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moni-logues · 4 months

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Kintsugi 15

Pairing: Yoongi x reader

Genre: strangers-to-friends-to-lovers, non-idol!au, angst, smut, tiny bit of eventual fluff

Summary: In a fit of spiteful, post-break-up self-improvement, you sign up to a baking class. Yoongi, in a bid to appease his demanding girlfriend, signs up, too. Determined to make him your friend, you end up with more than you ever imagined.

Word count: 6.8k

Content: references to self-harm, description of self-harm scars, some chat about self-harm; oral sex (m. and f. receiving), fingering, protected sex

A/N: I said I'd make it clear, so let's do that: IT'S THE END! THE FINAL ONE!! THE LAST CHAPTER! IT'S DONE!!! IT'S FINISHED!!! NO MORE!!! NO MAS!!!! FINIT!!!!! 끝!!!! 끝!!!! 끝!!!!

I was so relieved to finish this yesterday and thought I would be glad more than anything to post this and finally (FINALLY!!!) bring the series to a close, but I honestly do also feel kind of sad it's over. We've been together over a year now, these characters and me; I've been actually writing them for a year but they first popped into my head 18 months ago. And now we're at the end.

Huge thank you to everyone who has beta'd for me, inc. for this chapter @quarter-life-crisis2 and @here2bbtstrash, @minttangerines, @blog-name-idk, and Amethyst

Thank you to everyone who has left comments and come along on this journey with me; it has meant SO much to me to have your investment in and enthusiasm for this story. It has made it so rewarding to tell and I hope you like their ending.

Without further ado...

Chapter Fourteen | Masterlist | Bonus Drabble 1

Chapter Fifteen - Spring

You rested your head gently against the window, watching the people come and go. The cherry blossoms had fallen already, gathered in gutters and collected in corners. You were always sad to see them go, but this year, you felt like they had given you something. Summer, of course, as always: the heat, the sun, the long days, the blessed relief of an ice-cold drink and even colder air-conditioning. This year, the cherry blossoms had brought you something else. Truly like confetti, they had blown around you, whirled around you, celebrating your first week of From Now On.

You didn’t say that you were getting ahead of yourself. Not this time. Because you weren’t that anxious about it, as much as that surprised you. You had all the anticipation of your first day at school with none of the nerves. The cherry blossoms had gone but they hadn’t left a hole; you couldn’t feel their absence because your life felt abundant. Last year, when you had watched them bloom and fall and fade away, you had been empty. All the joy they usually brought you couldn’t touch the sides of your despair. It hurt more to see them ushering in spring when you felt stranded alone in winter. But now you weren’t alone. Not even close.

It was a fairly mild day, just the cool side of hot, and still. You had been impatient and got ready early, hence the sitting and staring. Yoongi wasn’t due for another five minutes, but you’d been there for twenty already. You imagined you might see him on his approach to your building and get to observe him, unnoticed. You wondered what he was doing right now – driving? In a taxi? On the subway? Was he already on his feet, close to you? Was he nervous? You thought he would be. His shyness recently reminded you of when you first met, those tentative overtures of friendship, the thrill you felt when he opened himself up to you.

It was not unlike the thrill you felt now, waiting for him to pick you up for your very first date.

When he was due in no less than two minutes, you stood and moved to your mirror. You had, initially, planned to wear something that you considered sexier – that is to say, more form-fitting, a little more scandalous, a dress that showed off a little more of what your mother gave you – and then you changed your mind. You didn’t need to do that, because Yoongi already knew. He had already seen what lay beneath and it was all for him now anyway. So you dressed a little more comfortably, in a dress with a little more give, a little more fabric and flounce. You looked cute; you wanted Yoongi to think you looked cute.

Then, as you always did, you heard his footsteps.

“Babe!” you cried, leaning out of your door to see him coming from the end of the corridor.

But you almost didn’t manage to say anything at all because, whilst you had expected Yoongi, you hadn’t expected Yoongi in a suit, holding flowers. It stopped you short; you had been about to run out to him, jump into his arms, do something silly. Instead, you were flustered, grinning at him from your doorway, your heart going like the clappers and your blood roaring in your ears because god-fucking-damn, had he always been that handsome?

“No!” he called back. “Go back inside! What are you doing?”

What were you doing? Short-circuiting, a little. His hair was still long and you imagined it twisted between your fingers, soft and pullable; he was smiling, even as he scolded you, all his little teeth on display. You had always liked a man in a suit – you must have said it a thousand times – but you had not been prepared for how much you liked this man in a suit. You were going to have to get some kind of grip if you were going to make it through dinner.

“I’m saying hello!” you called back, a little too loudly now that he was closer. “I was going to run out to meet you!”

“Get back inside! I’m supposed to be picking you up! I need to knock on your door!”

Truthfully, Yoongi would have loved to have you run out of your apartment and into his arms, even if he’d tumbled, you’d stumbled, you’d both fallen to the floor in a bumped, bruised heap. He’d have loved to have thrown all caution to the wind and run away with you. But all of that was still overwhelming, far too much good for a boy who still thought he was bad, and there was a process to be followed, procedure. He was clinging to that. Like a life raft.

Yoongi had practised. In as much as you can practise speaking to a friend without actually speaking to them. He had forgotten, in all his anxiety about dating you, about being with you, being seen by you, that you were his friend. He’d had these feelings for you from the very beginning and they had never paralysed him like he felt they were now. He knew sex was not the (only) answer, that sooner or later, he was going to have to remember how to act around you. So he called each of his friends in turn to hang out with them, to remind himself, firstly, that he had them, that he was likable; secondly, that he enjoyed their company—he enjoyed company in general, more than he would ever let on; thirdly, that he could be good company: he got a laugh out of every one of them. That had to count for something.

And he bought you flowers. Because they would provide a good distraction in case all of these remembrances fell out of his head the second he saw you. And because he wanted to, because that’s what you should do when you take someone out on a date. He knew you liked tulips and it was tulip season. It felt right. And it released a little of his impulse to shower you with things, to buy things for you and haemorrhage cash to make him seem worth it.

For the longest time, money had been all he had. He had laughed out loud in his therapist’s office when he said that because, for the longest time, money was all he didn’t have. The not-having of money was the very thing that defined his life and set him on this path; it was the bedrock beneath the biggest of his life’s decisions. And then it became all he had. All he had to offer. He was still learning that maybe there were other things, too.

You did as you were told and shut the door, palms pressed against it as you listened to your heart and tried to make it slow. Then you waited six seconds until you heard his first knock.

“Oh my god, hi!” you exclaimed. “I had no idea you were here!”

Yoongi pretended he wasn’t grinning and shot you a look.

“Shut up,” he replied. “I bought you these.”

Tulips. Your favourite flower. You didn't remember ever telling Yoongi that, but maybe he just knew. They were another reason that April was your favourite time of year. Seoul Forest was full of them, hundreds, thousands of them blanketing the banks. There was a rainbow of colour in every direction; tall heads on sturdy stems barely touched by breezes, swaying like a choir. It was like a pilgrimage; you went every year. Maybe this year, you would take Yoongi.

“They’re beautiful, thank you.”

You took them from him, not bothering to try to restrain your smile from splitting your face in half, and leant in to kiss him. Then you stopped.

“Are we allowed to kiss?” you asked, one inch from his face. Then you moved away and started looking in cupboards for a vase you weren’t sure you owned.

Yoongi looked confused.

“Y’know, kissing on a first date?”

He still looked confused. Then you remembered. You laughed.

“Oh, of course, that’s right. You’re Mr Fucks on a First Date, aren’t you?”

You expected him to be surprised; you hoped he would be a little flustered, hoped you would get to see that pink creep onto his cheeks in a way that was just too cute. Instead, he grinned and you felt your own cheeks heat.

“Is that a promise?” he asked and your stomach swooped.

You had found a vase, tipped flower food into it, and were gently arranging the stems. You abandoned them in favour of moving closer him, then a little closer, slowly closer, until your lips were almost on his.

“Cheeky,” you muttered, eyes flicking down to his lips, amaranth pink and just a little pouty. You bit your own.

Yoongi hummed.

“So is that a yes?”

“Only if you play your cards right.”

You dragged your eyes up and slowly pressed a kiss to his mouth. His hands settled on your hips and you couldn’t stop yours from reaching up, tangling one in his hair, using the other to rake through the dark locks you hoped he never cut. It wasn’t exactly the kind of grip you needed to get, but every atom of your body was asking for more. It was intoxicating to be kissed by him.

It was Yoongi who broke from you (you did not have the same level of restraint), his mouth lifting in a grin as he nodded his head slightly towards the counter, where your tulips stood in their vase.

“Did I mention I got you flowers?”

“You might need to tell me one more time.”

You weren’t nervous. Not at all. On the one hand, you felt like you should be, because it was Yoongi and this felt enormous. When you stood back and looked at it, it was huge. He was one of your two (2) friends in this world and you were ruining your friendship good and proper. You could still remember the sharp-toothed despair that wound around you like a strait-jacket after what happened with Sungbin; you remembered the suffocating heartbreak of San leaving you. You knew that it could happen here. There wasn’t a guarantee that Yoongi was The One, that you were The One for Yoongi. It should have scared you.

But it didn’t. It was too hard to be anxious sitting across from him at dinner, as if you hadn’t sat and done this very thing with him dozens of times before. It was impossible to worry about whether or not he liked you when he looked at you like that, when he smiled in that way that you had always suspected was just for you. You knew he liked you because he was here. He had asked for this date and bought you flowers and he was laughing and teasing and being exactly the person you knew him to be. That didn’t make you nervous.

Yoongi had picked the restaurant carefully. Not too fancy, not too quiet, not too busy, not too empty, not too casual. He had spent a great many hours trawling the internet for reviews and photos and listings. He wasn’t usually this obsessive, but so much about it all had felt out of his control and this was in it. So he was going to get it right.

Sitting across from you, he knew he needn’t have bothered. Because he knew you didn’t really care. He wasn’t even sure, sometimes, if you knew what you were eating, because you barely stopped talking to shove it in. You spoke around the food in your mouth and whirled your chopsticks around as you gestured. You picked things off his plate and dropped pieces of your own food onto it. You had this way of creating a world around yourself, such that he forgot where he was; he forgot there was anyone else around, anything else to think about. And he realised he could have taken you anywhere and it would have been just exactly this good. Because it was you.

“Do you want to go for a drink or something? I looked up a couple of bars not far from here,” Yoongi said as he led you, your hand in his, from the restaurant.

You leant up against him, shook your head and pouted.

“No?”

You shook your head again.

“Ice-cream?”

Not that either.

“Ok... Do you want to go home?”

“Yes, please.”

Yoongi seemed surprised and you saw his eyes dim and realised—too slowly, clumsily for too much wine—that you had not exactly said what you meant.

“I want to go home with you, please,” you clarified, still pouting up at him.

“Oh.”

It took Yoongi a couple of seconds to recalibrate, then he smiled down at you with a twinkle in his eye.

“Miss Fucks on a First Date, is it?”

You punched him playfully in the arm and he didn’t bother to act like it hurt.

“Do you want a drink?” Yoongi offered as you slipped off your shoes inside his apartment.

You shrugged. You would have one if he wanted, but you didn’t need one. You felt lush and warm and relaxed enough already. And truthfully, you were at home now, in the privacy of his apartment; you didn’t want to waste a minute with your mouth on anything that wasn’t him.

You kissed him, soft at first, because you did want to fuck on your first date, but you weren’t an animal; you had some patience. Or, that’s what you thought as you pressed your lips against his, but the thought washed away like writing on the sand as soon as you tasted him. All your impatience, all your greed, all your excitement came rushing forward, into the fray, a tsunami of feeling, all good, all for him, all surging through you like a stampede.

“I never,” you started, interrupting yourself with another kiss, one more. “I never want to stop kissing you.”

“Then don’t.”

You moaned into his mouth and pressed your body against his, suddenly too warm, hot, the fabric of your dress burning where it brushed your skin. You pushed Yoongi’s jacket off his shoulders and pulled at the knot of his tie. He laughed against your lips and pulled back.

“You know you’re just making it tighter?”

You whined and let him take over, deftly undoing the damage you’d done and loosening it properly, pulling it through the collar of his shirt and dropping it on the floor. You thought that was quite long enough to not be kissing, to not be held so tight against him, you could practically feel his heartbeat in your chest, but he held you back.

When he started walking away from you, you rushed after him, grabbing his hand as he opened his bedroom door.

“Cherry?” he called softly, padding over to the bed, where she was curled up on the pillow. “You have to get the fuck out of here, ok?”

She ‘mrowed’ at him and rolled onto her back, exposing her exquisitely soft underbelly for strokes, purring when Yoongi put his hand on her. You thought to yourself that you would quite like to be the one purring under his touch, but had to accept that being jealous of a cat was insane, even for you.

“Come on,” he said encouragingly, lifting her up and walking away from you yet again, taking her out to the living room and placing her on the sofa.

“You mean you don’t even give her a free show?” you asked when he returned to the bedroom.

Yoongi’s face flattened and he looked at you, pretending not to be amused.

“Would you like to fuck in front of my cat?”

You jumped up and skipped over to him with a giggle.

“No, thank you!”

You wrapped your arms around his neck and wasted no time reconnecting your mouths. Yoongi, now the cat was out of the room and the door firmly shut, seemed as impatient as you were, his hands sliding under the skirt of your dress and up, slipping beneath your underwear and squeezing at your backside. His mouth moved to your jaw and then your neck, sucking soft kisses into your skin, holding you firmly close to him.

You were impatient because you wanted more, more, and even more of him and you wanted it now. But you also wanted each moment to last. Every time his lips met your skin, they felt softer; every time his tongue rolled over yours, he tasted sweeter; every time his hands squeezed, you felt your heart race a little faster. You wanted him immediately and you also wanted it to last forever. You couldn’t get enough of him.

He moved his hands upwards, outside your dress, and made light work of the buttons at the back that had honestly taken you forever to do up by yourself. You hummed.

“You’re good at that.”

“Hm?”

“Good with your fingers.”

He chuckled and flicked you lightly with one hand whilst his other freed a button from its clasp.

“Is that right?”

“Shut up, you know what I meant.”

“I know exactly what you meant.”

You shivered, even in the warm room, in the bright light of the sun streaming in through the window, when he pulled your dress off and you let it pool on the floor. You didn’t have time to be self-conscious, even if you might have otherwise, because Yoongi was on you, pushing you towards the bed until you were flat on your back, his mouth exploring your body as if he’d forgotten every inch of it in the last week. He hooked his fingers around your underwear and tugged down; you shuffled in response, lifting your hips and wriggling out of it in a way that was less than dignified, and less than efficient, but you didn’t want Yoongi to move off you, didn’t want to sit and then stand so you could do the job properly.

Naked, again, beneath Yoongi, fully-clothed, you held tight to his shirt collar and hoped he would let you know what he wanted. You wanted to let him lead.

And lead he did. He pulled one of your hands to his shirt buttons and you experimentally popped one open. He led your hand to the next one. You worked your way to the bottom, pulling the ends from his trousers, kissing him: his cheek, his jaw, his neck. He wouldn’t look at you and you could see the red on his ears; if you pressed your hand against his chest, you could feel the thump of his heart like a hammer.

“Baby,” you whispered as you slowly slid your hands under his shirt, his body warm against them, soft, not smooth.

He gave no reply and you nudged him gently with your nose.

“Baby, look at me.”

It took seconds that felt like minutes before his eyes met yours. They were guarded, unsure, a little bit afraid. You kissed his lips and smiled.

“We can stop here,” you reminded him but he shook his head.

“Go on.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded but his eyes were elsewhere again.

You pushed your hands along his chest, around his shoulders, forcing the shirt to fall to the bed. You let your hands see him first, your lips still employed on his neck. He was soft and warm and the dip of his spine slightly damp with sweat. You felt them before you saw them, laddering down his arms, criss-crossing his chest, a handful near his hip that were rough and scabbed, still healing.

It hadn’t occurred to you until that moment that you had never seen Yoongi in a T-shirt. That he always wore long sleeves. You hadn’t noticed. Now you knew why.

Yoongi’s face was pink now, a little pained, uncomfortable. Embarrassed. Yoongi wanted to burst into flames and drown himself both at once. He didn’t dare open his eyes because he knew he’d not be able to see for tears. He was holding his breath, waiting for something he desperately didn’t want to happen, even though it always had. The shock, the disgust, the reluctance, the holding at arm’s length.

You took his hand and kissed his palm, kissed the single, thick, raised scar on his wrist and all the smaller ones that followed. You turned him around, guiding him gently so he lay against the headboard, so you could kiss him all over, each and every one of them.

“Babe,” you called to him, crawling up his body until you hovered over him, resting on your hands.

Then you lowered yourself on top of him, skin to skin, and stroked through his hair.

“Hey,” you tried again and Yoongi nodded slightly.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Are you ok?”

He nodded again.

“Gonna look at me and say that?”

When he looked at you, it was a Yoongi you had never seen before. Shy and defeated and embarrassed and sad and there was something hurt in his eyes that almost made you angry – because no one was allowed to hurt him. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

You kissed him once and then again and he cleared his throat lightly.

“I’m fine.”

“Are you?”

“Yes.”

“Yoongi...”

“I’m fine.”

“Do you want to stop?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

Some of the hesitation in his face left him then and he looked at you.

“Have you changed your mind?”

It was a little defensive, the barest hint of a challenge in his voice.

“No,” you answered. “Why would I have changed my mind?”

He looked away again, not answering, though you didn’t need him to. You both knew. But that would never have changed your mind. He could have been covered in slime or secretly a lizard-person and you’d have been just as soft for him as you were now.

Though you were glad that he was neither.

“It doesn’t bother me,” you continued. “Well, it does--” You noticed the clench of his jaw-- “because I know what it takes to do it...” You traced your finger lightly over the scars on his arm. “I know exactly how it feels and I hate that you know, too. I wish I could take it all away from you. So that bothers me. Because I don’t ever want you to feel like it’s something you have to do.

“But-” you pushed yourself up a little, sitting on his lap and pressing your hands to his chest- “actually, also, they’re proof you’re still here, y’know?” Your hand circled his wrist and you pressed your thumb against the worst scar there. “You might not have been. Any one of these could have been the last one, right? But they weren’t. It’s like... every time you do it, it’s a little bit of effort towards staying alive because there’s something worse you could do but you’re not doing that. So it’s proof. Proof that you’re here and trying and you’ve been trying and I, for one, am very glad you are still here. More than glad.”

He didn’t reply. You shrugged.

“And you’ve seen mine. My body is not exactly unscathed.”

“There’s nothing wrong with your body.” His voice was stronger, more like his own.

“And there’s nothing wrong with yours.”

Yoongi had to get out from underneath you, had to stop you looking at him, at least for a moment. He knew that it had to happen, that you had to know, but this was too much. Too much of what he didn’t want and not enough of what he did. He didn’t want to talk about it or think about it. His chest was tight and he felt unsteady and he so badly just wanted to get back to you: you, naked in this bed, with him.

He sat up and his arms came around you and you relished the feeling of your skin on his, nothing but warmth between you. He kissed you, insistent this time, impatient again. He wanted you on his tongue, in his hands, enveloping him. He wanted to serve himself up on a plate for you, kneel and kiss your feet; he wanted to lose himself completely in the sound of you coming undone.

You shuffled off him and fumbled at his belt, at his zip, pushing them to the floor. You barely noticed the skin there, that was really more scar than skin; you didn’t see the light lines and the dark ones, crossing and re-crossing, thickening, fading, all over. Because it didn’t matter to you. That he wasn’t fresh out of the box, perfect and unblemished. No one was. And you shared a pain; the pain that led to these blemishes, these marks, these scars, it was yours, too.

So you didn’t see them as they were un-covered, as he stepped out of his clothes, as you took his cock in your hand. Hot and heavy, you pumped slowly, but Yoongi had other ideas.

He lay you on the bed and spread your thighs, trailing kisses up one side and down the other. You shivered when his hot breath hit your core and again when his mouth met your lips, his tongue licking through your folds. The pleasure felt brand new as he drank you in and you felt the exact right amount of drunk.

If you’d been sober, this would have been too quick; you’d have been too easy, too alert. It would all have been over too soon. But the alcohol blurred the edges, dulled your senses just enough to allow you to luxuriate in it: the soft, wet pad of his tongue brushing over your clit, then hard as it pushed inside you; the press of his kiss-plump lips, their seal as he sucked at your swollen bud. Like swimming through champagne, everything was fizzing and golden.

The sun hit Yoongi’s head, so bright it made his black hair brown and it shone. You tangled a fist in it, pulling his mouth closer, tipping your hips and he flicked his eyes towards you. They were deep and glazed and only half-open, his tongue still pressed against you. You whined and rolled your hips, then did it again and he let you rut against his mouth until all your pleasure was coiling tight, down into a heavy ball in your core.

Then he pulled back and shifted his weight, lifting a hand from your hip.

“Good with my fingers, right?” he said, a lopsided grin on his face, mouth sticky and shining.

“Y-e...eess.”

You answer was punctuated with the slip of those fingers inside you, and your breath hitched by the curling of those fingers, the pressing of them against your front wall. Yoongi lowered himself again and put his mouth back around your clit, the suction hard and sure. You were squirming now, all your muscles tightening, everything drawing down, deep into your core before bursting forward in a wet rush of heat.

You sighed as your limbs flopped against the mattress and your chest heaved. Yoongi wiped his mouth and knelt back, similarly breathless. He took a hand to his cock and squeezed lightly at the base, hissing slightly as he did.

You slithered off the bed, to your knees, and tapped Yoongi’s knee, asking him to turn towards you, reaching for him, for his dark, heavy cock, your mouth growing wet at the mere thought of it.

Yoongi looked hesitant.

“You don’t have to,” he said.

You tipped your head to the side and frowned.

“But... I want to, though?”

He hesitated a second longer and you thought he was going to say no, but he turned and you did nothing to hide your enthusiasm. You pressed a kiss to the tip and let your tongue lick at the pre-cum dripping from it. Yoongi grunted and you grinned because it had actually been a long time since you’d had this kind of fun.

It had been a long time for Yoongi, too, since he’d had his dick in anyone’s mouth. He couldn’t even remember the last time. He’d forgotten the heat of it, the softness and strength of a tongue, the looking down at them looking up. It was frankly criminal, he thought, that you could be so cute with a cock in your mouth. It was every bit as good as he might have dreamt, as hot and wet as he might have imagined. You pushed forward and he could feel the back of your throat, see the tears sparkling in your eyes, caught on your lashes.

He had to stop looking. He tipped his head back and studied the ceiling. He clenched his fists and tried to slow his breathing down because, god, it had been so long and it was you. It was you and you had kissed him all over and you were looking up at him with wet stars in your eyes and your mouth was doing all that to him and he closed his eyes. Then you moaned with the tip of his cock at the very back of your mouth and he almost lost all control.

He swore, his throat tight, his thighs twitching. He placed a hand on your head and pushed back your hair, tugging ever so slightly to pull you off him. You wiped your mouth and grinned up at him; it was such a sweet, filthy gesture that he almost came again.

“You ok?” you asked and Yoongi fell to his knees. He answered with a kiss, licking into your mouth, pulling you against him.

“Yes,” he answered, mumbled against your lips. “Want to fuck you now.”

“Yes, please.”

And it was everything you had wanted. Everything you had forgotten sex could be. Yoongi held you close and fucked you slow and you kissed him and caressed him and the world could have fallen apart outside and you would neither have noticed nor cared.

There was something tearing inside Yoongi and he didn’t know what to do about it. Because you were holding him tight, pulling him so close to you, kissing him and moaning into his mouth and no one had wanted him this close, this soft, this slow for a long time. Ever. He had tried to pace himself before, tried not to rush through it but it was a blur to him now, the frenzy and the nerves and the uncertainty of it all rendering it choppy and indistinct. Whereas this was full high-definition. This, you, the way you touched him and looked at him, the way you said his name... it was like a dream. Like something he never thought he would have. The luxury of your warm body so close to his; the indulgence of your lips against his and your eyes sparkling like you had never seen a sweeter sight than him. That you wanted him. That you wanted him and let him know it. That you wanted all of him, as you ran your hands down his arms, as you squeezed at his chest and pressed your hand against his back, pulling him closer.

Because it wasn’t just physical. It wasn’t just the thrust of Yoongi’s hips, his cock buried deep in your wet cunt; it wasn’t just the slap and slick of damp skin and arousal; it wasn’t just the pleasure you felt in your core expanding outwards, the heat in your blood, and tingling in your toes. It was all-encompassing; it was everything. It was this person who knew you, all the bad bits as well as the good, knew you and saw you and held you like you were precious. It was feeling safe and cherished and valued. It was knowing that your feelings were reflected, returned, reciprocated. It was the sweetness of finding someone who lit you up and being able to light them up the same way.

When you lay, side by side, spent and sated, you felt like you were glowing. You rolled onto your side, into Yoongi, as he rolled into you and you kissed him again, for the hundredth time or thousandth, it still wasn’t enough.

You slept soundly, without dreaming, without waking, until the sun was high in the sky again the following morning. You turned onto your back, throwing an arm behind you as you went, expecting it to hit Yoongi next to you.

But he wasn’t there. You rubbed your face and pushed yourself into a seated position, assuming he was in the bathroom and would return momentarily.

Then minutes passed and he was nowhere to be seen. You stood and scanned the floor for your underwear. Your dress was already picked up and placed over the back of a chair; Yoongi’s clothes, you could only assume, he had put in the laundry already. Your underwear was not hiding under your dress. You dropped to the floor and onto your hands and knees, to look down under the bed.

“Aha!”

“Aha, what?”

You hit your hand on the bedframe as you quickly pulled it back and span to face Yoongi, standing in the door with an iced coffee in each hand and a paper bag hanging from his wrist. He looked at you with his eyebrows raised, bemused but charmed.

You twirled your knickers on one finger.

“Thought I’d lost them. They were under the bed.”

Yoongi merely ‘ah’ed and nodded, placing breakfast on the dressing table and swapping his jeans for light pyjama trousers.

“Did you bring me coffee?” you asked sweetly, knowing the answer.

“And pastries.”

You jumped to your feet and gratefully accepted his offerings, taking a long draw from the straw of a coffee so sweet and milky it might as well not be coffee anymore.

“Do you know how much sugar is in those, by the way?”

“Yep! That’s why they’re so delicious!”

“They’ll kill you.”

You shrugged.

“Oh well. I died doing what I loved: drinking sugary coffee.”

Yoongi chuckled and stepped forward until you were within arm's reach. You could feel his hesitation, so you took it from him, stepping into his body and offering him a kiss.

“Thank you.”

“Do you want to get back into bed?”

You couldn’t imagine anything you wanted more.

You could hear something out in the hall, something maybe like a cat’s purr, but also not a cat’s purr. Some sort of buzzing, intermittent enough that you told yourself you were imagining it at first. But it just kept coming.

“Do you hear that?” you interrupted Yoongi to ask and you held your hand up for silence as you listened for it.

A jarring, quiet kind of noise.

“Sounds like a phone vibrating,” Yoongi offered.

“Oh fuck!”

You scrambled, ungracefully, out of bed, still in just your knickers, and found your phone, buzzing against your keys, half falling out of your bag.

Taehyung.

“Hi, baby!” you greeted, overly cheerful because you hadn’t checked the time and you were almost certain he was calling because you were late.

You had planned to have brunch and a debrief. You had forgotten all about it.

“When are you coming home? I’m bored.”

You pulled your phone away from your ear and, upon noting the time, realised that you weren’t late at all. Not even close.

“What do you want, Teddy? I’m seeing you later.”

“I know, but I’m bored now and you’re a dirty, little stop-out.”

“Entertain yourself! I’ll be home when I’m home. I'm not leaving now just because you’re bored.”

He sighed dramatically at the other end of the line.

“So I suppose it’s love, then, is it?”

The word made your heart skip a beat and you didn’t turn around, just in case Yoongi was looking at you.

“Maybe.”

“You sicken me.”

“Fuck off. You’re happy for me.”

“Yes, I am, babygirl. I’m very happy for you but I’m also very lonely and bored. Can’t you just come home a bit early? Yoongi will still be there tomorrow but I am fading away by the second.”

“Dying from lack of attention?”

“Exactly.”

“I’ll be home when I’m home, Teddybear. Try to make it until then.”

“Alright, but you’ll be sorry when I'm gone.”

“Extremely. Now leave me alone!”

He heaved another dramatic sigh before hanging up and you skipped back to the bedroom.

“Everything ok?” Yoongi asked as you settled back in his arms.

“Teddy’s being needy.”

“Do you need to go?”

“Absolutely not!” You snuggled in tighter and pressed your lips to his chest. “Not until the very last minute, please.”

Love. You thought about the word when you left Yoongi’s apartment very late that morning. You wanted to say it then and there, tell him, but it felt like a lot. It felt like your usual Too Muchness coming back. You had only been on one date. It was a lot of pressure to put on a person and you didn’t want to pressure Yoongi. You didn’t want to push him. You didn’t want to take control and careen this fledging thing straight into a ravine.

It felt natural. It felt easy. It felt like everything you had wanted. It felt so right that it was maddening to you that it had taken you so long to see it. But you also understood that that had to happen. The time it took you to see Yoongi like you did now was time you spent getting things wrong and hurting and healing the wrong way and then the right way and you knew that this, this happiness you had that made you glow, that made your steps feel light, it was a result of that time, that patience. So you didn’t want to rush. Didn't want to push. You would still love him tomorrow. And the day after that and the day after that and on and on and on. It could wait.

Until six days later, when you were sitting on the subway on your way home from work and you snapped. You didn’t want it to wait. You wanted to tell him. And you knew you could. You could say it and he could not and you would survive that. You would understand. And it wouldn’t matter because you knew he was in this, knew he would get there if he wasn’t there already. You chided yourself for waiting at all, because love should never have to wait. Love should be shouted from the rooftops, shouldn’t it?

So you got off at a different stop and changed lines and you walked as fast as you could to Yoongi’s building and you let yourself in.

“Babe!” you cried as you hastily kicked off your shoes and rounded the corner into the kitchen, a little out of breath.

“Are you ok?”

Yoongi had his apron on, a knife in his hands, vegetables on the chopping board in front of him and it was so sweet, so domestic, a perfect vision of everything you wanted. He was looking at you with concern, as well he might, given you had just burst in, unannounced, in all kinds of a fluster.

You nodded.

“Yeah,” you panted. “I just had to tell you. I love you.” You moved closer to him; he put the knife down and wiped his hands on his apron and you held tight to it. “I love you. As in, I am in love with you. I love you so much. And I know, I know, it’s been no time at all and it’s too soon and it’s too quick and you don’t have to say it and I don’t want to put any pressure on but I just want to tell you. I have wanted to tell you and I wasn’t going to because- because all of the above! But I love you and I want you to know that I love you. I’m in love with you, Min Yoongi.”

He blinked a little and then a bit more.

“Oh.”

He sounded surprised and you laughed because you were nervous and because you felt giddy and silly and so in fucking love. You tugged him closer with his apron and kissed him, firmly at first, then softer when he kissed you back and rested his hands on your hips.

“I love you.”

He said it quietly, his mouth still close enough to yours that you could feel his lips move with the words. You laughed again and kissed him again and whispered it back to him.

“I love you.”

Chapter Fourteen | Masterlist | Bonus Drabble 1

Taglist: @chimmisbae, @idkjustlovingbts @miriamxsworld, @tarahardcore, @simp47koreancrackheads, @xyahrinx, @olyd, @diorh0seokie, @thelilbutifulthings, @acquiescence804

#yoongi x reader #bts x reader #yoongi smut #bts smut #yoongi fluff #bts fluff

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novantinuum · 15 days

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jen's "Hard-Light Hybrid Steven" headcanon dump

Okay so I'm just making this its own post, because frankly at this point... the original post is so hard to get all the pulp out of due to the headcanons being spread over multiple reblogs and half of it being in the tags.

So here we go. Self indulgent headcanon time. This is how I'm now personally interpreting things within the realm of my own fic work and the post-canon storylines that live in my mind. This is NOT, however, a work of meta- I am by no means suggesting this to be what I see as "canon," only having some fun playing around with ideas I think are cool on a speculative fantasy anatomy level. Take it as you will basically, lol. This is ultimately just for me.

With that stated:

"jen what the fuck do you mean when you say hard-light hybrid Steven, what are you even suggesting"

Essentially I am proposing that Steven becomes progressively more hard-light based in form as he ages. When he was born he was two almost entirely separate halves mashed together- organic and gem- and those two halves slowly but surely merge over the years (hard light replacing organic matter) until one day they are literally inseparable, and Steven is one permanently cohesive being... entirely hewn from hard-light, but with a level of anatomical complexity that still makes him a complete anomaly amongst Gems and humans alike. Instead of the innards of his body being solid light, he is still formed of cells- only now, those cells are entirely hard-light.

His gem is somehow mimicking the form of organic matter with a level of detail that's absolutely unobtainable by shapeshifting or tailored reformation alone. Steven has become the single most complex hard-light system to have ever existed.

Some more specifics on how I imagine this merge working:

Much of the "merging" is natural over time, basically his gem branching out new bits of hard-light circuitry within his body as it integrates within his system.

However, this process is sped up significantly by all the spills and injuries Steven deals with throughout his childhood... because his body's instinctive response to injury is simply to replace damaged cells with hard-light analogues. An almost instantaneous patch job.

Steven's component halves being so distinct early on is a large reason why he takes so long to harness many of his powers.

This is also why Steven's (mostly) organic half is so weakened during the split in Change Your Mind- at that point there's a lot about his anatomy that's been converted to hard-light, so it's basically as if White Diamond yanked the power source out.

(Same idea for why he's so weakened during the movie when his gem's on the fritz... his gem's connection with the rest of his body got partially severed for a time, which. Is not Good for someone who at this point is more hard-light than not hard light.)

At a certain point post-canon, it becomes impossible for Steven's organic and gem halves to be separated. They are so tightly integrated that attempting to remove the gem would only poof him.

Now, here's the thing though...

Steven does not realize that Any of this is taking place until the blunt reality of his strange new anatomical nature is put on display for all to see... when he actually DOES poof.

Here is how (in my own post-canon musings, which I have simplified here because y'all don't live inside all the intensive lore that jangles about my brain) I envision that taking place:

So, Steven would be in his mid to late twenties at this point. He's married to Connie, and they have an infant son.

Recently, there was a fairly severe Gem incident that left Beach City and Little Homeworld pretty damaged. Things are still being mopped up from that.

Steven, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl head out on a quick mission one day to intercept one of the last few supporters of the Gem who attacked the Crystal Gem's hub of operation, and at first it seems like it's gonna be a straightforward trip.

Then, Steven sees the Gem in question pull a destabilizer wand on Garnet, and- unwilling to watch her to get ripped apart like that again- throws himself in between. He can take it, he thinks. These things never hurt him one bit as a kid

He cannot take it.

He poofs.

His gem unceremoniously falls to the ground, along with the clothes he was wearing and whatever he had in his pockets.

Cue the others going "what the actual FUCK" because based on everything they've ever witnessed and known about him no one had "Steven poofs" on their bingo card.

The insurgent Gem is captured and dealt with, but now... oh, boy. There's literally no playbook for this. Nobody knows what to expect.

Steven's gem is quiet for WEEKS. During that time, the Gems end up consulting the Diamonds on Homeworld to ask for intel on diamond reformation, but none of them are much help- Rose and Steven are the only ones who have actually poofed. Beyond them, this is completely unprecedented.

In a very vague sense, Steven is aware of what must have happened during this time... (even if a part of him wants to deny it, because How???)

He can pick up vague snippets of what's happening just beyond his reach... catching voices and what must be faint sensations of familiar people handling his gem, but beyond that he has no awareness of the passage of time, and he has no means by which to reach out to them mentally.

It takes almost two months for him to finally reform. When he does, his gem quickly shifts through its previous three forms and then just... outright h a n g s for a while on the new one... as if what's trying to "load" up is so complex it's goddamn buffering.

(my brain can only think of This image uyhjfsdbyuhjfg)

No one really knows what to expect but when he finally reforms, he... looks mostly the same? Still rather human in appearance, externally? The only notable difference is that his irises are pink now. (But with no diamond pupil- not unless he's going Full Power Mode.)

Steven also reforms WITH an outfit much like a Gem would.

The second he's back, he runs to embrace Connie (who is sobbing in relief) and asks how long he was out.

And he did NOT anticipate that answer to be two months.

As it turns out, he missed quite a few baby milestones while he was gone, and he feels horrible about it- it's not his fault of course, but he feels so bad that Connie had to go that long without his support, and that there's all those special "firsts" with his son he'll never get to experience.

This whole incident marks Steven's final "retirement" from participating in real combat- he outright tells the Gems to not involve him in any other combat situations unless the whole ass planet is under threat, basically. The potential risks are just not worth it now that he knows how long he'd be out of commission, should he poof once more. He can't put his family through that again.

Now, with all that outlined...

Ways that Steven is Weird now:

He looks rather human- his hair looks like hair and his skin looks like skin- but after he reforms, literally every "cell" of his body is fashioned out of hard-light.

However, if one were to theoretically slice him in half (which I PROMISE I am not going to do, this is only a thought experiment ahahah-), his internal anatomy would glow much like the Gems' do. (See below image for what I mean.) The "human-like" appearance of his skin and hair and other externally visible features does not extend very deep.

He "bleeds" pink now- but it's only surface, and is all just excess hard-light. No real blood.

His body would no longer show up on a radiograph- just the gem.

Many of his anatomical features (not all of them, though) are now vestigial in certain ways-? Like, various functions have overtly been taken over by his gem... he doesn't need to breathe or have any lifeblood beyond light pumping through his system, so his heart and lungs serve no necessary purpose anymore... but all of these organs still "exist" as like an echo of what once was, perfect mimics of their organic form but hewn from hard-light.

That being said, Connie enjoys the reassurance of his heartbeat, so he retains that function while conscious.

(Not to mention, "breathing" is literally just a habit for him by this point.)

HOWEVER, when he sleeps (another thing he technically doesn't Need to do but does anyways) his breathing and heartbeat stops entirely and it kinda spooks Connie out. The literal only evidence she has that he's still kicking during these times is the soft hum of his gemstone.

He does not have a biological NEED for food or water anymore and can fully operate on exposure to light alone, but he still really enjoys eating and drinking anyways. In fact, he's still able to absorb energy from food... so it's basically like he's over-charging his battery or whatever. He also still experiences taste (so still posesses some form of taste receptors) and instinctively feels "hungry" at meal times, so like... the running theory is that he must have hard-light analogues for all these receptors and neurotransmitters and hormones that communicate sensations like hunger in his system even though their function is entirely redundant with his gem powering everything.

Furthermore, his memories and sense of self and everything one might refer to as "the soul" is stored exclusively in his gem now. Which means, if one could manage to analyze his brain like one could with a human brain, there would be entire sections that simply... don't light up the way that others (such as the parts of the brain that govern motor control, as an example) do. This is because all the "data" once stored there has migrated.

He can fully shapeshift now, if he wanted to.

He can also still visually "age"- it's all based on his mental state, same as before.

But despite being hard-light in nature now, he can still interface with organics in fusion because his form is still so organic in shape and function. He's still the bridge between humanity and gemkind. I like to think that... theoretically... a Gem might be able to fuse with an organic too, but the sheer burden of trying to shapeshift and maintain such cellular complexity is what stops this from happening.

Steven, though? His very existence as a hybrid acted as a template by which hard-light could learn to understand organic life. He is still an intensely unique being, even IF he no longer consists of any actual organic matter.

I am sure I will probably add something to this later, but for now, those are all my musings.

Anyways, thank you for taking a brief visit to the deepest recesses of my brain, where I am chewing at the drywall and bouncing around the room like a cat who has just devoured the goddamn motherlode of catnip. Good night! !! :DDD

#su #su future #steven universe #jen rambles #or... jen thinks so hard about speculative anatomy that they get the zoomies for three straight days

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fogwitchoftheevermore · 11 months

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ok so while watching joey's s1 and just rewatching s1 in general, i was looking at the items in the circle surrounding the dragon egg where shrub is meant to be sacrificed and they are. they’re interesting.

now, quick refresher on what i'm talking about: right after sausage goes good again, xornoth steals the dragon egg and puts it in this summoning circle type thing with the plan for joey to kidnap shrub and impale her on a dripstone spike above the egg. when the blood gets on the egg, some magic makes the blood corrupt the egg and now the dragon is cool.

the summoning circle is surrounded by eight items that are, in order: a netherwart block, a wither rose, a nether star, crying obsidian, a piece of crimson wood, a salmon, a magma block, and a red nether mushroom

and the items gem replaces them with are equally interesting: a red mushroom, a cod head, a gold block, wheat, a redstone block, an amethyst shard, a sea lantern, and a red tulip

the things she replaces them with are things she takes from her allies and herself, because the spell she's using says she needs things that are important to the people of the land. the gold block is scott's, the amethyst is gem's, the wheat is pearl's, the tulip is katherine's, the mushroom is shrub's, the cod head is from jimmy's place, the sea lantern is lizzie's, and the redstone block is fwhip's. an important note to ME is that almost everyone she takes these items from is involved in the fight, except for fwhip, lizzie, and jimmy. fwhip's involvement with the xornoth plot is pretty interesting to me but i'm not gonna get into that here, and unfortunately, i don't know enough about jimmy and lizzie's lore and their whole deal with xornoth to comment on them but that's NOT REALLY THE POINT LET'S MOVE ON!

the things placed there by xornoth are just basic ominous nether stuff, for the most part. even the wither rose, which i usually associate with a certain alliance, can just be seen as an ominous thing. katherine does use them for her pit of death, and i vaguely remember the corruption turning some of her flowers into wither roses, through i'm not certain that actually happened or if i'm making it up. the point is that there is one REALLY WEIRD outlier there. the salmon. and the fact that gem brings not only a cod head into this but something FROM fwhip as well, and replaces the salmon with the thing representing her makes me think this like?? has to be an intentional fwhip reference??

so here’s my thought here and like. look i recognize i'm biased towards Everything about fwhip but hear me out. i think it’s possible that, before sausage betrayed them, xornoth was planning on having both sausage and joey kidnap someone, either to ensure someone died and the ritual succeeded, or as a sort of distraction, ensuring that the attention of anyone coming to stop them would be split. (to be clear, when joey is first shown the area, the ritual is already set up. this was done in ADVANCE, and sausage's betrayal was pretty recent.)

he tells joey that the sacrifice HAS to be one of the emperors, and while he doesn’t specify why he thinks shrub is the “perfect” choice i personally think it’s pretty clear.

xornoth just like, flat out doesn’t like her. i mean he doesn’t like most people, but he’s got personal beef with shrub.

she doesn’t have anyone who would go looking for her. joey and her talk about it when he kidnaps her just an episode earlier- shrub says herself the only people who might come looking for her are her dogs. and she wasn't even wrong! if it’s shrub that’s missing, there’s far less chance anyone will notice, and far less chance anyone will interrupt.

i truly think exor just enjoyed making people target their friends/family. sausage at one point says that xornoth was making him “kill people i wasn’t supposed to kill” (in reference to fwhip and gem). he isolated his followers as best he could. shrub was joey’s only friend, especially after sausage left.

so with those three reasons in mind. who do we think sausage might’ve been tasked to kidnap…?

THAT'S RIGHT BABY THE SALMON’S THERE CAUSE FWHIP WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THERE! (and i would say the crimson mushroom was shrub’s symbol in all this but that's not my point)

now, let’s look at the reasons i gave for why shrub was chosen: xornoth didn’t like her, no one would’ve noticed she was gone, and she was joey’s only friend (emotional turmoil)

i’m gonna come back to reason one for fwhip, but let’s touch on two and three real quick. i truly don’t think people would’ve noticed fwhip was gone until it was too late. gem was his closest friend after sausage left the wra, and even they didn’t cross paths super often. he was a pretty isolated person. as for causing sausage emotional turmoil- yeah, duh. we already know how much he cares about fwhip and that he didn’t really want to kill him from the remark i mentioned earlier. and the only were people in that same circle for sausage were pearl and gem. pearl is her own beast- xornoth could barely take her in a fight so let’s be real he KNOWS sausage couldn’t. and gem is. ok we’ll get into that.

now, circling back to reason one: hatred. xornoth doesn’t like any of the emperors, let’s be real, but the ones he hates the most seem to be shrub, scott, and gem. obviously he can’t kill scott, and shrub is already involved in all this, so why wouldn't he have sausage kidnap gem? she would fulfill the friend requirement too, like i mentioned! well, it’s simple.

look at how well it went last time, lol.

also, gem is a lot more social than a lot of the other emperors, especially fwhip, and is deeply involved in scott and katherine’s research in defeating xornoth. someone was gonna notice she was missing FAST. look at how quick jimmy showed up last time (i know he wasn’t looking for them but like. still. come on.)

also, i think the reason for kidnapping fwhip instead of gem is very important here: gem was always going to notice the dragon egg was gone and was always going to go looking for it. and not only did she notice, she saw xornoth take it. she was always going to figure out where he’d taken it and try to stop him, and i think exor was perfectly aware of what could possibly distract her from the egg long enough to perform the ritual.

her brother. fwhip was the perfect pawn to keep sausage under his control and gem distracted in the event of a fight, and i just. i think this could've been the original plan had sausage not betrayed them, and now i'm rotating the possibility at light speed in my brain. please play in this space with me.

#empires smp #empires season 1 #mythicalsausage #fwhip #geminitay #wither rose alliance #ROTATING THEM. THINKING ABOUT IT.#like i know this COULD have been an unintentional thing #i know #salmons are red and it fit the color scheme of the whole circle but like???#THERE ARE OTHER RED BLOCKS??? SALMON WAS SUCH A CHOICE I FEEL LIKE IT HAS TO BE FWHIP??#also im p sure roseblings weren't cannon siblings at this point but. shhh

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boopshoops · 2 months

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6, 24, and 66? :3

AA HI TOASTY!!!! 💕💕 I'm happy to see ya in my inbox!! I've been wanting to interact for awhile but, hey, it looks like we're both the shy type FBDNDJJ

Hope you're doing well!!!

6. pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal or sportswear?

HMMMMM. I love how I feel stylistically in semi-formal wear, but most of the time I go for tomboy I guess? It's hard for me to say! I'm biased for everything cozy and comfy in my day to day, so ya usually see me in things like hoodies and sweatpants. When I go out, though? I like feeling all fancy in my button-ups 👍

24. favorite crystal?

I don't look into this too much nowadays BUUUUUUT it'd probably be rose quarts! Way back when- probably, like, elementary school? We went on a huuuge field trip to this museum/convention type thing showing off all kinds of geology! It was super cool, and they let me take home some samples!!! I got a tiny bit of opal, a chunk of amethyst, three small bits of obsidian, and a tiny, ADORABLE, bottle of rose quarts. I had completely forgotten about it until I cleaned out my old drawers recently, and managed to find them still in tact!!! Now I keep them on display on my shelf 💕

66. favorite flower(s)?

OH OH OH OH OHHHH I LOVE HIBISCUS!!! Theyre so big and bright and pretty and I love all the different, saturated colors they come in 💕💕 I'm partial for Marigolds as well!!!! All flowers are SO pretty tho

#boopshoopsramblings

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pamxna · 24 days

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Post-Shady's Nightmare

It was like an echo from the past, or a dream that she was only just now remembering. She recognized everything about the room, even though she was sure she'd never been there before. She knew the paintings on the walls, could name the artists who had painted them. The only thing that puzzled her were the stains on the walls. Those had never been there before. How did she know that they had never been there? She didn't, and yet, she knew.

Thick, black, something oozed slowly down the walls from ceiling to floor, and if she didn't know any better, she would have likened it to blood. But she did know better. She had seen it before, recently, been up close and personal with it. Maybe a little too up close and personal, in fact. As Pamina made her way down the hallway, she reached out to drag her fingers through it. It burned on contact, just like she knew that it would, and caused her to retract her hand quickly. She smeared the inky substance down the front of her dress her reveal the skin of her fingers tinged pink, then continued on as the train of her ball gown dragged through it and left streaks of the stuff trailing after her on the floor.

As she stepped into the great hall, the scene was no better. The walls wept with the substance, so much that the walls painted with delicate gold filigree couldn't be seen at all. She didn't know how she knew about the filigree, but she knew that it was there. On the far wall, suspended about halfway up by the black whatever it was, was a body. As Pamina got closer, she could make out tufts of blonde amongst the carnage and tattooed skin. Was whoever this was…dead? Against her better judgment, the spellslinger reached up to brush away the ooze from its face.

Suddenly, bright, shining, seafoam-colored eyes flew open and stared directly at her. He wheezed her name, a breathless, strangled, horrible sound, then outstretched an arm toward her. Pamina had no time to back away, to flee, to do anything before both of his hands wrapped around her throat. She tried to scream and could not. Black, inky tendrils crawled off of the wall and began to envelope her. No matter how hard she fought, or kicked, or clawed, the half-elezen could not free herself. The darkness began to pull her in, consuming her while he choked the life out of her.

Pamina woke with a ragged, gasping breath. Her stomach churned, and she all but threw herself out of her bed and ran for the bathroom, crashed to her knees before the toilet where she was violently sick. When she had finished, the spellslinger let her forehead rest against the cool surface of the wall and closed her eyes. She had woken in hers' and Nikklaus' bedroom in the Mist, not in the hellscape version of Ravensfall Manor from her nightmare. Ravensfall Manor didn't even exist anymore, so what was that?

High-pitched, girlish laughter that still managed to sound like nails on a chalkboard to her bubbled up from her bedroom, causing Pamina to groan. She carefully collected herself and washed and dried her face before she emerged from the bathroom, still holding her rolling stomach. Up the stairs, Suri sat perched on the foot of her unmade bed, looking like she'd been pulled away from a masquerade ball. Minus the mask, of course. What irony.

"You know exactly what that dream was," Suri said to her, amethyst-hued eyes glittering with amusement. Pamina offered her a scowl. "Why act like you don't?"

"Why are you all dressed up?" Pamina asked, ascending the stairs and walking to her dresser. A quick glance around the room revealed that she was alone with Suri. Great. She pulled an overshirt free and on, then wrapped it around herself before collapsing back into her bed.

"I felt like dressing up the doll," Suri shrugged one shoulder, then preened curly, burgundy locks that framed her face. "Make it less…lifeless. Is that so bad?"

Pamina rolled her eyes at the choice of works. She grabbed Nikklaus' pillow from his side of the bed and dragged it to her, hugging it to her midsection.

"Are you sick? Suri asked. Even the most innocent of questions seemed mirthful, like she was mocking her.

"I'll live," Pamina muttered, her face plastered to the pillow.

"Of that, I have no doubt." Suri answered as she stood. She made her way to Nikklaus' side of the bed. "No matter what you subconscious might try to make you believe, you are Quite strong."

Pamina didn't open her eyes again until she felt the opposite side of the bed shift. Suri crawled on all fours across it to lay on her stomach at the spellslinger's side, propping her chin up with her hands.

"But I do need you to take care of this vessel. It is so very precious to me," Suri walked two fingers up Pamina's arm to her shoulder, then placed them both beneath her chin. "So get whatever affliction you have looked at, hm? Then, perhaps we can discuss your nightmare."

Suri climbed off of the bed and headed down the stairs toward the kitchen.

"I know how to fight the monsters you're so fearful of, Pamina," Her voice wafted from the far end of the house. "And I can teach you. Don't keep me waiting."

#writing #nikklaus shadecross #suri

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catailz · 1 year

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The Trails and Tales update is NOT the Trails and Tales update

A look at the hints towards and my insane ramblings about the upcoming 1.20 update.

Brief disclaimer before my autism fueled rant: Minecraft is my special interest, and I acknowledge because of this I have a very positive outlook when it comes to the game and it's creators over at Mojang. Please take everything I say here with a grain of salt, and to help with distinguishing what is my opinion and what is fact within the game I will put a little ☾ at the start and end of things that are fact, ✩ will be at the start and end of speculation based on facts/things we know, and ☼ will be at the start and end of things that are entirely speculation/opinion. Tldr: ☾ = Fact ✩ = Speculation based on facts ☼ = Pure speculation/opinion (These guides are mostly to help my fellow people on the spectrum bc when I read things like this I find it hard to discern what is fact or coming from facts and what is more opinionated)

This rant will be in five parts:

What we know about update 1.20

Analysis of the ancient cities

The story of the lost people

The previous updates

The real 1.20 update

Part 1: What we know about update 1.20

Recently we have gotten the first official snapshot for the Trails and Tales update which gives a much clearer look as to what we are getting this update, which imo is a bunch of random shit. To break it down we got;

☾

Camels

Hanging signs

Armor trims

Netherite is even harder than before

Sniffers

Two new ancient plants that (currently) don't do anything besides look pretty and make dye

Suspicious sand and gravel and a tool to reveal treasure inside

Amethyst can be used to extend a sculk signal

Calibrated sculk sensors

Trail ruins

Pottery shards

☾

Now these are all cool and all, but feel a lot like a bunch of random things thrown together on the loose theme of archeology, which is very much coming out of left field when it comes to things to add to minecraft imo. This feels like the kind of stuff that maybe you'd want to put to the side of a bigger update, which is what I think is happening but we'll get back to that. There are two things that have come with this snapshot and I want to talk about specifically that have stood out to me;

The new trail ruins

The pottery shard featuring the warden

Starting with the trail ruins, according to the article about the snapshot, the trail ruins are "a buried structure from a lost culture". ✩ This implies that whoever made these are not currently alive and were somehow wiped out, as although the civilization could have been a branch from villagers or vice versa like the illagers. Regardless, it is clear that their culture, and thereby beliefs, religion(s), etc., no longer prevail even if they are the ancestors to villagers. ✩ ☼ However, due to the different building styles, deliberate locations near water (unlike villager's seemingly random location choices), and very different choices in blocks and build styles, I believe they could entirely be a different species from those currently alive. ☼

The reason the trail ruins stood out to me after I learned more about them is for a couple of reasons, ✩ the first being that they are our second reference to a civilization/culture that has been wiped out, the first being those who resided within the ancient cities. The second reason they stood out to me is how much this culture seems to have traveled or mined. Based on my own brief research and the Minecraft Wiki, Trail Ruins can spawn on land or underwater in:

Jungles

Old Growth Birch Forests

Old Growth Pine Taigas

Old Growth Spruce Taigas

Snowy Taigas

Taigas

And they have a higher chance of spawning near water. What stands out to me is the blue glazed and regular terracotta. Although the terracotta and mud is reasonable after giving thought to the fact that they tend to build near water, were mud can be made and clay can be found, the biomes they spawn in cannot spawn cornflowers which is the primary way of getting blue dye. If they did not travel to get the amount of blue dye used in not only their structures but also things found in the loot within these structures via sus sand/gravel ☾ (purple and magenta candles, blue and light blue dye, and magenta, purple, and light blue stained glass) ☾ they had to mine to get lapis to make the dye. However, the reason I am leaning towards them also travelling is due to one additional piece of loot in the sus sand/gravel, that loot being ☾ green candles. Green dye has to come from cactuses, ☾ meaning that they had to have found a desert and taken the cactus from it. There are other signs that they could have been miners ✩ ☾ (gold nuggets and emeralds are part of the sus sand/gravel loot tables) ☾. ☼ In addition to all of this, following the reasonable assumption that the lost culture of the trail ruins are the creators of the original pots that featured the pottery shards, the fact that two of the shards are explorer (featuring a map), and miner (featuring a pickaxe) supports the fact that these are two of the professions of this culture. It also helps that the "er" suffix within the names of the pottery shards only apply to professions, the only exceptions being danger and mourner. Supporting "er" being a suffix mostly used to refer to a profession is that there are other potter shards that show objects but their names refer directly to what they are, not what they are used for (blade, sheaf, skull, and (sort of) prize). Besides that, pottery shards can be not only found in trail ruins, but also desert wells, desert temples, and ocean ruins. If they built the temples and wells (therefor leaving pottery behind) then that would confirm they not only traveled to but built within deserts for one reason or another. It would also mean they made the ocean ruins. A big reason I think the pots could not have also come from the villagers is because of the fact that there are no naturally spawning whole pots let alone shards within villages. ☼

Why aren't you questioning their use of cyan dye? Although initially their use of cyan dye could be seen as further evidence to support my travelers theory, I simply cannot use it in addition to everything else on good faith considering the fact the pitcher plant, one of the two plants added in the most recent snapshot, can be used to make cyan dye. This is one of the ancient plants that a sniffer can dig up, and based on the fact that whatever culture made the trail ruins is wiped out, as well as the fact that their structures are either buried almost entirely and/or underwater, it is not a stretch to imagine that these people were alive while the plant was growing and there is currently no evidence that this plant did not grow around where they built.

Next, let's talk about what was added in this update that pretty much spiraled me into this, as although I had been speculating about it previously, this is what made me look further into things.

This is the pottery shard titled "Mourner" and it ✩ appears to depict a warden. This instantly stood out to me due to the name, and the fact that this shard indicates that whoever made the pots had seen wardens before. ✩ However, before talking about the implications of this pottery shard, I'd like to talk about the warden's home.

Part 2: Analysis of the ancient cities

I'm sure I'm not alone in the opinion that ancient cities are three things; 1. incredible cool, 2. absolutely terrifying, and 3. are ultimately underwhelming. The ancient cities feel like they could have been the next step in you Minecraft journey. Trying to find one is a often difficult task due to their scarcity, but the search is made much easier with an elytra, and if you want to even have a chance of surviving a run in with a warden, you'll want proper enchanted netherite to take even a single hit. However, the only unique things you can find is a creepy disc, a special material to make a compass that is barely useful, and an enchantment that really only feels worth the effort if you are going to be constantly around sculk sensors you do not want to set off.

It looks cool, it's atmosphere is perfectly crafted, it's fucking scary as hell, but there is no reason for anyone to ever want to interact with it, even for a fun challenge, as there is little to no reward given in return for said challenge.

The ancient city isn't that bad, just make a noise machine. This is true, however, like many things that make the game a lot easier it was not intended by Mojang for you to do this. For all intents and purposes of this rant, I am ignoring things that although might be common within the community, were unintentional on Mojang's part as these are not things they considered during the design possess.

At least to me, this leaves the whole thing feeling unfinished. It really feels like it's meant to be this important thing to the world, a big challenge with a big reward for facing it, but it is not. However, I think this is because they are saving its true reward for later, and my biggest reason behind this is something the community noticed as soon as the ancient cities were put in a snapshot; reinforced deepslate.

☾ Here's the facts; reinforced deepslate cannot be overtaken by sculk or moss, broken, blown up, crafted, pushed or pulled by a piston. Not only that, but the only place you can find it is as part of a single structure that generates in every ancient city, the city center (the city center has three variants, but all of them feature the structure around the reinforced deepslate and the reinforced deepslate prominently). ☾ This basically puts a big ass red clickbait arrow pointing directly at it. For whatever reason, this block is important. They could have used any previously existing block, or made this block breakable, or even also given you the ability to craft it, but they didn't. The common theory as to what this all means is that it is a portal to a new dimension, and I am very much inclined to this theory, although I do have a second one I see as being equally as likely. The main supporting evidence to it being a portal besides how reinforced deepslate behaves and the shape of the structure, is that 5, a disc that can be crafted from shards found in the ancient city, ☼ has multiple parts with portal-esq sounds, sounds that sound like going through a portal, and sounds that sounds as if they could be of a different dimension. ☼

youtube

What does this have to do with the latest snapshot? Well lets pick up where the previous section ended, the mourned pottery shard.

Side by side I'm sure you also see the resemblance between the two. However if it is a depiction of a warden, why is the pottery shard called "mourner"?. Well I think the best way to explain that is to tell you what I think the story being told about both the ancient city and trail ruins.

Part 3: The story of the lost people

(For this part, I will be using indents to insert where major parts of this story/theory come from that hasn't already been explained instead of answering questions)

Long ago, in what to us is the ancient times of the overworld, a civilization arose. This civilization was one of the arts and spirituality, creating colourful cities, beautiful pottery, and great temples. They were also explorers, travelling through the overworld's many biomes and spreading out across them, although they preferred living near the water where clay was in abundance. Eventually, by some means, the people discovered the sculk, a eldritch creatures from another dimension.

I have a couple reasons to believe that the trail ruins are the original home of the people who created the ancient cities. The first and biggest one for me is the mourner pottery shard. ☾ This shard is not found within the ancient cities but instead cold ocean ruins. ☾ This proves that people who knew enough about the wardens to refer to them as "mourners" lived on the surface, and with the ✩ evidence that the trail ruins people are the makers of the pots, as well as being the only other reference we have to an extinct civilization, it's not a stretch to connect them to the ancient cities. In addition, the people who made the ancient cities needed to have access to both wool and dye to make the walkways and stock of blue wool, which further helps this theories case as they had to have had infrastructure somewhere. ✩

They begin building cities that look more like research cites around the portals to sculk's home dimension, and being researching redstone and it's implementations with sculk. More and more people move to live underground, until most of the civilization lives there instead of their old colourful homes. They begin experimenting with souls, as soul fire is what allowed them to light the portals in the first place.

This soul fire theory may seem like a bit of stretch but stick with me. ☾ Underneath the supposed portal to this dimension in the ancient cities is soul fire ☾, ✩ possibly so they could light troches of some sort to then light the portal in some sort of ritual. ✩ Currently the only way to get soul fire is by lighting soul sand or soil on fire, however one of the things found within the ancient city, maybe echo shards, could be used to make a special flint and steel variant that allows you to light soul fire on other blocks or carry the fire with you, allowing you to light the portal.

They create the wardens, hulking protectors of their great cities, that whine as the souls used to create them mourn their past lives.

Finally talking about the warden pottery shard. ✩ The name "mourner" implies a sadness to the wardens that they feel, and that they have something to mourn. Many of their calm noises sound like whining and whimpering, and is even ☾ referred to as whining by the subtitles ☾. On top of this, the design also features souls that beat like a heart within its chest. These souls had to come from somewhere, and knowing how the sculk works, ☾ spreading when something dies near a catalyst ☾, it is not out of the question that the wardens are amalgamations souls given shape by the sculk. Further supporting this and their roles as protectors is the name, warden. ☾ Although typically when you think of warden you think of a prison warden if you live in the west or a head of a school or college if you're British, the dictionary definition of warden is "a person responsible for the supervision of a particular place or thing or for ensuring that regulations associated with it are obeyed." ☾ Applying this to the mob, the wardens purpose is to protect the cities, and destroy trouble makers. Although in the past they may have been less violent, they were clearly created to be capable of easily taking out any potential threats. When it comes to the ancient people creating them, this would stick with the running theme of overworld civilizations creating some sort of creature to protect them and/or use in combat. Villagers have iron golems, illagers have ravagers, and the ancient people had wardens. ✩

However, their hubris eventually gets the better of them, and disaster strikes. Something causes the wardens to go haywire and turn against their creators, either a greater power within the sculk dimension influencing them or a deadly mistake made. It ultimately does not matter as regardless, the people perished, become part of the collections of souls that make up their previous protectors. With the main industry and population of their people gone, the rest of the ancient people slowly die out. The end.

Couldn't the people have become the villagers and illagers of present day? There is a good case for either, but for both the purpose of drama and my personal ideas of how this all went I'm going with the idea that they are not directly related. In my opinion it ultimately doesn't matter which way it went as the culture died out regardless and even if they are descendants neither share traits with the ancient people outside of building structures and creating guardians.

Now what does this have to do with the upcoming update outside of them expanding on the lore of the ancient cities? Well I think the update is actually about the ancient city, and it's going to add a lot we have yet to see, however before I address what I think this update may entail, I want to talk about the previous updates.

Part 4: The previous updates

When I was talking about a lot of this to my friend she brought up a great point; why now? She told me that since Microsft's acquisition, they haven't really added anything major. I don't disagree with her, but I've taken this all as something else, so allow me to explain my perspective.

There haven't been many huge additions to Minecraft since the 1.9 update, which changed the entire way we do combat in the game. Since that update, it feels like they've been refining and expanding on different aspects of Minecraft instead of really adding. Let me explain by taking you through the updates since 1.9.

☾

1.10 - Frostburn Update

Mostly adds technical stuff including the /teleport command and the auto jump option, but in terms of actual game stuff does a general expansion of the world of Minecraft by adding fossils, polar bears, strays, husks and some new blocks.

1.11 - Exploration Update

Like frostburn this is a more general expansion on the world instead of a focused one, adding the woodland mansions, shulker boxes, totems, observers, and the two curse enchantments to name a few of the additions.

1.12 - World of Colour Update

Hey this is the one I came back to Minecraft to!

This is when the updates start becoming focused again, and specifically focus on expanding on pre-existing things and concepts. This update, as the name suggests, expands on the color options available in the game, adding concrete, colored beds, and parrots. This one isn't quite as focused as the ones to come after it, but it's definitely the starting point of this trend.

1.13 - Update Aquatic

This is when the updates are not only becoming much more strongly focused, but also expansive. Update aquatic not only overhauled the entire ocean and water areas in general, but also added stripped logs, wood (the log blocks with the bark/outer texture on all sides), trapdoors, pressure plates, and buttons of all woodtypes instead of just oak and plenty more.

1.14 - Village and Pillage

This update not only overhauled villages and villagers and expanded upon their evil counterparts illagers, it also added tons of new blocks to the game and even some non villager and illager related mobs. To name a few of the things added directly; the new trades and villager job system which lead to the villager trading halls that are now a staple in most worlds, cats became their own mob separate from ocelots and began spawning in villages, and 14 news slabs and stairs as well as 12 new walls were added.

1.15 - Buzzy Bees

Although content wise this update didn't ultimately add much, this update was just as much a bee update as it was a bug squashing update, which is honestly the best update combo to ask for. Not only did they squash the bad kind of bugs, the added the cutest good kind as well. This one doesn't really expand or refine anything, but I think this can be equated to the fact they had a lot of bugs and things they wanted to fix and tweak so they gave us bees along with it all so it wouldn't only be a massive bug fix that took almost half a year to release, not to mention how huge the next update is.

1.16 - Nether Update

We all know the nether update, do I even need to go over how much this update did? It turned the nether from a boring red wasteland that you'd probably only go to once so you could get blazerods and beat the game to a place that's not only absolutely gorgeous to be in but also full of exclusive blocks, items, and even an enchantment you can only find by exploring it. This update was insane when it was first announced and although it added a lot, these additions were once again expanding on the pre-existing concept of the nether.

1.17 + 1.18 - Caves and Cliffs

Putting these two together as they are ultimately one update. Caves and cliffs is another massive update that completely overhauled the overworld's generation, as well as expanding on the mountains as per the biome vote.

1.19 - The Wild Update

This update is rather small compared to the two that came before it (or three, depending on how you view Caves and Cliffs). It added the mangrove swamp as well as other features proposed for the swamp in the biome vote (leaving the badlands as the only one not to receive its proposed biome vote update) as well as the ancient city. ☾ ☼ This, at least to me, gives me the same vibes as the Buzzy Bees update, something smaller to tide us over while the work on something bigger that they need to dedicate more time and resources to. This bigger update, of course, being the true Trails and Tales update. Notably, this is our introduction to the ancient city, which is chock full of the aforementioned hints to it having a larger purpose. ☼

Don't you think one of the reasons the Trails and Tales update stands out to you so much is because it doesn't follow this pattern? Yes, that is certainly one of the big reasons that Trails and Tales stands out to me so much. Archeology is ultimately the running theme of this update, which is new, it doesn't expand on anything pre-existing except maybe the fossils but let's be honest who saw the fossils and thought we might get archeology in the future. However, ✩ archeology seemingly was supposed to come with either Caves and Cliffs or The Wild Update, and a lot of its features seem pretty done for something proposed almost three years ago. This is one of the reasons I think it's a front for a bigger update ✩

So let's say I'm right, they have been focusing on expanding on pre existing concepts, what do I think the 1.20 update will bring?

Part 5: The real 1.20 update

I have two theories as to what this update will really be, so we'll start with the more reasonable idea and end with the long shot.

First I want to mention something that very recently was released by Mojang with is this short below:

youtube

What??? WHAT??? This caught me so off guard and felt like it was Mojang turning and winking at me as I was already thinking about what the true purpose of the ancient city was, not to mention two days after they run by and slap me in the face with the mourner pottery shard after repeatedly telling us to try and find the stories in this update. I cannot name a single person who has thought about or even asked for Mojang to add another boss. No one was talking about it. No one was mentioning it. And then they come at us with this?? Are you kidding me?? This feels like even clearer of a yes than just yes and they just wanted to be cheeky about the whole thing.

Originally, I thought the true Tales and Trails update was going to be the sculk dimension, but this short leads me to think it might instead be a new boss that is summoned using the supposed portal, or it's both a new dimension and a new boss, as ☾ each dimension outside of the overworld has an associated boss, the end has the ender dragon and the nether has the wither. ☾ However, well researching this I had an idea that feels like a stretch but bare with me.

The sculk is going to be an update to the end.

Let me explain. Not only has the end been completely overhauled, but the overworld practically has as well. The only dimension really missing an overhaul at this point is the end, which hasn't been touched since 1.11, which was 7 years ago. I think a lot of people agree that the end desperately needs some work, because for an end game area not only is it boring as fuck, you also only really want one thing from it. On top of this, beating the game is ridiculously easy and has been for years, and although this is a sandbox game, I'm sure a lot of the player base would enjoy beating the game feeling like a lot more of an accomplishment that it currently does. The ancient cities could be the new strongholds, with the portal either having something to do with the reinforced deepslate, or the reinforced deepslate being something needed to summon a boss that lets you go to the end in the first place, were you then seek out the final boss. I admit this very wishful thinking, but I've noticed a couple things that slightly support my theory.

1. The pallet of the sculk matches extremely close with multiple end related things as pictured below, even closer than a lot of the currently existing end content does. Granted, sculk is a bit bluer, but sculk has more going for it in terms of colour relation than the ender dragon, ender men, and even the cities do to the portal and its components. Minecraft literally updated the textures and did not fix it

2. During the previous discussed disc 5, ☼ warping sounds can be heard, ☼ which are typically associated with the end.

3. In Minecraft Dungeons, ☾ the end aka. Echoing Void has a corruption theme, not unlike the sculk. ☾ This at the very least shows that Mojang has previously played with the concept of the end/void being a corrupting force/presence.

Once again, the end part of this theory feels even more like wishful thinking than this theory as a whole, but I hope at least I've convinced you that this update or maybe even a future one will focus on expanding on the ancient cities and truly making the area's challenge worth it, or at the very least my ideas have given you even more ideas and things you want to explore, whether that be in vanilla Minecraft, as a mod, an smp, or a unique work. But if the Tales and Trails update logo gets infected by sculk, don't come crying to me.

Either way, thank you for making it all the way here. Feel free to send me asks about this or expand on it yourself via reblogs. I hope you have a wonderful day!

#minecraft #minecraft 1.20 #minecraft update #minecraft theory #minecraft trails and tales update #minecraft trails and tales #long post

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jasper-pagan-witch · 1 year

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Because I’m a organization nerd, and always want a peak into other people’s organization systems:

86. How do you like to organize all your witchy items and ingredients? (Or books, I’d love to hear about you personal library system.)

Hello Stag! (Can I call you Stag? Is that cool?)

Witchcraft Asks #1-105

86: How do you like to organize all your witchy items and ingredients?

*cracks knuckles* There are a lot, so get ready. Luckily, I've already discussed my abhorrent grimoire system on October 10th (and...the post is already outdated...), so I won't repeat that here. Let me split this up.

Crystals

All of my tumbled and raw crystals are in two plastic jewelry organizers with movable walls. I've recently had to put my aventurine in with the rest of my quartz, amethyst, and citrine because I needed more room. I need another that's also strong.

My crystal beads are in a weaker plastic organizer because I've been making friendship bracelets- I MEAN ROSARIES for the deities on my altar. Just got Azura's done tonight!

The jewelry that I didn't make for deities with real crystals is in this little wooden jewelry box that looks like a small chest of drawers. I have two morganite rings, a hematite ring, a red jasper ring (of fucking course), a malachite bead bracelet, and two bracelets with many miscellaneous crystals in the top compartment. The middle compartment holds all of my bracelets with pendants/charms and my bracelets that are set in small cuffs. The bottom compartment holds necklaces.

Did I mention that I don't wear jewelry?

Additional shoutout to the Giant Fucking Rock Box which holds my bigger crystal pyramids, spheres, and raw chunks, and the carved or large crystals scattered across my desk.

Tarot and Oracle Decks

All of my 58 current decks are currently lined up in height order across the tops of the three plastic three-drawer containers that hold my clothes. There is no further categorization, I just fucking memorize their heights to find them.

Herbs and Blends

My dried basil (that's actually Cernunnos' dried basil), my Bloody Mary mix, the two different cinnamon sugar blends, and my small vial of Bree's Banishing Powder are all tucked together on the back corner of my desk.

Current Deity and Altar Locations

Since being displaced from my room, I've had to put all the deities I honor, venerate, worship, and work with on one altar. I just had to bring in a second shelf because I brought home Skull Friend from The Field. They're in places where they seem to work fine.

Books

The piece de resistance or whatever the fuck. As y'all may know, I'm a librarian now. This is NOT reflected in my book organization.

Section One: Mythology, History, Religion, and Geography. This is perhaps the second-strangest section of my book collection and is currently 24 books strong. Shoutout to the book about the Freemasons that I found in my stepdad's stuff, my copy of the Necronomicon that I lost behind the laundry basket on Monday, and Mortellus and Tomas Prower for writing my favorite books in there.

Section Two: Regional. This includes stuff about folk magic (both Ozark and Appalachian), city magic, and people getting high and musing on broadscale Celtic practices. This section has 9 books.

Section Three: Tarot. And, to a lesser extent (that being one book), divination more broadly. I actually like a lot of these books, which isn't hard because there are only 6 books here.

Section Four: Beginner. It is no secret that I am a simp for Bree's book Grovedaughter Witchery, but there are other good ones in here too. There are also 6 books in this one.

Section Five: Spell Books. I've gotten along with several blogs on here by shitting on some books in this section, but they're in here nonetheless. This section actually has 11 books, making it one of the slightly chunkier sections.

Section Six: Correspondences. I don't actually recommend most of the books I use for correspondences. There are 13 books here covering stuff like crystals, trees, elements, and symbols.

Section Seven: Gardening. Only one is specifically magical, but I suck at gardening and need help. There are 5 books here and some are specifically about Missouri gardening.

Section Eight: Literary. Not necessarily magical, but important literary collections. Edgar Allen Poe, Brothers Grimm, Dante, et cetera. This is 6 books but deserves its own category because of how absolutely CHONKY they are.

Section Nine: Miscellaneous Fuckery. Astrology, self-care, green witchcraft, hearth witchcraft, necromancy or death witchcraft, candles, and so on and so forth. This is 14 books strong and is my "fuck that" corner of my collection.

These numbers do not include the books I put in storage because I hated them. This is still 89 books. It does not look like that much.

Oh, they're also stacked on their backs, not set up in lines so you can read the spines. I either memorize where they are or I lose them behind the laundry basket.

Other Tools

I have some general "fuck that" drawers that hold other tools, like my knife collection, bandanas and scarves, a hilarious amount of shampoo/conditioner/lotion, and so forth. There's also a giant, heavy tote out in storage that has my candles. I have too many candles and not enough time to light them. This is what I can do with the single room and storage that is available to me.

Don't copy my organization system.

~Jasper

#answered #stagkingswife #personal #send help

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pyjamaenzel · 1 year

Text

I've been trying to find the "right" display box for my rocks and grabbed this one on a recent craft store trip. (been keeping them in a big shadowbox but with the glass it's. heavy.) I think two more of them would fit the rest since my larger rocks are mostly oblong so I can just remove a couple dividers...

there are a few new ones since my last photo, Aki went on a day trip w/ friends last year and asked if I wanted anything and I said "cool rocks!!" and so. (get you someone who takes those requests seriously.)

some close-ups and a pic w flash...

I want to get the tools to ID them with eventually because tbh I don't remember where I got them all and some might very well be glass. lol. but off the top of my head from left to right:

Top row: ?? (satiny shine, kinda fibrous-looking), ammonite, ?? (I forgot what this guy is called but I wrote it down SOMEWHERE), galena, shiny and black with thin layers (possibly anthracite??? unsure)

middle row: ??, ?? but the bottom layers are probably quartz, ??, part of a geode I cracked open myself, 2 bits of obsidian (1 might be jet?) + amethyst chunk + fluorite iirc

bottom row: something with quartz chunks in it + a little carved turtle I don't recall the origin of, beach rock possibly sandstone slightly sparkly, a few different tumbled stones I'm not sure are authentic or dyed (green adventurine? sodalite? ), rose quartz + possibly carnelian (and a mysterious chip of something), and more quartz (green one may be prehnite)

#enzel's stuff #rockposting

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bookwyrminspiration · 1 year

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Hi Quil! I'm glad to hear you've been writing a lot, even if it is a little tiring. I'm currently trying to get back into a few of my stories and figure out specific plot points and scenes. I've also been reading a few webcomics/fancomics recently too. Do you have any favorite web/fan comics? Good luck on your fic, I hope you're enjoying yourself! - Amethyst

Amethyst! Hello! It does take some energy/effort and time, but I find writing to be very rewarding and worth it in the end. There's some quote/sentiment about how things that are worthwhile take effort, and writing definitely holds true to it for me. And I am enjoying myself! It's really cool to create things where there was nothing before, and in this case I get to do it for another person!

I hope your stories and plotting goes well! Plots can be so satisfying and a nightmare to put together all at once. It's cool to fit pieces together, but sometimes the pieces don't want to fit and you're left puzzled for a while.

As for fancomics, I unfortunately don't really have anything I can share. I wish I could! I'm not a visual person, so I struggle to engage with a lot of visual media--movies, shows, manga, comics, graphic novels, etc. When I did try to engage with them more, I read mostly the popular webtoons. unOrdinary, Mage & Demon Queen, Siren's Lament, etc. I'm not caught up on them at all though

the one I do keep up with is Boyfriends, though that's mostly because I think it's got a cute style and is fun, lighthearted kind of thing. it's not too deep, and Goth is fun to look at. nothing more to it than that for me i just like looking at Goth. I'm aware it's the subject of controversy for some, but I'm not involved enough to really know about it. I did also read through Banquet recently, though. It's got some rather complex worldbuilding I haven't quite sorted out given the visual storytelling, and it feels like it's being told very slowly (nothing against the author for that! it's just not great for me when I already tend away from that kind of thing). if anyone checks that one or the author out, heads up that they're also a nsfw artist and it is an adult story (nothing explicit is public, but clearly written with adults in mind), just in case anyone isn't comfortable with that.

Unfortunately, that's pretty much the extent of my experience! Kudos to all the lovely artists and fan comic makers and everything in that regard, I'm sure their work is incredible. And I'm glad you've found some webcomics you seem to be enjoying! I'm kinda curious what they are now that you've mentioned them, but no pressure to share.

I hope you and your stories are doing well!

#quil's queries #amethyst nonsie #there are some people close to me who are more into visual media. like my partner and my sister #and i've never quite been able to get into it #i wish I could! would love to enjoy the stories and connect with them over it #but alas. i'm a words person :)#always have been. can't think in pictures

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rebelcthulhu · 2 years

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! ✨️ If you get tagged in this, answer with ten random facts about yourself, and then tag some people. Anonymously or not! Let's get to know the person behind the blog ✨️

tagged by: my dearest friend, @amethyst-serenade !! Luv you hun! 😘

1. I have three tattoos and plan to get many many more. the ones I have rn tho are a memorial to my pawpaw (he raised me so he was more like a dad.) a crystal dragon from spyro, and a feral glowing ghoul from fallout!

2. I have an autoimmune disease called crohn's. originally when I was first diagnosed they thought it was the kinda partner in crime to crohn's, which is called ulcerative colitis, but turns out I was misdiagnosed and ended up losing all but 6 inches of my large intestine. I’m all better now tho, the only real crazy side effect I have was because of the poor nutrition growing up I ended up only being 4ft 7in tall.

3. yallternative is definitely something that could be used to describe me. I’ve lived in the south all of my life, but I’m a metal/rock head through and through and for the most part I look it.

4. I don’t have any family anymore as all of them have either passed away or been incarcerated (shesh lighten up dude) naw but even if it does get lonely at times, I still think things happen for a reason and i’m probably wayy better off without some of them.

5. I started writing fan fiction when I was like... 17? my first fic was a fluffy destiel piece (god do I know, no need to say it.) I kept up with it for a long time tho and really enjoyed it. that was up until about 2018 then I dropped off for awhile. I recently posted my first fic since then on tumblr and let me tell y’all I have never felt more loved and inspired to continue writing. y’all are the fucking best!

6. I really really like cooking, rather or not I’m good at it is an entirely different subject. I’m very much meat and potato based in a lot of the things I make, but I hope to learn a lot more so I can start making really cool dishes.

7. really weird thing about me, I can’t listen to music while I’m doing something that requires a lot of thought. (ie: writing, school work, reading, etc.) I was always super jealous of people that could tho because I assumed it made things so much more entertaining.

8. my all time favorite joke is definitely not for the faint of heart and it involves falling into a barrel of titties. idk but I could hear it a million times and still laugh my fucking ass of every single time.

9. I repeat movie and tv quotes like my life depends on it. I will always be the first one to say ‘aint got no gas in it’ as soon as the context for it allows. my other go to is ‘ugly baby judges you!’

10. I am entirely too big of a horror/true crime nerd. especially considering IM A FUCKING PUSSY THAT CAN’T WATCH THEM BY MYSELF MOST OF THE TIME! (alright thats the end of my self callout) my all time fave horros are stir of echos and jeepers creepers. true crime wise the lost boys of bucks county, the ted bundy taps, and cold case files can GET IT!

tagging: no pressure babes its chill I swear! @mvnsonfreak , @emokid-ellie , @youaremyfamiliar , @jadeylovesmarvelxo , and @ahoysteviex !! (listen if it says 10 I will do 5, if its says 5 I will do 3, I am mentally deficient at best xD)

#ask meme #yours truly #amethyst-serenade

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crepearchives · 2 years

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Welcome to the Crepe Archives

⚙️ Hey you! Yeah, you! The one behind that screen! Which one? The one you’re using to browse Tumblr, duh! You just stepped right into a super cool virtual archive operated by me, Strawberry Crepe Cookie!

What’s in it?! Basically everything you’ve just GOTTA know about Earthbread in this day and age, those other Cookies included, packed neatly into one comprehensive Tumblr blog. If you’ve seen the Editor’s work with the Baker’s Street Newsblog, I was there for it! I came on day one and gave my share, and now it’s time for ME to take the spotlight! Anything that appears here can get reblogged back there, and anything there worth saving can get reblogged RIGHT BACK HERE!

Yep. Editor DerpyToad of the Baker’s Street Newsblog reporting in as the actual writer behind BOTH blogs and probably several more. Sometimes the other online sites and wikis with CR stuff are too deep to wade through and not everyone uses them, so why not pack the relevant stuff into a Tumblr blog instead? It’s semi-low tech and allows me to work with it with ease. It also increases accessibility to anyone that uses Tumblr too. You’ll meet my assistant somewhere in the future, he’s met Crepe before and the two are on good terms.

⚙️ ANY Cookie Run or Devsisters game that is currently online and LIVE is subject to my thorough analysis in easily-understood Tumblr posts, but nothing deep into anything that’s already been sent to the scrap heap or on a past event that was just never seen again.

Ovenbreak? Yes.

Kingdom? OH, YES! That’s where I came in with my genius!

Puzzle World? It’s remained dormant for years, but it’s still live. Yes. (Puzzle World posts are currently being suspended due to Witch’s Castle’s recent launch. Certain early-game content will be addressed in a reroll account)

LINE? NAHHHHHH, that’s been gone for AGES!

Kakao? No, the Editor would have to jump through SEVERAL hoops and translators to download and decipher everything there.

Cookie Wars? Of course not! They already locked that apocalyptic moment down with their steampunk machinery and some dark amethyst, thanks to some Cookie in a city of wizards and a curious-looking chimera. If you want to see the cache I found, click here.

Brixity? Yes! All that creativity at your fingertips to wield to create elaborate ideas! (Brixity posts are currently being suspended to be addressed in a reroll account due to update suspension on their end)

Witch’s Castle? Of course! That’s where we learn where all the Cookies before GingerBrave come from!

If you’ve got questions about what I’m doing, take ‘em to the ask box! The ask box is open for questions for me or any guests and potential helpers I have here… whenever they get here. New entries will appear whenever in whatever order we get to them since I’m not on a schedule and the Editor is on a schedule of his own, but we can take requests in the ask box if there’s something that you’ve just GOTTA see or something that you want corrected… if we need to! You’ll usually need PROOF that a change is needed to have it processed if we don’t notice.

Asks for Strawberry Crepe Cookie: Open

Asks for Black Raisin Cookie: Open

Wafflebot Interaction: Open, but don’t break them.

Asks for me, the Editor: Open

Requests for Specific Posts & Edits: Open

Title Ideas for Strawberry Crepe Cookie: Click Here, but feel free to suggest more. (Credit to andre-raras for these titles)

Legal Disclaimers 📜

As the person managing this blog, while I will use public resources on the game about the internet that are NOT leaks (Twitter accounts, Fandom & other similar wikis, YouTube, etc), and information that I get from other people to post accurate information and sprites on this blog that are not openly available in the games themselves, I am not associated with Devsisters or any other blog or wiki that exists on the internet. I am purely doing this as a side hobby and to make a similar resource accessible on Tumblr.

References made to someone named Lemon-Lime Meringue Cookie, Vanilla Meringue Cookie, or simply just Meringue are just references to my sona or Cookiesonas, which sometimes indirectly refers to me as the blog Editor/Mod (DerpyToad), as there is currently no canon Cookie simply named Meringue Cookie in Cookie Run yet. Pastel Meringue Cookie is a different unrelated story as an OvenBreak Cookie, as his name separates him from other Meringues listed in this disclaimer.

Current Priorities

Witch’s Castle (Through Chapter 1)

Priority Cookie Queue

Drafts not under suspension

Ongoing Cookie/Pet Queue

Treasures Master Post

Costumes Master Post

Pets Master Post

Raid Run Master Post, Bosses, and permitted Cookies’ Analysis

Sugar Gnome Laboratory

Main Game Mode Master Posts

Dedicated Cookie-Pet-Treasure-Costume/Game Master Posts

Cookie Trials

Guild Activity

Main Control Tutorials & Technical Licenses

Magic Laboratory Master Posts

Separate Cookie Master Posts

Queued Cookies’ Analyses

Main and Repeating Event Master Posts

Titles

Sub-Headings

Earthbread Atlas

Multiplayer Combi Features’ Analyses

General Archive Master Post Navigation

Cookie Run: Ovenbreak 🔥

Cookie Run: Kingdom 👑

Cookie Run: Puzzle World 🧩

Brixity 🌎

Cookie Run: Witch’s Castle 🏰

Cookies 🍪

Pets 🦊

Archive Tags

#crepe archives - Any post that is meant for the informational archive

#crepe archives master post - Search for this tag to find other major Master Post menus

#crepe archives subheading - A sub-menu from a Master Post containing more links (or text where future links will go)

#crepe archives reblog - Posts from other Tumblr blogs that were reblogged here for their potential to provide relevant information to the Crepe Archives

#cookies - Master Post or Posts about individual Cookies (check the game tagged to ensure you got the right one)

#pets - Master Post or Posts about individual Pets (as stated above, check the game tagged to ensure you got the right one)

#cookie run ovenbreak - Posts pertaining to anything OvenBreak

#cookie run kingdom - Posts pertaining to anything Kingdom

#cookie run puzzle world - Posts pertaining to anything Puzzle World

#cookie run witch’s castle - Posts pertaining to anything Witch’s Castle

#cookie run - Self-explanatory. It’s about anything in this series.

#crepe answers your questions ⚙️ - Answered asks for Strawberry Crepe Cookie

#black raisin answers your questions 🪶 - Answered asks for Black Raisin Cookie

#crepe comments on stuff ⚙️ - Miscellaneous reblogs on posts involving Strawberry Crepe Cookie or other miscellaneous topics and Cookies, as well as Strawberry Crepe Cookie’s commentary on anything

#request for archive - Processed request to research new, existing, or missing data. Queued in to the best of my ability depending on the queue.

#requested content successfully archived - Completed analysis requests for research

#brixity - Also self-explanatory, except it’s focused on one game instead of an entire series.

#mod post - OOC posts where the Editor (this blog’s mod) has something to say.

#vanilla kingdom branch board meeting - Polls regarding changes and decisions for this blog and other resources I operate. Polls last one day and are cast weekly every Monday afternoon, EST

#tw orientalism / #yogurca discourse - Blacklist tags pointing primarily to Yogurca content (and the wrong way Devsisters approached it). This content will be subject to considerable filtering beyond what is seen in gameplay. Tell me as the mod if I make a mistake.

#cookie run #strawberry crepe cookie #cookie run kingdom #cookie run ovenbreak #cookie run puzzle world #crepe archives #crepe archives master post #asks open

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peridyke · 2 years

Note

For the ask bingo do lapis peridot and jasper

LAPISSSS YES I was hoping someone would send her LOL but yeah I’m like obsessed with her for some reason. Every criticism about her is correct but I’ve always loved her superficially since I was a teenager and I’ve decided to embrace that recently. Like I think she has so much cool stuff to work with and it’s really disappointing to me that they couldn’t even keep her personality consistent you feel me? I love the little bits of her character you pick up on from her better written episodes and it makes me wanna see more done with her, like I think she’s adorable in alone at sea and I just wish that version of her was more present through the show! her thing with jasper has so much potential and I hate how much it got neglected, like I think it’s really interesting that lapis fucked this stranger up so bad and I want to see how she handles that mentally. ALSO her and peridot are cute I wish we got more time with them being cute I wanna see how their relationship developed :( like they really had these bitches live together off screen for a season and start acting like a married couple and they were like well I guess people don’t wanna see how that happened lol. I just wanna see more of them augh like give me the content!!!

ALSO. ALSO. WHY DOES SHE GET ALONG WITH THE CRYSTAL GEMS POST MALACHITE I FEEL LIKE THATS A HUGE OVERSIGHT alright I’m done now

JAZZZPERRRRR I love u jasper u r so hot and you did so much for lesbianism. I’m not the specific kind of gay person who is just SUPER attached to her but I love and respect her and she is a delight to have on screen. I wish that she had gotten more humanizing moments and generally more development, I love her as a foil to amethyst and I think it’s a shame that they never got any follow up together after earthlings. Also her relationship to Lapis is cool and like I said I wish it had gotten explored more, I love that they are strangers that because of unprecedented events became linked to each other in such an intimate and horrifying way. Jaspers response to Malachite being that she LIKED it is SOO interesting for both her and Lapis, and I love that that experience could be seen as being what inevitably led to her corrupting herself. It’s just really cool from a character psychology perspective, jasper in general is so cool. My gf is like a #jasperlover and has a lot of really good cool thoughts on her and whenever she talks about her I’m like you are so smart and cool. I’ve joked that she should make a jasper fan comic to match my lapis fan comic but honestly she’s too cool to make steven universe fan projects. Also it’s fucking insane to me that people projected so much of their baggage onto her like she’s not a fucking abuser what’s wrong with you people. God remember in like 2016 when people had such a stick up their ass about her it was fucking insane she’s too cool to be reduced to that, I think it’s definitely partially the shows fault for using pretty loaded language in alone at sea and never showing enough of lapis confronting the severity of her own actions so people pretty harshly boxed them into “fragile helpless waif vs evil mean abusive butch” and it sucked really bad, I think that’s a minimizing interpretation of both of their characters but especially jaspers

#txt #DAMN SORRY THIS IS SO LONG LOL….#my gf has been waiting for me to finish these so I can come with her to pick up her weed. sorry babe I was talking about jasper and lapis

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andrewmoocow · 2 years

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Little Homeworld Life chapter 10: From Russia with Hate, Part 1 (originally published on October 17, 2022)

AN: And here we are at our first, and only, big two-part episode of Little Homeworld Life chronicling the return of Jones, Bane Jones. Agent 00014 was a character I thought would be real fun to tackle again, and lo and behold, he not only gets one episode to himself, but two! Speaking of James Bond, this special episode shall take elements from Bond movies like From Russia with Love, hence the title, and The World is Not Enough. If you've seen either of these films, you might get a good idea of what will go down. Now that we have introductions out of the way, let's move on.

Synopsis: Bane Jones arrives at Little Homeworld to recruit Lapis & Amethyst against an alliance between Francis von Bowling and The Sickle.

Cast:

Jennifer Paz as Lapis

Michaela Dietz as Amethyst

Pierce Brosnan as Bane Jones

Estelle as Garnet

Deedee Magno-Hall as Pearl

Uzo Aduba as Bismuth

Shelby Rabara as Peridot

Christoph Waltz as Francis von Bowling

Diedrich Bader as Lennie

Wayne Knight as Milton

Amy Sedaris as Teal Zircon

David McCallum as G

Paget Brewster as B

Corey Burton as The Banker

Noël Wells as Black Rutile

Featuring Vladimir Mashkov as The Sickle

With Andrey Batt as Konstantin

Edward Furlong as Pavel

Seth Green as Leo

And Olga Kurlyenko as Tina

In an undisclosed part of Europe, the World Defense Agency's finest agent Bane Jones was on another mission. Under the orders of his superior B, Jones was assigned to meet with a European banker and discuss some recent unfortunate events that had befallen a fellow agent of the WDA on the line of duty.

"Ah, Mr. Jones, I was told to expect you." The banker greeted Bane as the agent walked into his office. "So nice of you to come on such short notice."

"Well, if you can't trust a banker, what has the world come to?" Bane dryly answered as he sat down at the banker's desk. "Now then, I trust that you have intel on the death of Agent Craig?"

"Ah yes, that one." The banker replied as he pulled out a cigar to smoke. "You recall the Crystal Gems that everyone has been talking about lately, correct? I can't seem to go a day without reading about them in the news."

"Why yes, I do." Bane responded with a smile. "Lapis and Amethyst are good friends of mine who helped me take down P.H.A.N.T.O.M in Los Diego. Wonder how they're doing these days?"

"Well, that's why I asked." The banker continued. "Word on the street is that von Bowling and his two cronies managed to escape prison, yet again, but this time they had a little help."

"Of course von Bowling escaped again." Bane rolled his eyes in annoyance. "We have got to find a way to lock him up for good and ensure he stays there."

"Back on subject, it would seem that those Power-Hungry All-National Team Of Madmen has allied with the Russian crime lord known as The Sickle." The banker revealed to Agent Jones, much to the agent's alarm.

"The Sickle, you say." Bane wondered as his eyes widened and his eyebrows arched. "And what could those two be doing together?"

"Unfortunately, that was all your friend could gather before his life was forfeited." The banker added morosely before he and Jones discovered a small red dot on the banker's forehead. "What is that, a ladybug?" Smacking at the dot caused two more to appear, much to the banker's horror. "What the? Oh no!"

"Get down!" Bane yelled to the banker, but it was too late. Three bullets were fired at the banker, killing him as his three killers revealed themselves. They were three men in black military garb, one fat, one short, and one lean. These three crooks were quite different in looks, but all of them seemed equally mean.

Though Mr. Jones was briefly horrified by the banker's sudden death, he kept a cool head as he pulled out his gun. "And who might you three be?"

"Ah, Bane Jones, so glad of you to visit." The tall one that Bane immediately deduced to be their possible leader declared warmly, even though he and his cronies had just committed a brutal murder. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am known as Konstantin, and these are my associates Pavel and Leo."

"It seems fate has conspired for us to meet, Mr. Jones." Pavel, who was shorter than Konstantin but far taller than Leo, added. "We originally plotted just to take down that banker and leave, but unfortunately, it seems you just had to get in our way."

"And what a surprise too!" the dwarflike Leo exclaimed. "As I'm sure you already know, our boss, The Sickle, has allied with your old friend Francis von Bowling not just to take you out once and for all, but to destroy those infernal Crystal Gems you're friends with too! I mean, how could you?! Selling out your entire species for those alien cretins who have doomed the Earth more times than I can measure my height!"

"I can assure you, the Gems are good friends and trusted allies of the World Defense Agency!" Bane exclaimed as he prepared to shoot one of the assassins down with his pistol. "Now, I'm normally a gentleman, but hearing such hateful words about my friends makes me very uneasy. And you won't like me when I'm uneasy."

"Challenge accepted, Mr. Jones." Konstantin said while dropping his gun and throwing his fist at Bane's face, but 00014 calmly caught it in his hand before twisting Konstantin's arm behind his back and tossing him into Pavel & Leo before running away from the three assassins.

"Stop him!" Konstantin yelled before the three gunmen gave chase. Bane made a diving leap out of the deceased banker's office that would usually kill any ordinary man, but years of experience have turned Jones into anything but ordinary. Sticking a perfect three-point landing, Jones raced through the streets to escape his pursuers, catching the attention of bystanders as he kept running.

"Terribly sorry, short on time here!" Bane exclaimed as he ran faster away from the three assassins as soon as the trio began catching up to him in an alleyway. However, the chase ended rather anticlimactic as a phone started ringing, and Konstantin picked it up.

"What is it?!" Konstantin yelled to the caller, whom Bane assumed to be The Sickle. "Oh my, already?!" he responded to his boss. "We'll be back shortly." Hanging up, he, Pavel, and Leo turned to face Bane. "We really hate to cut this short, I'm sure you were very excited to have an epic chase sequence, but we have to cut and run. The boss is expecting us."

"But don't you worry, we'll be seeing each other again soon!" Pavel laughed evilly.

"Come, my brothers, we must return to The Sickle at once!" Leo said as they marched out of the alley, leaving Bane alone to contemplate what had just happened.

"Whatever that Sickle fellow wants those three to do, it can't be good." Bane mused to himself before he heard a pair of high heels approaching him. Turning around, he discovered a beautiful Russian woman with pale skin and a goth-like fashion style consisting of a black blouse, navy blue miniskirt, a pair of black heels, a gold belt of crimson jewels, and short violet-dyed hair. "Pardon me, miss, but I'm afraid this might be too dangerous for you. Allow me to introduce myself. I am-"

"Jones, Bane Jones, I know." The woman said in a sultry Russian accent. "Your reputation precedes you, sir. Call me Tina, daughter of The Sickle. And I believe I could be of assistance to you."

"Daughter?" Bane gasped at the news that The Sickle had a daughter. "Hm, never heard anyone say he was a family man before."

"That is beside the point, Mr. Jones." Tina replied nervously. "My father has devious plans for you and your friends, but I believe I can be of assistance to you. Please, take me to your American masters so we can work together to stop my father and von Bowling!"

"I can see you're desperate, Tina." Jones responded, though he started getting a little suspicious of his new ally. "Okay, I'll bring you back to America, but you must promise to behave yourself. There's no telling if P.H.A.N.T.O.M or The Sickle are still watching us."

"Oh, you are most kind, Mr. Jones." Tina said before kissing Bane on the lips and almost leaving him behind in the alley. But as Jones began following Tina, he continued acting suspiciously toward her and started making a call.

"Good day, 00014. How was the mission to the Czech Republic?" Bane's gadgets provider G asked.

"Not very well." Bane replied morosely. "The banker became a casualty, but I did gain a new ally in the daughter of The Sickle. However, I feel like I must keep an eye on her while bringing her back to headquarters."

"Hm, sounds a little odd." G said. "I don't think we have any records of The Sickle being a father in our criminal database, but I don't really mind. Regardless, we should run a few tests on her to make sure she's telling the truth."

"Understood. See you again soon." Bane nodded before hanging up.

"Hey, what's keeping you?!" Tina called for her new companion from afar. "We're wasting daylight here, as you Americans say!"

"Don't mind me, dear, just making a call!" Bane hollered back as he walked towards Tina before taking her hand, and the two began planning for the return to the United States.

Meanwhile, in America, a couple of Little Homeworld Gems had gathered around Lapis Lazuli and Amethyst as they excitedly listened to a story the two were telling. "And then we were tied up and hanging over a shark pit while the villain had his cyborg wolf watching us!" Amethyst eagerly recounted.

"The wolf had, like, a surveillance system built into his nervous system, so that Francis would watch us die." Lapis added. "But thankfully, we found a way to get out."

"Ooh, tell us, tell us!" Teal exclaimed before Garnet, Pearl, Peridot, and Bismuth appeared behind her. "Hey, guys!"

"So what's all the commotion about?" Pearl asked about the gathering.

"I've been hearing rumors that Lapis and Amethyst once met a secret agent and wanted to know if they were true," Teal explained. "so I gathered up everybody spreading those rumors so they can learn they were right all along!"

"We all certainly had a fun time in Los Diego." Garnet smiled. "Maybe you'd like to hear our stories too."

"Yeah, like how Pearl got roasted by Neil Michaels!" Peridot exclaimed, embarrassing Pearl in the process.

"Or how this neckbeard stole a superpowered air freshener!" Bismuth added before she saw the faint shape of a helicopter approaching them. "Hey, what's that supposed to be?"

"Wait, is that a helicopter?" Peridot asked as the shape got closer to Little Homeworld. "What could it be doing here?"

"One second, guys, I'll fly up and check." Lapis said before she spread her wings and flew up to get a better look at the approaching chopper. To her surprise, the vehicle bore the initials WDA, indicating to her that an old friend was coming to visit. "Wait, Bane?!"

"Good day, Lapis, fancy seeing you here." Bane greeted the water Gem as he pushed open the helicopter door. "Bet you didn't expect to see me visiting, eh?"

"We were just talking about you!" Lapis responded over the chopping of the helicopter blades. "What brings you here, Mr. Jones?!"

"Just allow me to touch down so we can talk!" Bane responded before turning to his pilot and silently ordering him to bring the helicopter in for a landing while Lapis flew back down to the ground.

"Well, what was up, other than that helicopter?" Amethyst asked Lapis.

"It's Bane Jones, he's coming here!" Lapis exclaimed eagerly just as the helicopter landed behind her. As soon as 00014 stepped out of the chopper, he was quickly surrounded by Gems wanting to ask him questions.

"OMG, it's Bane Jones!" Teal Zircon cried. "I can't believe it, I'm meeting Bane Jones up close!"

"Please, ladies, one at a time; I'm here on business!" Bane chuckled as he tried to escape his crowd of fangirls and meet Lapis & Amethyst again. "Good day, girls, I'd love to stay over for a chat, but I'm on a new mission."

"Ooh, which one is it this time?" Amethyst asked. "Are we going into space, Japan, the Caribbean, Korea?!"

"All in due time, Amethyst." Bane answered before turning to return to the helicopter. "Come now, we'll explain everything at headquarters."

"Wait, Mr. Jones." Pearl stopped the agent in his tracks. "I don't think we ever got the chance to properly introduce ourselves, so would it be alright if me, Garnet, Peridot, and Bismuth came along with you?"

"I don't see why not." Bane agreed to Pearl's suggestion. "We'll need all the help we can get against our latest threat."

"Cool, spy adventure." Garnet grinned happily.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's move!" Bismuth exclaimed as she boarded the WDA helicopter.

"Don't think I have much else to do this weekend." Peridot added before turning to Teal. "We'll be gone for a while, you guys. Try not to burn the place down while we're gone!"

"We promise. Bye now!" Teal responded as the Gems took off with Bane Jones on a new adventure in the helicopter.

A couple of hours later, the Gems had returned to Los Diego, and not much had changed since their last visit. Convention season wasn't in full swing yet, so there weren't as many people dressed in costumes based on their favorite shows, movies, games, and comics littering the city streets. By the time the Crystal Gems were taken to the World Defense Agency's headquarters, they were welcomed by its staff with open arms.

"So glad they accepted your summons, 00014." Bane's boss, B, said as she shook each of the Gems' hands. "It's a pleasure to meet you all. I am B, head of the World Defense Agency. I'm sure you're already familiar with Mr. Jones and our gadget expert, G."

"The gadget expert is named G, how fitting." Garnet commented. "So, tell us what we're here for, ma'am."

"Glad you asked, Garnet." B said as she and G presented the Crystal Gems with an image of a newspaper headline reading "FRANCIS VON BOWLING BREAKS OUT" along with security footage of the leader of P.H.A.N.T.O.M and his two minions Lennie & Milton receiving some help in breaking out of prison. "A few months back, the fiendish criminal mastermind Francis von Bowling escaped confinement once again, but he's got help this time."

The security footage was replaced with a mugshot of a large, heavyset Russian man with a large beard. "This is The Sickle, leader of a powerful Russian crime ring who has had frequent collaborations with von Bowling in the past, dating all the way back to the fall of the Berlin Wall." Another photo was displayed, this time of younger versions of the two criminals shaking hands with each other dated to 1989. "It seems the two are working together again, but who knows why?"

"Probably revenge." Amethyst answered. "I mean, we did kick von Bowling's butt last time we saw him."

"Yes, it's pretty obvious what Francis's goals are, but we have no idea what The Sickle is plotting either." G added. "Luckily, Mr. Jones found a new partner who should be able to assist us." This was when he cued Tina to enter the scene. "Gems, I'd like you all to meet Tina, daughter of The Sickle."

"Hello there, Crystal Gems." Tina greeted the Gems. "I have heard much about you from my friends back in Russia."

"Yeah, it turns out not many people like us there." Bismuth responded. "Something about violating their ancestral grounds for our own devious ends."

"Yes, if we work together, surely we can improve your reputation there." Tina stated, though Garnet looked rather suspicious at her claims. "Is something the matter?"

"It's nothing, Miss Tina. It's just my future vision giving me some ominous warnings." Garnet replied awkwardly. "Something about dark magic and nuclear weapons." Tina's eyes widened in horror before nervously scooting away from Garnet. "Wait, come back!"

"I have my suspicions as well, but I suggest we try to keep an open mind." Bane proclaimed. "Who knows, maybe she could be on our side."

"Maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong, Mr. Jones." G agreed with the WDA's top agent. "But in the meantime, pay attention, everyone!" He turned around to begin displaying the gadgets Bane would be using for his mission. "Allow me to introduce to you the devices you shall be equipped with on your assignment."

"You call those gadgets? Ha!" Peridot laughed derisively. "I once managed to hack televisions all across the country with just one communication tower! It was some very advanced technology, more advanced than your pieces of metal!"

"Someone's a little braggadocious." G wryly chuckled before presenting what seemed to be an ordinary pen. "Observe, this explosive pen." With a click of the button, the pen started beeping, and G tossed it at target on a nearby wall before it combusted. "I guess you could say the writing was on the wall."

"Leave the sassy one-liners to me, thank you very much." Bane chuckled at G's joke before his gadget provider displayed another gizmo.

"For someone who wants to look both stylish and deadly, I present this razor-brimmed derby hat." G proclaimed before throwing the hat at a few training dummies, slicing their heads clean off with little mess before it returned to his hand. "And over here, there's-"

"Um, is that a human nipple?" Pearl asked regarding a near-perfect replica of a human man's bare chest. Only there were not two nipples, but three.

"Ah yes, the golden gun incident." B declared flatly. "Our target was born with a third nipple that time; thus, this was designed so Mr. Jones could disguise as him."

"Can I take it?" Amethyst asked as she began taking the prosthetic nipple for herself. "This will make me a fortune online!"

"Go ahead, do with it what you will." G said before he continued with his demonstration. "Now, as I was saying, over here, this weaponized wristwatch has seen a lot of use before." He pressed a button that caused a multitude of gadgets to spring out of the clock face. "It has a variety of uses. It can cut wires, burn through metal with a laser, defuse electrical devices, all perfect for getting you out of a jam."

"Looks more like a Molex." Garnet said as she examined the watch manufacturer's name along the rim of the watch.

"They were kind enough to provide us with one to modify." G answered before revealing the last gadget on the itinerary. "And finally, our crème de la crème of the division's gadgets." He pulled out a set of car keys and pressed the unlock button, causing a very stylish-looking car to appear. "I've been making some modifications to your Rumbakini Tormenta lately."

"No way, a Rumbakini Tormenta?!" Bismuth gasped in awe at the cool car in front of them. "That's one of the sleekest cars in the world of automobiles, and here it is for me to tinker with!"

"Pace yourself, Ms. Bismuth. That is very valuable to Mr. Jones." B tried calming Bismuth down. "Care to give us any specifics, G?"

"With pleasure, madam." G replied. "I employed some Gem technology recovered by the government to modify this vehicle. Now it can fly, can become bigger on the inside, fire lasers from the headlights, and the wheels can cling onto most surfaces too."

"So cool!" Amethyst squealed in excitement. "Come on, guys, onwards to Russia!"

"Someone's a little eager to start the mission." Pearl laughed warmly as the Gems began boarding the Tormenta. "Hey, has anyone seen Tina anywhere?"

"Oh, sorry, my friends!" Tina exclaimed as she hurried towards the car. "Sorry, had to go to the bathroom and you know how much trouble those can be!" she awkwardly laughed, causing the Gems and Jones to stare at her in confusion. "Anyways, shall we depart?"

"Yes, let's." Garnet coolly agreed before Bane turned the car on and activated its new flight mode so it could fly off toward Russia.

"So you say that Jones knows now?" The Sickle grimly asked his three subordinates in his headquarters in the coldest parts of Russia. "I asked you to merely terminate that banker, and this is what happens?! Honestly, you three are just as incompetent as you are efficient."

"Please forgive us, boss, but now he's coming straight to us!" Konstantin exclaimed. "He'll walk straight into our trap now!"

"They are indeed correct, my friend." Francis von Bowling agreed with Konstantin while nursing a wineglass of gorilka. "Thanks to our spy on the inside, we know Mr. Jones has allied himself with the Crystal Gems against us."

"The Crystal Gems." The Sickle growled with his chin resting on a fist. "Once I see those foolish rocks, I shall make them pay for what they have done to me!" He then looked to his three assassins. "Konstantin, Pavel, Leo, bring them to me at once! Alive or otherwise!"

"Same goes for you too, Lennie and Milton." Francis said to his two lackeys, the ratlike schemer Lennie and his large, childlike partner Milton. "I want to see the blue and the purple ones again, in particular."

"Oh yes, boss, those Gems won't know what hit them." Lennie cackled while evilly rubbing his hands.

"Yeah, it'll be cool to see those Gems again!" Milton chuckled oafishly. "We won't fail you this time, boss!"

"I hope so." von Bowling replied. "If all else fails, we can rely on our mole to finish things." He then turned to some of his scientists experimenting on some highly advanced technology far beyond human comprehension. "But in the meantime, these mechanical limbs we found underwater should prove useful to us."

"Indeed it will, Francis." Black Rutile declared as she emerged from the shadows, much to von Bowling's alarm. "Oh, pardon me for the intrusion. You may call me Black Rutile, a fellow enemy of the Crystal Gems. I followed you from the Galaxy Warp to Russia because I need some help."

"What kind of help?" Francis asked suspiciously of his new visitor's motives.

"Help to build this dimensional portal, of course!" Black Rutile proclaimed as she unveiled some holographic schematics of the Vortexxer. "I think you and your little organization might have just what I need to keep it stable, and wouldn't you know it; you have almost everything I could want! So how about we work out a little deal? If you give me all the parts for the portal I need, I shall help you terminate the Crystal Gems once and for all."

"A rather tempting offer, miss." Francis smiled and shook Black Rutile's hand. "Just say the word, and I'll be there."

"Are you sure we can trust you, Gem?" The Sickle asked suspiciously. "How do we know you're not like the rest of your kind? You did broadcast your face to the world not too long ago."

"As I said to Francis here, I am just as much a victim of the Crystal Gems as you are." Black Rutile proclaimed, her declaration striking a chord with The Sickle before the Rutile brought up his criminal record on her visor. "Isn't that right, Nikolay?"

"Oh, you're good." Nikolay smirked at P.H.A.N.T.O.M's new ally in surprise and admiration of her skills. "I like you, stranger. Black Rutile, your name is?" He then offered some of his gorillka to Black Rutile. "I feel this shall be the start of beautiful friendship."

Elsewhere in Russia, the Tormenta finally landed in the streets of Saint Petersburg, followed by Bane disembarking with Tina and the Gems. "Be alert, everyone." Bane advised his female companions. "As you said, the Gems don't have the best reputation here due to past events."

"For crying out loud, one giant portion of the world gets wiped out to make room for a Galaxy Warp, and yet they blame the closest ones to the real culprit!" Lapis complained as the group left the alley the Tormenta was parked in to search for The Sickle. Along the way, the Gems discovered how much their technology influenced Russia to become slightly more steampunk than they expected. But they were also forced to be victims of all sorts of prejudice from the locals.

"You colorful killers may have won over the Americans, but we will never forget what you did!"

"Aliens go home!"

"Quit tearing our planet apart!"

"That pink beast would've been the death of us all! Hugging will change nothing!"

"Filthy lesbian rock humans!"

"Just don't pay any attention to them, gang." Garnet advised her teammates. "They only want to make us mad."

"Still, there are still so many things our people have yet to atone for." Pearl replied. "The Crystal Gems may have saved the Earth all the time, but we're just a small group of Gems doing good for the Earth. They probably just think we're a credit to our race at best."

"Whoa, no need to go that far, Pearl!" Amethyst cried while deflecting a bottle of vodka being thrown her way without even looking. "What, you really think that because we're not like them, that means we must be evil?"

"I mean, I stole most of the ocean to return home." Lapis agreed with Pearl. "Which led to hundreds either dying or nearly going out of business."

"Don't get too bummed out, and let's focus on the job at hand." Bane said before turning to Tina. "Now Tina, where do you think we'll find any information about The Sickle?"

"I believe we shall find our answer at the Royale Casino." Tina answered while gesturing to a nearby casino flooded with shady characters. "Number one wretched hive of scum and villainy in all of Russia! I have no doubt in my mind he might be there!"

"Well, how about that?" Bismuth remarked proudly at Tina's observation skills. "Come on, girls, let's get in there and find our crooks!"

"Indeed, let's get a move on." Jones said as the gang walked towards the Royale Casino, while Tina slagged behind to make sure none of them heard what she was going to do.

"They have taken the bait." Tina said into her phone. "Bring the boys out immediately."

Just as everyone expected, the Royale Casino was filled with criminal lowlifes in addition to regular people spending their money on slot machines, card games, dice games, poker machines, and roulettes. And just like outside, many of the Royale's visitors were incredibly wary of the Gems that had just arrived.

"Okay, everyone, spread out. One of these crooks must know where he is." Bane commanded his ladyfriends as he, Tina, Lapis, Amethyst, and Garnet walked towards a big poker table in the center of the room. At the same time, the other Gems interrogated the casino's visitors.

"Excuse me, sir, can you tell me something about someone called The Sickle?" Pearl asked a gambler who was cleaning out his opponents at a game of craps.

"What's it to ya, pointy?" the gambler scoffed while flicking Pearl's nose. "I don't fraternize with your kind."

"Well, I never!" Pearl snapped at the man and stormed off in anger.

"Pardon me, but I must request that you bestow upon me information relating to The Sickle if you please." Peridot politely asked another lowlife at a slot machine.

"I would if you sounded less like a nerd." The slot-puller replied disdainfully. "Now, shoo little girl, I'm on a streak here!"

"Hey comrades, any of you got any deets on The Sickle?" Bismuth asked in her best attempt at a Russian accent as she stepped up to a roulette table.

"The Sickle, eh?" a shirtless, muscular man in a pair of red trunks with a big beard and scars all over his bare & hairy torso answered. "Maybe we could give you some answers, if you beat us at roulette."

"Game on!" Bismuth declared as she pulled out a wad of dollars left over from the trip to Los Diego and handed it over to the croupier. "I'm betting a hundred dollars on 17 Black!"

"Thank you." The croupier responded while taking the cash, Bismuth not telling whether he was unaware a Gem just placed a bet or didn't care as the ball began rolling around the roulette wheel. "No more bets!" It was this close to landing on the spot that Bismuth had bet on, but unfortunately for her, it landed on 23 Red instead. "Ooh, sorry milady. Better luck next time."

"I must admit, you were good gambler. For Gem." The muscular man complimented Bismuth as she walked away.

Meanwhile at the poker table, Bane, Lapis, Amethyst, Tina, and Garnet were playing a high-stakes game of cards against a dozen other seedy opponents, each varying in skill and menace. While Bane played his cards right, both figuratively and literally, and the Gems were doing moderately well, Tina seemed to have no idea how to play.

"Oops, silly me!" Tina declared as she discovered she had yet another bad hand. "I do not seem to be good at this game!"

"That's a real shame, Tina, because watch this." Garnet declared before she unveiled her cards. To the alarm of everyone around her, the fusion had a royal flush. "Read 'em and weep, boys."

"Impossible!" Bane gasped at Garnet's hand. "How did you get a royal flush so easily?!"

"Future vision." Garnet boasted. "Been using it to cheat at cards with Amethyst and Greg for years."

"I knew it!" Amethyst exclaimed before they heard the doors open, followed by Konstantin, Pavel, and Leo stepping into the Royale Casino.

"Okay everyone, stop what you're doing now!" Konstantin commanded the casino's visitors while arming himself with a gun that looked like reverse-engineered Gem technology. "I want everybody on the ground except for anyone with unusual skin color! And no, I don't mean that kind of unusual skin color!"

"It's those assassins that killed the banker again!" Bane exclaimed as the gamblers scrambled around the casino.

"Hey, wait a second. Those weapons they're holding look a little familiar." Amethyst said as the three gunmen drew closer to Bane and company, followed by the other Crystal Gems racing to stop them.

"Are those my limb enhancers?!" Peridot gasped at the trio's firearms. "How did you get them?!"

"Found them in the Tunguska Sea near some big rock formation." Leo revealed to the group, causing Garnet and Pearl to all look at Amethyst. Last they remember, Amethyst was the one to dispose of Peridot's limb enhancers after they finally poofed her by dumping them in the ocean.

"Oh, come on! How was I supposed to know someone was going to confiscate them?!" Amethyst cried before the Gems were all held at gunpoint.

"Now then, our boss has some very special friends who want you taken out for what you did to them." Pavel declared. "So either turn around now and leave or else things will have to get ugly."

"Wait, everyone please!" Tina yelled as she got between the two groups. "Boys, boys, we can resolve this peacefully as long as you let my friends go."

"So that should be our cue to run?" Bismuth asked.

"You bet." Lapis responded flatly as Bane and the Gems ran out of the casino. But as soon as they escaped however, Tina immediately changed her tune.

"Thank you, boys, for that marvelous introduction." Tina smirked at Konstantin. "Anyways, you remember the deal I made with Bowling, right?"

"Yes, here is that book you wanted." Leo answered while handing over a strange grimoire that emitted a sinister energy from it. Tina just smiled evilly as she opened the book and began reading through its pages.

As soon as Bane, Lapis, Amethyst, Garnet, Pearl, Peridot, and Bismuth escaped the Royale Casino, they ran for the Rumbakini Tormenta and immediately began racing through Saint Petersburg in order to get as far away from the three assassins as possible.

"Thank goodness Tina bought us time!" Pearl exclaimed as the car sped through Russia. "I just hope she'll be alright."

"Who knows if we'll be alright, though." Lapis said as she poked her head out the window to discover numerous police cars driven by P.H.A.N.T.O.M goons chasing after them. "Quick, Bane, step on it!"

"Well, it's 37,500 miles to America. We got a full tank of gas and multiple gadgets, it's getting cold, and none of us are dressed for the weather." Bane declared.

"Hit it!" Amethyst yelled as Bane stepped on the gas, making the Tormenta go even faster. But unfortunately, the P.H.A.N.T.O.M cars started going faster as well. "Talk about putting your pedal to the metal, am I right?"

"This is no time for puns, Amethyst, we need to think of a plan!" Garnet yelled.

"Why don't we ask those fellows in the nice suits?" Peridot suggested while spotting a pair of men in matching black suits, fedoras, and sunglasses driving in a beat-up sedan. "Excuse us, but could you lend your assistance? We're on the run from villains here!"

"We'd love to stay and chat, but we're on a mission from God!" the first man declined the offer.

"Our Lady of blessed acceleration, don't fail us now!" the second man yelled as his companion drove the car away from the highway, which gave Peridot an idea.

"Wait, Bane, we need to go off the road!" Peridot yelled to the secret agent. "Just like those rad dudes in shades!"

"Well, I'm willing to give anything a shot once." Bane shrugged in agreement before swerving the car off the highway and into the Russian wilderness. When the P.H.A.N.T.O.M troops attempted to follow, all that did was turn them into a big car pileup along the side of the highway—all except for one.

"That little gremlin must have been watching too many movies!" Lennie cursed as he and Milton became the last members of P.H.A.N.T.O.M chasing after 00014 and the Crystal Gems. "Step on it, Milton, quick like a bunny!"

"Yeah, quick like a bunny!" Milton replied and made the police car start catching up to the Tormenta. "You ain't getting away this time, Bane!"

"On the contrary, my friends," Bane smirked and pulled out a pen. "you'll find that the pen is mightier than the sword or the automobile!" He then clicked the button and tossed it straight into the inside of Lennie and Milton's car.

"Uh, what's the pen gonna do, squirt ink all over us?" Lennie asked. His question would soon be answered as the pen detonated in his and Milton's faces, completely incinerating their police car and causing severe damage to the Tormenta in the process. Surprisingly, von Bowling's two minions managed to survive the explosion. "Okay, question answered."

"This ends now, criminal scum!" Bane declared as he pointed his gun at Lennie and Milton's faces while the Crystal Gems surrounded the two thugs. "Just tell us what your boss and The Sickle have planned, and maybe, just maybe, we'll go easy on you."

"Oh, so now you want to know?" Lennie coughed spitefully. "You know, you could've just asked earlier! Okay, fine, you got us. Our bosses are gonna start World War III and blame the Gems for it. Ya happy now?"

"Wait, World War III?!" Bismuth yelled in horror. "How could they do something like this?!"

"Easy, they wanna get rich." Milton answered innocently. "Once we frame you guys as terrorists, the bosses will be hailed as heroes by nuking your Little Homeworld friends and becoming rich from selling weapons. Pretty basic goals, you know?"

"Basic, but very personal." Lapis cracked her knuckles and prepared for a fight. "You messed with the wrong Gems, you guys!"

"If you want to harm our friends, you'll have to face us first!" Amethyst exclaimed and pulled out her whip, followed by the rest of the Gems pulling out their weapons in anticipation of the fight. Suddenly, however, a third party was about to come into play.

"Enough!" the familiar voice of Tina declared as she stepped into the clearing, her blouse turned into a unitard, and her mini skirt switched with a blue cloak. "Bet you didn't expect to see me here, Crystal Gems."

"Tina, is that you?" Amethyst asked. "Love the outfit by the way. What are you, some kind of sexy goth sorceress?"

"Oh, I am not just any sexy goth sorceress." Tina answered. "My name is actually Rasputina, descendent of the Mad Monk Grigori Rasputin, the innocent man you failed to save from Prince Yusupov! And now, I am here to avenge him by destroying all of you!"

"Okay, didn't see that coming." Lapis declared in shock.

"I certainly did." Garnet added. "Future vision, after all."

"So, you were plotting behind our backs all this time." Bane scowled at Rasputina. "I bet being The Sickle's daughter was part of the act too!"

"Indeed it was, and now I have you all right where he wants you." Rasputina smirked seductively before pulling out the grimoire that Konstantin, Pavel & Leo gave her and reciting a spell. "Klaatu barada nikto!" The resulting spell trapped Bane and the Gems in a dark forcefield that began causing them unending pain as Rasputina turned to contact her superiors. "Master, it is done. Mr. Jones and the Crystal Gems are ours. Awaiting further orders."

In Loving Memory of Robbie Coltrane, aka Valentin Zukovsky and Rubeus Hagrid

March 30, 1950 – October 14, 2022

I think that might be one of the most shocking endings I've written for this series in a long while. Tina turns traitor, the Gems and Bane have been captured, and none of them know yet that Black Rutile has made a deal with Francis and The Sickle! How can they turn this around? You'll just have to tune in next time for the second part of Little Homeworld Life's first and only two-part episode! Same Gem time, same Gem channel!

#steven universe #steven universe future #fanfiction #steven universe alternate future #little homeworld life #lapis lazuli #amethyst #bane jones #garnet #pearl #peridot #bismuth #black rutile

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