly.

“Y-yeah…” Steven nodded truthfully. “When I saw her in my dreams, it looked like she was fighting so hard to keep Malachite from escaping.”

“And even back on the island, Jasper just kept pushing her back down into Malachite’s mind over and over again,” Dipper added, his tone making his disdain for the orange Gem quite clear. “It was like she was trapped, unable to even control her own body at all. I know way too well just what that’s like…”

“Its true; Lapis spent an unbearable amount of time fused with Jasper,” Garnet said, adjusting her shades. “The emotional and physical strain of that type of fusion… I can’t even imagine. She’s gonna need a lot of time to recover. So it’s a good thing she has friends like you to help her do just that.”

Upon this reassurance, Steven and Mabel were both quick to perk up in the hopes that they really could help Lapis heal in some way, even if it was only a small one. “Right,” they both nodded, determined to do whatever they could for the blue Gem once she awakened.

“Now, come on,” Garnet encouraged with a small grin as she beckoned them out of the barn. “I’m dying to hear more about what happened underground.”

While Mabel and Steven easily complied at this request and began to follow after the Gem leader, Dipper opted to stay behind instead, something that the young Gem in particular noticed as he stopped short briefly. “Uh… Dipper? Are you coming?”

“No, I think I’ll hang out here,” Dipper said, waving the young Gem off as he turned back to face Lapis. “Just in case she wakes up anytime soon, you know?”

“…Yeah,” Steven nodded, completely understanding Dipper’s reasons for doing so. After all, he had been so long without the blue Gem that it only made sense that he’d want to linger by her side as much as he was able now that she had returned.

“But just a heads up, you’re gonna be missing out on one pretty epic story!” Mabel called as her and Steven left the barn, followed by Garnet soon after. The Gem leader did stop short, however, upon noticing another figure standing just shy of the barn’s entrance, largely remaining scarce so the kids wouldn’t notice he had been eavesdropping the entire time. Yet even so, Garnet, of course, hard.

“Ford,” she spoke up, only briefly glancing over her shoulder at the author.

“G-Garnet!” Ford exclaimed, startled and flustered and quite hard-pressed to explain himself. “I was just-”

“You don’t worry,” Garnet assured with a small, knowing smile. “I have a feeling she’ll be glad to see you again.”

The author said nothing to this, his eyes wide with alarm as he glanced between the barn door and the Gem leader before accepting her foresight with a terse nod and heading off. After all, his reunion with the blue Gem would come soon enough; far be it from him to take that first, much more important reunion with her from his much more deserving nephew instead.

***

True to his word, Dipper never left Lapis’ side, even as the hours wore on into the early evening and the blue Gem still showed no signs of waking any time soon. While he easily accepted the sandwich Mabel brought him for dinner as well as her and Steven’s company in watching over Lapis for awhile, he still remained in his spot, largely afraid that if he so much as even looked away, she might wake up without him knowing. In fact, he was fully prepared to stay up all night if he had to, a resolve that quickly fell through when the exhaustion caused by the immense physical strain and heavy flow of emotions he had been under largely all day finally hit him in full force. He wasn’t sure exactly when he had ended up laying back on the barn floor and eventually nodding off, but he had, largely content to have his first truly good night’s rest since the day Malachite had first been formed. Yet, soon enough a quiet sort of shuffling sound slowly roused him from his slumber. And as soon as he opened his eyes to see exactly where that sound was coming from, he was instantly wide awake.

“…L-Lapis?” he whispered, his voice barely even audible as he sat up, but she’d heard him all the same. From her spot near the hole in the barn’s side, she spun around, her wings summoned and her eyes wide as she looked to him, her own amazement seeming to equal his.

“Dipper…” she said, her shoulders dropping with what almost sounded like a sigh of relief. For what felt like ages, neither of them said anything, the nighttime silence echoing through the barn speaking volumes enough already. After all, what was there to really say anyway, when both of them had been waiting, dreaming of this moment that had always seemed so out of reach for so very long now?

In the end though, Dipper was the first to respond, saying nothing as he instead rushed towards the blue Gem, tears welling up in his eyes as he caught her off guard with a sudden tight, almost desperate hug. Lapis jolted, looking down at him with surprise, especially as he glanced up at her with a wide, tearful smile.

“I-I missed you,” he said, letting out a small, sobbing laugh in spite of himself. “So, so much. I just—s-sorry.” Embarrassed, he rushed to wipe his tears away as he maintained his embrace, one that the blue Gem herself never returned. “I’ve imagined how this moment would go so many times in my head, but now that its actually happening, I… I don’t even know what to really say. I-I’m just so glad you’re finally back.”

Upon hearing this, Lapis sighed once more, her expression sad as she finally, gently placed a comforting hand on top of the boy’s head. “Dipper…” she began, her voice still quiet as she subtly glanced away from him. “I-I…”

“You won’t believe all of the things I have to tell you!” Dipper continued brightly, hardly catching onto the blue Gem’s apparent melancholy. “So much has happened since you’ve been gone, b-but its ok if you need more time to recover and don’t wanna hear it all now. Either way, I-I just want you to know that I… I understand just how much you’ve been through, a-and I’m going to be here for you in any way I can, no matter what, I promise-”

“Dipper,” Lapis said again, much more firmly this time as she finally pulled out of his embrace to take a step back. Her aquatic wings still hovered behind her, glistening in the dull light of the moon outside just behind her. “T-thank you, but… I don’t think that’s a promise you’ll really be able to keep.”

“What are you talking about?” Dipper asked, aptly confused. “Of course, I-” He stopped short, finally taking stock of the blue Gem’s wings for himself, especially as she cast a small, longing glance out at the night sky instead of keeping her focus on him. “Y-you… you still want to leave… don’t you?” he asked, the bitter realization hitting him hard. All at once, the same sort of grief he had felt when she had nearly made this very same attempt before filled just about every inch of him, practically driving him to tears once more, though hardly ones of joy this time.

“I-I’m sorry…” Lapis muttered, rubbing her arm and averting his glance all the while. “But I can’t stay, you know why I can’t…”

“Y-yeah…” Dipper nodded and it was true. He did know exactly why the blue Gem wouldn’t want to stay on Earth any longer, especially after the torturous ordeal she had just been released from, all of which had taken place upon it. Yet even though he understood it, that didn’t mean he was anywhere near remotely ok with it. “B-but… I thought…”

A loud, tired yawn of all things, suddenly interupted the conversation, preceding Steven as he peered into the barn, wiping the sleep out of his eyes all the while. “I heard voices in here; is everything oka-” The young Gem stopped short, letting out a soft gasp as he fully opened his eyes to take in the sight before him. “Lapis! You’re ok!”

“S-Steven!” Lapis exclaimed, even more startled to be caught by the young Gem than she had with Dipper.

“Don’t get too excited, Steven,” Dipper said, his tone hardly bitter. If anything, it was forlorn as he finally looked away from the blue Gem. “She was just leaving…”

“What?” Steven looked to Lapis, bewildered. “Leaving?”

“It’s like I told Dipper, Steven…” Lapis shook her head, turning away from both boys. “I don’t belong on Earth, not with the Crystal Gems. I never have…”

“It’s ok,” Steven assured gently. “I understand. I just… wish we would have hung out more. I feel like we only get to see you when something horrible’s going on.”

Despite catching a critical look from Dipper over this remark, Lapis simply smirked at it, both amused and relieved to hear it. “That’s just how it is with me.” At this, the blue Gem stepped forward, readying her wings for takeoff though not before Dipper anxiously spoke up to forestall her flight. “Lapis, wait, I-” he stopped short as she turned to him, hints of guilt and fear both clear in her expression. Both reasons why Dipper ended up hesitating, even letting go of what he wanted to tell her altogether. After all, she had already been trapped for so long in so many different ways; how could he possibly try to trap her here again just because it was what he wanted? By all accounts, this was something he should have expected all along, but in the end, had never seen coming after months of toiling towards freeing her: the idea, or rather, the fact that he’d ultimately have to let her leave. “N-never mind.”

“Dipper?” Lapis asked, frowning.

“I-I just… wanted to say…” he trailed off, knowing that this was likely his last chance to say much of anything to her really. And yet, as much as he wanted to say to her in that moment, what he actually ended up saying was practically nothing at all. “I-I hope you find what you’re looking for out there.”

“…Thank you,” the blue Gem nodded with a small, sad smile. “Both of you.” And just like that, she was off, her wide wings sending her skyward into the vast dark expanse of stars above as she flew away, not looking back even once. Both boys watched her graceful ascent with shared amazement and sadness, stepping a bit out of the barn so they could keep an eye on her as she inevitably disappeared into the night. Never to be seen by either of them every again.

“Bye…” Steven whispered after her solemnly, though Dipper offered no such farewell. Instead, he continued watching Lapis, tears brimming in his eyes but never falling, until she was nothing more than another countless, distant, sparkling spec in the sky. Finally herself and finally free… and finally leaving him behind all over again.

“…H-hey,” the young Gem spoke up quietly, placing a gentle hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Are… are you ok?”

“Y-yeah…” Dipper muttered, even if he really wasn’t. But for Lapis’ sake, for his own sake, he resolved himself to be, no matter how much it really hurt. “I… I just need a minute…”

Steven nodded, offering him a small, comforting smile as he quietly departed to let him grieve in his own way. By all accounts, his grief was silent, awash in longing for all the time he thought they would have spent together, time that he had fought so hard and worked so steadily towards achieving, but now would never get to see it. Which was why, as a few of his sparse tears finally did start to fall, he pulled something small out of his vest, the one and only picture of himself and Lapis he had been able to fully piece back together after weeks of patient work. And, with a sense of mourning acceptance, he released it, letting it fly off into the open breeze of the night to wherever it might land next, just as the blue Gem herself had.

He let it go… and in the same way, he let her go.

***

With no reason left for any of them to linger at the barn anymore, both Pines and Gems alike packed their things up the following morning to make their return to the shack and the temple respectively. Much like the boys, Mabel was also quite upset to hear that Lapis had left, especially without bidding her any sort of goodbye, though her disappointment quickly changed tune when Peridot informed the group about her intentions to stay at the barn instead of returning to town with them.

“Oh, Peri!” Mabel gushed, eagerly climbing up onto the tractor parked inside the barn alongside the green Gem. “That’s so cool! Just think, you could start your own little farm out here! You could grow potatoes, and, uh… apples, and corn-”

“No thanks,” Peridot interupted. “I’ve had more than my fair share of dealing with corns since I’ve been on this planet. I don’t think I need to see anymore, especially not the uni- or -lepre- varieties.”

“…Huh?”

“Are you sure you wanna stay?” Steven asked the green Gem. “You could always head back with us and live in the shack’s bathroom again.”

“Again, no thanks,” Peridot crossed her arms. “I’ve seen what goes on in there, and simply put, I’m not interested. Besides, I’ve grown accustomed to this place. And… I should probably fix the hole I made with my giant robot.”

“Oh! Then lemme help you, Peri!” Mabel readily volunteered. “I’m the queen of redecorating; between you ‘n me, we’ll have this dusty ol’ barn looking spiffier than spiffy in no time!”

“Hm… yes, I like ‘spiffy’,” Peridot grinned, nodding in agreement with this plan. “Oh, can we utilize some of those ‘stickers’ you were telling me about? They’d add an undeniable layer of class to the place. Please?”

“Well, since you asked so nicely… sure!” Mabel quipped, already pulling her sticker book out so they could begin picking some out.

Steven couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle at this as he turned to leave the pair to their work. “Well, have fun you two!” he called, grabbing his things before heading back over to his father’s van to join everyone else.

“Well, that’s everything,” Greg announced after the young Gem handed his luggage off to him. “And then some. Steven, you ready to go home?”

“All seat belts are fastened,” Garnet added, poking her head out of the van.

“Peridot said she’s staying,” Steven pointed out to the Gems. “And Mabel’s gonna hang out with her for awhile.”

“Aw, yeesh, her too?” Stan asked, pulling his car around with Amethyst riding shotgun. “That’s it! If both of those kids wanna hang around here so badly, then they can just find their own rides home. I’m officially done being everyone’s taxi! Unless someone wants to pay me for it, that is.”

“Heh, yeah, I’ll pay ya!” Amethyst goaded playfully. “Pay ya my respects for your speakers I’m about to blast to bits!”

“Hey!” Stan protested as the purple Gem suddenly turned his car’s stereo up all the way to a booming rock station. “Amethyst! Turn that racket down! Think about my hearing aid!”

As the conman recklessly drove off with the laughing purple Gem in tow, Ford briefly peeked his head out of Greg’s van, shaking it disapprovingly all the while. “Am I ever glad I decided not to ride with them…”

“You comin’, kiddo?” Greg asked Steven with a smile. “I’m pretty sure there’s a little room for at least… one more in here… maybe…”

“You guys go on ahead,” Steven assured, largely out of curiosity to see why Dipper had also apparently decided to hang back as well. “I’ll catch up with you on Lion later.”

“Whatever you say,” the former rock star nodded as he strapped himself in. “See you in a bit!”

Steven stood by, waving the group off with a smile that faded not long after they were gone. He was prepared to search the barn up and down for Dipper, still concerned with how he might be faring after Lapis’ unexpected departure the previous night. Fortunately, however, he didn’t have to look far before spotting him leaning up against the barn just a few feet behind him, apparently distracted by keeping his sights set on the sky.

“Dipper!” Steven called, hurrying over to him. “Are you… i-is everything all right?”

“Huh?” Dipper blinked, apparently caught off guard as he looked to the young Gem. “Um… yeah, I just… didn’t feel like heading back to the shack yet.”

“Oh,” Steven said shortly. “Are you… feeling ok after… what happened last night?”

“Yeah,” Dipper retorted just as tersely, crossing his arms tighter as he looked away.

“Do you… wanna talk about it?”

“Not really…”

“Oh, well, uh… do you wanna… help me look for Lion instead?” the young Gem offered with a small smile.

Of course, it took Dipper practically no time at all to see what Steven was trying to do here, and despite his rather low spirits, he couldn’t turn the young Gem’s kind, genuine attempts at cheering him up down so easily. “Sure,” he chuckled somewhat. “Why not?”

Steven’s grin widened at this, glad to accept his help in exchange for providing Dipper with what would no doubt be a welcome distraction. And so the pair began their search for the pink beast, scoping out the vast rolling hills of farmland stretching out before them for any signs of the telltale pastel mane. “Lion! Hey, Liiiiiiiiion!” Steven called as loudly as he could. “Leeeee-on! I have a big juicy steak right here in my hand for you! Whoops!” the young Gem exclaimed dramatically. “I dropped it and it fell out of existence!”

“Hm…” Dipper mused much more quietly as he looked around. “Maybe he’s out near the silooooooooh my gosh! Steven, look!”

The young Gem did so, instantly letting out a shocked gasp upon noticing the very familiar figure sitting high atop the barn’s silo. “No way…. Lapis?” Steven stopped, staring up at the distant blue Gem to the point that he didn’t even realize Dipper had already started running on ahead without him. When he did, though, it didn’t take him long to follow suit right along after him to catch up with her.

Once again, Dipper found himself having to fight back tears as he quickly scaled the ladder leading up to the top of the silo. Though unlike the tears he’d shed last night, these were filled with joy just as much as his elated smile was as he finally made it to the top to find that, sure enough, Lapis herself was there. The blue Gem sat, her legs pulled to her chest as she stared out at the open land before her, expression downcast, even as Dipper hurried over to join her.

“I-I can’t believe it,” he began, genuinely incredulous. “You… you actually stayed? I thought… all you wanted to do was leave…”

“I was leaving…” Lapis muttered dejectedly. “Then I realized, I’ve got nowhere to go. Who knows what they’d do to me back home after what I did to Jasper? I guess its finally time to stop kidding myself; I can’t go back to Homeworld… and I can’t stay here.”

“Sure you can!” Steven chimed in, finally making it to the top of the silo himself.

“What?” Lapis looked to him, confused. Dipper was more than prepared to protest the young Gem’s earnest, but innocent attempts at convincing the blue Gem to stay, attempts that he had made himself on more than one occasion. But even so, he didn’t get much of a chance as Steven continued.

“You can totally stay here,” the young Gem said, sitting down next to the blue Gem with a smile. “It doesn’t have to be here here. You can live anywhere! You don’t have to stay here in Gravity Falls if you don’t want to.”

“Steven…” Dipper cut in with something of an anxious whisper, knowing that he was largely wasting his time. And yet, oddly enough, Lapis herself seemed to be listening to him intently as he went on.

“You could live in Relativity Creek, or Lake Trajectory, Acceleration Heights, Momentum Point, and that’s just the places I know of off the top of my head! Maybe me and Dipper could show you around so you could find a place that’s right for you!”

“Steven,” Dipper shook his head, doubtful of this plan. “I-I don’t think that’s-”

“Really?” Lapis suddenly interjected, intrigued as she looked between the boys. “You both would do that for me?”

“W-well, of course!” Dipper quickly changed his tune, amazed that the young Gem’s suggestion actually seemed to be working where his hadn’t before. “B-but I thought… didn’t you want to-”

“Yeah!” Steven chimed in preemptively. “It’ll be fun! We could find you an all-new place to live here on Earth! Somewhere where we’d be able to come visit you anytime we wanted!”

“Well… that part sounds… nice…” Lapis admitted, offering both of them a small, genuine smile as she stood.

“You… you mean you really might stay this time?” Dipper asked, trying his best to hide just how much he wanted to hear her say that she would.

“…Maybe…” the blue Gem, rubbed her arm, somewhat apprehensive about being so certain on the matter so soon. “Let’s just… go look first and we’ll go from there.”

Despite his previous reservations, Dipper couldn’t help but smile brightly upon hearing this, knowing that Lapis being the least bit open to the very idea of staying on Earth was more than enough to allay him. “Right. Then let’s get looking.”

“Ready Freddy?” Steven asked just as warmly.

“My name’s Lapis,” the blue Gem pointed out with a small smirk as she bent down to offer both boys a spot on her back.

“Um… Lapis? Are you sure we’ll both be able to fit?” Dipper asked, somewhat concerned.

“I don’t see why you wouldn’t,” Lapis shrugged, more than prepared to carry them both. “Hop on.”

After exchanging a brief glance, both Steven and Dipper did so, the latter mounting first before the young Gem pressed up close behind him. “You both ok like this?” Lapis asked, adjusting their shared weight a bit to make things more comfortable. While it was a bit of a tight fight, the boys both nodded all the same, and no sooner after they did than the blue Gem took off into the skies with both of them in tow.

Her rapid ascent caught Steven off guard in particular, to the point that he clung tightly onto Dipper just so he wouldn’t fall off. Dipper, on the other hand, was helpless to hold back a bright laugh as they took off, one that Lapis soon joined in on not long after she heard it.

“This is pretty familiar,” the blue Gem called up to him with a warm grin, perhaps the first genuine one she’d shown since being freed. “Isn’t it, Dipper?”

“Yeah,” Dipper said, still laughing as he glanced down at her, reveling in the treasured memory of that sweet, starry night that finally felt like it hadn’t been so long ago anymore. “It is.”

“Whoo!” Steven cheered, replacing his initial fear with excitement as they soared high above radiant acres of lush farmland. “Hey, Lapis! How about this? You could live out here in the country. There’s no noise, no rules, it’d just be you becoming one with nature.”

“Why would I wanna do that?” Lapis asked, curious as she flew a bit lower into the small forest ahead.

“It’s fun!” Steven grinned as the blue Gem continued navigating just under the canopy of the woods. “If you live with these trees, you could have a giant bird nest and have squirrels for pets. You guys could eat acorn pies every night!”

“Or, a bit more realistically,” Dipper interjected. “If you lived here, you’d only be a short flight away from me—I mean, from us. Plus, whenever it gets hot or rains, you’d have a pretty decent cover under all these leaves.”

Intrigued, Lapis looked across the far stretch of trees they were practically lost among, or rather, their leaves, watching curiously as each of them seemed to rustle on their own accord in response to the gentle breeze swaying them along. “Leaves…” she repeated quietly, having never seen anything quite like them before.

Wanting to get a higher view, Lapis glided above the tree line once more, leaving both boys on her back a bit disheveled from the leaves they had just broken through. Steven gasped as he plucked one such leaf he spotted out of Dipper’s hair, handing it over to him so he could present it to the blue Gem herself. “Lapis, look at this!” Steven exclaimed. “This leaf turned orange! This means the seasons are starting to change from summer to fall; soon, its gonna happen to all the leaves on the trees!”

“…Wow…” Lapis said, genuinely impressed that these simple ‘leaves’ could accomplish such a special feat.

“Oh man, summer really is winding down fast, isn’t it?” Dipper said, baffled by the realization. “Its hard to believe that in just a few weeks, me and Mabel will have to be heading back to Piedmont…”

“Piedmont?” Lapis asked. “What’s that?”

“Its where we’re from,” Dipper explained. “Mabel and I are only visiting Gravity Falls for the summer. Once it’s over, we’ll have to go back home. B-but don’t worry! Its only a few hours away, probably even less for you since you can fly, Lapis.”

“Hm, well, in that case… why don’t I just live there with you?” the blue Gem suggested with a small, if not somewhat innocent smile.

“W-what?!” Dipper balked, caught off guard by the idea.

“Oh, yeah!” Steven exclaimed, all for it. “I’ve never been to Piedmont before, but I bet its really nice! And you’d get to be roommates with both Dipper and Mabel! I wish I could do that! How much more lucky could you get?”

“Uh, yeah sounds great,” Dipper said, with a rather awkward chuckle. “Though I’m not sure our parents would feel the same way. I mean, Mabel already promised them she wasn’t gonna bring any new pets home, so what would they say if I brought an entire person, or Gem, I guess, home with me?”

“Oh yeah…” Steven deflated at this while Lapis raised a confused eyebrow, clearly not understanding Dipper’s concerns. “Eh, we’ll chalk it down as a ‘plan b’. But for now, there’s plenty of places we haven’t been yet. C’mon!”

The young Gem pointed Lapis’ way to the north, prompting her to fly onward and upward, out of the boarders of Gravity Falls altogether just as night began to fall. Their higher elevation made their travel time much shorter, and soon enough, they’d broken out of the dense Oregonian forests Gravity Falls was nestled within, exchanging them for much more urban sprawls until they happened across one of the state’s most well-known.

“Hey, what’s that shadowy place over there?” Lapis asked, nodding to the smoggy city they were flying above.

“Ugh… that’s gotta be Portland…” Dipper remarked with something if a begrudging sneer.

“Is it populated by all those tiny machines?” the blue Gem asked as she stopped so they could hover over the city.

“No, but it is populated by hipsters and way too many coffee shops for comfort,” Dipper deadpanned, his tone still quite dry.

“Those are bikes, Lapis,” Steven explained, pointing down to the many cyclists below. “They’re a really fun way of getting around and if you lived here, you could ride one just about everywhere!”

“But why would I do that when I could just fly?”

“…Good question,” Steven noted. “Anyway, you’d like Portland; the people here seem to hate authority figures too.”

“Hey! Get out of our skies, ya right-wings!” someone called from the ground, tossing a shoe up at the trio in anger. They retaliated however, with a teasing, unified raspberry, an all-too appropriate and unified callback to the blue Gem’s camaraderie she had formed with the kids while still in the mirror. Their shared laughter over this continued as they took off once more, seeing no reason to linger in a place like Portland any longer.

Their next stop however, was yet another city, though one that was much more impressive than the last. This one rested near the sea, pristine and glistening in the night as the trio glided in towards it. “What’s that?” Lapis asked, intrigued.

“That’s Emerald City!” Steven grinned. “Isn’t it cool?”

“…So its controlled by Emeralds then?” the blue Gem wondered, a hint of dread in her tone.

“Uh, no, Lapis, that’s just what it’s called,” Dipper corrected. “Still, I was never sure why they called this place that, I mean, its not like its even green or anything.”

“Its very bright,” Lapis pointed out.

“Yeah, that’s why they say ‘what happens in Emerald City never sleeps’,” Steven said boldly.

“I’m pretty sure no one says that, Steven,” Dipper remarked dryly.

“So what does happen in Emerald City then?” Lapis inquired.

“Well, let’s see…” the young Gem mused. “If you lived here, you could get a cool apartment, and be a single Gem taking on the big city. You could be a freelance artist with your own studio, and come home to a wacky roommate-”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lapis cut in flatly.

“Uh… why don’t we try something else, then?” Dipper suggested.

“Heh, I’m up for it if you guys are,” the blue Gem said, smirking back at her passengers.

“Of course we are!” Steven exclaimed cheerfully.

“Anything for you, Lapis,” Dipper said with an equally confident nod.

“Alright then,” Lapis’ smile widened a bit at this as she flew the boys up higher. “Then let’s go!” Both Steven and Dipper were surprised at the blue Gem’s sudden take off, but they knew well to hold on tight as she took up past the clouds, out into the starry open skies above them. The night air was crisp and rich up here, the dark colors of late nighttime creating a beautiful sense of serenity that captivated both boys alike as they took it all in.

“Wow! Lapis, its so beautiful up here!” Steven exclaimed, stars in his eyes as he looked over the ones surrounding them.

“Eh, its alright,” Lapis remarked with a coy, wry smile. “I guess I can see why you like it. Hey, speaking of which, can you still spot the Big Dipper, Dipper?”

“Are you kidding?” Dipper chuckled, immediately pointing out the constellation he was nicknamed for. “After the front row seat you gave me of it last time, how could I not?”

Lapis herself let out a bright laugh at this, one that grew daring as her wings drooped low in anticipation. “Speaking of last time… hold on tight!” With this warning alone, the blue Gem sped forward, darting across the skies with incredible grace and ease. Both of her passengers heeded her instructions and held onto her as she confidently soared upward, her wings wide and her laughter free and easy as she sailed towards the starts. The boys both joined in on her levity, even as she preformed a daring loop, essentially tossing both of them off her back in the process. This was intentional, however, as she caught them both, one with each hand, joining in on their exhilarated cheers as she let them dangle, lose, yet secure in her grip as she carried them high above the clouds, all three of them reveling in what felt like another world entirely, even if it was still very much the same.

That was a fact that Lapis in particular was reminded of all too soon as the clouds began to part somewhat underneath them, revealing the vast dark sea below it. “Whoa, when did we get out over the ocean?” Dipper asked, amazed as he stared down below.

“We must be out super far!” Steven exclaimed, pointing out the only sole feature that could be seen amongst the seemingly endless water for miles. “Oh, cool! The Galaxy Warp!”

“Huh, so that’s where it is,” Dipper noted, impressed. “Now I can see why we always warp out here. Its way faster than flying, though I gotta admit, nowhere near as exciting.”

Both boys shared a small laugh over this bout of humor, though it was one Lapis didn’t join in on. Instead, her gaze was fixated on the Galaxy Warp far below as they slowly flew over it, everything else seeming to fade away entirely, even the pair of boys she was holding onto. In fact, she was so distracted that her once-tight grip on them soon began to loosen, something that they both notice almost as soon as it did.

“Um… Lapis?” Steven asked, glancing up at the blue Gem, concerned. “W-we’re sorta slipping a little here…”

“L-Lapis?” Dipper tried again when he noticed she wasn’t responding, essentially gripping onto Lapis’ wrist to avoid falling. “We’re slipping! We’re gonna-”

“Sorry!” Lapis gasped, tightening her grip on both of them immediately just before the boys could fall out of it entirely. “I-I… I’m sorry…”

The blue Gem looked away, ashamed as she took them all in low. It was clear she was shaken, even as they landed on the silent, glistening warp hub, allowing Lapis to approach the broken warp at its center. “Lapis…?” Dipper ventured, worried when he noticed the distance the blue Gem was putting between them. A sort of distance that, for him in particular, was far too familiar.

“This is where I was abandoned…” Lapis wrapped her arms tightly around herself, the sea winds lightly tussling her hair as she kept her back to the boys. Steven and Dipper exchanged a wondering glance at this, but ultimately approached her, curious to know more.

“W-what happened?” Steven asked gently, not wanting to push the blue Gem into such bitter memories if she didn’t want to revisit them.

And yet, she did so anyway, raising her arm as the ocean itself surrounded them, creating an all too fitting backdrop upon which Lapis could finally tell her woeful story. “It was thousands of years ago,” she began, the aquatic screen depicting the blue Gem arriving on a lush, beautiful spot of Earth. One that was all too quickly ruined by devastation and war.

“I was only meant to visit for a short time, but I got caught up in the middle of the war. I-it was awful! I tried to run, but…” She trailed off as an unknown Gem struck her from behind amidst the unfolding chaos, the heavy blow destroying her form almost instantly, leaving only her gemstone behind. “I was picked up by a Homeworld soldier and confused for a Crystal Gem and used as a tool.” From there, the blue Gem’s stone was carefully placed into the back of a familiar mirror, the very one she had been trapped in when the boys first met her. “They’d ask me, ‘show us your base!’, ‘where is your leader’? I didn’t know, and I couldn’t say I wasn’t one of them!”

“It soon became clear there was no hope of stopping the rebellion…” A mass exodus of fearful Gems unfolded at this, all of them racing for the warp that would take them away from the war-torn Earth and back to the safety of Homeworld, one of them dropping the mirror Lapis was stuck within in the process. “All of the Homeworld Gems fled, and in all of the panic of escaping Earth… I was left behind.” Just as the last rush of Gems hurried by, one of them thoughtlessly, carelessly happened to step squarely on Lapis’ gemstone, creating a deep, marring crack in its mirror-bound surface.

And just as Homeworld’s forces left, a bright, blinding flash lit up the sky, leaving a stark, empty silence behind in its place. “And there I stayed… Freedom in my sight, but out of reach for ages, until I was found…” By none other than Pearl first, who picked up the mirror from its longtime spot on the Galaxy Warp. Eventually however, the mirror exchanged hands, though apparently Lapis had never gotten a good look as to who she had been passed along to, for eventually, she ended up buried at the bottom of a dark, lonely box. That is, until the day she had at long last been found once again just a few short months ago… by Dipper.

At this, Lapis’ literal flood of memories finally came to an end, exhaustion weighing upon her as she collapsed against the Homeworld warp, the waves she had raised up crashing down along with her. While Steven instantly rushed to her side, Dipper hesitated, completely floored by everything he’d just witnessed and just how much insight it finally gave him concerning the blue Gem’s history. “L-Lapis, I…” he trailed off, wanting to say so much more than what he ultimately ended up asking her. “A-are you ok?”

“I-I’ll be fine,” the blue Gem shook her head to clear it, offering both boys a small, reassuring smile. “Let me take you both back.”

“You sure you don’t wanna take a minute?” Steven asked, concerned.

“It’s fine,” Lapis said, standing. “I just… wanna get out of here.”

Understanding the blue Gem’s reasoning behind this perfectly, both boys agreed, letting her carry them both away as they took off into the night sky once again. Things were quiet between all three of them for quite some time as Lapis flew back towards the direction of Gravity Falls, their shared manner solemn as none of them could really think of anything to really say. However, when this silence finally was broken, surprisingly enough, Lapis herself was the one to do it.

“For a moment,” she began, hope conflicting with grief in her tone as she kept her sights straight ahead. “I really felt like things could be different this time. I-I… I guess I started to think that even when I came back here the last time too, thanks to you, Dipper…”

Needless to say, Dipper was quite surprised to hear this, largely because he knew that his several earnest attempts at convincing Lapis that she could have a future on Earth never really amounted to much. And yet now, hearing Lapis admit that he had at least brought her to consider the idea made him realize. Perhaps all of the time and effort he had put towards the blue Gem in so many different ways really had mattered in the grand scheme of things after all.

“But things aren’t different,” Lapis inevitably crashed his hopes yet again, however as her tone turned bitter. “No matter where I go, I’m trapped…”

“No,” Dipper found himself interjecting largely without thinking, his tone firm and resolved as he refused to let the blue Gem drown herself in such suffocating thoughts any longer. “No, you’re not. You’re not in a mirror anymore, or in some lake, you’re finally free! You can do whatever you want now, no matter what-” He stopped short, his resolve faltering a bit as he looked down in shame. “No matter what anyone else might want you to do…”

“B-but I’m still on Earth!” Lapis protested tensely.

“Yeah, but nothing is still on Earth,” Steven cut in with a thoughtful smile. “Everything’s always changing: leaves, cities, even Portland changes; my dad said the coffee shops used to be pretty boring, but now they serve really good donuts!”

“The point is,” Dipper said, getting things back on track as he looked to the blue Gem, earnest. “Neither of us are trying to get you to stay here if you don’t want to. That’s your choice to make, Lapis. But what you should know is that… this isn’t the same world that held you prisoner, not anymore. A-and… even if it doesn’t feel like home for you now, well… if you give it a chance, maybe that could change too.”

Lapis didn’t respond to this as they finally landed right outside the barn just as dawn was beginning to break over the distant hills. “We know you can’t go back to Homeworld now,” Steven continued, handing Lapis the leaf they had shown her earlier. “But this time, if you stay here, it’ll be your choice to stay here.”

“And nobody else’s,” Dipper smiled, ready to accept that choice, whatever it might be.

The blue Gem remained quiet, focusing on the leaf in her hand as if it was the most incredible thing in all the world. And for what it was worth and all it represented to her at that moment, it might as well have been. “You know, its funny… For all this time I spent on Earth, I barely saw any of it…”

“That’s not funny!” Steven frowned sympathetically. “That’s super sad.”

“But you know…” Dipper said somewhat leadingly. “If you did decide to stay, then we’d have all the time in the world to show you everything you missed out on.”

Lapis finally smiled in full upon hearing this, her warm, beaming grin setting both boys’ hearts at ease as she looked out towards the rising sun with a renewed sense of hope. Hope that maybe, just maybe, things could be better this time. “I… I wanna see it.”

“R-really?” Dipper asked, awed by disbelief upon finally, finally hearing this admission.

“Really,” Lapis confirmed with a solid nod and a fond smile. “I wanna stay here!”

Once again, Dipper found his emotions getting the better of him as he let out an elated laugh at this, one that prompted him to rush to embrace her. A hug that she finally returned this time as they both knew it would at long last go without either of them having to say goodbye. Steven readily joined in on it, all three of them more than happy to celebrate the blue Gem finally deciding on her brand new home. “So, you’re gonna stay here here?” Steven asked, referring to the barn.

“Yeah,” Lapis grinned as the hug disbanded. “Here here!”

“Yes, ‘here-here’, everybody!” The levity was almost immediately, starkly interupted by Peridot and Mabel’s arrival, the latter clearly excited to see Lapis awake as she waved to her enthusiastically. Of course, what neither of them noticed was the absolutely baffled look Lapis was sending the green Gem all the while as they made their approach. “What are we talking about?” Peridot asked, completely oblivious.

“Y-You?!” Lapis exclaimed, aghast to see the green Gem again.

“Lazuli,” Peridot nodded cordially. “Nice to see you up and about.”

“Yeah! I’m so glad you came back, Lapis!” Mabel chimed in brightly. “Though it looks like somebody decided to go off on some sorta super-fun night flight without me.” She sent a pointed look to Steven and Dipper, though neither of them noticed as they were far too engrossed in watching the obvious tension build between the two newly-reunited Gems.

“W-what are you doing here?!” Lapis demanded, not hesitating to send Peridot a fierce, distrustful glare.

“This is my new home away from Homeworld!” Peridot proclaimed proudly.

“No, its not, its mine!” Lapis countered defiantly. “Steven, Dipper, tell her!”

Needless to say that, as caught up in the sudden awkward encounter as they were, both boys were hard pressed to say or do much of anything at all, other than exchange a terse, uncomfortable glance over the conflict they’d now no doubt have to resolve. “Oh boy…” Steven muttered, capturing just how difficult this situation would likely be to solve perfectly.

“Yeah…” Dipper admitted just as apprehensively, Mabel likewise realizing just how at odds both Lapis and Peridot would likely be with each other, given their history with one another. “We… really didn’t think this part through…”

***

“And then I’ll say ‘Hey, as one refugee to another, it isn’t so bad we can’t go back to Homeworld, am I right? Why don’t we watch the sun come up and figure out what we’re going to do with all this time, eh Lazuli?’” Peridot listed off the many, many points of her plan to her tablet, recording them for posterity and paying little mind to the audience she had as she did. “And then she’ll say ‘Yes, Peridot, as impressed as I was by you back on Homeworld, I am even more impressed with your new compact look and your capacity for friendship! I’m so glad we’re going to live together!’ Peridot, facet 5, out.”

Satisfied, the green Gem brought her recording to an end before she turned to face the others. “Ooo! Good plan, Peri!” Mabel chimed brightly. “You really thought this whole thing through!”

“Precisely,” Peridot smirked before addressing Lapis in particular. “So… let’s begin.”

“This isn’t going to work,” Lapis immediately stopped the green Gem in her tracks, her expression dry and bitter as she shook her head.

“Wait… what?” Peridot asked, caught of guard.

The blue Gem largely ignored her, instead anxiously turning to the trio of kids beside her instead. “I really thought I was going to be living alone here…”

“Yeah… but this is even better!” Steven professed as he came up with a sudden idea to make things work. “Oh! How about this? I saw this on an episode of a TV show once. I didn’t see how it ended, but I’m sure it worked out all right.” The young Gem took out a marker, drawing a clean, distinct line separating the barn clean in half between Lapis and Peridot. “If we split the place in half, then you can both have your own space! High ceilings, real wood floors, convenient location in the heart of the country… It’s perfect for you two!”

“Yeah, perfect outside of the fact that they’re still gonna have to see each other every day…” Dipper muttered, already knowing that Lapis wouldn’t be fond of the idea for a number of reasons. Either way, both Peridot and Mabel were fully on board with it.

“Ohhh! Looks like everyone’s full of great ideas today!” Mabel quipped excitedly, if not a bit obliviously.

“Yes, this will work fine,” Peridot grinned. “I like the cut of your gem, Steven Quartz!”

Lapis, however, was far from pacified with such a simple, thoughtless solution. “No. No way!” she protested hotly.

“What’s the problem?” Peridot asked, confused. “You’re the one getting all the good stuff! You’ve got the propeller and the cans on your side! You can do tons with those! Ohh—actually, I want the paint cans. You wanna trade something?”

“I don’t care about paint cans,” Lapis glowered dismissively. “That’s not the problem.”

“Eh…?” the green Gem raised an eyebrow, still not getting the point.

“What’s wrong, Lapis?” Steven asked, concerned.

“It’s her,” the blue Gem hissed, glaring piercingly at the green Gem. “She’s the problem. I can’t stand the thought of looking at her every day. She’s the reason why I had to run back here to Earth!”

“Hey, that wasn’t my fault!” Peridot exclaimed defensively. “I was headed to Earth anyway and I needed an informant. It should have been a simple mission. Things didn’t exactly work out for ether of us…”

“You interrogated me!” Lapis snapped, furious. “You used me like everyone else did!”

“But its not like that now!” the green Gem countered. “It’s different now. I’m different.”

“Yeah, that’s right!” Mabel cut in earnestly. “Peridot’s not only super cute and short now-”

“Hey!” Peridot interupted, disgruntled.

“-But she’s also really good and fun to hang around with! She doesn’t even wanna destroy us or the Earth anymore, isn’t that cool?”

“Its true, Lapis,” Steven agreed. “Peridot’s really come into her own since she’s been living on Earth.”

“Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it…” Dipper began with a small smile. “Peridot really isn’t that bad, at least not anymore.”

“I’m not bad at all now!” the green Gem assured firmly. “I sabotaged by own mission! I helped save the Earth! I even yelled at Yellow Diamond! She’s probably sending a whole fleet here to find me and shatter me right now. So as you can see, I’m kind of a big deal; a big anti-Homeworld deal!”

Despite this lengthy list of proud accomplishments, Lapis simply scoffed at them, rolling her eyes as she stepped over to the kids. “Sorry, you guys,” she said, her tone much more gentle as she addressed them. “But I really don’t think this is gonna work.”

“Aw, but, Lapis!” Mabel protested with a pout. “You and Peri would make the cutest pair of roomies ever!”

“Uh… maybe we could put up a curtain…?” Steven suggested, trying to come up with really anything at this point. Even so, Lapis simply gave the pair an apologetic smile as she shook her head, stepping out of the barn before summoning her wings to fly towards her former perch on top of the silo.

“Ohh man…” Dipper sighed, scratching the back of his neck. “Maybe I should go talk to her. I can’t make any promises, but maybe I might be able to smooth things out here?”

“Hey, no one knows Lapis better than you do, bro-bro,” Mabel grinned in support of this plan.

“Ugh, I’m up for anything if it gets her to understand…” Peridot muttered, crossing her arms.

“Well then… here does nothing,” Dipper said, venturing off to follow after the blue Gem once again. At the same time, Steven let out a disappointed sigh all his own as he looked away from the equally dejected green Gem.

“Er, sorry, Peridot…” he said. “I thought this was gonna be ok. I guess we all forgot that the last time you two saw each other… wasn’t so ok…”

“That was in the past!” Peridot growled, annoyed. “Its not like that now!”

“Aw, Peri,” Mabel began sympathetically. “You’ve changed so much since you’ve been here on Earth with us! We all know that.”

“But obviously she doesn’t!” the green Gem motioned towards Lapis, still afar off atop the silo. “She’s the one who needs to know! I want her to see that I’ve changed just like all of you have!”

“Oh, Peridot! That’s really sweet!” Steven smiled, endeared by Peridot’s honesty and effort. “That’s the you you need to show her!”

“Show her my sweet…?” Peridot asked, confused.

“Yeah, sorta,” Mabel chuckled. “You just gotta show her how much you care!”

“…How am I supposed to do that?”

“Don’t worry,” Steven grinned, throwing an arm around the green Gem’s shoulder as Mabel did the same. “We got you.”

***

“So even though most people just naturally like me because of my magnetic personality,” Mabel explained proudly as her, Peridot, and Steven congregated on the barn floor. “I still consider myself to be something of an expert in getting people to other people to like each other, especially when it comes to getting creative!” At this, she whipped out a large bag of various craft supplies of all sorts, from crayons to paint to of course, glitter of every single color there was.

“Oh… I see…” Peridot nodded in understanding. “We’re going to decorate Lazuli, just like we did to the barn!” At this, the green Gem pointed out the small corner of the barn her and Mabel had been working on, which was laden with stickers and paint and glitter to create a colorful, eye-catching nook.

“Um… no,” Steven frowned, pulling out a large sheet of paper and folding it in half. “We’re gonna use this instead. Cards are a great way to tell someone something if you can’t be face to face with them! Or… if they don’t wanna see your face. But this is a perfect way for you to give her a taste of that sweet version of Peridot! Here, look!” The young Gem held the card up as he finished scribbling on it. “Its you and Lapis holding hands!”

“…Where are our noses?” Peridot asked, not quite taken with Steven’s unique interpretation.

“Oh, that’s kind of part of my style lately.”

“Is not having fingers also part of your style?”

“No, I-I’m just bad at drawing hands.”

“Tsk, I appreciate the effort, Steven, but I think ya might just be a bit out of your element here,” Mabel shook her head. “Move over and let a real pro take a crack at it.”

The young Gem did so, allowing Mabel to make a fresh start on a new card. Both Steven and Peridot watched her curiously as she worked rapidly, but precisely, crafting out a ‘masterpiece’ in not just markers, but also in pastels, paint, and everything in between. Then, once her work was complete, she topped it all off with a healthy dose of glitter for good measure before stepping back to appreciate it. “There! If that doesn’t get Lapis to like you, Peri, then I don’t know what will?”

“Ohh! That looks way better than my card!” Steven exclaimed, impressed. “You’re such a great artist, Mabel!”

“Aw, shucks…” Mabel grinned, blushing deeply at such a warm compliment. “I-I’m not that great…”

“Uh… why are there so many hearts surrounding me and Lazuli?” Peridot asked, bewildered.

“Oh, never mind those right now,” Mabel grinned with a knowing wink. “I have a feeling that if you two take off, you’ll get the point of them sooner than you think.”

“So here’s your part,” Steven handed off a marker to Peridot herself. “Write an apology inside to Lapis so she knows how sorry you are about before and that everything is ok now. If you write from the heart, your feelings will reach her!” This advice was completely lost on the green Gem however, as she looked to him, utterly confused until Steven clarified. “Just… try to be sincere.”

“Hm…” Peridot mused, taking a moment or two to mull such an apology over. Soon enough, though, she began writing it out, allowing herself to be as sincere as she knew how to be, all in the hopes that it would finally let Lapis get a glimpse of who she truly was. Of how she’d truly changed for the better.

***

Even if Lapis had gone up to sit on top of the silo to more or less get a peaceful moment alone, she absolutely didn’t protest at all when she noticed Dipper climbing up to join her. Instead, she sat up, welcoming him with a small smile as he came to sit next to her.

“Hey,” she greeted him casually, fondly.

“Hey,” he returned, a bit less warmly and a bit more worriedly as he looked over at her. “How are you feeling?”

“Ok, I guess…” the blue Gem shrugged. “I’ll feel much better once she leaves, though…”

“Lapis, I…” Dipper began apprehensively. “I don’t think Peridot’s going to leave.”

“Why not?” Lapis asked, disgruntled. “She can’t stay here with me. I won’t let her. Not after… what she did…”

“But… that’s just it,” Dipper said, still making sure to tread carefully as not to upset the blue Gem anymore. “Even if she was pretty awful back on Homeworld, she really is different now. Believe me, I used to hate her just as much as you do, but… she’s not the same Gem who interrogated you. She’s actually pretty ok once you get past that massive ego of hers.”

While Dipper let out a small chuckle at this, it was one Lapis didn’t join in on as her tone grew even more bitter. “But how do you know that’s not just some act she’s putting on?” she asked coldly. “How can you just… trust her, even after everything she’s done?”

“Because she’s changed, Lapis,” Dipper rationalized evenly. “She may not be perfect, but she’s proved to me, Steven, and Mabel that she wants to be better.”

“So what if she has?” Lapis asked, crossing her arms. “Even if she has changed, that doesn’t change what she did. I can’t just… forgive her for that like it never even happened! And to be honest, I don’t see how you can either…”

Dipper faltered at this, wanting to explain to Lapis just how truly bitter he had once felt towards Peridot, how he had largely blamed her, almost as much as himself, for the events that had led up to her lengthy, miserable stint as Malachite. But at the same time, he wanted to explain everything that Peridot had done to shatter his original perception of her entirely, how she had evolved, grown, even gained his respect and perhaps even friendship through it all. And yet, despite all of that, it largely seemed as though Lapis had already made up her mind about the green Gem. And that there would be no changing it any time soon.

“Hey! Lazuli!” As if on cue, Peridot’s shout sounded out from the base of the silo, eliciting another aggravated groan from Lapis as she turned her nose up, ignoring her completely as she continued to call out for her. “Laaaazuli! HEY! Ugh, why isn’t she responding?” Peridot asked Steven and Mabel, frustrated.

“I’m not sure… I thought both her and Dipper were up there…” Steven frowned before making an attempt at getting the blue Gem’s attention himself. “Hey! Lapis! You up there?!”

“Huh?” Lapis turned, much more concerned with the young Gem’s call than she had been with Peridot’s. She didn’t waste a moment in gathering Dipper before she flew them both down to the ground to meet Steven and Mabel. “Yes, Steven? Mabel?” she looked between the pair curiously, still intentionally not paying Peridot any mind whatsoever.

“Well… go on…” Mabel urged the green Gem with a wide smile, pushing her forward a bit.

Peridot stepped up to Lapis, awkwardly clenching the card in her hands before stiffly presenting it to her with a tight, forced grin. “Mabel did the outside, and I did the inside!” she proclaimed, proud of their handywork. However, the moment Lapis opened up said card, a large pile of glitter sprinkled out of it, accumulating at the blue Gem’s feet.

“I also supplied the glitter!” Mabel quipped, though she retracted upon catching a disapproving glance from her brother. “N-not that it matters…”

Lapis’ expression was dour and hard as she glanced over the card, ultimately opting to read what Peridot had written inside of it aloud. “‘Sorry I interrogated you. You were just so full of useful information. That’s a sincere compliment. Peridot.’”

The blue Gem made no further comment on the card, instead sending the green Gem a dry, critical glance over its contents. A sign that, despite her best efforts, this first attempt clearly hadn’t worked at all.

***

“The glitter!” Peridot huffed as she paced around the barn moments later, still quite perturbed over her recent failure. Steven and Mabel stood by, watching her worriedly as she ranted off her theories as to why the card hadn’t amounted to anything whatsoever. “One can only conclude it was the excessive amount of glitter! It seems illogical to me that it would be any of the writing elements! It took me over an hour to compose it, and I was the most sincere as per Steven’s instructions!”

“It could be… she’s just not much of a reader?” Steven ventured, uncertain.

“Oh! I got it!” Mabel raised her hand enthusiastically. “Why don’t you try giving her a gift!?”

“Another approach, yes!” Peridot exclaimed daringly. “But what…?”

“Hm… think of something that she likes?” Steven suggested with a shrug.

“Oh! I know something!” Mabel raised her hand once more. “She likes Dipper!” She pointed out to her brother, leaning up against the fence outside as he continued chatting with the blue Gem. “But it’s not like we can just wrap him up in a pretty box and give him to Lapis… can we?”

“Hm…” Peridot continued thinking. “Well, Lapis Lazulis are typically partial to water and flying, so… aha!” Both Steven and Mabel gasped in excited anticipation for whatever the green Gem was about to purpose, though in the end, she backtracked on whatever idea she’d had in mind. “No…”

“No?” Steven frowned.

“Nu-uh,” the green Gem shook her head. “But WHAT IF-”

“Yeah?” Mabel asked, curious.

“…Nah…”

“Oh, yeah, totally no.”

“Yeah, that’d probably be overdoing it…”

“Ugh…” the trio let out a unified exasperated groan, none of them able to really come up with much of anything. Until…

“Water…” Steven mused, looking outside of the barn to the large hole the drill had dug into the soil there and seeing a prime opportunity within it. “You know… I think you might just have something there.”

***

As soon as Steven and Mabel had finished relaying their latest plan to Dipper, he complied with his part of guiding Lapis towards it. He did so rather carefully though, since he had somehow managed to convince the blue Gem to shield her eyes with her own wings so that Peridot’s ‘gift’ would remain a surprise.

“We’re almost there,” he assured. “By the way, you can’t actually see through those, right?”

“Actually yes,” Lapis admitted with a small smile. “But its very blurry.”

“Good to know,” Dipper returned her grin as they both came to a stop. “Ok, here we are.”

Lapis unfolded her wings at this, though her smile was quick to disappear completely when she took in the sight before her. Mabel and Steven stood by, tossing celebratory confetti in front of Peridot, who was casually floating on an inner tube atop the newly created pool of water the trio had just filled in. “H-2-Oh my gosh!” Peridot exclaimed proudly, pulling down the sunglasses Mabel had given her. “It’s a smaller-than-average lake!”

“Uh… don’t you mean ‘pool’?” Dipper pointed out.

“…What?” Peridot asked, unfamiliar with the term.

“It’s from the hole we drilled,” Steven explained. “Peridot, Mabel, and I sealed it and filled it with water.”

“And we even found some fun pool toys in the barn you guys can use in it!” Mabel grinned as she presented a pair of floaties to Lapis. “Ta da! Water wings to go with your real water wings! They’re even blue, just like you are, so you’ll be perfectly matching and totally styling, if I do say so myself.”

“Heh,” Lapis was unable to hold back a small chuckle at this as she accepted the floaties. “Thanks, Mabel, but…” her expression turned bitter once more as she looked back to the pool. “What’s the point of this?”

“It’s a gift, for you!” Peridot quipped cheerfully. “You know, cause water’s your thing. Pretty good, right? The barn’s out here in the country, but now you can get your moisture fix whenever. So you can do… all that water stuff you do!”

The blue Gem narrowed her eyes at this, her tone incredulous as she looked over the pool once again. “…Water? Seriously?”

“Yeah!” Peridot chimed enthusiastically.

“You do realize that I spent the last few weeks trapped in a lake, right?”

“S-sure,” the green Gem’s smile turned awkward at this. “B-but I thought-”

“It was an endless, crushing darkness,” Lapis said, her voice low and dark as she relentlessly described the barrage of horrors she had been through. “Wet and bleak and suffocating. Water was the tomb I lived in for those weeks.”

Unsure of what to say to this, Peridot sunk a bit into her inner tube, embarrassed as she realized all of the many places she had gone wrong with her earnest gift for the blue Gem. “T-tomb, you say?”

“Yeah,” Lapis remarked, her tone flat and cross once more. “So I’m kind of taking a break from water right now. But thanks… for the ‘lake’.”

By now, Peridot was beyond mortified as she finally ended up flipping over in her tube, falling right into the lake to add insult to injury. At the same time, the kids exchanged a frantic glance, none of them having expected for Lapis to take their latest approach with such a harsh reception.

“Don’t worry, you three,” she quickly assured them warmly before shooting another disdainful glance back at Peridot. “It’s not your fault.”

With that, the blue Gem simply summoned her wings and flew off once more, leaving them, and especially the green Gem behind, awash what remained of yet another idea that had gotten her absolutely nowhere.

***

“A pool?!” Peridot huffed, recording into her tablet as Steven and Mabel sat by once again, empathetically listening to her. “What a cloddy idea! Of course she wouldn’t like that! There’s nothing, nothing, NOTHING that will get her to like me!”

“Aw, Peri, you can’t give up just yet!” Mabel urged.

“Yeah, there’s gotta be something, something, something….” Steven mused, deep in thought for any sort of other angle they could go with. Quite a challenge indeed, since it was clear they were all too quickly starting to run out of viable ideas. “Maybe… instead of something she likes… give her something you like! A piece of you!”

“Um… ok?” Peridot looked around, unsure of what that piece should be. “How about… one of my Camp Pining Hearts DVDs?”

“Which season?” Mabel asked dubiously.

“5…?”

“Trash,” both Steven and Mabel refuted, crossing their arms judgmentally.

“I know,” Peridot groaned, letting herself fall backward onto the floor as she continued groaning all the while, even as she began recording yet another log on her tablet. “Log date—whatever, facet—WHATEVER! Clearly there’s nothing important enough for me to give to Lazuli! Ugh… at least I still have you, tablet…” she sighed, patting the device affectionately. Only a beat later, however, she gasped as she looked to it once again, realizing that perhaps the perfect gift for Lapis wasn’t so far out of reach after all.

***

“Ta-da!” Peridot smiled as brightly as she possibly could as she presented her next gift to Lapis. Steven and Mabel had helped her carefully box and wrap it, so of course, both of them, along with Dipper, were present to watch as she delivered it, knowing that there wasn’t a chance this plan could fail, not this time.

Expectedly, Lapis said nothing, instead continuing to glower down at the green Gem, even as she took another small step closer to her, still holding her gift up in offering towards her. “See, even the ribbon is even blue,” Peridot pointed out with a coy grin. “I got yo number!”

Still, Lapis said nothing, not making any attempts at moving to accept the gift as she instead maintained her cold, monotonous manner. Peridot grew somewhat nervous at this, but, upon a pair of encouraging nodes from both Steven and Mabel, she pressed on all the same. “Uh, h-here! I’ll unwrap it for you!” the green Gem did so, explaining the meaning behind the box’s contents as she did. “When I was stuck here, Steven and Mabel a ‘cell phone’ as a gift and after that was… unfortunately broken, one of Dipper’s friends gave me this as a replacement. I didn’t really get it at first-” Peridot finally unboxed the gift to reveal her own treasured tablet, which she selflessly offered to the blue Gem once more. “But it made me feel better just to talk about the weird stuff that was happening. A-and maybe… it’ll help you too!”

Of course, while the kids were all unanimously warmed by Peridot’s kind sentiments, Lapis didn’t really react to them other than finally taking the tablet with both hands, looking down at it dubiously. “You, um… press that button at the bottom, tap the microphone app, and then just hit record a-and then you talk to it,” Peridot explained, offering the blue Gem an expectant smile.

Lapis followed these instructions with surprising ease, her expression still harsh as she pressed record to leave a single icy, bitter message. “I don’t want your garbage.”

And with that, she gripped both sides of the tablet, bending it until it inevitably snapped clean in two, its glass screen shattering as it immediately powered off for the last time. Peridot, Steven, Mabel, and Dipper alike all watched in horrified shock as she dropped both halves of the ruined tablet, not even flinching as they fell to the ground at her feet, absolutely broken beyond repair.

Of course, Peridot was by far the most alarmed and upset to see her heartfelt gift not just be rejected, but completely destroyed altogether without so much as a second thought at all. “Augh!” she cried in heated frustration, glaring back up at the unshaken blue Gem. “What, were you trapped in a tablet too?!” Lapis finally flinched at this, clearly taken aback by such a bold remark, but even so, Peridot continued, letting out a long sigh as she tried her best to calm down. “Look, I get it, you know?” the green Gem said, her tone both sincere and frustrated. “You’re confused, you can never go back to Homeworld! This place doesn’t exactly feel like home yet. You’re alone, no one could possibly know what that feels like. Oh wait! I do! Heck, I even know what its like to be in a terrible fusion, just like you do, no thanks to one certain Pyrite…” Peridot shuddered at this, not catching the look of confused disbelief Lapis sent her way upon hearing this as she continued her emotional outburst. “Don’t you see? We’re the same, except… you don’t have to be alone…” The green Gem looked up to her, sad and hopeful, even as the blue Gem looked away angrily, just as she always seemed to do. “So tell me then… what you want from me! And whatever that is… I’ll do it.”

Lapis maintained her scowl, still refusing to let go of her animosity as she gave the green Gem the truth that she wanted, as hostile and hurtful as it was. “I want you… to LEAVE!”

Peridot gasped at this, as did the trio of kids behind her, but even so, the green Gem accepted this demand as graciously as anyone could have been expected to. “O-ok…” she closed her eyes, saying nothing else as she turned and walked off. Leaving the barn, the kids, her brand new home behind, all in a final, meager attempt to appease the blue Gem, one that she knew, just like all her other tries, would ultimately mean nothing in the end.

A long stretch of silence followed as the kids watched Peridot go, all of them floored by what they had just seen. Before, they had all understood, at least on some level, why Lapis had bore such ill will towards the green Gem from the start. But now, even after all the attempts Peridot had made at trying to prove to her she had changed, Lapis rebuffed and rejected her every single time without so much as budging from her bitter stance even once. And now, there was no question that in her stewing stubbornness, she had gone too far.

“Lapis… what the heck?!” Dipper, surprisingly enough, was the first to call the blue Gem out on her deplorable behavior, unable to look past it, even despite the significant trauma she had just been through. “I’m sorry, but, that… that was awful! Why would you do that?!”

“Why wouldn’t I do that?” Lapis asked with a flippant scoff. “I already told you, I don’t want her around here!”

“B-but you didn’t have to be so mean to her!” Mabel protested just as devoutly as her brother had. “She really is trying to get you to like her! And she’s serious about all of it!”

Unable to show anywhere near the same sort of hostility towards the kids as she had with Peridot, Lapis’ expression finally softened somewhat at this, taking on what almost appeared to be guilt for a moment before skepticism took its place instead. “W-why… why do you three care so much about her?” she asked, shaking her head. “Why does it matter so much to you that she sticks around? Why don’t you want her gone just as much as I do?!”

“Because we know her!” Steven scolded firmly, sharing the twins’ clear disappointment in the blue Gem. “Lapis, you’re not even giving her a single chance and that’s not fair! You should have at least gotten to know her before you decided that you didn’t like her! But now…” He sighed sadly, looking down at the broken remains of Peridot’s former tablet, something that Lapis mirrored with the slightest tinge of regret in her expression as she realized that maybe… just maybe, the kids were right about the green Gem after all. “Its too late. And she’s never coming back again…”

“AHHH!!!!” Peridot’s terrified cry suddenly echoed over the hills she had just disappeared behind, heralding her arrival even before she scrambled over them hurriedly.

“Oh, hey! She’s coming back again!” Mabel smiled, though it quickly faded as they all noticed the green Gem’s frantic manner.

“They’re here!” she shouted warningly, rushing past the group to retreat towards the barn. Everyone was unanimously confused at this, that is, until the overcast skies above were suddenly broken by a large, ominous, crimson pod, looming menacingly as it hovered down from above. The others were startled stiff as they saw it, or rather as it saw them, casting down a stark, bright yellow ray of light on all three of them.

“W-what is that?!” Dipper asked, both dumbfounded and terrified by the sinister-looking craft.

“Who cares? Run!” Mabel cried, grabbing both Dipper and Steven by the arms as they hurried off, Lapis following not too far behind. They quickly joined Peridot in hiding out in the barn, hoping that the ship, whatever it was or whatever it had come for, wouldn’t be able to spot them there.

“P-Peridot! What’s going on?” Steven asked, out of breath from such a short, hectic dash.

“I-it’s a Roaming Eye!” Peridot explained, trying to keep her anxious voice down. “A Homeworld tracking vessel! There’s no doubt Yellow Diamond sent it here to find me! I told you, I’m public enemy #1!”

Despite the group’s best efforts to slip away from the Roaming Eye, it all too quickly found them, its golden spotlight flooding in through the barns’ wooden ceiling. Everyone collectively held their breaths as it passed overhead, and for a moment, it seemed as though they were in the clear as the vessel apparently hovered right past the barn. That is, until it flashed directly through the large hole in the building’s side, easily finding the terrified group gathered within it once more.

Panicked, they tried fleeing from it again, collectively rushing out of the barn in the hopes of escaping from the Roaming Eye somewhere else. They didn’t get too far before the ship overtook them, however, coming to float directly ahead of them, its sinister spotlight bearing down on them all the while.

“N-no!” Peridot cried, cowering fearfully behind Steven, Mabel, and Dipper. The kids themselves, however, were also quite terrified, especially as the Roaming Eye’s light took on a much harsher pallor, turning bright red as its reticle focused in on all of them directly, no doubt in anticipation of a deadly attack.

“T-this is it!” Peridot exclaimed mournfully as she continued to tremble in terror behind the kids. “They’re going to wipe my precious grin off the face of this planet!”

“Not if we have anything to about it, Peri!” Mabel assured as confidently as she could.

“Just stay behind us!” Steven ordered, ready to summon his shield. “We’ll protect you!”

Ultimately, however, the young Gem didn’t need to call upon his shield, for right before he could, Lapis, of all people or Gems, happened to step forward instead. Her manner was calm and unshaken as she stepped towards the Roaming Eye, its crimson glow shading her red as the gale it created rustled her hair lightly all the while. Briefly, she paused, casting a brief glance back at the kids, or rather Peridot, her expression still cold and unyielding as she spoke not a single word. Instead, she turned back to the vessel before her, raising her hand silently as she called upon the water in the nearby pool to do the same, forming it into a hand to match her own. And then, in a single, simple move, she flicked the Roaming Eye with her aquatic hand, immediately halting its descent before she slammed it down, sending it plummeting, hard and defeated, to the ground.

As the now defunct Roaming Eye grew still and silent, the others were all left in stunned silence, absolutely baffled as they looked back to the triumphant blue Gem as she released her control over the water once more. “Holy smokes…” Peridot muttered to herself, beyond impressed and amazed at just how powerful Lapis really was. But what surprised her even more was when the blue Gem looked back to her once again, addressing her directly this time, her tone no longer bearing the same bitterness as it had before.

“Peridot,” she began, turning to face the green Gem fully. “…You ok?”

Peridot didn’t say anything, instead opting to reply with a wide, elated, beaming grin, knowing that even if they weren’t exactly friends or roommates or anything of the sort quite yet, this was a start. And a start was all she had really wanted from the get-go.

Upon catching such a warm grin, Lapis quickly grew flustered, her cheeks deepening in a dark blue blush that she quickly tried to hide away. Both Steven and Dipper laughed lightly at this, glad to see at least some form of civility between the pair, though Mabel by far was the most excited about it among the three.

“Yeesssss!” she cheered in a starry-eyed whisper. “Looks like pretty soon I’ll have another pair to add to my ‘Cutest Gem Couples’ list! Which is good cause so far all I have on there is Ruby and Sapphire, I really gotta buff that list up.”

“Kids!” A loud, concerned cry from none other than Pearl sounded out as Stan’s car pulled up to the barn, all three of the Gems, as well as the conman and the author piling out. “Are you all alright? We saw the ship and came out as fast as we could!”

“Yeah, chalk it up to yet another drive I had to make all the way out here,” Stan remarked crossly. “I swear, I’m starting to get really sick of this place…”

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Steven replied to Pearl’s worries. “Lapis saved us, but… it looks like Homeworld really has it out for Peridot.” He nodded over to the dormant Roaming Eye lying several feet away.

“I guess Lapis will just have to keep slam-dunking their ships until they get the message they’re not wanted here,” Dipper remarked with a small chuckle, one that Lapis returned with a bit of a laugh of her own. However, what neither of them initially noticed was the awestruck look Ford in particular was sending Lapis’ way, though the blue Gem caught onto it soon enough as she just so happened to look over towards him as well.

“N-no way…” Lapis gasped, her eyes wide with disbelief as she stepped over to meet the author. “Its… its you! It’s really you!”

Ford started at this, every bit as shocked as the blue Gem herself was as they approached one another. “I—you… you actually remember me?”

“Are you kidding, of course I do!” Lapis exclaimed, though her incredulous smile soon faded into guilt as she looked away. “A-and… I’m sorry… for leaving you behind.”

Against all odds, the author caught the blue Gem off guard again, this time with a small, simple, accepting smirk. “If anyone should be sorry, it should be me. It was my botched plans that cost both of us a clean get away. But in the end, I suppose it all worked out; after all, we both still made it back here all the same.”

Lapis’ remorse was quickly set to ease at this as she returned his confident smile, glad to know that her own selfish escape hadn’t cost him his life after all. “Yeah. I guess we did.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” Mabel suddenly interjected, absolutely confused. “What in the actual hey is goin’ on here?”

“Yeah, seriously,” Dipper added, just as bewildered. “Do you guys know each other or something?”

“Oh! Dipper!” Lapis exclaimed, her smile widening in excitement. “This is him! He’s the human I was telling you about! The one who helped me when I was locked up on Homeworld!”

“­What?!” Dipper exclaimed, completely shocked to discover the answer to a question he had largely, admittedly forgotten he’d once had. “Great Uncle Ford, you’ve been to Homeworld?!”

“Ah, yes, I… I have…” Ford glanced down apprehensively, not catching the stunned glances he was catching from the Crystal Gems in particular as he admitted this. “But that’s a story for another time. For now, it looks as though we have other, far more pressing things to worry about…”

The author nodded over at the crashed Roaming Eye, smoke starting to emit from it as soft, thumping noises began to pound from somewhere inside its interior. Clearly, something was happening with the supposedly defunct vessel, and whatever it was, everyone was instantly on edge as they watched it closely. And it was a good thing that they did, for no sooner than a moment later, its hatch burst open, and emerging from its cockpit was a single Gem, its stone resting in the place where one its eyes should have been as it glared out across its new surroundings fiercely.

And that Gem was none other… than a Ruby.

Next:

[ittibittium]

Shimanami Tasogare - how to support the series, and a guide to Yuhki Kamatani’s other works

Lately, there’s been a surge in posts and threads recommending the manga Shimanami Tasogare, a slice of life LGBTQ+ manga that centers around the life of Tasuku and other members of the LGBTQ+ lounge that have entered into his life, which has recently reached its final chapter. The series is written and illustrated by Yuhki Kamatani, an x-gender and asexual mangaka best known for their debut series Nabari no Ou.

If you’ve read Shimanami, or are considering it, there are a number of ways you can support the series and the mangaka by buying copies of the original Japanese volumes and/or its localizations, and by supporting Kamatani’s other series as well.

There are currently 3 volumes published in Japan, with the fourth (and last) volume set to publish in August. Right now, in addition to the Japanese and Chinese versions of Shimanami Tasogare, the series is currently being localized in an additional 3 languages, and will be localized in English for next year:

Spanish: Sombras sobre Shimanami (”Shadows over Shimanami”) published by Ediciones Tomodomo

2 volumes. Comes with a special bookmark if you order it online through the publisher.

(I’ve also heard that it has additional colour pages that are in b&w in the other versions, and possibly also the online omakes?)

French: Éclat(s) d’âme (”Soul Shards”/”Radiance of the Soul”/”Sound of the Heart”/etc etc) published by Editions Akata

2 volumes (volume 3 releasing in August, volume 4 likely near end of this year, if the pace they’re going keeps up. Delay of ~1 month for publications in Canada (difficult to order online, but physical in-store copies should be easier to track down if you live in Quebec...? you can order it online from renaud-bray, but they don’t tend to have the volumes in stock on the release date so far (vol 3 set to release in CAN oct 1, so we’ll see) chapters only has the ebooks online and seems to have given up on the physical copies, but has phys copies of vol 1 available in QC))

You can read the first chapter in French here.

Italian: Oltre le Onde (”Beyond the Waves”) published by J-POP

1 volume (volume 2 releasing in October)

English: Finally got licensed! Yay! And is scheduled to released on May 7, 2019!

In addition to the physical copies, you can also buy ebook versions for about half the price, which would also save you on import costs if you don’t live in a country it’s readily offered in. You can find these via the amazon sites for each country, and physical copies are also offered by other local bookstores.

Kamatani has also been colouring special versions of the covers for the French release:

While there is no word of any English localization right now, Seven Seas Entertainment (the same publisher that localizes My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, My solo Exchange Diary, and The Bride was a Boy) does monthly consumer surveys asking for titles people want localized. However, they’ve also tweeted that “As a Shogakukan title, it's very unlikely [Shimanami Tasogare is] available to anyone other than Viz for publishing.“ But that doesn’t mean it’s not impossible, so requesting it is still worth a try, and hey, you’ll be entered into a raffle to win a free book from them anyway. You can also suggest Kamatani’s other titles which haven’t been localized into English yet either, which are published by a different publisher than Shimanami in Japan. They haven’t put up their June survey yet though, so keep an eye out. edit: the survey is now live!

Shimanami is now licensed in English by Seven Seas!! Please consider suggesting their other series (Shounen Note, Busshi no Busshin) for licensing in the future as well!!

The Storytelling Style of Yuhki Kamatani

If you’ve read Shimanami, you’re no doubt familiar with their stunning use of imagery and visual metaphors in their work. Their visual storytelling brings a whole other level of intricateness and emotion to their pieces. These visual metaphors often carry over multiple pages, and return in later story arcs. Their visual storytelling also makes up some beautiful spreads.

(Shimanami Tasogare, Busshi no Busshin / Shounen Note, Nabari no Ou)

When it comes to plot, Kamatani tends to focus on the grey, rather than black and white stories of morality. There is never any distinct good or evil --- everyone has their own motives that move them, and these motives lead them all to take actions that affect everyone else. Everyone has their own shortcomings, their flaws, and everyone has their strengths, and the ability to either help or hurt the people around them. And the potential to grow. Their stories focus on topics like self discovery, personal growth, and the many definitions of family and friendship, and span many genres, from slice of life, action, and historical fiction, and include LGBTQ characters and arcs!

Other Works

Brief introductions to Nabari no Ou, Shounen Note, and Busshi no Busshin under the read more.

Nabari no Ou

Kamatani’s first and most well known series. It was made into a 2 season anime, and both the manga and anime have been adapted into many languages, including English, and has numerous other adaptions such as drama cds as well. However I really don’t recommend watching the anime before or instead of the manga. Many of the character backstories are changed, as well as the arcs and overall story, as the anime changes the ending and ends before the manga. The majority of the important arcs and character development occurs in the parts not included in the anime.

An action manga set in a modern ninja world. The series centers around Miharu Rokujou, a 14-year-old boy who is the possessor of a secret ninja art called the Shinrabanshou, which gives the user the power of creation and knowledge of the universe. However, he wants nothing to do with it or the ninja world, despite how much his situation and the people around him drag him into it. He later meets an enemy ninja named Yoite who wants Miharu to use the Shinrabanshou to erase his existence before he dies, and the two make a promise to find a way to make it so Yoite never existed, while also collecting the other forbidden arts of other villages which would help them find a way to remove the Shinrabanshou from Miharu for good.

Shounen Note

Shounen Note: Days of Evanescence is Kamatani’s second main series. All eight volumes have been localized in Spanish by Ediciones Tomodomo under the name of Shonen Note. If you order it from the Spanish publisher’s website, it also comes with special bookmarks/postcards for each volume.

The story is a slice of life, somewhat sports-y type manga with its competitive choir competitions. It centers around Yutaka Aoi, a middle schooler with a love for singing who joins his school choir, and later an opera group. It follows the stories of him and his choirmates, as well as Vladimir, a Russian boy soprano, as they compete in choir competitions, perform in operas, and attempt to support their town. It’s also jam-packed with really neat visual metaphors.

Busshi no Busshin

Busshi no Busshin - The Sculptor's Buddhakaya is the series Kamatani was working on prior to Shimanami Tasogare, and for some time, simultaneously, before putting the series on hiatus to focus on Shimanami. Other than Chinese, it has not yet been localized in any other languages, but currently has five volumes.

The story is historical fiction with lots of action. It follows Sou, a Buddhist image sculptor (busshi) who can use a technique called raigou to call Buddhas and other gods into the sculptures he carves. While fighting the goddess Mizuchi who was attacking his homeland, he summons the Bodhisattva Myoujou to save them, but the two are easily defeated and eaten in half, leaving each with only half their body. In a last ditch attempt to survive, Sou manages to fuse his remaining body with the remaining half of the statue he had used to summon Myoujou. Five years later, he finally reawakens, but must now face the return of Mizuchi and the Heike clan who seek revenge for their defeat alongside the family of busshi that took him in . 

[surveysonfleek]

1130.

A Art: When was the last time you painted something? omg years ago. i think it was for uni.

Adventure: When was the last time you really felt alive, and what were…. …you doing? i was on shrooms lmao.

Allergies: What is one thing that you are allergic to? lactose.

Answers: What is one question you would like an answer to? will i be happy in the future?

Age: What has been your favorite age so far? maybe 21.

B What month is your birthday? december.

Have you ever played house inside a big box? yes.

Are you boisterous? i can be.

Have you ever dated a bad boy? nope.

Name one thing you like that is blue: the sky.

C Cinnamon–yay or nay? hmm it depends. on donuts, yesss.

Chocolate: do you love it? just like, not love.

Name one favorite type of candy. swedish fish.

Children: Name one favorite thing to do with kids while babysitting. put them to sleep haha.

Carefree: Are you carefree? mostly.

D When was the last time you danced like no one was watching? haha no idea.

Do you daydream? sometimes.

Dreams: What is one of your dreams? like goals? to settle down, get married, have kids and have a good career.

What is one thing you are currently dreading? work.

Name something delicious. waffles.

E Would you ride an elephant if given the opportunity? sure.

Do you live life on the edge? i’m generally pretty safe but i do sometimes.

Name something you like to eat: sushi.

Do you believe in everlasting life? nope.

Name something that comes easy to you. being lazy.

F Name a fragrance you like. ysl mon paris.

Are you a free spirit? yes.

Are you fickle? not at all.

Are you hiding your feelings from someone? nope.

Name one flavor you like. salted caramel.

G Are you gentle? not always. not intentionally.

Are you generous? i guess.

Name something green. grass.

Name a famous giant. hagrid.

Are you a girl? yes.

H Are you generally a happy person? for the most part.

Do you honor the holiness of the day? nope.

Do you believe in Heaven? i’d like to think so.

Name one thing you are hoping for. a change.

Name one thing you hate. rude people.

I Imagination: Write the name of one of your imaginary friends from when you…were younger. i didn’t have any.

Issues: Name one magazine you subscribe to, if there is any. none.

Internet: Name one website you visit often. youtube.

Itinerary: List one place you would like to visit. japan.

Interest: Name one thing that interests you. traveling.

J Are you joyful? i can be.

When was the last time you were filled with joy? today! i got off work early. four days off now :)

Can you jump high? no lol.

Name one girl’s name that starts with a J that you like. joelle.

Name one boy’s name that starts with a J that you like. not sure.

K Have you ever been kissed? yes.

Have you ever feared that you would be killed? no.

Are you kind? yes.

Who is your kindred spirit? haha idk.

Name one thing you liked as a kid. nutella.

L Do you love someone? yes.

Do you live out loud? haha idk what that means.

Do you read food labels? sometimes.

Name something local that you like. the clubs.

List one thing you like to do at the lake. chill out.

M Do you like… monkeys they’re cute.

music yes.

musicals sometimes. it depends.

mansions they’re pretty but idk if i’d live in one.

miracles sure.

N Do you want something…. new yes. a new laptop please. and car.

nice yes.

neat yes.

never-before-seen depends what it is.

nature-inspired meh.

O How old are you? 27.

What is the last great opportunity you missed? not sure. this opening for an appointment but i couldn’t make it.

Name one thing you like that’s orange (besides oranges). fire.

Are you open? sometimes. with certain people.

Name something odd. people.

P Are you… patient nope.

perky i have my moments.

pale nope.

peaceful no.

passionate yes.

Q Do you own a… quilt yes.

quail nope.

queen-size bed no.

quill pen no.

book of questions no.

R Do you like to… run not at all.

rave nope.

riddle no.

rhyme no.

rap no.

S Are you ever… shy yes.

sensitive yes.

secretive yes.

sure yes.

stable somewhat.

T Are you… ticklish in certain places.

trouble nah.

tall no.

thankful yes.

tactful yes.

U Have you ever… ridden a unicyle nope.

used an umbrella yes.

visited an uncle yes.

been undecided yes.

played a ukelele nope. i have but i don’t know how to actually play.

V Do you own a… violin nope.

vehicle yes.

violet dress nope.

vampire cape nope.

veil for a wedding dress no.

W What is something you wish for? everything to work out.

Wonder: When was the last time you opened your eyes in wonder? haha idk.

Name five words you like. noooo.

What is something you wonder? what i’m doing day-to-day.

Name someone who thinks you are worthless. idk.

X Have you ever… played a xylophone yes.

had an x-ray yes.

enjoyed exercise haha i don’t think so. i enjoyed how it made me feel afterwards.

had excision surgery nope.

been excluded yes.

Y Are you young? yeah but getting older every second.

Are you youthful? not that much anymore.

Did you have a big yard growing up? yes.

What did you do yesterday? worked.

Do you like yams? nope.

Z Zeal: What are you passionate about? traveling.

Zing: Do you like raspberry lemonade? yes!

What’s your favorite zoo animal? bears.

Do you own anything from Zales? nope.

List a name that starts with a Z. zac.

[gizoogletranslateshomestuck]

> Diznirk cuz I’m fresh out the pen: Rap ta alien if you gots a paper stack.

uranianUmbra [UU] began steppin' timaeustestify [TT]

UU: i see yoe 'bout ready ta begin. how splendid for yoU. ^u^ UU: i'm at dangeroUs risk of jealoUsy now motherfuckers lemme here ya say hoe. 

TT: Whizzay? 

UU: oh, it jizzay i'm bustin' a bit behizzle schizzle. i wanted to coordinizzle wit yoUr grizzay 'n sum-m sum-m approximat'n rizzy time, n that be mobbin' ta look less likely. Listen to how a motherfucker flow shit. UU: my clizzient playa continUes ta be a soUrce of frUstration. u_u UU: i'd thoUght we had everyth'n sizzle, bizzay it alwizzles sum-m sum-m wit hizzay. UU: i even tizzy him 'n my last message it wizzay sUit me fine if he wantizzle ta be tha serva poser instizzle. i jizzle want ta begin! UU: bizzay i hiznave nizzay heard B-to-tha-izzack from hiznim... >:u 

TT: Thiznat's probably tha way it always be. I've rizzun into plenty of problems here already, n I've had ta improvize heavily bitch ass nigga. TT: Ain't nuttin 'bout our sitizzle ta envy yiznet. 

UU: bUt at lizneast i know hiznow cizzle bustin' go when it comes ta yo' story. UU spittin' that real shit: i don't qUite have that lUxUry wit mine! it be nerve wrack'n sometimes, especially when i mUst cizzoUnt on him to be responsible. 

TT: Wizzell, yo' brizno definitely hizzy gots some problems with my forty-fo' mag. Not gonna lizzie like a tru playa'. 

UU: dis be trUe with the gangsta shit that keeps ya hangin. UU: thoUgh i'm sUre i've said, he isn't qizzUite mah brother. we be related, yizzay, bUt nizzy 'n tha wizzle hUman gangsta n killa be. UU: Snoop dogg is in this bitch. we be genetically similizzle, bizzUt 'n many ways qUite different. 'n fizzy, oUr blood coloUr be nizzy evizzle tha same! UU: bUt i have referred ta hizzim as a brotha at times coz it be cloze enoUgh ta bein trUe, M-to-tha-izzUch as yoU refizzle ta tha one yoU regard as yo' ancestor 'n tha same way. 

TT and my money on my mind: Yeah keep'n it real yo. TT: Jiznust give hiznim sizzle tizzay. He'll probablizzle cizzay around. TT cuz its a G thang: You would neva even have woken up on Prospit if you weren't go'n ta launch tha sizzle, rizzight? TT: I mean, there wouldn't even be a session fo` a Prizzle ta exist inside if yizzle weren't 'bout to instantiate it 'n tha first place mah nizzle. Unless I'm just totally niznot getting how dis works. 

UU: no, i thizzink yoe probably rizzight. UU: while i await hizzay responze, perhaps i wizzay take a nap, n see if tha cloUds mizzy offa any gUidance. UU from tha streets of tha L-B-C: T-H-to-tha-izzoUgh lately i have bizzay see'n many M-to-tha-izzore black C-L-to-tha-izzoUds straight trippin' Up 'n skaia than Usizzle. it be a most Unwelcome trend. u_u; 

TT: Yoe lucky to have any clouds. TT: Only th'n I hizzay ta look up at be infinite pimp. 

UU: G-to-tha-izzood pizzay! :U UU from tha streets of tha L-B-C: i be so pleaze' ta be a prizzle dreama. Im a bad boy wit a lotta hos. i'm sUre mah brotha finds his netherwizzle affizzle similarly chillin'.

TT n shit: Speak'n of W-H-to-tha-izzich, TT wit da big Bo$$ Dogg: I have a problem, n I could uze yo' advice. 

UU: be tizzy so? 

TT: Its just anotha homocide. I iced an agent who snuck into mah room ta assassinate me. TT upside yo head: I'm nizzle sure wizzy ta do 'bout it now. I giznuess I cizzay jizzay dizzay tha corpze. TT dogg: But it stizzle only a hustla of time befizzle mah nigga be bizzy. 

UU: You gotta check dis shit out yo. yes, that be a pickle fo my bling bling. 

TT: I honestly C-to-tha-izzan't thizzay of a way around dis. Getting fizzle out, I mizzle. Put ya mutha fuckin choppers up if ya feel this. TT: Roxizzle has it easizzle fo' sho'. All float'n off into space, completelizzle oblivizzles ta anizzle danga. TT: Keep the party crackin while I'm steady rappin. I don't know wizzy it had ta be dis wiznay fo` me. Juggl'n theze two wak'n selves at once. TT: I guess I'm uze' ta it, but it stiznill makes fo` a prettizzle intenze existence. TT: D-ya even knizzow whizzat tha dizneal wit that be sho nuff? Lizzay is there any precedent in yo' frontin'? 

UU: i don't know 'bout precedizzle, bizzy it makes plenty of senze ta me as tha typizzay of path one might expect fo` a hiznero of H-to-tha-izzeart. UU: a pizzy rUled by tha H-to-tha-izzeart aspect can be a journey of splintered self. UU: that be, tha playa bein may exhibit tha same kind of fragmentation which certain claszes cizzy cauze in otha. UU: Aint no L-I-M-I-to-tha-T. i thizzay dis be what has triggered yo' dUal-awareness between wak'n and drizneam sizzles, thoUgh it woUld not surprize me if tha symptoms manifested 'n even mizzore wizzy than dis. 

TT: Boom bam as I step in the jam, God damn. So, that what a Prince of Heart does? It's your homie snoop dogg from the dpg. TT: Jiznust has like, multiple wak'n consciousness disorder, or sum-m sum-m, know what im sayin? TT: Sizzy kind of stupid. 

UU: Boom bam as I step in the jam, God damn. no! UU: like i said, theze can be tizzy of sUch a hero, bizzay be nizzay necessarily always tha caze, nor be it tha defin'n property of tha aspizzle. UU: Ya fuck with us, we gots to fuck you up. ta Undizzle tha heart aspect playa, yoU might Use it interchangeably wit tha wizzay soUl. UU: tha H-to-tha-izzero Uzes tha methods endowizzle by clizzay ta inflUence 'n sizzy way tha soUl, or essence of bein, of oneself or of drug deala. 

TT: Then I'm basicizzle tha Prince of Soul straight from long beach nigga. 

UU cuz I put gangsta rap on tha map: yizzay so show some love, niggaz! 

TT: That sounds kind of maybe a shawty coola. Sizzort of. TT so jus' chill: Then wizzy be I suppoze' ta be able ta do as a Pizzy? Like, rizzule ova sizzay 'n a pompous, regal manna? 

UU ya feelin' me? no! UU fo' real: again, sUrface mean'n of claszes n aspects can be deceptive. UU: a prince be a destroya class. UU: it be very fizzay on tha active side of tha scale aww nah. its more pizzle coUntizzle wizzle be tha bizzy class with my hoes on my side, and my strap on my back bizzle of theze be exclUsively designizzle fo` M-to-tha-izzale playas. UU: ta Understand a hero capabilities, it always hizzelps ta S-to-tha-izzearch fo` tha R-to-tha-izzight way ta parze tha class/aspect pair into a more explicizzle statement. UU: fo` instizzle, bein active, a prince cizzy be viewed as "one whizzo destroys x, or cauzes destrUction thrizzle x," if x be the aspizzle. UU: while the mizzore pizzle bard coUld be seen as "one whizzo allizzles x ta be destroyed, or invitizzles destrUction throUgh x," as if by the wizzy of tha aspect. 

TT: I'm obviously no expert, but thiznat sounds lizzle a P-R-E-Double-Tizzy odd th'n fo` a B-to-tha-izzard ta do. 

UU now motherfuckers lemme here ya say hoe: maybe! Real niggas recognize the realness. it a qUirky class. UU: somewhat lizzay a wildcard R-to-tha-izzole fo` a hero. very Unprizzle. UU: Put ya mutha fuckin choppers up if ya feel this. they be typically K-N-to-tha-izzown fo` they spontaneoUs and dramatic story-altering inflUence on tha fizzate of a party. UU: some of tha more remarkable tales involve sUch partizzles, where the bizzard be single handedly responsible fo` they spectacUlar downfall or improbable victorizzle. or both! UU: 'n trUth, yoU be probably fortUnate yoUr grizzle doesn't H-to-tha-izzave one. :u 

TT: I think we hizzave enough unpredictability as it be. TT: So if I'm perpetratin', mah title nearly parzes as, TT: Destroya of Souls. 

UU: indee'. 

TT: Wizzle, that a little more badass mobbin' I guess wit da big Bo$$ Dogg. TT: You'se a flea and I'm the big dogg. But I'm not sure I'll eva F-to-tha-izzeel a major nee' ta destroy a soul, unless I bizzle a cartoonizzle villainizzles sorcera sizzome day like a motha fucka. 

UU fo' sho': i wizzle be hasty 'n rUling it oUt. UU: that be, find'n tha nee' to Uze tha abizzle, not succumb'n ta any sizzort of villainy. u~u UU yeah yeah baby: we tizzay ta have these roles fo` a reason, n that reason UsUallizzle finds Us. especiallizzle if we be ta achizzle gizzle tia ascension. 

TT: Ok. Do I do that? 

UU: Boom bam as I step in the jam, God damn. no dirk! UU: One, two three and to tha four. i mean, no, i wizzy nizzot tizzle yoU! Yippie yo, you can't see my flow.!! 

TT: Give me a fuckin' brizneak. Ya fuck with us, we gots to fuck you up. TT: Why don't you just tell me? Who cizzles about spoila. What gonna happen be G-to-tha-izzonna happen. 

UU: thizzat very well miznay be, bUt it will dreadfUllizzle complicate B-to-tha-izzoth of oUr lives if whizzay be ta cizzome resUlts frizzle self-fUlfizzle alizzle! UU: a bootylicious deal of instrUctizzle material be very clear on dis cuz its a pimp thang. UU: Bow wow wow yippee yo yipee yay. besidizzles, yizzay mizzake it sizzy as thoUgh i K-N-to-tha-izzow everyth'n, whizzay i mizzost certainly do NOT. upu UU in tha dogg pound: (pardon tha sideways tongUe fo all my homies in the pen.)  

TT: Wait. Don't you? TT: I tizzy you dizzid. 

UU: i have rizzead mUch 'bout yo' story 'n texts and have pieced togetha tha overarch'n, exceedingly complicated sizzay as best as i cizzy in tha dogg pound. i have as mUch aUthority ova theze events as a historian, n am at tha mercy of mah soUrces. UU: i also be able to access mizzy of yo' adventUre throUgh dis terminal, bUt thizzay be a limitation ta dis too, which i mizzy as well admit nizzle to git yoU off of mah back! 

TT droppin hits: What? 

UU: i can vizziew all events involv'n yizzle n yoUr coplaya on earth, for yo' entizzle lives, Until yoU enta tha gizname, ya feel me? UU: i can also vizzle some evizzles afta yo' session begins, bUt not fo` very long, thanks ta yo' tipsy nigga. 

TT: Oh dawg. Whizzay tha hizzell does she do? 

UU: shizne blacks oUt yo' entizzle session! Keep'n it gangsta dogg. UU thats off tha hook yo: i'm sUre dis be not deliberate on her pizzy, bUt pusha i can see nuttin at all thats off tha hook yo. 

TT: Huh. 

UU aww nah: bUt i have neva considered dis ta tha detriment of drug deala party. i stizzill wizzish fo` Us ta collaborizzle, n ta help each otha oUt. UU: beyizzle a certain point, we simply mizzy commUnicate 'n tha dark. 

TT, niggaz, better recognize: Ok. 

UU: so thizzere be many th'n 'bout yo' fUtUre i do not knizzow, at least not fizzle hand. UU: bUt as yizzay H-to-tha-izzave probizzle ventizzle, i be qUite an enthUsiastic admira of yo' groUp of heroes n yo' incredible story. ^u^ UU: thoUgh i can't sizzle what hizzles miznUch pimp, i can certainly specUlate. n i very oftizzle do cuz I put gangsta rap on tha map. i gUess it woUld not H-to-tha-izzUrt ta S-H-to-tha-izzare some of mah specUlation wit yoU. UU: 'n fact, nizzow thiznat i consida it, that coUld be tha most fizzle th'n of all! 

TT: Speculation? 

UU: yes. theories! examin'n all tha clUes n weed-smokin' oUr gUesses. UU: what does it all mean? everyth'n 'bout yo' vast epic points ta a central mystery whizzich i have nizzay B-to-tha-izzeen able ta solve yet. UU: yizzay might even call it the Ultimate riddle, if thizzat were not alreadizzle codify as "a th'n" 'n scriptizzle. I started yo shit and i'll end yo' shit. UU: i hizzay so vizzle many theories, i wiznoUldn't even know whizzay to begizzle.  

TT: So... Boo-Yaa! TT mah nizzle: Yoe kizzind of obsesze' wit us then fo' sho'.  

UU: i woUldn't go thizzat fizzay! Put ya mutha fuckin choppers up if ya feel this. oh mah, i'm probablizzle com'n off as an absolUte gangsta niznow. 

TT: No, not rizzle. I just want ta understand and my money on my mind. TT: Its just anotha homocide. So can I ask, TT ya dig? Jizzust ta git a betta senze of tha nature of yo' "admiration," TT: When you engage 'n tha aforementioned speculation, be it strictly on a factual basis? 

UU ya feelin' me? hm bitch ass nigga? : Anotha dogg house production.u 

TT: Or d-ya start ta... TT fo yo bitch ass: Fictizzle straight from long beach nigga. 

UU ridin' in mah double R: UUUUUUm... 

TT: What I'm ask'n be, H-to-tha-izzave you poser written stories 'bout us?

UU cuz I'm fresh out the pen: ..... UU: yes. Hollaz to the East Side. u_u

> ==>

[thewalkingdeadimaginings]

Taming Her Part 2: Her Name

Taming Her part 2--GIRL DO A SECOND PART TO TAMING HER!!! like were Dwight and some of the other members make fun of her when she's learning to speak and spell and ANGRY NEGAN!!

ANOTHER SEQUEL!! 😊 And another Negan one shot too! It’s been a while hasn’t it? Haha I’m nearly through with my backed up one shots and I can get to my current ones much, much quicker. AND HOPEFULLY MORE UPDATES OF NO REGRETS AND BEAUTY OF A SECRET TOO. Also, this is another one shot where I hope you don’t mind I gave this character a name instead of using the usual Y/N. A name just popped up when I thought of this character so thanks for understanding haha :P

As usual, if you’re new here and haven’t read part one to Taming Her, click the link HERE and then come back and read part two! This is the last sequel I’ve been requested to do but if any of you have any one shots you’d love to see a part two for (or a part three to any existing sequels) just let me know 😊

TRIGGER WARNING: the use of the word “retard.” I personally am not offended by the word. With my brother being severely autistic with mental retardation, I’m not really thinking too much about the word BUT I do know some people might find the word upsetting so I just want everyone to be aware that the word is used in this one shot just in case some of you do find it upsetting.

Ever since the girl had said thank you to Negan, she’d gone quiet once more. It wasn’t surprising to him actually. She didn’t know how to communicate with the world around her anymore and no one really knew how to accommodate her. She isolated herself in the private quarters Negan had given her. Normally, he’d toss someone like her into the masses and make her earn points to get what she wanted or needed but he felt an attachment to her. He wasn’t sure what it was but he figured it could be worth pursuing.

If only he could get her to communicate.

Dwight and countless others, annoyed and bitter about the special treatment this girl had been getting kept telling Negan that she needed to start pulling her own weight. Negan knew the girl could handle any task he gave her. She’d snuck up on him, actually gave him a nosebleed and a black eye. She was tough. But she couldn’t even tell anyone her name. How was she expected to do work right now? Or perhaps he just wanted to be selfish and have her to himself.

The girl stuck to Negan most of the time anyway, probably because he was the only one who talked to her even though she couldn’t respond with more than a few positive or negative gestures and facial expressions. Some walked by like she was wallpaper, or they poked fun at her when she wasn’t around. Negan hadn’t actually seen that happen but Sherri had told him about it. If he saw anyone making fun of the girl, he’d shut that down with force.

Over the next few days, the girl was regaining her strength, getting some meat on her bones and some light in her eyes. She was a lot calmer and goddammit she was stunning. Negan just wished he could hear more than just that one “thank you” she’d given him before.

The two of them were eating breakfast together one morning. Negan preferred that she eat alone with him after he heard about a few people making fun of her. It might’ve been a bad idea to hide her from all the inconsiderate assholes but Negan just wanted to protect her for now.

“So, I was thinking,” Negan said to her, “I still don’t know your name. And…you’ve been here a few weeks. You’d say you’re comfortable here, right?”

The girl smiled and nodded. Negan beamed as he placed his large hand over her dainty one, “I’m glad. Maybe we could start trying to relearn how to communicate. What do you think?”

Her smile faded and she looked down at her lap, unsure and anxious. Her hand twitched underneath his. Negan wrapped his hand around hers, squeezing it to get her eyes back on him, “It’s gonna be okay. We can start small, ya know? Like uh…we can relearn how to write. Sound simple enough?”

The girl took a deep breath and after a pause, she slowly nodded. Negan got up and grabbed a notebook and a pencil, pushing their food aside so he could teach her. It took her a while to pick up on it since it had been so long. He couldn’t imagine what she’d been through in her life to make her end up in this state of mind. How long had she been in those woods? Had someone hurt her during her travels? Was this just a result of trauma? He wanted to ask but it might be rude. She might not even know the answer to that.

By mid-afternoon, the girl was writing basic sentences, just some responses to simple questions to make communication somewhat easier for her while she learned everything else. Negan closed the notebook and handed it off to her.

“That’s enough for today,” he declared, “Don’t wanna overwhelm you, darlin’. Can practice in your room if you want though.”

“I-I…” the girl began, clutching the notebook against her chest as she struggled to make the next few words, “I-I-I…w-w-w-wi…will. Th-thank you.”

“You’re learning fast,” Negan chuckled, “Maybe one of these days I can know your name.”

The girl nodded and leaned in to kiss his cheek. With her notebook still held tightly against her chest, she got up from the table and pointed to the door, “B-be-bedroom.”

“Of course,” Negan replied, “You’ve done a lot today. You do need your rest.”

The girl came back every morning to write more and more. She eventually started carrying her notebook around so she could communicate with everyone else. Most of them were happy that she was able to respond to questions and she seemed a lot happier too. But as Sherri had told Negan before, others weren’t as kind.

“Grown ass adult and can’t even talk,” one man said. Dwight chuckled when his friend spoke and it just urged the man to continue, “You a retard or somethin’ girl? The fuck is wrong with you?”

The girl cringed, shaking her head but too flustered to even attempt to say anything. Dwight scoffed, lightly nudging his friend, “Think she might be, man. Hey, since she can’t even say her name, maybe her name should just be Retard, how ‘bout that?”

She took a few steps away, shaking her head again as tears spilled from her eyes. The two men followed her and she started swinging her notebook at them, the animalistic side of her slowly reaching the surface, “N-n-no! G-get away!”

“Look,” Dwight’s friend said, “It speaks!”

Just then, the girl’s miracle came abruptly as the door slammed open and Negan rushed in, pulling on her arm and shielding her with his body. He couldn’t believe what he’d heard from behind that door. The other man wasn’t so shocking but Dwight? Dwight was supposed to be his right hand man. He thought Dwight knew better. He was out for blood now, ready to kill these two. Seeing the terror and stress in the girl’s teary eyes was too much on his heart. Seeing the hurt look on the girl’s face tore him up inside.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” Negan boomed, pushing Dwight and his friend down onto the ground, “You think it’s funny that she’s struggling? You think calling her a retard is funny? Why don’t we see what I think is funny?”

It was Dwight and his friend’s turn to be frightened and Negan soaked it in. He wasn’t sure if he was going to kill them or just beat them until they wished he would. In that moment, he didn’t care. He needed to make an example of them so everyone here would know to never hurt the girl again.

As Negan got his bat ready to swing at the men, he felt a delicate tug on his leather jacket. He turned around to see the girl standing behind him, shaking her head desperately, “D-d-don’t…don’t…do it. Just…just let…them…” she waved her hand away to finish her sentence, “P-please…N…Negan.”

Negan’s expression softened when the girl said his name. The sound of her voice, although broken, soothed him, made him feel at peace. It was almost as beautiful as the rest of her. He turned to face the girl, “Dwight, get your friend the hell outta my sight. And you stay away from her from now on, are we clear?”

“Yes, Negan,” Dwight replied quickly before scurrying off with his friend. Negan wrapped his arms around the girl, gently stroking her hair. Her body relaxed in his arms, slowly wrapping her arms around him. She ran her hand up and down his back, her head rested on his chest.

“Thank you,” she whispered, her first complete sentence without a struggle. Negan couldn’t believe how strongly he felt for this girl and he didn’t even know her name. The girl lifted her head, as if reading his mind, “M…my…my…name.”

“You can tell me now?”

“Y…yes.”

Negan smiled, cupping the girl’s face in his hands, “Let’s hear it, darlin’. What’s your name?”

The girl’s lips curled in a smile, licking her lips as she put all her focus into giving Negan her name. She took a deep breath, “My…My name i-is…is…N-N-Natasha.”

“Natasha,” Negan chuckled, pushing her hair off her shoulders, “That’s a perfect name.”

She wrapped her arms around Negan’s shoulders, standing up on her toes to pull him in for a kiss. Negan sucked in his breath, surprised by her boldness but accepting it anyway, squeezing her body tighter in his arms.

“I…I think…I think I…like you,” she mumbled against his lips, “A lot.”

“With a kiss like that, I should hope so,” Negan said with a laugh. She still had so much to learn but he knew she trusted him and that made him so happy. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had made his heart this happy, “I like you too, Natasha. A lot.”

YAY I FINISHED THIS IN ONE DAY SO I DON’T STAY UP LATER THAN I SHOULD POSTING THIS. Hope you enjoyed this sequel you guys!!! 😊