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andrewmoocow · 1 year

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Little Homeworld Life chapter 26: Hostile Takeover (originally posted on June 19, 2023)

AN: It has all come to this. The end begins here. The final episode of Little Homeworld Life is here at last, and after that will be Steven Universe: Snake Eyes. It has been an honor delivering such consistent quality writing to this fandom, and I'll be damned if I don't enjoy doing it again one last time before I finally decide to move onto other stories I've left to dry for too long.

Synopsis: Connie returns home from college just as Black Rutile takes over Little Homeworld and holds the Crystal Gems captive. With their alien friends in danger, the people of Beach City decide to repay the Crystal Gems by joining together to save them from Black Rutile.

Cast:

Grace Rolek as Connie

Noël Wells as Black Rutile

Kimberly Brooks as Jasper, Skinny Jasper, Carnelian, Superfan Rose, Hippie Rose, Shy Rose, Cherry Quartz, Biggs Jasper

Lauren Ash as White Topaz

Amy Sedaris as Teal Zircon

Martha Higerada as Topaz

Della Saba as Aquamarine

Charlyne Yi as Eyeball, Doc, Navy, Leggy, Army

Christine Pedi as Holly Blue Agate

Casey Lee Williams as Cat's Eye

Hayley Kiyoko as Morganite

Jinkx Monsoon as Emerald, Chest Emerald

Melissa Fahn as Demantoid, Eyeball Demantoid

Kari Wahlgren as Pyrope

Jon Wurster as Marty

Shanelle Grey as Sally Grove

Larissa Gallagher as Bluebird Azurite

May Calamawy as Chrome Chalcedony

Susanne Blakeslee as Pietersite

Estelle as Garnet

Michaela Dietz as Amethyst, Famethyst, Tiger's Eye

Deedee Magno-Hall as Pearl, Yellow Pearl, Blue Pearl, Volleyball, Black Pearl Brigade

Shelby Rabara as Peridot, Squaridot

Jennifer Paz as Lapis, Laz, Zuli, Phoenix Lapis

Uzo Aduba as Bismuth

Dee Bradley Baker as Lion, Concretes

Tom Scharpling as Greg

Matthew Moy as Lars, Dante

Kate Micucci as Sadie

Indya Moore as Shep

Enuka Okuma as Rhodonite

Kathleen Fisher as Fluorite

Ashly Burch as Rutile Twins

Erica Luttrell as Padparadscha Sapphire

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Priyanka

Crispin Freeman as Doug

Andrew Kishino as Kevin

Reagan Gomez Preston as Jenny, Kiki

Godfrey as Kofi

Zach Steel as Ronaldo

Brian Posehn as Sour Cream

Lamar Abrams as Buck Dewey

Colton Dunn as Mr. Smiley

Toks Olagundoye as Mayor Nanafua

Joel Hodgson as Bill Dewey

Eugene Cordero as Jamie

Atticus Shaffer as Peedee

Billy Merritt as Mr. Fryman

Kristin Chenoweth as Sheena Synstylae

Nancy Linari as Martha

Brian George as Mr. Frowney

Jackie Buscarino as Vidalia

Aparna Nancherla as Nephrite, Lemon Jade

Ian Jones Quartey as Snowflake Obsidian, Bixbite

Michelle Maryk as Larimar

Auli'i Cravalho as Orange Spodumene

Kimiko Glenn as Blue Chalcedony

Tara Platt as Heaven Cubic Zirconia, Earth Cubic Zirconia

Tara Strong as Grossular Diopside

Phillipa Soo as Chrysocolla

Anika Noni Rose as Watermelon Tourmaline (fusion), Watermelon Tourmaline

Aimee Carrero as Moonstone

Gal Gadot as Desert Glass

Willa Holland as Albite

Maddie Ziegler as Serpentine

Courtenay Taylor as Beryl

Sarah Jessica Parker as Dumortierite

Cavetown as Diaspore

Emily King as Kunzite

Alex Newell as Monazite

Alyson Hannigan as Lavenderine

Avi Roque as Cinnabar

Gina Torres as Andesine

Awkwafina as Kyanite

Allison Janney as Pyrite

Zehra Fazal as Zoisite

Lena Hall as Bloodstone

Jodie Whittaker as Xenotime

Idina Menzel as Amazonite

Halsey as Tanzanite

Mia Barron as Apatite

Sarah Stiles as Spinel

Christine Baranski as Hessonite

Olivia Olson as Citrine, Citrine Twins

Lin-Manuel Miranda as President Eduardo Suarez

Wendie Malick as Vice President Theresa Maxwell

GZA as Major General Wade Grant

Tim Curry as General Lloyd Waller

John Kassir as Reginald Johnson

Stephanie Beatriz as Arleen Suarez

Xolo Mariduena as Huey Suarez

Leslie Grace as Riley Suarez

Pierce Brosnan as Bane Jones

Hugh Jackman as Beckham Jordan

James Monroe Iglehart as Coach Matt Monroe

Karen Fukuhara as Makoto Fuji

Matthew Rhys as Dr. James Brenner

T-Pain as Sam Galley

Christoph Waltz as Francis von Bowling

Rob Paulsen as Mr. Shreds

David Kaye as Collar

Roger Craig Smith as Tank

Alex Hirsch as Lawrence Abrams

Zach Callison as Steven, Onion, Cactus Stevens, Topiary Stevens

Featuring Christopher McDonald as Carl Grove

And Betsy Sodaro as Maureen Grove

"It just feels so good to be bad." Black Rutile gloated to the Crystal Gems as she held them prisoner in a makeshift prison. Today had quite possibly been the best day she has ever had on Earth. Black Rutile had now converted multiple Gems to her coalition of rebels, whether by force or through coercion, her enemies were now hers to torment, and their precious Little Homeworld into her newest evil lair. "I haven't felt this utterly delighted to be victorious since the siege of Tweenis 12, I feel like singing! Maestro?"

Amazonite turned on a music player at her master's command, causing Black Rutile to sing a reprise of a familiar song. "Wither the rose! Growing shadows! Sow a world of chaos! Wither the rose! Only highs, no lows! In a world of chaos!"

"Is this really the time to be singing?" Pearl muttered as she tried to break free from her chains.

"Ha!" Black Rutile laughed in response before looking out at her various enforcers. "Come on minions, hurry along! Soon, Beach City will be gone! I could squeeze myself with glee, first the Diamonds and then this galaxy! I really stopped at nothing, gaslighting, terrorism, and lying!" she declared. "Whatever it takes to get revenge, you really can't blame me for trying."

Little Homeworld soon began hovering over Beach City, casting a dark shadow over a large portion of the town while the townies had no idea what was going on. Suddenly, the water holding the Gem village in the air began firing at the humans, making them scurry in fear as Black Rutile finished her song. "Wither the rose! Growing shadows! Sow a world of chaos! Wither the rose! Don't you doze!"

"This planet is basically ours!" Aquamarine sang along.

"We have control over its superpowers!" Eyeball added triumphantly.

"You are helpless to resist!" Holly Blue proclaimed.

"There's no way for you to persist!" Cat's Eye declared.

"Saying sorry just won't cut it!" Cinnabar boomed.

"This universe will be ours, bit by bit!" Andesine stated.

"You thought you could contain us," Black Rutile sang out in victory. "but you can no longer discuss!"

"Genocide, slaughtering, jingoism, in enemy blood, we shall wade!" the seven Gems joined together in harmony. "Rutile Rebels come celebrate, as we make these foolish Crystal Gems fade!" By the time the song ended, Black Rutile looked out at the destruction below her and began making a speech. "People of Beach City, do not look away!" she bellowed to the humans below. "You witness a Rutile's revival, and the birth of her new empire!"

"What do you want now, Black Rutile?!" Lars yelled from below.

"What I want is recognition!" Black Rutile responded. "As you can see, I have officially conquered Little Homeworld and taken the Crystal Gems as my prisoners. The means as to how it can fly can all be blamed on their dear friend, Lapis Lazuli." She looked over at Lapis, who was sitting on the Warp Pad with a blank look on her face. "Despite what the Crystal Gems believed, Little Homeworld was the aspiration of idiots and dreamers! A mere tool to indoctrinate poor, unfortunate Gems who were living lives free of their tyranny. But unfortunately for them, I am far smarter than the average Gem, so I continued planning my revenge for months on end, which leads me today." She then sent out her drones, ready to attack at any moment. "Either surrender to me at once or else your pathetic little town will go bye-bye! Bye-bye."

Down below, Jasper and White Topaz were watching the carnage the entire time, lying in wait for an opportunity to strike back at Black Rutile and save their friends. "So, any idea on how to stop her?" Jasper asked her girlfriend. "I mean, it's just a bunch of us Gems that she could convert at any moment with those Blasters."

"Well, one thing's for certain, Black Rutile has gone too far this time." White Topaz declared. "We kept giving her second chance after second chance, but she always used them to try and destroy us! I've had enough of this! Once we defeat her, she's going straight to Revanche 666 where she belongs!"

"Someone's got leftover issues they need resolving." Teal Zircon added as she popped up behind the two big Gems. "Okay, Topaz and I have spent the last few minutes coming up with a plan."

"If it involves doing something astronomically stupid, then I don't want in." Jasper stopped Teal before she could finish. "What makes you think you could come up with an intelligent plan?"

"Because outside of being the obnoxious but lovable comic relief, I am actually far more observant than you think I am." TZ declared. "Which is why I am 10,000,000,000% certain that my plan will work."

"I'd like to see you try." Jasper scoffed before White Topaz placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on honey, just hear her out." White Topaz suggested. Jasper knew she couldn't disappoint her lover, so she relented with a sigh.

"Okay, proceed." Jasper groaned and let Teal explain.

"I say instead of just saving the day ourselves, we team up with the humans to save the world from Black Rutile!" Teal declared proudly. "The people of Beach City have been around us long enough to know what to do in situations like this, and we've gained a few allies over the years to back us up."

"I get what you're saying now." Jasper nodded proudly. "Like him for example!" As if on cue, Dr. James Brenner walked up to the three Gems. "I found him falling to his doom when Black Rutile threw him out. He's her psychologist, ergo, he should know exactly what she's thinking!"

"You are indeed correct, Jasper." Brenner declared. "I have been forced to watch as Black Rutile's schemes took shape, hoping that maybe my advice would get through to her, but alas, my words fell on deaf ears. Perhaps joining forces with all of you can help me redeem myself for being so powerless to help her."

"Great, we have our first recruit!" Teal Zircon cheered while giving the psychologist a hearty slap on the back. "Okay guys, I'll go gather the troops! You two on the other hand will have to find a very special someone."

"Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" Jasper then asked White Topaz.

"I think so Jasp, but Pete Rose?" White Topaz replied oddly, making Jasper raise an eyebrow at such a non-sequitur. "I mean, can we trust him?"

"No, I think Teal means we should fetch Connie!" Jasper yelled. "You and I both know she's been throwing a wrench in Black Rutile's plans multiple times! Her first invasion of Earth, the Steven monster crisis, and the alternate universe business, all of them had Connie involved and she played some role in stopping them all! You see what I'm getting at here?"

"Yeah, I get it now!" White Topaz exclaimed. "To Connie's house!" Just as the two raced off, a small black spy drone was watching the pair and quickly began following them.

"Breaking news all the way from Beach City!" Lawrence Abrams announced on the news. "The alien terrorist Black Rutile is once again laying waste to Beach City, and at the same time, our beloved president has been subject to a violent uprising against legions of angry Arnold Clump supporters led by the alt-right Internet personality Reginald Johnson. Are these two events connected? We'll be back after the break with more updates."

"Sweet Manila in the claws of light." Doug Maheswaran gasped in shock as he and Connie watched Black Rutile's invasion on the news. "This is probably something Steven should take care of, right?"

"Hopefully he at least knows what's going on," Connie added as she prepared to reach for her phone, only to hear a knock on the door. "Can someone get that?"

"Don't worry Connie, I'll get it," Priyanka said to her daughter as she opened the door to find Jasper and White Topaz waiting for her outside. "Oh, you must be that Jasper and Topaz who tore apart Beach City."

"You are never going to let go of that." Jasper declared. "Anyways, we need to see your daughter. The world is in danger and we need everyone we can get to save it."

"Right here!" Connie exclaimed while she raced up to the front door with her sword at the ready. "Come on guys, the Crystal Gems need us!"

"Yeah, about that." White Topaz stated nervously. "They kind of broke up because Black Rutile exposed Bismuth for poofing Lapis and is now holding them all hostage at Little Homeworld. Plus, Lapis officially betrayed them to Black Rutile and is helping make Little Homeworld fly. You know what, I think I know of a way to explain this better."

White Topaz then turned her fingers into puppet versions of the Crystal Gems to further go in depth about their situation. "Hey, what's this I hear about Bismuth poofing me and setting me on this path of torment and betrayal?!" her imitation of Lapis complained. "Oh no, the jig is up!" an imitation of Bismuth exclaimed. "Okay, I did poof you, Lapis, but I didn't mean to!"

"Saying you didn't mean it won't save you from me!" the shadow puppet of Lapis yelled before lunging at Bismuth, only for Garnet and Pearl to stop her.

"Top thirty reasons why Bismuth is sorry." The puppet version of Pearl stated. "Number 5 will surprise you."

"Top thirty anime deaths," puppet Lapis continued. "number one: YOUR BUTT RIGHT NOW!"

"I'm just here to be supportive!" a shadow puppet of Amethyst said as she took Lapis and Peridot's side in the tussle, ending with White Topaz making "whoop whoop whoop" sounds as she started twiddling her fingers into a big clump. "And scene!"

"Okay, I'm going to need a refresher here." Priyanka said, shocked at the bizarreness of White Topaz's show. "What does this all mean?"

"Look, the point is that Teal Zircon and all the Gems Black Rutile didn't convert are gathering everyone in Beach City to fight back against Black Rutile, and we believe Connie is the best possible candidate to lead them all." Jasper explained in brief. "If anyone else wishes to join, you're free to come along."

"But what about Steven?" Connie asked. "Surely he'd know what to do in this situation." Suddenly, the tracking drone from earlier emerged from Jasper's hair, making her and White Topaz wonder if it was following them the whole time, and dropped into Connie's hands to deliver a message from Black Rutile.

"Ah, Connie Meka-Leka-Hi-Meka-Hiney-Ho-Swanson, we meet again." The hologram of Black Rutile smirked at her message's intended recipient. "If you are seeing this message, then you're already well aware of my latest revenge scheme and how frequently you've been playing a part in my constant failures. I would kill you and your parents right here and now, but I believe that would be too easy." The very thought of being killed by such a madman unnerved the Maheswarans. "Which is I offer you this challenge! Meet me at the flying Little Homeworld in ninety minutes to face me for the fate of your wretched world, and bring company too. And for an extra challenge, Steven must not get involved in the slightest. Lose, I will kill each and every single one of you. Win?" She let out an evil chuckle. "The only winner will be me, no matter what. Allons-y!"

The drone then shut down and crumbled to pieces of metal in Connie's hand. Despite the threat to her life, it only made her more determined. "Take us to Beach City."

Later at Beach City, Teal Zircon was true to her word and had assembled the entirety of its citizens and then some to discuss their plans to stop Black Rutile. Along with all the Gems that escaped Black Rutile's earlier assault, there was the Barriga family and the Off-Colors, Sadie & Shep, the former Cool Kids, the Pizza and Fryman families, Mr. Smiley and Mr. Frowney, Jamie, Kevin, Onion and his friends, Vidalia, Yellowtail, and Sheena Synstylae. In addition, Teal had also managed to get into contact with Bane Jones, Beckham Jordan, Matt Monroe, Makoto Fuji, and Sam Galley. Now, all that was left was Connie and her parents to make their makeshift army complete.

"My my Teal Zircon, you assembled quite an assortment of characters here." Brenner nodded at all the humans and Gems gathered together to stop Black Rutile. "But do you think this will be enough to stop her?"

"Oh, I know so!" Teal yelled excitedly. "You know those kinds of movies and TV shows where there's a team of people who cannot function together, but they pull through regardless? That's what I'm going for here. On our own, we're just a bunch of misfits. But when we're together, now that's something special." Just then, Connie, her parents, Jasper, and White Topaz appeared behind her from a portal created by Lion. "And there's our girl of the hour! Let's give her a hand!"

Everyone began applauding as Connie walked up to Teal Zircon. "Uh, hello everybody, thank you for inviting me to your little get-together. I'm afraid I'm going to need some catching up to do on what's been going on. I don't think a funny little puppet show is enough."

"Then allow me," Brenner said before he spoke to the audience. "As some of you may not know, our 'dear friend' Black Rutile", He put "dear friend" in air-quotes. "has enacted quite possibly her greatest revenge plot yet, and I bore witness to the fruits of her labor overtime as I was assigned to be her criminal psychologist. She has assembled criminal masterminds, bigoted online personalities, more old enemies of the Gems, and forlorn Gems looking for a place to belong. I have tried multiple times to convince her that she wasn't doing the right thing, but she kept ignoring me at every turn."

"Online personalities like who?" Ronaldo raised his hand, making the rest of the crowd turn to him. "You mean Sally Grove? I've had tons of arguments with her about the Gems before."

"Precisely that," James explained. "I have no idea why she is so cruel, but she seemed perfect as one of Black Rutile's top lieutenants, using her social media influence to gather more human followers through the Internet. There is also Francis von Bowling and his cohorts from P.H.A.N.T.O.M, no doubt brought in for their vendetta against the Gems too."

"Well, I'll be." Bane Jones muttered in bemusement while preparing a technologically advanced shotgun.

"In addition, Black Rutile is now joined by this Marty fellow, who claims to have his own grudge because Steven took his son away from him." James continued, giving him strained looks from Greg and Vidalia. "Together, these scoundrels have converted multiple Gems through these strange blasters built to brainwash anyone hit by them!"

"It's because of those blasters Black Rutile took away my crew!" Nephrite sobbed into Biggs Jasper's arms.

"She took out almost the entire Famethyst!" Carnelian added.

"And like, tons of other quartz Gems too." Chest Rose stated. "Me, my sibs, Biggs, Tiger's Eye, and Cherry are the only ones left."

"Hopefully what the Black Pearls said about finding a way to restore them is true." Cherry Quartz nervously said, looking over at the Black Pearl Brigade.

"So, what can we all do?" Beckham Jordan asked. "We're all just a bunch of humans and Gems who have no idea how unprepared we are for this! Heck, I'm just a star basketball player who knows more about how to score a point than fighting battles! What would happen if one of us were to die today? Besides, Steven won't be here to help us!"

"I promise you all, I won't let that happen." Connie declared before unsheathing her sword and holding it to the sky. "The Crystal Temps will defend this planet to the end!"

"Wait, is that what we're calling ourselves?!" Kevin yelled from afar. "Why not something cooler like the Substitute Crystal Gems, or something?!"

"It's very sentimental!" Connie hurriedly replied. "Now who's with me?!"

"I am!" Orange Spodumene yelled while raising her hand.

"I am!" Kofi Pizza and Mr. Fryman shouted in unison.

"And me too!" Sam Galley added excitedly. "Also, just want to get this outta the way, but I have a bit of a crush on Amethyst."

"Me three!" Lavenderine shouted, followed by a wave of excitement from the gathered New Crystal Temps.

"Aw, what the heck, I haven't got that long a lifespan anyways." Kevin resigned himself to the cause. While Connie proudly looked over at the crowd united for a singular purpose, she felt a familiar hand touching her shoulder.

"I'm in too." Priyanka proclaimed, much to her daughter's surprise. "After that hospital incident, I feel like it's time for me to get involved in your Crystal Gem business and be on the frontlines."

"Well, someone's a little eager." Brenner smiled at Priyanka before looking over at Doug. "And what shall you do for this, sir?"

"I think I'll go look into the Sally Grove situation." Doug answered. "Her parents deserve to know that their daughter is basically selling out the human race to Black Rutile. But be sure to call me so I can still join in."

"Black Rutile told me that I have to meet her in ninety minutes," Connie announced while looking at her watch. "Well, this announcement went by quicker than expected. Anyways, let's save the world!" The New Crystal Temps then began cheering for their grand leader.

Meanwhile, in the dark void of space, Revanche 666 was now completely abandoned following Cinnabar and Andesine's escape from the prison. Black Pearl guards, Bismuths, and Peridots were locked in cells formerly occupied by members of the Rutile Rebels, surviving on a false hope that someone would come to save them. However, two particular prisoners weren't meant to be there. They just wanted to get in, stop a prison riot, and get out. But fate had other plans.

"How long has it been since we were trapped here by Cinnabar's plotting and my own recklessness?" Hessonite muttered to Citrine as the two languished in their prison cells. "Feels like we've been stranded here for eons."

"It's only been a few weeks, Hessonite." Citrine stated. "But yeah, it really has felt like forever. I mean, it would take a miracle for someone to notice that we're stuck here!" Suddenly, the two heard something crash through the walls. "Well, what do you know?"

"Hey, anybody here?!" Spinel yelled as she and Lemon Jade emerged from a spaceship they just crashed into the prison. "The Diamonds were getting worried that something bad happened!"

"Over here Spinel, over here!" Hessonite yelled to Spinel. "Hello, it's me, Hessonite, and yes, I am exactly who you're looking for."

"Yeah, we haven't seen you guys since you went to stop that prison breakout," Spinel answered while turning her hand into a ventriloquist dummy resembling Yellow Diamond. "Old Yeller was like 'I fear something might've gone horribly wrong on Revanche 666. I need someone to volunteer to investigate.' Luckily, I was there to oblige."

"And I simply got dragged along." Lemon Jade added. "So what did happen?"

"We thought Andesine and her entourage had surrendered, but it was all a ruse she and Cinnabar set up to escape," Citrine explained to the visitors. "Now we're all stuck behind bars with no way to leave, no way of contacting anyone outside this prison, and no way to deactivate our cells. Do either of you have any bright ideas?"

"I got one! I saw this on a TV show once." Spinel replied before she leaned on the wall between Hessonite and Citrine's cells and gave it a hard knock, which somehow forced the destabilizing fields guarding the two to deactivate. "Ey!" she added with two thumbs up. "You can thank me later."

"Finally!" Hessonite sighed with relief while shaking Spinel's hand as she emerged from her cell. "But what about everyone else?"

"Don't worry, I got this," Citrine said as she walked out of her cell and straight to the control room.

"So, where are Cinnabar and Andesine now?" Lemon Jade asked Hessonite.

"The two of them are currently on Earth aiding Black Rutile in whatever harebrained scheme she has now planned," Hessonite stated while the prison staff was released from their cells. "We need to act quickly if we want to stop all of them in their tracks."

"Roger roger, live long and prosper and all that!" Spinel exclaimed. "Come on Jade, let's chew bubblegum and kick some butt! And I'm all out of bubblegum."

"I'm not sure if I'm equipped for a fight, but whatever you say, I'll follow," Lemon said as she, Spinel, Hessonite, and Citrine boarded the ship Spinel crashed earlier and took off for Earth to bring Cinnabar & Andesine to justice.

"Ocean Town." Doug muttered to himself as he pulled into Beach City's sister town, easily identified by a sign declaring "STILL NOT ON FIRE." His journey ended at a shabby but homely-looking one-story house where he pulled into the driveway before getting out and knocking on the front door. An overweight, middle-aged fellow with a receding hairline, a barely shaved mustache, and clothes that looked like they haven't been washed in days soon answered. "Hello, is this the Grove residence?"

"What's it to ya?" the fat man said while pulling a half-eaten hot dog out of his pocket to shove in his mouth.

"Doug Maheswaran from Beach City." Doug introduced himself to the man while pulling out his ID. "I'm here to speak about your daughter, Sally."

"Oh good, I thought you were here about the body we found on the train tracks." The man sighed in relief before turning his head to call for someone. "Maureen!"

"What?!" what Doug assumed to be the man's wife hollered back.

"We got a cop here to talk about Sally!" the man replied before letting Doug inside and sitting him down and offering him a drink. "Here, have a shot on me."

"No thanks, I'm good." Doug rejected the offer before a skinny woman hiding her bleached blonde hair in a bandana walked into the living room. "Hello there miss, I'm here to talk to you about your daughter's recent activities."

"Ah yeah, Sally." The woman said as she and her husband sat down on the couch. "I always kept hearing her talk with that alien woman on her whatchacallit….computer. Anyways, my name's Maureen Grove and this is my husband Carl."

"Well, that alien woman is a known bigoted criminal who is plotting to destroy the world." Doug revealed, making Carl and Maureen blankly stare at each other in silence. "Something the matter, you two?"

"Shoulda known our girl would do something like this." Maureen Grove shook her head in shame. "If you think Sally's views were a product of an abusive upbringing or some kind of trauma, I'm afraid you're mistaken, officer. She was diagnosed with kajigger disorder or something."

"Antisocial personality disorder." Carl Grove corrected his wife. "What we're saying is that Sally is just not a pleasant person to be around, especially in this current era of that danged Internet. She thrives on being so smug & self-righteous and making people hate her, yet at the same time she wonders why everyone hates her. And we've tried our best to help her, but she always kept picking on us for stupid reasons! It's absurd, I tells ya!"

"So, she brought this upon herself," Doug said while writing down in his notepad. "Would you care to further elaborate on her behavior?"

"She also had this TubeTube channel that barely had any subscribers because people would rather watch cat videos, let's plays, and those creepy kids' videos," Maureen answered. "But then came that weird monster attack last year, where everything changed forever."

"Sally honey, time for dinner!" Carl called for his daughter while knocking on the door. "Mama's making chili cheese dogs tonight!"

"I can buy and sell you, old man!" Sally insulted her father from behind her bedroom door.

"Fair enough, just starve then because I'm a man." Carl casually replied as he walked away. "I swear, we have got to get her a therapist soon." He muttered to himself. "Dropping out of college I can understand, but she desperately needs to do something with her life."

"CARL, GET DOWN HERE!" Maureen shrieked for her husband. "SOMEONE'S INTERRUPTED AMERICAN IDOL!"

"They WHAT?!" Carl bellowed as he charged down the stairs to see what was going on. To his alarm, their TV show was cut off by the sudden appearance of Black Rutile on their television screen as she made a speech.

"Greetings to the civilians of this backwater planet. I am Black Rutile, soon to be supreme ruler of the Gem race." Black Rutile introduced herself to audiences around the world. "I come to you today because you are faced with a crisis that has been right under your noses for thousands of years now, and it can all be blamed on the Crystal Gems."

"Nothing that changing the channel won't fix." Carl declared as he picked up the remote and tried switching to another channel. Unfortunately, Black Rutile was interrupting the programming there, and on every other channel too. "What the Sam Hill is going on here?! Who would believe such malarkey?!"

"They have been living among your people since the dawn of man, and have brought numerous world-ending threats along with." Black Rutile's speech continued on Sally's computer, much to her curiosity. "From loads of monsters that were formerly members of their kind, to insane terraformers that stole the ocean for selfish purposes followed by nearly drowning thousands once they returned the water to Earth, a superweapon made from the remains of their own kind that remains buried under the Earth as we speak, repeated counts of abductions and the near-genocide of all organic life." Despite Black Rutile clearly spreading lies about the Crystal Gems, the desperate TubeTube user felt a special sort of parasocial connection to her. "But now we are faced with a new problem, and it's all thanks to one Gem: Pink Diamond. It's because of her that this monstrosity plaguing the Earth at this moment is running amok and the Crystal Gems have done nothing to stop it, or her for that matter. Should you believe this planet is worth saving, something must be done about the Crystal Gems, or you will suffer the consequences. That will be all."

With the end of Black Rutile's warning, Sally's life was changed forever. Her TubeTube channel was then completely overhauled to benefit from her newfound hatred of the Crystal Gems. They caused so much chaos and destruction, yet they're celebrated as heroes. Sally simply gives her opinion, and she's constantly villainized for it. To her, that simply wasn't fair. But what no one realized about Sally was terrified of growing past her bigoted, misanthropic mindset and becoming a better person because she believed kindness and compassion were signs of weakness. And she despised being weak.

"Ever since then, that Black Rutile yutz has been a bad influence on our girl." Carl finished his story. "Sally's been completely off her rocker because of her. Every time we tried setting her up with various lovers, she just kept abusing them. Especially this one feller named Fred who she kept saying had a small di-"

"Anything else I should know before I leave?" Doug asked, cutting off Carl before he could finish. "What other crimes has she committed?"

"What hasn't she committed?" Maureen replied. "Thankfully, she hasn't done anything super serious, but she's also formed lynch mobs online against random people she hates, and cyberbullied her so-called friends away. And let's not forget that she wrote some really disturbing fanfiction!" She cringed in disgust at the thought.

"Right, thank you for your time, Mr. and Mrs. Grove, I promise I'll have your daughter returned home so she can get the help she deserves," Doug said as he got up and prepared to leave, only for Carl to stop him.

"Hey, before you go, officer," Carl said before presenting Doug with a chili cheese dog. "care for a chili cheese dog? Can't save the world on an empty stomach."

"You know what? I'll take it." Doug accepted the dog before pulling out his phone. "Connie, I'll be coming back soon. Is everything ready?"

"Almost, Dad," Connie responded. "Bane Jones helped us get everybody weapons for the big fight. We just need to wait on you now."

Elsewhere in Washington D.C., President Eduardo Suarez, his vice president Theresa Maxwell, Wade Grant, Lloyd Waller, and his presidential cabinet remained in hiding from the forces of Reginald Anderson. Having just witnessed his family being held hostage, the White House being overtaken, and one of the secret service agents under his employment brutally beaten to near death, the president was naturally anxious about what to do next. What's more, there's no way he can contact the Crystal Gems at the moment. He was at an utter loss at what to do.

"Never seen Eddy this worked up in ages," Theresa muttered in wonder at her president's nervous pacing. "Last time I've seen him like this was when Clump seemed to have beat him in the polls."

"I wouldn't blame him," Lloyd replied. "Country's in crisis again, plus his family is in grave danger. Poor thing looks like he'll have a panic attack at any moment."

"I'll go have a talk with him," Wade said as he walked over to his chief and put a hand on his shoulder. "Mr. President, are you feeling alright? Do you need anything before we make our decision?"

"No, I'm perfectly fine!" Eduardo exclaimed bravely, a far cry from the nervous front he was just putting up. "I'm willing to give everything for this country, as a good president should!" However, his courageous smile was quickly replaced with an insecure frown. "But what can I do when my family's lives are at stake here? One wrong move and I could lose everything."

"You're right, he's giving us a very tough choice here." Wade nodded when he suddenly got an idea. "Wait, I know!" Whatever he whispered into the president's ear, Eduardo was liking what he was hearing. "You got that?"

"I like what you're saying." Eduardo nodded. "Let's do it." Just then, three men opened the doors to One Observatory Drive and walked in. The first man wore a nice suit and was balding, while his two associates were dressed in a tank top and a collared shirt respectively. "Hello there."

"Greetings Mr. President, my name is Mr. Shreds." Mr. Shreds introduced himself to the president. "These are my two associates, Tank and Collar, and we are here to deliver you to Reginald Johnson so you can relinquish your presidency."

"Just move along now and don't keep us waiting!" Collar said as he and Tank took Eduardo by the arms and guided him to their limo. "Any last words, sir?"

"Yes, I'd like to make a personal request to Reginald." Eduardo nodded. "I'd like to have a public debate with him, face to face."

"As absurd as your request is, I shall grant it," Tank replied begrudgingly, not knowing what he was in for as the limousine drove away.

"So what did you tell him?" Theresa asked Wade as the two worriedly watched Eduardo be taken away.

"You'll see." Wade gave the vice president a knowing smirk.

"Making yourselves comfortable, Crystal Gems?" Black Rutile asked her prisoners while paying them one last visit to their cell. "Doesn't matter to me, because I got special plans for you."

"What is it now?" Peridot muttered disdainfully. "Is it about how you're so much better than us because you're not us?"

"Whatever it is, just get it over with already," Bismuth added sadly. "I deserve it for what I put Lapis through."

"Yes, yes you did." Lapis harshly agreed. "You poofed me and then forced me to be the dumb little plaything that you'll always throw away when you don't need me."

"You're still depressed about that?!" Black Rutile groaned in irritation as the brainwashed Emerald pulled up a throne for Black Rutile to sit on. "I'm saying that this could all be avoided if you joined me! Over time, I began to realize that the Rutile Rebels aren't as different from the Crystal Gems as I thought. We all started out as nobodies, did something extraordinary that made us different from the rest of our kin, rose to the top, and earned the respect of the Diamonds, only to have all torn down by a person who didn't even care about them." She declared. "I'll admit, when I first heard about Little Homeworld, I wanted to destroy it so bad, especially when you locked me up here. But after spending some time trapped here, I, ever the opportunist, decided that I could make it into something better!"

"Like turning it into our new secret lair for example!" Aquamarine added.

"And we have your stupid bickering to thank for it!" Eyeball said as all the other Rutile Rebels threw their heads back and laughed.

"What I'm trying to say is that there are special people like us who should run the world, and then there are the disgusting humans who deliver our food and fight our wars." Black Rutile continued. "Which is why I'm offering you this one-time opportunity. Let us work together for once so we can truly bring Gems and humans together in peace and harmony!" To emphasize her point, she turned on a news report documenting the attack on the White House. "Refuse, and I shall make you pay with your lives! Bring out the Disintegrator!"

"Wait, the Disintegrator?!" Bismuth shrieked in terror as Sally walked in with a small, glowing boxlike device in her hands that she set on the table. "I thought that was outlawed eons ago! How did you get one?!"

"You'd be surprised what I can accomplish through mixing Gem technology with human garbage." Black Rutile stated while presenting the device. "For those uninformed, most likely you Amethyst, this was an ancient torture device built to execute criminal Gems by grinding them up into dust and dispersing them in the air in a beautiful yet morbid fashion."

"Curious, most curious." Francis von Bowling nodded with intrigue. "And how does it work exactly?"

"Allow me to demonstrate." Black Rutile responded before presenting a small rock she placed in the Disintegrator. She then turned it on, and the rock was instantly ground up into dust in a terrifying show of the machine's power, leaving the Gems horrified yet not surprised she would use something like that. "That oughta show you for brainwashing us all!"

"You're kidding me?" Pearl scoffed. "You claim we're brainwashing Gems against their and forcing them to join our side when that's literally what you are doing with those devices! Those aren't rejuvenating blasters, they're inculcating blasters! All these new Gems of yours say: "All hail Black Rutile! All hail Black Rutile!", but the Gems we teach would never say anything like that. We didn't force them to come here, they made that choice willingly."

"Kind of like how Lapis willingly joined me after I convinced her of how alone we were in the universe?" Black Rutile retorted, pointing to a sullen Lapis in the darkness. "Or how I convinced Sally Grove here to be a kindred spirit?"

"Yeah, that reminds me," Amethyst asked. "How could you team up with someone that obviously evil? Surely, you must have some tragic reason for doing so, right?"

"No, no tragic reason at all," Sally admitted without a single ounce of empathy in her voice. "I just like being hated. It makes me feel powerful."

"Hatred makes all of us powerful." Holly Blue agreed with Sally, with Cat's Eye by her side with her cat Blake in her arms.

"Very powerful." Cat's Eye agreed.

"Okay, we've had enough taunting, let's get to executing!" Black Rutile declared eagerly as she began choosing which Crystal Gem to disintegrate. However, her choice was pretty easy. "Bismuth, do you volunteer as tribute?"

"Wait, what?!" Bismuth muttered as the brainwashed Demantoid and Pyrope freed her from her shackles to be executed. "You won't get away with this, Black Rutile!"

"As a matter of fact, I've gotten away with it months ago." Black Rutile cruelly sneered while shoving the Disintegrator towards Bismuth. "Now, you might feel a little tingle."

"Lapis, please, I'm sorry!" Bismuth cried out for possibly the last time to Lapis, but she didn't seem to listen. All Lapis could do was turn away in shame. As Bismuth was about to be thrown into the machine and the other Crystal Gems cried for Black Rutile not to do it, the Disintegrator was suddenly stabbed with an epee, causing it to shut down. "What?"

"You!" Black Rutile yelled at Tanzanite for destroying her machine. "I have put hours upon hours into building that, and you made it all for nothing!"

"That's because you've gone too far this time, and I can't do this anymore!" Tanzanite yelled angrily while proceeding to free Bismuth, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Peridot from their restraints. "Brainwashing is one thing, but executing too?"

"Are you seriously trying to talk back to your master?" Black Rutile growled angrily. "You know how Rose lied to you, you know how she left you to die and become part of a planet-destroying abomination against your will! I was there for you, and this is how you repay me?!"

"Yes, the Crystal Gems aren't honest, but their intentions are definitely real." Tanzanite declared firmly, bringing a tear to Pearl's eye before her former student was threatened with Black Rutile's bowie knife.

"Take that back and fight for me, or pay the price." Black Rutile ordered Tanzanite to stand down, and the punk purple Gem meekly did as she was told while Navy raced up to her master's side. "Yes, Ruby?"

"We got humans and enemy Gems at 12:00!" Navy yelled hurriedly.

"Did you tell them I hate them?" Black Rutile asked while turning her bowie knife into her sword. "No matter." With a superhuman leap, Black Rutile bounded out of her lair and landed in front of the New Crystal Temps before striking a pose as she drew her sword. "Well, don't stop on my account."

"Black Rutile, we've come to finally bring you to justice!" Connie declared while raising her sword in the air. "In the name of the Crystal Gems, the planet Earth, and the entire universe, we'll punish you for your crimes. And this time, we'll make it permanent. Do you yield?"

Black Rutile just sneered at Connie's bold declaration and responded with simply "I do not." With a snap of her fingers, the other Rutile Rebels, including a reluctant Tanzanite and Lapis, soon gathered behind her to counter Connie's forces. Just then, however, the Crystal Gems leaped out from behind the Rutile Rebels to join Connie and the others, followed by Spinel, Hessonite, Citrine, and Lemon Jade crashing into Little Homeworld on their ship.

"CRYSTAL GEMS!" Garnet roared while summoning her gauntlets. "Assemble." With that, everyone behind Connie roared as they charged into battle against Black Rutile and her enforcers, along with legions of brainwashed Gems, Concrete warriors, and Cactus & Topiary Stevens once again forced to serve Black Rutile. This was a day unlike any other when humans and Gems alike found themselves united against a common foe for the first time in thousands of years. On that day, everyone in Beach City became a Crystal Gem.

"Of course, you would find a way to ruin my plans!" Black Rutile said as she got into an intense swordfight with Connie. The battle for Earth had already gotten off to a rousing start. Bane Jones and Beckham Jordan fought side by side against von Bowling and his men, Kevin and Vidalia were up against Marty in a mechanical war suit, and Lars had a rematch with Emerald, among many other battles. "For too long now, you've always been interfering and you didn't even know it!"

"It's called loyalty Black Rutile, something you would probably never know!" Connie retorted before going in for a stab, only to be blocked by Sally Grove fighting back with a laser sword. "And as for you!"

"Don't even try to preach to me, little girl." Sally taunted in her usual high and mighty fashion. "We all know you would've found a way to call your white savior because you have no other personality outside of being his protector! You're a disgrace to your ethnicity, brat!"

"That's what you think, bullying my daughter like that!" Priyanka retorted with a sword of her own to fight Sally and Black Rutile with. "Apologize to her at once or I will reveal everything your parents told my husband!"

"What do you mean I have to apologize?! She attacked me!" Sally said before she realized what the doctor meant. "Wait, really? Oh no, no no no no!"

"Yeah, they told me some pretty messed up stuff about you," Doug said while putting out his notepad and reading what he had written earlier, making Sally writhe in agony while Black Rutile looked disdainfully at her human charge. "Let's see, abusing everyone around you, including your own parents, refusing to grow beyond your toxic personality while also blaming it on everyone around you, that disturbing fanfiction-"

"It's only disturbing from a certain point of view, having sexual relationships with your family members is perfectly normal in some parts of the world!" Sally only kept digging herself deeper into insanity in her attempts to preserve her image, unaware that Ronaldo had been live-streaming her this entire time, and her reputation was falling apart by the second. "Hey, turn that camera off!"

"No way, this is going to make a killing on Keep Beach City Weird!" Ronaldo laughed mischievously. "Wow, these negative comments expressing how betrayed your viewers must be for how much of a hypocrite you're being are coming in by the dozens."

"It's the same story I've seen so many times." Doug shook his head in disgust as Sally had an utter breakdown in front of the Maheswarans and Black Rutile, who was just as disgusted at how pathetic her partner was. "A fine, upstanding bigot. Your nose is so close to the grindstone, you can't see anything else. Meanwhile, the world changes and grows, and you're blind to it! Ignorant and proud of it too."

"Am I glad that's not me!" Black Rutile scoffed hypocritically as Sally was handcuffed and taken somewhere safe until the battle was over. "Now where were we? Oh yes!" She immediately got right back to her clash with Connie.

"So, calming down Lapis." Peridot muttered as she, Jasper, and White Topaz stood in front of Lapis and Phoenix Lapis fighting Laz and Zuli. "Got any ideas?"

"You're her life partner, you should know!" Jasper exclaimed while Laz and Zuli fought for their lives. "Paz, got any bright ideas?"

"I think I might have a good idea of what to do." White Topaz declared. "Bismuth, we need your help!"

"I'm in the middle of something here!" Bismuth replied while she was fighting Andesine and Cinnabar. "Oh, you want me to make up with Lapis, right?"

"Hopefully having her back on our side will turn the tide of battle!" White Topaz suggested, causing Bismuth to knock her two opponents out and walk up to her. "Just say what you need to say and hopefully she'll listen."

"This had better work." Bismuth took a deep breath and yelled "HEY LAPIS, OVER HERE!" The four Lapises then turned to see Bismuth below. "No, not you, the one who hates me!" she corrected herself.

"What do you want now?" Lapis angrily asked as she hovered on the ground.

"Listen Lapis, I know you won't ever forgive me and the other Crystal Gems for what we did to you," Bismuth said. "but I swear, if you listen and understand we didn't know what we did, maybe we can finally start making amends."

"Wait, you mean it?" Lapis's face softened in surprise.

"Yeah, we're still your friends!" White Topaz declared happily.

"And besides, I'm the only one who gets to be all sullen and betrayed here!" Jasper added before reaching her hand out. "Just take my hand."

Lapis started smiling again, bringing smiles to Peridot and White Topaz's faces as well, and began to reach out to Jasper. However, she was quickly interrupted by Cinnabar and Andesine's groups pointing their Rejuvenation Blasters at the Crystal Gems.

"Make another move, and we'll have to reset all of you." Cinnabar declared coldly.

"Now then, any last words?" Andesine smirked.

"I got one," Bismuth stated before raising her fist at Lapis's gem. "Please don't hate me for this again!" With a single punch, Lapis was poofed yet again, this time to save her from being shot with the Rejuvenation Blaster as the Rutile Rebels began opening fire, prompting Bismuth, Jasper, White Topaz, and Peridot to scatter.

"I'll be taking this to reverse-engineer, thank you very much!" Peridot snickered as she robbed Howlite of her Blaster to experiment on and ran away with a maniacal "NYEH-HAHAHAHAHA!"

"After her!" Howlite commanded and raced after Peridot with Dalmatian Jasper, Zoisite, Amber, and Xenotime behind her.

"Check it out, I got a Rejuvenation Blaster!" Peridot said to Squaridot and IQ while presenting the stolen blaster to them. "Maybe we can work together to find a way to use it to get everyone back to normal!"

"That's some good thinking, Peridot." Squaridot complimented the other Peridot's idea before the three geniuses snuck off to get to work.

"So it's come to this, Tanzanite, the student versus the master," Pearl said as she took a battle stance, and Tanzanite did the same. "Tell me Tanzanite, why did you join Black Rutile instead of accepting everything as it was? I understand if you felt betrayed by Rose, but this is not a healthy way of coping."

"It's because I just wanted to save everyone from what I suffered," Tanzanite revealed sadly as she clashed with her former mentor. "My friends! My family! Everything I did was for the galaxy, for the Crystal Gems! But it was all for nothing, Pink Diamond used all of us to avoid the consequences of her actions." Despite how much Pearl tried to speak up, Tanzanite kept ranting. "I had to use my skills on friends; on family; Gems that I knew. She controlled us through lies." She then let out a strained and tearful laugh. "Homeworld, no better than the rebels Rose created. I helped terrorize my people! I wanted you to stop it, I had to stop it. I spoke out. I spoke out to Black Rutile, to save everyone from you! But when I did, I only stood with a monster. You chose Pink Diamond." Now, Tanzanite was on the verge of tears as she sobbed into Pearl's chest. "You left me, gave me no choice! The Diamonds wanted to destroy worlds, and they did. Pink destroyed mine."

"Oh, poor dear," Pearl muttered sorrowfully while holding her old student close. "But do you still believe Black Rutile is good for you?"

"I'm not sure if anyone is good for me." Tanzanite sobbed. "I don't know if Black Rutile really cares for me or if she just saw me as a tool."

"Black Rutile never cared for anyone to begin with." Pearl declared before she held Tanzanite's head in her hands. "I'm truly sorry that I made you choose this path, and I promise that there will be no more secrets between us from now on. Is that good?"

"Yeah, but I'm not sure if I can forgive myself for this." Tanzanite agreed just as she felt the business end of a Rejuvenation Blaster pressing the back of her head.

"Another last-minute betrayal, I see." Andesine grinned while preparing to pull the trigger, only for Tanzanite to smack it out of Andesine's hands with her epee before stabbing her in the chest.

"Now look what you made ME do," Tanzanite smirked as she threw what Andesine said when she shattered her back in the red Gem's face before she poofed.

"Okay Mr. S, here we are." Mr. Shreds said as he pulled the limo up to the White House and let Eduardo out. "Just make it quick, I'm on a tight schedule here," Eduardo said nothing as he saw his family surrounded by terrorists and Reginald smugly standing by a video camera and a podium.

"Go on Mr. Prez, don't be shy." Reginald mockingly urged Eduardo. "Just say what you need to say."

"That's exactly what I was going to say to you." Eduardo declared before trapping Reginald in a headlock. "NOW!" The SWAT team immediately overwhelmed Reginald's enforcers while Reginald tried his best to fight back, only to be met with a krav maga kick from Theresa, coming straight out of nowhere.

"Did you plan all this?!" Reginald shouted.

"Well, not necessarily," Eduardo replied as Wade and Lloyd came to handcuff Reginald. "It's just that I'm far more quick on my feet than you'll ever be."

"Dad!" Huey and Riley Suarez cried as Theresa freed them from their restraints and hugged their father.

"Oh, mi preciosos, I was so worried," Eduardo said as he hugged them back before seeing Arlene walk towards them as well. "And I surely didn't forget you, my love."

"And you never will," Arleen replied before kissing her husband. And so, the White House was saved, thanks to the president and his quick thinking. Now all he had to do was hope that the Crystal Gems were doing alright.

"Must I remind you of my superiority, pretty boy?" Marty taunted Kevin while showing off the capabilities of his war suit. "Face it, hiding behind all these beautiful women won't get you anywhere in life!"

"Yeah, I'm absolutely unequipped for this, but that won't stop me from trying!" Kevin exclaimed before beginning to fight back.

"How could you, Marty?" Vidalia asked her ex-husband. "I knew you were a dirtbag, but selling out the entire human race for what? Just because you're mad we disowned you!"

"Oh yeah, I'm absolutely livid," Marty agreed. "but I'm mostly just here to get even with you guys. I don't give a damn about Black Rutile's whole rebellion business!"

Meanwhile, Bane Jones, Beckham, Makoto, and Matt were all standing back-to-back against Francis von Bowling's men. "So, when this is all over, could I perhaps get an autograph?" Bane asked Beckham. "I'm a huge fan, and I consider it an honor to be fighting for Earth with you."

"I'd be more than happy to." Beckham smiled at the offer.

"Hey boys, can we pick up the pace a bit?!" Makoto said while delivering an upside-down spinning kick to Konstantin, Pavel, and Leo at once.

Above the chaos going on in Little Homeworld, Black Rutile stood atop the whirlybird tower and was not happy with how her forces were losing. "STOOOOOP THEM!" she shrieked angrily while pulling at her hair just as she turned to see Connie, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Peridot, Bismuth, Jasper, White Topaz, Spinel, Hessonite, and now Tanzanite standing behind her. "You! You ruined everything again! I could've made everything perfect!"

"You didn't want to make things perfect." Tanzanite declared to Black Rutile. "You just hated things the way they are."

"This is your final warning, Black Rutile." Garnet declared. "And this time, we won't be giving you a second chance. You and your minions are headed straight for Revanche 666 after this!"

"Fine, if I can never win, then neither should you!" Black Rutile completely snapped. "Aquamarine, Eyeball, Chrome Chalcedony, to me!"

"Ready as always, Black Rutile!" Aquamarine said as she and Eyeball fused into Bluebird Azurite, while Holly Blue and Cat's Eye arrived to make Chrome Chalcedony.

"And now, for a little surprise!" Bluebird proclaimed.

"I have a little joke for you all." Black Rutile smiled dementedly while grabbing Bluebird's hand. "What do you get when you cross a depressed loner with a society that abandons her and treats her like trash?!"

"That's not a very good joke!" Amethyst replied.

"I'll tell you what you get, you get what you deserve!" Black Rutile shrieked before she and Bluebird merged to form Pietersite, now sporting Black Rutile's new pink cape and red visor in addition to her outfit now looking different to fit Aquamarine's regeneration.

"PIETERSITE LIVES!" Pietersite bellowed loudly for all to hear and cringe in fear. "AND NOW CRYSTAL GEMS, IT IS TIME FOR THE FINAL CURTAIN CALL!"

"I don't think so!" Peridot said as she fired a Rejuvenation Blaster at the two fusions, which they dodged only for the blast to hit one of Nephrite's crew and revert her to normal. "I stole one of those blasters from Howlite and reverse-engineered them to change everyone hit by them back to normal."

"I'm free, I've been freed!" the Nephrite cheered at finally being brought back to her old self.

"What?" Pietersite muttered in horror as the Crystal Gems immediately understood what was going to happen and raced down to solid ground so they can do the same for all the other Gems Black Rutile converted. "No! No no no! Don't do that, I worked so hard!"

"Stop them!" Chrome Chalcedony added as she and Pietersite tried fighting back against the enemy, but as the Crystal Gems' forces grew with every Gem turned back to normal, they were quickly outnumbered.

"Well, we're boned," Apatite muttered as she and Amazonite prepared to leave. "Let's skedaddle!"

"I don't think that'll be necessary," Amazonite replied as she and Apatite found themselves confronted by the entirety of Beach City's population, and they weren't happy.

"Goin' somewhere?" Sheena Synstylae cracked her neck and her knuckles.

"Don't worry, you're not the only ones we'll be punishing," Lars added.

"We'll finally gain an advantage over Black Rutile!" Padparadscha Sapphire exclaimed happily.

Pietersite could barely comprehend what happened, and it was so anticlimactic too. Her forces were subdued, her weapons seized and modified to fix what she had done, and now all that was left of the Rutile Rebels was her, Aquamarine, and Eyeball once again. "Please no, just give me a second chance!"

"Not likely," Lapis said as she summoned a sawblade made of water that sliced Pietersite in half, barely giving her a chance to fight because the Crystal Gems now considered Black Rutile to be that pathetic to not even consider a grander defeat. To seal the deal, Little Homeworld was returned to its rightful place outside of Beach City with help from the Lapis Lazulis.

Black Rutile, Aquamarine, and Eyeball all fell to the ground in defeat, while the rest of the Rutile Rebels were brought together in chains. "I hate happy endings."

"Well, that should about wrap everything up!" Pearl sighed in relief once the dust settled. "Now then, it's off to Revanche 666 you all go!"

"And me too," Tanzanite added, much to Pearl's shock. "Even if I changed my ways, I still need to forgive myself for siding with Black Rutile too."

"Indeed, young Tanzanite." James began one final monologue. "At the end of the day, we are all but individuals crying for fairness in our lives. You won't get everything, but you'll get something. The Crystal Gems finally restore peace, while Black Rutile hopefully realizes how futile her schemes were. In the end, we just need to decide what is fair and what isn't."

"Oh, be quiet!" Black Rutile said as Hessonite and Spinel carted her away to the ship Andesine and Cinnabar hijacked in their prison break, while everyone was left to rejoice.

"So, that's all that happened?" Steven asked Connie a few days later over video chat. "Wow, sounds like you had quite the adventure."

"Yeah, and that's not even getting into what happened next," Connie stated. "First, Marty's now on the run from the law and lost everything. Then, Kevin got a key to the city."

"That's a phrase I never expected to hear." Steven laughed. "What else happened?"

"The Crystal Gems have all made up with each other and the Diamonds, and they're getting the therapy they need from Dr. Sucrose, Mr. Ikari, and Dr. Brenner." Connie continued. "Speaking of which, Brenner put Sally Grove under house arrest and is writing a book about the psychology of influencers, Neil Michaels is stuck doing ChikFlix movies to recoup his losses, Francis von Bowling is stuck in prison with Reginald Johnson, the president is still alive, and finally, the Rutile Rebels are all safely behind bars for what they've done. But I kinda doubt they'll stay there for long because evil geniuses are harder to squash than cockroaches."

"Hey, Connie!" Lapis cried while knocking on Connie's window, now back in her Crystal Gem uniform. When Connie peeked her head outside, she could see the other Crystal Gems outside her house. "You got a minute?"

"I'll call you back Steven!" Connie said before hanging up on Steven and racing outside to meet with her alien friends, no doubt to go on another adventure together. In the distance, the Officer was recording everything he saw and sending it to his masters.

Meanwhile, on Revanche 666, the prison was restored to order as the Rutile Rebels were locked behind the destabilizing fields in their cells.

"Hey, don't be so bummed out everyone!" Kyanite exclaimed. "We can make prison life fun!"

"Oh be quiet!" Zoisite yelled angrily.

"I did pretend to get sent to prison only to get sent to prison for real!" Amber added. "I'm getting anxious!"

"Hey, is no one going to check up on Black Rutile?" Dalmatian Jasper asked while pointing at Black Rutile sitting calmly in her cell.

"She's looking even mopier than me," Xenotime added worriedly. "I hope she's alright."

Hiding from the endless chatter of Zoisite's team, a restored Emerald, Morganite, Demantoid & Pyrope who were behind bars to repent, Black Rutile gazed emotionlessly at her hand as she wondered how it all came to this. So many months of planning have now gone to waste, once again because of the Gems' human friends. This made her finally ask herself one thing. "Is this still worth it?"

This went way longer than I expected, and with way too many characters I put on the cast list that didn't get a line! I've recently found it to be a bad habit of mine, and I hope to remedy that in future stories. I also think I kind of rushed this to be as big as possible while still meeting my deadline. But in the meantime, I hope you all enjoyed these past thirteen weeks and I get to enjoy a break at last and maybe pursuing either a story I haven't written yet or one I still need to finish. But for now, let's see what to come in the finale.

"Your Highness, we received another update from Aescul!" a snakelike alien told his master, another snake alien who was far larger and resembled a king cobra, as he received the news from their deep cover agent. "He says now might finally be the time."

"Excellent work, sir." The king cobra alien said to his subordinate while slithering away. "You are dismissed." The cobra then retreated into a mysterious chamber where he met with a shadowy figure towering above him. "It's time for the Gems to enter our contest, great Lapidarist." He declared to the shadow. "Soon, we shall return your children to you."

The shadowy figure began glowing a brilliant white light as it woke up, followed by shimmering with every possible color in existence while laying eyes upon its servant.

Featuring Voltaire as King Cobralan Jormagundr

TO BE CONCLUDED IN STEVEN UNIVERSE: SNAKE EYES

A FINALE THREE YEARS IN THE MAKING

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quoetree · 1 year

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There are so many stories left barren in the crevices of my mind due to the complexities of my life. The vastness of the world amazes and scares me at the same time. The fact that I am capable of engraving so much of it into the folds of my brain is wonderful but the tragedy is that all of it lost once I am gone.

All the places I have seen, the memories I have had, the moments I have lived are photographed into myself in a way that cannot be lived by another. They are the little treasures I have kept as souvenirs.

Once death embraces me, all my treasures are blown into the air the way a dandelion is scattered into the wind. It is comforting to know that all my worries are but a strong wind away but worrying to know that all my successes are too.

The way sunflowers face the sun and turn their back to the overwhelming sky of clouds, perhaps, I am but a sunflower trying to ignore the fantastically spacious universe and focus on a minute part of it. Perhaps, it gives me joy in doing so. In imagining that I am slightly bigger than I really am.

I crave for the knowledge that may come centuries after I am buried six feet deep. I weep in realization that I won’t ever get a taste of it but soothe my heart with a cool pack of “What if things are worse then, than they are now?”

I wish to write all of these sorrows and all of these fears but do not find the strength in my arm. My throat forms a lump whenever I try to speak and my tongue gives away. My vocal cords constrict as if I’m under a spell that forbids me of speaking my insides out loud.

This is the reason that the words left on the inner side of my skin burn like scorching hot fire that threatens to incinerate me. I try time and time again to spit them out but it is as if they have swore an oath of burrowing their phalanges deep in my raw skin and refusing to let go, much like a parasite that derives what it can from you and leaves you labouring for breath.

Sometimes, my words eat me alive.

- quoetree

Ophelia- Friedrich Heyser

White peonies and a jar- Kami Mendlik

Sunflowers- Jacki Newell

#writing #prompts #sunflowers #fears #i dont know where im going with this #creative writing #this is to help me with my english exam #please send good luck my way for i am in dire need of it

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heartistolovewith · 2 years

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“Sweet Scent Of Summer” by Jacki Newell

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clairemercie · 4 years

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Jackie “Gilda Radner” Cox | S12 E10

#jackie cox #rupaul's drag race #rupaul's drag race season 12 #rpdr #rpdr season 12 #drag race #drag race season 12 #lipsync #lipsync for your life #lsfyl #alex newell #kill the lights #gilda radner

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clydefrogzz · 4 years

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sooo where can i watch a killer party for free

asking for a friend

#jeremy jordan #a killer party #a killer party musical #laura osnes #krystina alabado #jackie burns #carolee carmello #miguel cervantes #drew gehling #alex newell #jarrod spector #michael james scott #jessica keenan wynn

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deafeningnightcollection-things · 4 years

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Out-of-context Quote Of The Day

“Your murder cancelled out my murder!!!”

—A Killer Party: A Murder Mystery Musical (2020)

https://akillerpartymusical.com/about

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lagaleriapopurri · 5 years

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Jacki Newell

#jacki newell #christmas #christmas art #xmas art

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hitku · 7 years

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by Jacki Newell

#art #painting #oil #jacki newell

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hiheyimhuy · 4 years

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Movies/TV Shows

1 Roman Empire -Season 1 -Theme Funny -Golden Age

-Birthdays -Jayden Kouli Spring -Ian Spear Summer -Rex Woodbury Fall -Taylor Phillips Winter

-Jennie Mayer “Type 1” Insults -Arlene Williams “Type 2” Conversation -Tina Fey “Type 3” It’s Not Funny, But It Is Funny -Alison Kang “Type 4” Fighting

-Annie Bucher -Bayley Lichtenberg -Brenna Harrington -Briana Jackson -Carley Wood -Christine Baker -Ellie Hoekman -Emily Dugan -Emily Ross -Heather Bateman -Heather Stams -Jessie Torlai -Kailyn Pennock -Katie Fischbeck -Katie Theisen -Kirsten Brewer -Kristen Kemper -Kylie Barrett -Kyra Pennington -Lexi n Abby Klinkenberg -Meg Mullen -Meressa Mamon -Mia Torlai -Nicole Silver -Rebecca Nixon -Samantha Holler -Tahlia Carchedi 1/2 -Taylor Green 1/2 -Tessa Acay -Zoey Golden 1/2

-Austin From Gardenscapes -Kevin Hill

-Season 2 -Theme Suffering -50 Years After The Golden Age With New Complicated Rulers/King And Government Officials -Nice People -People Who Likes To Play Games -Hard Living -Ancient Technological Society -Consequences -Crimes -Passion of the Christ Roman Guards -Green River Teachers -Guys from Han Tinh Phan Kim Lien -Rating 100% -Jessica Clarke -Kelley Flanagan -Hannah Ann -Lindsey Allemeier -Julia Newell -Annika Brauer -Catherine Berner -Olivia Carlson -Louisa Dunwiddie -Emma Linde -Savannah Billedo -Danielle Brady -Jackie Robinson -Rachel Keyser -Angela Zhang -Megan Williams -Maia Lee -McKay Njos -Tylar Philpott -Vanessa Chukri -Dan Mitchell -Brett Goldstein -Brendan Welzien -Jackson Zariski -Adam Newton -Toro -Richard Ferguson -Jared -Royals Friends -Josh Brueckner -Katie Betzing -Matt Howard -Abby Howard -Charli D’amelio -Addison Rae -“Too Hot To Handle” IGTV video guys -Jacqueline Miller -Eileen Bruns -Johannes Huebl 2/3 -Matty Carrington -Franky Cammarata -Ben K Bowers -Colton Underwood -RJ King 2/3 -Graham Davis -Willem De Koch -Brian Pruett -Gigi Meyer -Henry

-Hailey Napier -Blake Napier -Alex Knutson 2/3 -Elle Petschl -Sam Petschl -Anna Lynch -Ana Rae Miller -Brenna Hudson -Madeline Huletz -Claire Kennedy -Connell O’Brien -Max Tychsen -Dylan Inman -Austin Budke -Cameron Sackett -Elliot Knapp -John Mark Lambert -Colby Franklin -Season 3 -Theme Conquering -Depicts The Fall Of The Roman Empire -Combat Tactics -Strategies -In Places That Trigger Fear -“X Ambassadors - Renegades” Feel -Austin Olson -Chris Torlai -Kevin Hall -Matt Mead -Max Liebl -Nathan Lantz -Nathan Rodland -Oak Griffith -Sean Redmond -Stefan Andonian -Tanner Patnode -Travis McGuire -Wes Concepcion -Ben Affleck -Christian Bale -Tom Cruise -Cavill -Simon Pegg -Sam Quinby -Garrett Yrigoyen -Ben Higgins -Peter Weber -Jack Weber -Chris Harrison -Arie Luyendyk -Jason -Blake -Jared Haibon -Chris Soules -Jordan -David -Joe Sessa -Josh Canova -Graham Bennett -Kevin Park -Aaron Park -Julien Isnardon -Armie Hammer -Maurice Laab -Keegan Selby -Tyler Pichette -Season 4 -In Heaven With Henry And Malcolm

-Season 5 -Reunion Live “Maplestory - Ergoth’s Throne” “Maplestory - Orbis Tower” “Maplestory - Ludi PQ” -“Imagine Dragons - To Exist” 2 -“Imagine Dragons - Darkness Lies Above” 3 -“Imagine Dragons - Fear Is In Your Eyes” 3 -“Imagine Dragons - Only Way Across Is Cold Water” 3 -“Alesso - To Live Without Music” 1 -“Alesso - Watery Feels” 1/2 -“Bastille - What Keeps You Awake At Night” 2 -“Bastille - Every Time You Close Your Eyes” 2 -“Benny Blanco - The 4 Amigos” 1 -“The Chainsmokers - Wishing You Can Untouch” 2 -Might Change Title When I Have Time -“Charlie Puth - Day And Night Changes” 2 -“Coldplay - To Make You Wish You Don’t Have A Soul” 2 -“DNCE - The First To Arrive And Last To Leave” 1 -“Linkin Park - Rather Fall Than Surrender” 3 -“Kaskade - Your Voice Is All I Need” 1 -“Lana Del Rey - The “H” Word” 2 -“The Lumineers - A Cold Winter Morning” 2 -“Major Lazer - Gets You Off The Ground” 1 -“Major Lazer - Hard Bed, Soft Together” 1 -“OneRepublic - Rather Whisper Than Say” 1/2 -“Selena Gomez - Hope You Can Make It Back To Me” 3 -“Selena Gomez - I Need To Give You” 3 -“Shawn Mendes - If I Was Your First Lover” 1/2 -“Shawn Mendes - Fulfill Your Wishes” 1/2 -“Taylor Swift - February Missing You” 3 -“Taylor Swift - Waking Up And You’re Not Here” 3 -“Tove Lo - Roses In Water” 1 -“X Ambassadors - Repentance” 2/3 -“X Ambassadors - Remorses” 2/3 -“X Ambassadors - Regrets” 2/3 -“X Ambassadors - In The Woods” 3 -“X Ambassadors - No One To Be Found” 3 -“X Ambassadors - Only Nature Exists Now” 3 -“X Ambassadors - When You’re Lost” 3 -“2AM Club - I Still Remember You” 1

2 Killer -Henry Farm Childhood -Tom Cruise -Henry Cavill -Simon Pegg -Kelly Hu -Mila Kunis -Chiaki Kuriyama -Amy Johnston -Connell O’Brien -Yugioh Main Characters -Yugi -Joey -Bakura -Pegasus -Marik -Mai Valentine -Weevil -Rafael -Dartz -Charli D’amelio -Matt Howard -Alessandro Dellisola -Johannes Huebl -Sean O’Pry -Taylor Swift -Shawn Mendes -Girls Non-Killers -“Soft, Tender, Delicate” IGTV video -“Finger 11 - Paralyzer” IGTV video -Excluding Claire Miller -Abby Howard -Armie Hammer -Chace Crawford

3 Witches History on Earth -Malcolm in Heaven -Hocus Pocus -Vietnamese Girls -Trang Nguyen -Nguyen Ha My -Yen Nguyen -Written By Henry And Malcolm

4 Paris by Night in Modern Time -Presidents -Ben Affleck -Leonardo DiCaprio -1/4 Europeans -Brody Jenner -1/4 Asians -Japanese -Chiaki Kuriyama -Substitute -Cheyenne Stacey Powell -Administration -Nia Nguyen -Stephanie Che -The Bachelor Girls -The Bachelorette Girls -Clothes -Elementary And Middle School -Less Normal -High School -Fashion -College -Travel After College -Love

5 Ancient Forests -Josh Brueckner -Katie Betzing -“131 Tall Tree Guys” IGTV video -“Soft, Tender, Delicate” IGTV video -The Bachelor -The Bachelorette

6 Toys

7 Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) -Inventions -Movable Type Printing (1041-1048 AD) -Gunpowder (1000 AD) -Compass (1100 AD) -Paper Money (11th century) -Arts -Music -Literature -Philosophy -Theme Romance -Marco Polo -Born in Venice -Silk Road -Visited China (1275-1292 AD) -Father and Uncle -Lingchi Torture -TVB Actors/Actresses -Kenneth Lam -Kacie Lo -Chloe Tsang -Clarissa Chan -Jessica Yi -Danny Shin -Joyce Lin -Shin -Alex Landi

8 Ancient Egypt -Theme Revenge, Ruling, Warfare -Pharaoh -Pyramids -Sphinx -Nile River -Farming -Hieroglyphics -New Kingdom (1570-1069 BCE) -Kings Are Called Pharaohs -Golden Age -Wealth -Prosperity -Power -Wars -Burned alive -Thrown into river with crocodiles -Charli/Dixie D’amelio -Addison Rae -“Roosevelt High School” IGTV video -Andrew Mead -Austin Perlatti -Bret Johnson -Carter Rey Johnson -Casey Manso -Christopher Wilson -Clay Barton -Colby Foss -Connor Bennett -Dalton Bond -Derek Pedersen -Hayden Njos -Jake Zylstra -Jared McAboy -Jeff Seid -Jett DiPalma -Jordan Kirkland -Ken Williams -Kevin Brown -Kevin Hall -Kevin Kennedy -Kramer Fairclough -Leo Trotz -Marco Amalfitano -Max Liebl -Michael Leverenz -Mike Suguro -Mitchell Booth -Nathan Lantz -Nathan Rodland -Matt Fisher -Nick Fisher -Nick Watson -Oak Griffith -Ozamataz Buckshank -Pabi Dhaliwal -Pat McGuire -Pierre Groenewald -Roddy Hanson -Ryan Johnson -Scott Andrew -Seth Gunning -Seth Shields -Sheldon Stober -Stephen Bishopp -Tanner Patnode -Taylor Tinney -Wes Concepcion -Zane McCanless -“Soft, Tender, Delicate” IGTV video -“INNA - Amazing” IGTV video -Elizabeth Rodland -Armie Hammer -Chace Crawford -Franky Cammarata -Johannes Huebl -Sean O’Pry -Blake Horstmann -Jan -Joe Sessa and his friends -Matt/Abby Howard -Taylor Dean -Kelley Flanagan -Jessica Clarke -Madison Prewett -Lindsey Allemeier -Katie Betzing -Ben Higgins -Hannah Ann -Ian Spear -Laguna Beach -Lauren -Kristin -Stephen -Talan -Jessica -Taylor -Adam Newton -Sean Lowe -Catherine Giudici -Brianne Schmidt -Connell O’Brien -Tyler Pichette -Hannah Brown -Max Tychsen -Dylan Inman -Tyler Cameron -Taylor Phillips

9 Mesopotamia -Daily Life -Learning To Be A Scribe -Ziggurat -One Of The Seven Wonders -Hanging Gardens -The Fertile Crescent -Invented The Plow -People Of The City-States -Nobles -Priests -Merchants -Scribes -Craftworkers -Free Farmers -Enslaved People -Farmers Who Did Not Own Their Land -Cut One Hand Off -Women’s Legal Status

10 Ancient Greece -Philosophers -Socrates -Plato -Aristotle -Mathematics/Science -Euclid -Archimedes -Eratosthenes -Hippocrates

11 Greek Gods/Goddesses -Athena, Goddess of Wisdom -Parthenon Temple

12 Alexander the Great

13 Medieval Europe (500-1500 AD) -Theme Suffering -Boiling -Baking -Burning -Brazen Bull -Cooking -Stretching Bones -Sleep Deprivation -Quartering -Children’s Crusades -Castles

14 Islam -Muhammad -Arabia -Persia -Pillars -Architecture -Learning -Astronomy -Algebra -Medicine -Mapmakers -1001 Nights Book

15 India In The Middle Centuries -Taj Mahal

16 Central/South America -Theme Coming of Age -Maya -Toltec -Aztec -Tenochtitlan -Teotihuacan -Olmec -Inca -Cotton -Maya Calendar -Maize Corn -Metal -Writing -Soccer -Rituals -Religious Ceremonies

17 Europe (1400-1750 AD) -Peasant Revolts -Wars -Renaissance -Coldplay -Exploration -North/South America -Slavery -Imperialism

18 Industrial Revolution (Late 1700s AD) -England

19 Nations in Conflict (1775-1921 AD) -Revolutions -Independence -Nationalism -Ending Ancient China

20 1900s Conflict -Hitler -Russia -Japan -Westernization -Communism -World War I -World War II -Cold War -Berlin Wall -Technology -Advancements -Independence -Space Race

21 1900s Fun -China -Shanghai -David Kangmeng -South Korea -Fashion -Music -Recreation -France -Coffee -Restaurants -Sex -Hugh Jackman -Germany -Hugh Jackman -Spain -Hugh Jackman -Great Britain -Hugh Jackman

22 United States 1970-1990 -Fraternity -Fun -Matt Damon

23 Adulthood in the United States -The Bachelor -The Bachelorette -City -Country -Jobs -Relationships -Financial Problems -Making It In Hollywood

24 Masculinity -Male To Male Friendships And Siblings -Domination -Dealing With Girls

25 Comedy PBN Part 2 “Spin Off” -Continues After “Paris By Night In Modern Time” -Age Around 30+ -Van Son Cast -Similar To “Adulthood in the United States” And “Virtues of Harmony II” But Different

26 Countryside “Que” In VN -Theme Suffering -Financial Problems -Hard Living -Making It As Singers -Dating Singers -Accidents -Human To Human Crimes -How To Get To The United States

27 Physical Buildings And Transportation -Thailand, Malaysia, And Singapore -Hotels -Motels -Apartments -Bars -Clubs -Supermalls -Supermarkets -Companies -Motorcycles -Taxis -Trains -Airports -Gambling

28 Companies And Corporations -India And The Middle East -Work Time -Play Time

29 Modeling -Brazil, Portugal, And Spain -Amazon Rainforest -Rio De Janeiro -Marcello Alvarez -Jobs -Pay Less -Require Effort -Tired -Time Consuming -High School Drop Out -Saving Money -Criminal Offenses -Competition

30 Hierarchy In Society -Mexico -Poor -Rich -Cartels -Illegal Immigration To The United States -MTV Reality And Game Shows -Cabo San Lucas -Travel To The Caribbean

31 Route To Antarctica -Theme Living With Air Pollution 1990s -Chile -Santiago -San Antonio -Argentina -Buenos Aires -Andes Mountains -Lake Titicaca -Atacama Desert -Tierra Del Fuego -Tip Of South America -Cape Horn -Herding Farm Animals -Biking

32 High School In Vietnam -Movie Length Duration -Fun During School -Hard Times Outside Of School

33 United States Road Trip -Washington -Oregon -California to East Coast -Variety Of Climates -Route 66

34 Girl Pornstars -Hot Girls -Hard Past -Family -Friendships -Relationships -School -Money -On The Street -Need Food -Need House -Need Home -Models -Real -Instagram -Victoria’s Secrets -Pornstars -Feelings -Resentful -Fearful -Anxious -Apprehensive -Insecure -Suspicious -Trust -Travel -Making It In The Porn Industry

35 Guy Pornstars -Straight Guys -Gay/Bi Guys -Henry Pheet -Malcolm -Random Grindr Hookups -Travel -Making It In The Porn Industry Leonardo DiCaprio Robert De Nero John Travolta Tom Cruise Henry Cavill Simon Pegg Christian Bale Hugh Jackman Keanu Reeves Edward Norton Sean Connery Matt Damon Mel Gibson George Clooney Tom Hardy Orlando Bloom Guy Pearce Heath Ledger Robert Redford Paul Newman Scarlett Johansson Rachel McAdams Amanda Bynes Japan -1900s WWI/II -Westernization South Korea -1990s K-POP China -Song Dynasty -Ending Ancient China -1900s Beijing Vietnam -School In United States -Travel -Love -Comedy -Countryside “Que” Thailand, Malaysia, And Singapore -Physical Buildings And Transportation Drama India -The Middle Centuries Taj Mahal -Companies And Corporations The Middle East -Companies And Corporations Europe -Medieval -Renaissance -Exploration -Imperialism Italy -Roman Empire France -1900s Great Britain -Industrial Revolution Mexico -“Hierarchy In Society” Brazil -Modeling Portugal -Modeling Spain -Modeling

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ice-creamforbreakfast · 4 years

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“If A Sim Were A Song” challenge by @therealmortimergoth

Rules: Pick a song and try to make a sim based on it. They can be based on the lyrics, song title or just the general vibe you get from the song.

I was tagged by @servegrilledcheese! Thank you so much 💜

I chose Kill the Lights by Alex Newell, because it has been firmly lodged in my brain since Jackie and Heidi’s lipsync! I decided to do 70s inspired, but not full 70s for this look so I had a bit more leeway 💛

I tag @titosims @ninjaofthepurplethings, @eslanes, @budgie2budgie, @thesimsblues, @xldkx, @cyberth0t, @joliebean, @stsciurussimblr @anotherplumbob, @saurussims, @wannabecatwriter, @ophelia-nygmos, @boomchicapopdatsims, @cupcakegnome, @simnights, @magnoliapromenadegalleria, @haziesims, @ladybugsimblr, @renorasims, @honeykiwis, @honeybunniesims, @hookarehm, @wittynome and anyone else who wants to play!

#ice-creamforbreakfast #ts4 #the sims 4 #if a sim were a song challenge #hfo chanel

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andy-the-8th · 3 years

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Things Green and Growing

Part 9 of Creatures That Defy Logic

Read on AO3

Sam's last day at the greenhouses for the summer and seeing her sister off back to college.

cw: homophobic language

A/N: I just really like the idea of Sam and Jess being biology bros

Also we meet Sam's dad. He's an asshole.

The rushing fans and cool mist of the greenhouse definitely made the late August heat more bearable - no matter how much you might love your job, there's only so much summer sun you (or your plants) could take without some assistance.

"Am I doing this right?"

Jess looked up at Sam from the other side of a table of junipers, a spiky carpet of green across the long low table, contrasting the spotty gray of the wet concrete greenhouse floor. He'd come by the greenhouse a few times over the summer - even though he didn't work there, he insisted he help with something if he was going to hang out. Sam had eventually agreed to let him take care of some of the more innocuous tasks.

Pruning clippers in hand, Jess had been tasked with cutting back the overgrown shoots from the Japanese star junipers - the small conifers were popular for their hardiness as a ground cover, especially as a more durable and eco-friendly replacement for grass. This meant though that their lower branches would snake over the edges of the black plastic pots they were growing in, running sideways in every direction, getting tangled in each other, burning and drying out foliage.

Sam walked over to inspect his handiwork. Actually not too bad.

"Yeah, they look fine."

"Awesome. Thanks for letting me prune something, feels more important than moving things around from table to table" Jess said cheerfully.

"No problem" Sam had come to genuinely enjoy spending time with Jess, and not just as a confidant. Sure, he never got any less excessively enthusiastic, would still frequently go off on tangents of facts and theories, but she'd gotten used to his pattern of speaking. He'd clearly been scared of being annoying the first time he'd visited, and pretty much stayed quiet the few times he'd met Jackie or Jen. Trying to be a bit more normal around new people.

So in a way, she was glad he was comfortable being himself around her now.

Sam went back to the table of peace lilies: graceful, broad glossy dark green leaves with their delicate white alien blooms on long stalks above the thick cluster of greenery at the base. Like the junipers - like most potted plants packed together for commercial purposes - the lower levels were at risk of suffocation, for both light and air, and had to be clipped off before they turned yellow and started to attract mold.

They kept working in silence for a long while, the only sound in the greenhouse the gentle rush of the fans, the occasional hiss of the misting system, the soft clicks of the pruning clippers punctuating at either end of the space.

"So school starts back up in a week."

Sam caught that that was both a perfectly normal observation and a veiled question about what they'd both been thinking since August started. Cody was supposed to be back soon.

"Do you think he'll come back at night? So no one sees him transform back?"

"I don't know, probably." Of course Sam still missed her boyfriend, but it had also been good to spend the summer focusing on her own interests, her own friends, away from swimming and social drama. But she knew she looked forward to seeing him.

Still, it would be a lie to say she wasn't more than a little apprehensive as well.

Like, he literally wasn't human. A lot had probably changed from spending some time as a full-time merman. And what sort of sea creatures were they anyway? Were merpeople more like whales, pelagic, solitary, mostly sticking to the vast fathoms of the open oceans? Living alone or in two or three individuals? Or were they more like dolphins, staying in the shallows in big social pods? Was it like in the movies, secret underwater cities of merpeople with their own cultures, music, governments?

It wasn't too unrealistic to imagine that any of those might significantly change someone's demeanor or even personality. She still got hung up on the whole telepathy thing as well - if Cody came back able to read minds, that might just be too weird of a thing to deal with on top of starting high school.

Jess didn't seem to see any of those questions as anxieties, of course. Quite the opposite. To be fair, he wasn't the one dating him either.

"Gosh, I wonder what it all was like." His voice that that airy sort of awe he'd had back when Cody was still going through the transformations. They actually hadn't really talked about him much over the summer, which Sam had found a little surprising - Jess seemed equally excited to just talk with her, especially with their shared interests in biology. He'd listened attentively when Sam wanted to talk over her mom's work with environmental regulations, or projects she was taking on with the envi-sci club at school next year, or balancing swimming with her other extracurriculars.

"Guess we'll find out." Sam carefully kept any apprehension out of her voice. She did want to know about it, as much as Cody wanted to tell her - but she also wanted to keep their first year of high school as normal as possible after junior high's supernatural finale.

"Yeah. I think I've gotten all the shoots on the junipers."

"Alright, thanks Jess. I'm finishing up here, then will have to be getting home. Jackie's leaving for college again tonight, and I think my dad will be coming to see her off as well."

Sam bit her lip at that. She didn't like having to talk about her father. It wasn't like having divorced parents was abnormal - she guessed that was the case for Jess as well, since he never talked about his mom - but she still didn't like having to bring up her father in more detail than necessary.

"Oh, OK. D'you want me to stick around and help clean up?"

"Nah it'll be fine. Ms. Brantwood should be coming by soon anyway, before I lock up."

"Alright." Jess walked over to the open greenhouse door, where he'd leaned his bike against the frame. He paused for a moment, wiping his glasses with the hem of his shirt where they'd fogged up from the quick temperature and humidity shift, squinting in the sun.

Sam had turned back to the peace lilies, arranging them with proper spacing on the low table, fishing the spray bottle where it had disappeared in the thick stand of leaves, pots, and dirt.

"Sam?"

"Yeah?" she turned her head over her shoulder to where he was still just outside the door, helmet strapped on, hands on the bike ready to go.

"Can you call me if you hear first when he comes back?"

Sam smiled and exhaled out her nose, relaxed her shoulders. "Of course. You too, OK? You're a lot closer to the water than me."

"Oh definitely." Jess balanced to one side on the bike, ready to kick off. "See'ya!"

"See'ya later Jess."

She heard him head off, wheels crunching over the gravel down to the sidewalk, saw him blurred through the glass walls, disappear as he went around the front of the building.

Grabbing the spray bottle and the clippers, she walked them down to the worn wooden cabinets and coat rack built into the wall next to the greenhouse office, hung her gloves on the hook. She took the broom back over to the peace lily table, made sure she hadn't missed any stray leaves or sprinkles of soil on the wet concrete floor. The bell on the door of the office jingled once as it opened and closed - Ms. Brantwood, the owner, came out then, clipboard in one hand, glasses perched on the end of her nose. Ms. Brantwood always looked like some hybrid of a farmer and a librarian, flannel shirt, sleeves rolled up to her elbows, workboots, her gray hair in a tight bun, glasses held on a colorful beaded strap around her neck.

"Ms. Brathwaite," she said congenially. "Here you go." She handed Sam an envelope.

"Thanks Ms. B." Her paycheck from the summer, headed straight for her college savings once she got home.

"Thanks for all the help this summer! The peace lilies never looked better." She smiled approvingly over at the displays where Sam had spent most of the afternoon. "We'd be happy to have you back again."

"That'd be great! Thank you again for having me" Sam tucked the envelope in her canvass bag, slung it over her shoulder, and started to the door.

"Good luck with high school - it's scary at first but you'll do great."

Sam smiled again and backed out the open door, closing it behind her, the screen making a quick whoosh sound before the door clacked on the wood frame. She shifted her bag on her shoulders and started down the sidewalk for home.

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

"If you really have that much of a problem with it, you can just leave."

Lindsey crossed her arms and leaned back on her kitchen counter, staring down her ex-husband, who was at the bottom of the stairs next to the front door, one hand on the newel post, head hanging down in frustration.

"I don't have a problem, I have an opinion. Goddamnit, do you have to make everything into one of your crusades?"

"I don't have crusades, Steve, I have morals. It's none of your business how she looks, Jackie is a grown woman."

"Staying in a house that I pay to keep you in."

"Don't bullshit me like that. You known damn well I supported us. The house was only ever in my name, for fucks sake. Your child support checks aren't anything we rely on."

"Trust me, they wouldn't exist if the court didn't say so."

Steve glared back at her, the silence tense. Lindsey huffed and went back to packing granola bars and sandwiches in the lunchboxes on the table - snacks to send with Jackie for the car ride to the airport.

"You shouldn't have let her go to that school either."

"She got a full scholarship" Lindsey snapped. She was rapidly reaching the end of her rope with this conversation and was just about ready to throw Steve out of her house if he continued like he was. He was the father of her kids, he technically had visitation rights - but she wouldn't have him talk like this in their house. Thank God Jackie was outside, and Sam still at work.

"Yeah, well, maybe if she'd gone to a state university instead of some liberal arts bullshit, she wouldn't be dressing like some fucking dyke now."

That was it - he was through.

"Get out. Now."

She threw every bit of venom she could into the final word, her gaze ice cold, her knuckles white gripping the edge of the kitchen counter.

Steve sneered cruelly at her as he shifted to go and roughly put his hand on the door knob. "Wonder where she got that from."

He opened the door quickly to find Sam on the doorstep, her face surprised and pale. Steve stopped, also startled for a moment. He didn't know how much she'd heard - he didn't care. She was grown up enough to start knowing about the real world unfiltered, as far as he was concerned.

"Hey, Dad," she offered shakily, awkwardly. He just looked down at her coldly.

"Good luck in school next year." He turned back for one last glare at Lindsey, then pushed past Sam down the front steps, to his car in the driveway, leaving the front door open. He slammed the car door as he got in, backed down past Lindsey's car into the cul-de-sac where Jackie was standing next to Vanessa's old Jeep, and sped off around the corner, tires spinning harsh squeals, out of the neighborhood.

Jackie and Vanessa quickly looked over at Sam, clearly worried. Jackie walked up across the small front yard, making herself smile sarcastically, trying to conjure humor for her sister who still was frozen and scared-looking on the doorstep.

"Another grand finale and exit from the father of the year, ladies and ladies!" she announced dramatically. Sam smiled a little at that - Jackie's features relaxed in relief. Vanessa stayed by the Jeep, eyes closed and looking down, fingers pressed to her temples, shaking her head in exasperation.

"Hey, Sam." Jackie looked hard at her, serious. "Don't listen to anything he says. He's an asshole. Got it?"

"Yeah Jackie. Got it." Sam went inside and put her bag down on the floor next to the kitchen table, where Lindsey was aggressively zipping up the lunch boxes. She might have chided Jackie for using that kind of language in front of her, in less charged circumstances.

"I just have one more box upstairs, 'kay Mom?"

"Alright, don't keep Vanessa waiting out there too long though. I'm set to go when you are."

Sam bit her lip and looked down at the wood grain in the kitchen table, at the lines in the linoleum floor. "Mom, I'm going to put my stuff upstairs too, I'll be down to see them off."

Sam quickly took the stairs, two at a time. She tossed her bag on her bed, closed the door, and turned down the hall to Jackie's room.

She was standing at her bureau, small cardboard box in hand, quickly putting her many rings, chokers, and bracelets in, her back to the door. She turned her head, hearing Sam step into the door frame.

"What's up?"

"Jackie, I- something Dad said -"

"Hey, what'd I tell you? Ignore him. He doesn't know shit." Jackie huffed and went back to gathering things off the top of the bureau.

"Yeah I know." Sam looked down, nervous. "But what he said about how you looked, like a...a.."

"A dyke?"

".......yeah."

To Sam's surprise Jackie actually laughed a little, put her last few bits of jewelry in the box, shoved it into her black backpack, covered in pins and patches. She crossed the room and put her hands on her sister's shoulders. She breathed in, and Sam looked up at her a little.

"Listen to me again now. We are strong, modern women. We can look how we want. We can be how we want. It's a new millennium, we can't stay stuck in that patriarchal bullshit forever."

Jackie definitely looked how she wanted - hair spiked up today, black nailpolish, Bikini Kill shirt with cut off sleeves over her black jeans.

"So, does that mean...?"

Jackie smiled and rolled her eyes. "Actually, no. I'm straight, I'm just goth and like to piss off old men." She paused, serious again. "But there'd be nothing wrong with that if I were, Sam. If anyone were."

"Um, oh. Yeah, OK, I jus-"

Jackie's eyes flicked up, past Sam's face and cutting her off, looking past her face to the doorway. Lindsey was standing there, arms folded, lips pursed, her eyes nervous.

She and Jackie held eye contact for a noticeable moment - Sam turned her head to look at her mom as well. Lindsey's eyes calmed and softened almost too quickly to notice.

"You guys about ready to head out?"

"Yeah Mom, we're done." Jackie walked back over and hauled her backpack up onto one shoulder, the buttons rattling into each other with the motion. Sam turned back and walked past her mom, leading the way down the stairs and out the front door. She paused on the doorstep to let them pass. Jackie hoisted her backpack straighter and stopped in front of Sam on the doorstep.

"You know you can always call me if you want. High school can suck sometimes, if you want to talk to someone who already did it you know where to find me."

"Hey, I was in high school once too" Lindsey added, smiling a bit, trying to lighten the mood as well. Jackie rolled her eyes dramatically.

"'kay, how about if you want to talk to someone who did high school within the last hundred years, THEN call me."

Jackie hugged Sam tight, and walked across the grass to where Vanessa was waiting by the car. Vanessa and Jackie both went to college in Philadelphia - Vanessa at Temple University, Jackie at Haverford College. They were on the same flight over - Vanessa's mom was an airline pilot, so would drive the Jeep back home from the airport after they'd left.

Lindsey followed her down to the side of the car, stopping on the curb, arms crossed over her chest. The air had cooled significantly as the sun went down, almost chilly in contrast to the day's heat.

"Call me when you get in, OK?"

"Yeah of course, same as always." Lindsey hugged Jackie and Vanessa, stepped back from the Jeep as they pulled away with the windows down. Jackie turned up the radio, the energetic chugging guitar and drums filling the summer night, bouncing off the houses around the cul-de-sac.

"WOOOOOOOO!!" as Vanessa steered them away from the sidewalk, Jackie looked back with a wild excited smile, hands up in the rock gesture.

"DRIVE SAFE GIRLS" Lindsey called over the loud music, waving as they turned the corner and out of the development, the music fading as they left.

Lindsey stayed looking down the road for a few moments after the Jeep was gone - from where she was leaning against the front door, Sam saw her mom's eyes were a bit wet. Lindsey walked back up the yard and into the house, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Sorry, sorry, just you girls are growing up so fast." She smiled then as they both walked back inside. As she closed the door behind them, she un-did and re-did her bun, pushing back the loose red strands from the day, refreshing, restoring order.

Following their routine pattern, Sam walked to the kitchen, got two glasses of water, handed one to her mom as they both settled at the table.

Lindsey took the glass, gently clinked it against Sam's. "Hydrate or die!" she said cheerfully, familiarly as part of their home-from-work/inside joke ritual they'd organically developed over the summer, with Sam getting back from the greenhouses the same time Lindsey got back from the offices.

"Hydrate or die." Sam replied, smiling. They both sipped their water silently, decompressing from the day, from Steve, from Jackie's departure.

"You got everything you need for next week?"

"Yeah, I'm set on everything. I got paid from Brantwood today too."

"Oh good, I'm going by the bank tomorrow morning, I can deposit it for you."

"Thanks Mom."

Eventually Lindsey got leftovers from the fridge to heat up - dinner passed at a welcomely-uneventful rate, just chatting about work from the day, errands to run. They finished the dishes and Sam filled up one of the watering cans on the counter to bring upstairs to her plants. She'd put the succulents on a nightly watering schedule, better to accommodate the extra heat this time of year without extra evaporation.

"Goodnight Mom."

Lindsey looked up from the reports she had absentmindedly been paging through after finishing the dishes - environmental justice never sleeps. "Night hon. You OK?" Her voice was gentle, but firm enough that she indicated that she was leaving it open if Sam wanted to talk about any of the commotion from earlier.

Maybe not tonight.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Goodnight." Sam was up the stairs and out of sight.

Lindsey closed the folder on the table, shuffled it back into the small pile she'd pulled from her briefcase. She leaned forward, hands on her forehead, taking long, soothing breaths with her eyes closed. She stayed like that a while, listening to Sam moving about above - back and forth around her room with the watering can, down the hall to the bathroom and back, waiting til she heard her door click shut for the night. She got up, quietly pushed her chair back under the table. She filled her glass at the sink, downing it in one draft, slowly and smoothly, letting the coolness spread through her whole body. Hydrate or die.

Filing folders back into her briefcase could wait til morning. It had been a long day.

END NOTES:

I imagined the song Jackie and Vanessa are listening to is Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill

Tune in next time for more of "which of Sam's supporting cast is going to be a lesbian"

Jackie and Lindsey continue to be fun and interesting to write - maybe future spinoffs? Does it still count as fanfiction when the original characters get spinoffs?

#the thirteenth year #dcom #disney channel original movies #fanfic #homophobic slurs

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