#pearlnet still real
Note
Hello!! I love and adore your writing, it made me start shipping Pearlnet and for that I cannot thank you enough, they’re AWESOME. I’m tearing thru R&R right now, but Smoke and Grit still has me reeling. Like holy crap, what a ride! You slayed me! Would there ever be a sequel to SG? I understand you’re crazy busy so it’s more of a theory question, no pressure at all. Just. Wow! It’s one of my favorite fics of all time. You’re awesome.
THANK YOU!!!! First of all I’m so excited that you enjoyed Smoke and Grit so much!!! Writing it was a ton of gun. R&R is very different, but I hope you enjoy it all the same! (I know that one is on hiatus, but when you get caught up, there’s also an older one of mine “Champion” that is a complete and real good read) Second of all WELCOME TO THE PEARLNET CLUB!!!!
We are small, but strong and we love our Pearlnet.
As for your question, I do have a story for a sequel for Smoke and Grit and definitely want to write it. The question now is if it will come as fanfic or published book. Currently I am working to finish up my remaining stories R&R and PoP, while working on hopefully getting the one’s I’ve completed legitimately published after I’ve developed my own characters and made some adjustments.
Thank you for your wonderful comment! It made my day, so I hope you have a great day in return ^^
TTH
23 notes
·
View notes
Text
If My Life Is Mine
Here’s a fic set in a vague future, inspired by: the Pearl episode of the official Steven Universe podcast, 'Your Mother and Mine' and 'Pool Hopping', wishful thinking, rewatching the final season of Star Trek: DS9. A bit of a “what would you want to be the next big step we see of Pearl’s character arc” sort of thing. All very much in the contemplative reflective Pearl vein of Love On A Wire. Blatant pandering for the occasion of @dr-jekyl's recent birthday and hopefully well-tailored to her tastes and interests.
Summary: Garnet leads the Crystal Gems on Earth, but help for the fledgling new rebellion is needed out in space and on the ground in the heart of Homeworld. So Pearl takes off, adjusts, listens, counsels, bolsters, takes responsibility, and leads - or does her very best to, anyway. Pearl-centric, featuring Garnet and Bismuth, guest appearances by everyone under the sun. Some Mystery Pearl, some Bispearl, some Pearlnet, some (past) Pearlrose, though of course the true main ship is Pearl/Happiness and Agency and Self-actualisation and all that good stuff. No special warnings. ~6000 words.
---
If My Life Is Mine
They need her, they say.
Pearl argues immediately, of course. They need someone who knows Homeworld - but she hasn’t been to Homeworld proper in thousands of years. They need someone who knows pearls - but she hasn’t seen another pearl in just as long, and hasn’t acted in a way befitting a pearl in, well… not until those sad attempts in front of Holly Blue. They need someone who will be able to understand the technological aspects of it all - but everything she’s been working with is horribly outdated - often rather ingenious, if she does say so herself, but still terribly makeshift. They need someone who knows rebellion, who understands how to properly plan it, how to prioritise, how to-
She turns to Garnet (of course), even as she knows that Garnet won’t leave what she so fondly calls her planet, especially not with a fleet of white ships looming on the horizon. Garnet doesn’t respond in any noticeable way, calmly seated on the couch in the crowded living room-turned-makeshift-rebellion-headquarters and Pearl meets her own gaze reflected in that ever-daunting visor.
Of all people it’s the permanently sour-looking yellow pearl, for quite a while now (secretly) formerly of Yellow Diamond’s court, who cuts off that entire avenue of thought via scratchy transmission from deep space.
“Garnet is needed on Earth. We need you to come stay and help out here.” In her Diamond’s convenient absence, she’s seated on a chair - yellow, to match the rest of her surroundings, and quite throne-like - that dwarfs her in a way that would seem amusing were her bearing not so insistently imperious, even though for the moment she sounds unusually humble. “We need the experience. We need long-term strategy. We need a leader. Someone to make the calls and guide us in the field. We don’t know how to do this- this entire operation alone - not yet. And you did it once already.”
Pearl half-opens her mouth to say something in denial, but… she did. She did do it. Certainly she could tick off, on a list, many of the required skills and competences. And she can do it again, she can do it even better. Learning and growth, wasn’t it, after all? And experience. Along with a unique perspective, as well as a certain reputation-
“And, well, you’re the infamous Renegade Pearl, aren’t you?” Yellow Pearl pipes up from the tiny screen, and Pearl preens just a tiny bit at the idea of that old, old title still persisting.
They need her.
-
Pearl adjusts.
The plan was well-made, but some things can’t be accounted for in advance. Issues such as being fed incorrect information - doubtless there is suspicion by now about their mole in Blue Diamond’s court, who has hopefully not yet been discovered (an extraction mission rises to the top of Pearl’s priorities either way). This shipyard ambush, however, simply can’t take place with the distribution of forces as it is. The losses for their relatively nascent little movement would be absolutely unacceptable-
“What do we do, General?” the ruby crouched at her left asks gruffly, jarring her out of her thoughts.
“General?” Pearl half expects to turn to see who was being addressed and catch a glimpse of pink. But there is none. “M-me?”
The ruby is insistent, and a soldier through and through. “The plan. Situation on the ground is different. What do we do?”
“There’s so many of them,” Rhodonite pipes up nervously, with a wail rising in her voice. “There wasn’t supposed to be. They tricked us!”
An elbow is nudging at her midriff then, annoyingly insistent and oddly reassuring. “I’m sure P- sorry, General P’s got an idea or two. She’s real good at those.”
“Amethyst, please.” But it’s a half-hearted protest, out of habit more than anything else. Pearl’s already coming up with and discarding scenarios, focusing on the placement, the distribution, the direction of movement-
“We can...” they’re all looking at her- looking to her. She doesn’t have Garnet’s Future Vision to help in angling for the best possible outcome, or her internal support structure in case the outcome is far from best. She doesn’t have Bismuth’s presence and easy charm. She doesn’t have anything Rose had, anything that made Gems stop and listen to her, and follow. All she has is... herself.
But that is something, too. A quick mind, a quick hand, and the will to use both. And then, perhaps, somewhat newer and still a bit… spotty, on occasion: the ability to summon up enough confidence, enough respect for her own judgement to take on the responsibility of picking the plan and making the call. Herself. Not in anyone else’s name. Not relaying orders. Not following, not just offering ideas and counsel for others to use or discard as they see fit, and certainly not obeying.
“We’ll go around the back and sabotage their fuel lines - that should be enough to delay progress at the colony. Avoid open combat for as long as possible. And we’ll need a distraction.” She scans their surroundings, glances over her companions, from the Rutile twins to the two peridots hanging on to her every word, and finally meets Bismuth’s eyes. “Those pillars over there-”
“On it,” Bismuth is already rising, one hand flashing into a mallet. “Whoever carved those did one of the shoddiest jobs I’ve ever seen. They’ll go down easy.”
Doubt spikes hot in her mind. “Oh no, Bismuth, you don’t have to-” Pearl tenses to get up and go after her, but a large, eternally work-roughened hand at her shoulder stops her.
Bismuth is smiling at her, an odd mix of encouragement and anticipation on her face. “Hey, it’s okay, I got this. I’m exactly the right Gem for the job - ‘s why you picked me. And you got that,” she inclines her head towards the others, all gearing up to make a break for the back of the docks, “General.”
Pearl smiles through her own highly annoying intermittent flaring nervousness, and nudges her shoulder playfully. “The right Gem for that job?”
“I know you know it.”
-
Pearl intervenes when she has to.
It’s not just planning out the combat maneuvers and timing engagements and picking which destabiliser production line to hit, or coordinating with a fearsome crew of bona fide space pirates. There is so much more to it, during the downtimes, she almost- almost finds herself overwhelmed. She is quite proud of how she’s so far managed to handle that “almost”.
Talking and listening, and taking into account. It helps when she can frame it as teaching- that, she’s always been terrific at. Steven helps there, too, whenever he visits, with his eternal patience and open hand and open ear for any Gem who might need it, and anyone who might be struggling with having just chosen a side.
And then, then there are the pearls.
Many of the ones active in the rebellion, sent their way by the ever-industrious Yellow Pearl, take on roles of subterfuge and infiltration. Making good use of all the expectations placed on them as much as the disregard they are subject to, they become excellent sources of a wealth of invaluable information. There are some who choose to fight, and Pearl can’t help but take them under her wing, so to speak. She isn’t playing favourites, of course not, but it’s hard not to feel something when faced with them, with their keen eyes and oddly demanding and expectant gazes. She can tell exactly who belongs into that daunting category of having heard of her.
But there are many that end up with them almost by accident - pearls belonging to important Gems the rebellion needed to take out, or pearls who merely found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time during a sabotage operation or a factory raid - and suddenly found themselves ownerless, for all intents and purposes. Unwanted, cast-away pearls seeking refuge.
Some of them miss their old lives. Some of them rejoice at the opportunities before them and refuse to look back. Pearl’s head spins as she bounces from extreme to extreme.
She spends a good chunk of a morning comforting a light green pearl who clings to her and cries into her shoulder and sobs-rambles about how nice her Emerald has always been, and how much she just wants to go back home where she belongs. Then, almost immediately afterwards, a plum-coloured pearl who’s only been with them a day regales Pearl with the tale of her dramatic escape, including how she stabbed the Gem who dared consider herself her owner with a decorative cape brooch and clambered over an eight-foot wall.
The latter does put something of a spring in Pearl’s step- until she comes upon one of the latest Gems to join them, seated at the edge of a docking station causeway, long legs dangling to brush against the limits of the artificial atmosphere bubble. A burgundy pearl, the short mess of curly hair a fluffy halo around her bowed head, gem exposed at the small of her back, shoulders shaking, altogether the very picture of inconsolable.
Pearl sighs, and sits down next to her in what she hopes is companionable silence.
“I’m not supposed to be here alone,” the pearl mumbles through her tears after a little while, but doesn’t acknowledge Pearl’s presence in any other way. “It’s all so wrong.”
It sounds like another case of homesickness and of attachment to her former mistress. Pearl tries to project gentle understanding and thinks back to what’s worked well in such cases before. “Tell me about her. What is she like?”
“She was one of Yellow Diamond’s citrine guards. The lieutenant of her sector, in fact - and so magnificent. You should have seen her in her dress uniform, oh! What a sight. My Spinel could only wish she were half as amazing as her.”
The other pearl’s voice is a soft, almost dreamy sigh. It is a bit odd to hear that tone, that voice - her voice, almost, and sounding so very… familiar. But before she can respond in any way, the other pearl continues, now a bit more hesitant, halting.
“But, you know, that wasn’t what… that wasn’t why…”
And then it clicks into place, along with the incongruous little details like the pearl’s noticeably non-yellow colouration, the mention of a (clearly disliked) spinel, that look of naked longing in her eyes...
“Why you loved her?” Pearl prompts softly.
The other pearl’s cheeks darken with a deep red blush, and her hands drop to fidget in her lap, long fingers tugging on the elaborate ribbons decorating her waist.
“Yes. She… she was always so kind, and so careful. When she talked to me, asked me things. And she’d always sneak off after coming back from a mission, bringing me little souvenirs. Look,” she pulls on a bit of string tied around her neck, with a red crystalline microstructure unfamiliar to Pearl hanging from it, “she got me this. She said the surface of the last moon she’d been sent to was covered with it, and that it was beautiful because- because it made her think of me, when sunlight caught my hair, a-and...”
The words dry up, and the tears well back up again. Pearl hesitates for a moment, then puts an arm around the other pearl’s shoulders, bare save for a transparent shawl, making sure to telegraph every movement well in advance.
A sincere smile, a look that was more than that unpleasant mix of covetous and shallowly appreciative and appraising, a gift of a trinket to call your own, a modicum of respect. After thousands of years away from the stranglehold of the Homeworld system, that bar seems so very, very low, but Pearl remembers very well how world-changing the smallest of things felt, once. Like being allowed completely private access to a comms terminal. Or not being berated for expressing interest in inappropriate fields, such as engineering. Being given a chance to hold a sword, not for anyone else’s convenience, but for her own use.
“We promised to run away together,” the pearl continues, voice rising in a tremor again. “But she- they got her when we were making for the docks, where I managed to have a ship waiting for us, and she- she said she’d hold them off, told me to run, and I listened to her… why did I listen?”
Pearl looks away, gaze skimming along the scorch-marks left by their most recent skirmish here. It’s an odd little attempt to offer some privacy to the most naked parts of grief.
“I, um.” Pearl clears her throat again, awkwardly. “I lost someone too, not so long ago. Someone very important to me.”
Laughably recently, for a Gem. And it’s all such an oversimplification of thousands of years of fraught history, but if it can help in any way…
What these two had undertaken together might pale in sheer scale and far-reaching impact to starting a war over an entire planet, and everything that came... afterwards. But it is no less monumental for being restricted to the personal, Pearl finds.
There is no response for a while. The pearl turns a bit and allows her head to rest on Pearl’s shoulder. “Does it ever go away?”
Pearl restrains a wince at the way the pearl’s hand clenches over her chest, but pushes herself to disregard platitudes and stick to the truth she’s so painstakingly cobbled together over the years.
“Not really, no,” she replies, voice almost a whisper, smaller than anything she’s used since leaving Earth. “But it does get easier.”
They sit together as the station makes another half-trip around the moon it’s orbiting. Pearl studies its face, idly wonders about labelling its craters, and ponders the fate of the pearl pressed against her side.
“Listen,” Pearl begins once her companion has seemingly calmed somewhat and sat back up, “since you made it all the way here... you can join us, if you want. It’s dangerous, and bound to only get more so, and I can’t promise you much. But whatever you choose to do with yourself, I promise you can stay here with us as long as you want or need. Okay?”
The pearl meets her eyes for the first time. “I wanted to be here. We both did. But I don’t think I can do this, especially not… alone. I’m nothing like you.”
Pearl wants to argue the part about being alone while surrounded by an ever-growing number of Gems, but she remembers all too well how it feels, that ragged-edged void torn open in you, and that veil between you and the rest of the world. So she argues that last bit instead.
“I’m nothing special. Any pearl can do what I do, if she wants to.”
“But-”
Pearl is quick to cut off any protest in this particular matter. “No, no, no, listen, this is very important. All I ever got was a chance, and all I did was decide to take it. What we’re doing here now is trying to give that chance to everyone else. To you as well. Do you understand?”
The pearl’s tear-stained face scrunches up in thought. “I think so. But I- it’s hard to believe that a pearl could… do all these things...” her soft voice trails off again.
“Oh, so many find that hard to believe,” it’s so much easier to find words now, being allowed to preen and gloat and boast and put on a show - one of the great joys of the entire people-seem-to-like-calling-me-General arrangement, in Pearl’s view. “And let me tell you, there is nothing quite like the satisfaction of seeing the looks on their faces when they realise they’ve been beaten, outmanoeuvred, and outsmarted by the very pearl they were laughing at and offering to assist in returning home mere moments ago.”
There is an actual hint of a tiny smile on the pearl’s face, and Pearl feels herself beam with pride. The old thrill is still there, unchanged - the delicious awareness of rule-breaking, when the rules are so utterly terrible and suffocating, the inimitable spark of rebellion. Deliberately being so far removed from all the things they made her to be, everything they tried to instill in her. It is a delight Pearl can’t ever see herself growing tired of, and one she is eternally grateful she has managed to recapture.
“You’d think,” Pearl grins, “after so many thousands of years, they’d learn not to underestimate us. But noooo. Well, all I’ll say is... makes it all the easier for us to keep pulling it off, right?”
The pearl ducks her head. “You really think I could-?”
Escape a dozen quartz guards? Steal and fly a spaceship?
Lead a band of intergalactic rebels?
Pearl lets her smile soften. “Absolutely. Whatever you want. And I’ll gladly help.”
-
Pearl takes responsibility.
Failure is a reality, and the possibility of defeat is a cloud constantly looming over them, outnumbered and faced with such an overwhelmingly powerful opponent. And miscalculations happen, and good Gems are lost - hopefully merely imprisoned, though there is nothing mere about Homeworld imprisonment.
“I’m sorry,” Pearl tells the only ruby that managed to escape back to their hideout, hidden away in a nook of an abandoned and thankfully mural-free Diamond base. “I should never have sent you in there without some scouting first. I got carried away thanks to our recent victories, overreached, and you paid the price.”
The ruby shakes her head. “They knew the risks. We all do. But we chose to be here.”
She’s fiery and passionate and ever so insistent, and reminds Pearl of another Gem she knows and holds very dear. Pearl’s best attempt at a determined, reassuring smile, even if it’s for the moment just an unpleasantly forced stretching of the lips, is the least she deserves. “We’ll mount a rescue as soon as we have the chance. You’ll be a great help.”
“Thank you. They, uh-” Ruby trails off, voice suddenly wavering, and looks down, scuffing her foot on the uneven ground of their most recent temporary base. “They mean a lot to me.”
Pearl nods, but doesn’t quite know what to say, not when it counts - it’s never exactly been her strong suit, for all her tendency towards outright rebellious loquaciousness. Then there are the intrusive, poisonous thoughts, grasping at her, always doing their very best to pull her down no matter how high she manages to climb - Who’s ever heard of a pearl leading? Who let a pearl give orders and make decisions, let alone important ones? Of course it all went wrong, what pathetic game of pretend are you trying to play? You’re not fit to pick out the colour of your dress. You know all you’re good for is standing pretty in that little display corner, you’re not fooling anyone and you never have.
They are something she suspects she will never be entirely rid of, those stinging little whispers. But she takes a deep, grounding breath, and lets them roll off her as best as she can - and her best now is certainly better than her best even just a few quick human years ago.
Everyone makes mistakes, no matter who they are - herself just as much as Garnet, or even- or even Rose. There. It isn’t even all that hard to admit that anymore, is it?
By now she’s analysed the outcome of the mission, pinpointed the flaws in her original plan, and come up with several options for improvements in the future. Dwelling on it, wallowing, beating herself up over not seeing the obvious and slipping into that familiar self-deprecating place of always ruining everything would be the opposite of helpful right now. Even if Pearl has always been so very, very good at dwelling.
Pearl puts a hand on Ruby’s shoulder instead, and thinks back to the asteroid belt patrol route layout a disgruntled citrine slipped them. “We’ll get them back, and I know exactly where to start.”
-
Pearl cooperates and co-conspires.
The holo-screen takes several tries to properly turn on and the transmitter sputters to life reluctantly, worn and overheating from the strain of Pearl’s extremely long-distance and carefully frequency-masked subspace conferences with Garnet, the hours of building plans together, ironing out strategies and syncing up short-term goals. Fighting on two fronts is incredibly difficult, even without heavy communication constraints. But Earth’s defense is in Garnet’s capable hands, and Pearl’s well-oiled little strike team buys them time with sabotage and interference whenever they need it, and provides an endless stream of new recruits and fresh turncoats.
“How are things back home?” The words slip out at the tail end of her latest report before Pearl can fully register their implications, and she pauses. Bathed in the lights of some of her oldest haunts, she didn’t ask about Earth, about the Solar System, about Beach City, or the Temple, or about Steven or Connie, thankfully highly regular in their visits. She asked about home.
When did that shift even happen? If we win, we can never go home and that meaningful clasping of hands was thousands and thousands of years ago. And now here she is, hidden in the very heart of the home she renounced then, surrounded by echoes of things she’s for so very long feared both never and ever seeing again.
There are many places she wouldn’t mind calling home, she thinks - perhaps at the same time, which also has its charms. A true citizen of the stars, she’d style herself, and oh, the places she’d go - the places she will go, the things she will show others, once… once all this is done. But there is always something to be said for that odd little planet, teeming with life, and encouraging all sorts of wildly inappropriate behaviour. Perhaps her slip isn’t so strange after all.
By the time she tunes back in fully, Garnet has covered Amethyst's return with her entire extended family, their slowly building plans for the relocation of the space station housing the zoo humans, and all their updated planetary defense-related arrangements with the humans in the region.
“Nice work at the shipyards - Amethyst has been recapping the fight to everyone within earshot. Sounds like you’ve got things well in hand over there.”
“Well, you know me,” Pearl laughs awkwardly, “always full of surprises!”
“Not surprising at all,” Garnet cuts in, suddenly far more serious. “I knew you could do it.”
Half of Pearl wants to puff out her chest and soak in the praise and build herself on the foundation of it, and the other half wants to give a self-deprecating little laugh and say Well, that makes one of us! and call her every accomplishment a happy accident. But she stops herself before she can do either, as neither is a road she much wants to go down again.
“Would you believe,” she starts up instead, voice carefully casual, “the other day I had to break up a fight over some utterly minor nonsense between a carnelian, a peridot, and a dioptase, of all Gems, and listen to endless arguments about who started it. I have no idea how you did it Garnet, any of it, with Amethyst and myself- we must have driven you to distraction!”
“You did.” Even through the low resolution of the transmission, Garnet’s dry amusement is palpable.
Pearl clears her throat and tries not to ruin the mood by giving the (really, mostly correct) impression the next thing she says is some kind of settling of old scores, of putting things to rest and making them right, just in case something were to happen to either of them while they’re apart like this, and she never got the chance to try again.
She wishes it weren’t by laggy, grainy long-distance transmission, but she forges on all the same. “I’ve been wanting to tell you for… for a while now that… I’m sorry. We put so much on you, when Rose left, and you’d never asked for any of it in the first place, or wanted it, and… I’m so sorry, Garnet. You didn’t deserve that entire mess just dumped on you like that.”
Garnet pauses long enough to remove her visor, a gesture that, although more common in recent years, still comes laden with meaning and a sense of trust - that most precious and vulnerable of things that Pearl hasn’t always been kind to. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Technically, of course, that particular thing indeed wasn’t, and isn’t, and there is a lot there, wrapped up in that stinging, thorny bundle of Rose always did what she wanted that they are still only starting to unpack.
“Right, maybe I had no way of... affecting that decision. But I should have been there for you. And for Amethyst, too. I should have helped, and all I did was make everything worse.”
Garnet looks away briefly, and allows herself a sigh. “It was a bad time for all of us. But it’s in the past. We made it through, Pearl, and look at us now.”
“Yes,” Pearl acquiesces softly, “look at us now.”
The transmitter beeps a warning in the stretch of silence, and Pearl nudges it absent-mindedly.
“I suppose what I really wanted to say is… thank you. I want you to know appreciate all you’ve done for us. And all you’re still doing.”
“You’re welcome. We’re doing it together now.”
Garnet’s smile is small and soft and sincere, and Pearl is delighted to meet all three of her gentle eyes with what briefly feels like no barrier, even with entire galaxies between them.
“We are.”
She reaches a hand for the tiny screen, and Garnet reaches back. It’s not the contact they’d both like, light years away, but it’s something.
“I should go,” Pearl says finally, regretfully, and Garnet merely nods, until she’s startled by the way Pearl rapidly switches gears. “Oh! I almost forgot... you’re making sure Steven has the appropriate amount of vegetables with his meals? No offense to Amethyst, and not to add to your, well, overflowing list of concerns, but I do not trust her with matters related to nutrition-”
“Steven’s doing fine, Pearl,” Garnet interrupts, efficiently mollifying in a way Pearl still finds few Gems to be.
“I know. Of course he is- and he’s been such a help here! I’ll need him back soon.” Pearl meets Garnet’s smile. “And not just because I miss him already.”
“Connie says she’s coming over as soon as she’s done with school. You’ll see both of them soon.”
“Stevonnie will want a mission then, won’t they? Luckily, I know just the thing, excellently suited to their talents and highly educational. Oh, they’re going to love it!”
Pearl’s enthusiasm is cut off by the display sputtering in and out of static, and breaking into a comms unit production facility crawls up on her ever-growing to-do list. The signal stabilises again, but the message is clear.
“Well, looks like it’s really time for me to go. I’ll send you a quick report when we come back from the asteroid mines tonight.”
Garnet puts her visor back on, and gives a quick wave. “Good luck. Look after yourself. And everyone else.”
“I’ll do my best. You too, of course. And-”
Pearl blushes, her best approximation of ‘newly-minted confident rebel leader’ mellowing into something softer and more bashfully hesitant.
“And say, um,” she clears her throat, and Garnet grins and lets her squirm. “Tell Sheena I said... hello?”
“I will. But I’m sure you want me to tell her something more than that.”
It’s a tad hard to think clearly and come up with charming retorts when her mind so eagerly floods with sweet recollections of being suddenly held back from boarding an off-planet bound ship at the very last minute - for the admittedly very agreeable purpose of ‘goodbye kisses’.
Oh, but that’s it! “A kiss!”
“A kiss.”
“Yes, tell her that, while it’s true that I am regrettably far away, I’m sending her a kiss! And that I’ll certainly call her as soon as I am able.”
“One kiss from a dashing space rebel, got it. She’ll love it.”
Pearl drums her fingers against her lower lip nervously, and frowns. “You think she will? I think she will. Ohhhh, but what if she thinks it’s too, I don’t know… silly?”
“Pearl.”
“Yes?”
“I don’t need Future Vision for this. She’s going to love it.”
Pearl’s face is still bright blue when she returns to the hub, but she feels lighter than she has in days.
-
Pearl leads.
Others follow, to her eternal surprise. Or- well. Maybe not eternal. They’re- she’s... working on it. She’s earned the respect, surely, or it wouldn’t be there in such noticeable amounts. Right?
The battles she can handle easily, such as they are - mostly ambushes and quick stings and brief skirmishes anyway. Planning out troop movements on holographic chessboards is something she’s an old hand at. But the aftermath, when the dust settles, and they have made their escape, safe as can be, and she finds herself surrounded by Gems who look to her, that is new.
They want to listen to her. So many Gems, from all possible walks of life, eager to hear what she has to say, to take into account what she thinks, often when making their own choices, and not just in the heat of battle. It’s… an odd feeling. One Pearl is not sure she is altogether fond of. Guilt and blame are not pretty things, and the pitfalls here are rife with the potential for both, and are plentiful and not always obvious save in hindsight.
It was always easy to make a lightning-quick decision when it was just her own gem on the line. Easy to throw herself into battle, easy to throw herself in the way of swords and maces and javelins. Infinitely harder to expect someone else to do it. Without even the veneer of just doing what someone else would have wanted, acting in someone else’s name. And most of these Gems have never met Rose Quartz, have never followed her or fought against her or anything at all. She is, at most, a bogeyman to them, a figure from a cautionary tale. And while they’ve all heard other tales now, too, it’s incredibly odd to realise that beyond some vague notion of important legacy she doesn’t really mean all that much to them. But Pearl, Pearl they all know, and Pearl is real to them, and Pearl is right there, and they, for whatever incomprehensible reason, seem to trust her, even with their lives.
She’s developed something of a distaste for secrets in recent years (and is still working on her Lion tolerance levels- well, no offense or blame to the feline personally, and 'Earth mammal drawn into Rose’s orbit and inexorably changed' was hardly a narrow category - no offense to Greg, either, who’s been a stellar reminiscing companion, but facts were just that). Oh, she works hard not to burden the Gems under her leadership - her Gems, what an idea! - with her fears and anxieties, while still keeping them aware of important concerns. But the balance is difficult to strike, and the whole ‘protecting’ issue required quite a lot of thought, and Pearl isn’t sure she’s reached a satisfactory conclusion there yet.
She is distracted, very briefly, as a particularly colourful comet flies overhead. Their current hideout comes with an observatory dome that Pearl is determined to make good use of, and where she spends most of her (admittedly meagre) downtime.
And then, it isn’t the number of orders given or plans made that makes her important. Yes, perhaps on a strategic level, but…
What gives her worth? (Oh, asking the real questions now - and there, another comet, this one with a less pronounced dust tail, but still wonderful.) Not what she meant to Rose, or what she means to someone now. Worth is something she herself has, utterly intrinsic, without anyone else entering into it - it’s an odd equation. What she can do, and what she chooses to do. What she knows, what she believes. And even without that, just the fact that she is. A living thing. Thinking, feeling, being.
Rose had made many speeches on the topic. There was an entire manifesto to consider. Pearl has had plenty of time to expound upon it on her own, and pass it on to others. She does her very best to believe it herself, of herself… but it’s easier said than done, a lot of the time. Still, let it never be said she doesn’t try.
Even if Rose were here, and she isn’t, she isn’t, she isn’t- but even if she were, her glance, her word, her touch, her kiss, the way she beamed at Pearl standing at her side and carrying her banner, and all the secrets in the universe, whether entrusted to her, or forced upon her… that wasn’t what made Pearl Pearl. Oh it… informed it, certainly, but so did many other things, and many other people, but most of all it was Pearl who did the final sculpting, in the finest of pale, iridescent nacre. No matter who she’d claimed to do it for, she was the one doing it, in the end, and that has to count for something, doesn’t it?
While the others rest, Pearl ponders essential existential questions and has deep, introspective moments while stargazing at constellations she never thought she’d see again. That much she allows herself, with a gentleness aimed at herself that she’s had to painstakingly cultivate - she wouldn’t be Pearl, after all, without getting stuck in her own head now and again.
-
The rebellion continues. And persists.
-
Pearl gazes, exhausted, across a newly liberated colony-formerly-in-the-making, and feels relief, and feels pride. Pride in the Gems fighting alongside her, in their cause, and in herself. To have come so very, very far…
Her reverie is interrupted by the sound of someone walking up the hill on her left, and she turns to see Bismuth, hands held conspicuously behind her back.
“I was thinking…” Bismuth begins, rehearsed, as soon as she’s by Pearl’s side on the summit. “I wanted to commemorate our first big victory. So I made you this.”
She’s holding out an elegant rapier, glittering silvery in the oddly coloured dusk. It’s a stunning show of craftsmanship - the fine metal has little constellations worked into it, stars winding around the elaborate hilt and the blade both. Pearl feels her eyes welling up before she’s even dared to reach out and touch it.
“Oh… oh, Bismuth, it’s beautiful,” her fingers lightly brush against the grip, and Bismuth nudges it towards her until she finally grasps it. “You’ve truly outdone yourself.”
“You say that every time,” Bismuth scoffs playfully.
Pearl, however, is utterly serious and insistent. “That’s because it’s true every time!” She turns in a huff, and gives the sword a trial flick, and a few swings. It cuts through the air like quicksilver. “Oh-! Oh, the length, the balance- how did you get it to be so perfect?”
Bismuth grins. “Easy! I know you. And I happen to know we’re both real good at what we do. So it all works out.”
Work.
Pearl pauses halfway through a quick, spontaneous swordfighting form, and heaves a deep sigh. “There’s still so much to do.”
“Sure is! I was in such a rush to get this to you, I still haven’t even started on a scabbard for it. But I can’t help it - the promise of finally getting to see you use it, even just a bit? Worth it.”
“Bismuth, you know that’s not what I meant.”
There’s that wonderful, indomitable grin again, and Bismuth nudges a shoulder against her gently. “I know. But look, we’ve made some big steps here, and we aren’t about to stop, and they aren’t about to stop us, either.”
“No,” Pearl agrees, looking back towards the horizon littered with jagged half-finished spires, “no, we are certainly not stopping.”
Bismuth throws an arm around her shoulders and Pearl presses into her side gratefully, sword held tightly to her chest, and sniffles only a bit.
#steven universe#fanfiction#pearl#rebellion#garnet#bismuth#terrifying renegade pearl#pearl solidarity#my fic#oathkeeper writes things#a ton of various supporting gem ocs#a bunch of off colors#a whole bunch of pearls because i'm me#yellow pearl#and alllll the ships#mystery pearl#pearlnet#bispearl#pearlrose#new rebellion#shut up yes that's what i'm calling it#also there are fancy swords because i like those a lot#along with#important questions of leadership and self-confidence and self-worth#enjoy
212 notes
·
View notes
Text
Pearlnet - Raisin - Moar WIP
I’m lazy and the entire thing so far is going to be here instead of linking to the previous post because I legitimately can’t remember if I added bits. Oops.
Almost 2k words and they’re distracted.
Takes place during Gemcation, they’re in the hot tub, nothing lewd (yet?)!
There were many possibilities afoot here. Garnet’s third eye produced a twisted, knotted web of paths that she couldn’t seem to navigate, couldn’t map out fast enough. She spent much of the vacation preparation trying to hold on to the script they’d agreed on, nearly flubbing her lines. When it came to Garnet’s turn at trying to speak to Steven, the possibilities were blinding, a fog that obscured her vision, and she simply had to guess.
She had guessed wrong. The something that bothered Steven wasn’t the war; wasn’t Pink Diamond. For all that preparation, all the nervousness and worrying and wrestling with reassurances, it had been the wrong angle to approach things from.
Steven wasn’t worried about the past.
Garnet looked to the future and saw nothing she could change, nothing she could fix.
Greg’s pleas didn’t fall on deaf ears, but surely there was no way for him to realize—Steven had spent more time on Homeworld than Amethyst, more than Garnet herself, and that left Pearl in an incredibly precarious position.
“It can’t hurt to try,” Garnet tried to assure her, giving Pearl’s shoulder a squeeze.
She couldn’t begin to guess which angle Pearl would try from.
Even through the door, as Pearl struggled to articulate her feelings, her concerns, Garnet felt her insides clench. She’d known for eons that there were things Pearl couldn’t say, couldn’t put into words, couldn’t pen down or project through her Gem. Secrets etched deep in her soul.
Garnet hadn’t expected Pearl to try talking about the Diamonds.
It hadn’t worked. It hadn’t been what Pearl needed to say, what Steven needed to hear. But Steven had spilled the beans about what was bothering him, deep down, and Greg could handle that, even if a glance into the future could have soothed the boy’s worries all along.
But there were other things to worry about now. Piling into Greg’s van to search for cell service for Steven’s mobile device was ultimately fruitless, even if everyone could sit together on the roof and look at the stars.
Garnet didn’t need to look into the future to see how uncharacteristically quiet Pearl would be for the remainder of their vacation. Steven was willing to complete the trip—or at least some of it, to allow Greg the chance to sleep before the drive home. That gave Amethyst ample opportunity to finish off their groceries, and Steven some time to talk things through with Greg after they’d returned to the rental house.
“Pearl,” Garnet said by way of warning, sliding close to her best friend, whose eyes were a million miles away. The slighter Gem still jumped at the sound of her voice, but instinct had her meeting Garnet’s gaze, and Garnet spread a comforting palm across her back. “You should join me. Become a raisin.”
It was open-ended, an offer Pearl could have refuted. Gems didn’t wrinkle or prune in warm water. Similarly, Pearl didn’t need to follow Garnet outside if she didn’t want to—but Garnet knew she would, and the hot tub was still uncovered from earlier.
Pearl’s silence wasn’t terribly unusual, but the distance between them was. Pearl had waded across the tub, sat down in the corner, and tucked her knees up against her chest. She looked smaller than ever, with water up to her chin, and the fringe of her pink hair just barely caught in the water’s surface.
For several seconds, Garnet weighed her options, but the future wasn’t clear here, either. It rarely was, with Pearl. The fusion often wondered whether Pearl herself was aware of just how much sway she had on her future, and the futures of those around them. She was wild and unpredictable even now, even without a war to fight.
The water was hot enough that steam rose from its surface without Garnet’s help, and she glanced toward the door into the house warily before dissipating her visor in a flash of light that caught Pearl’s attention more than anything she could think to say would have. Wide blue eyes peered up at her, and Garnet knew that without her visor on she couldn’t help the tiredness that crept into her smile.
“It’s a relief that Steven’s problem turned out to be…” Nothing was wrong, dismissing Steven’s concerns about his relationship with Connie wasn’t right, particularly not when Garnet wanted to discuss feelings Pearl tended to try to sweep under the rug, herself. Garnet pursed her lips in thought, settling into the corner next to Pearl. “…Manageable.”
Manageable was a better word. Garnet couldn’t truly imagine a future in the short-term where Connie was absent from their lives for long. She knew that was a relative measurement, knew that Connie’s life was going to be short, but living in the present for Steven meant slowing down. Taking things by the day.
“It’s going to be fine.”
From the way Pearl barely bobbed her head, it wasn’t sufficient reassurance. But it meant she was listening. Garnet sighed faintly, tipping her head back, sinking into the hard plastic of the tub more to make a point than anything. Pearl needed to relax, and if she needed to be shown how, Garnet could offer that, even with too little room to stretch her legs.
They lapsed into silence—or, really, Pearl never actually pulled herself out of it—and Garnet wondered if ambient noise would help. She wondered, too, if now were the time for tactile reassurance, or if it were too risky, but she wasn’t going to ask. Garnet could wait until morning if it really came down to it. Neither of them were turning into raisins, after all.
When Pearl finally spoke, her voice was small and trembling, and Garnet knew she wouldn’t have heard it over the sound of the bubble jets if she had turned them on, after all.
“I couldn’t say it,” Pearl mumbled, voice choked, lifting her head just enough to keep from swallowing water. “It’s been eons, and I couldn’t—“
This time, she didn’t clamp her hand over her mouth. She didn’t need to. Garnet watched the dancing reflection of fairy lights on her best friend’s wide eyes, and she knew that Pearl was thinking faster than she could speak, of things she couldn’t actually articulate, and the fusion shifted where she sat, straightened her back, and drew an arm around Pearl’s narrow shoulders.
“You tried,” she said soothingly, “I’m proud.”
If her words reached Pearl’s ears, it wasn’t immediately apparent. Garnet wondered if she should repeat herself when Pearl abruptly locked eyes with her, staring as if she’d remembered something long forgotten, and suddenly Pearl was in her lap, bony arms folded around her best friend’s shoulders, and Pearl had her face pressed into Garnet’s hair where it was already wet, and a little tears wouldn’t make a difference.
Not that Garnet couldn’t tell. Not that Pearl’s shoulders didn’t hitch, or that her slight chest didn’t heave when she stuttered to breathe, not that she was truly silent about it when the two of them were alone.
Not that Pearl made a habit of crawling into her lap when she was upset without crying.
“It’s okay,” Garnet said, and Pearl’s muffled protest was a testament to how far she had come over the eons. Millennia ago she would have agreed out of a misplaced sense of obligation, but they were beyond that now. The fusion rubbed her back soothingly, drew her knuckles up along the ridges of Pearl’s spine where it dipped, and it felt a little unfair by comparison, wearing hard armor when Pearl was seeking tactile comfort after all.
“I’m going to take off the breastplate,” she warned, and Pearl parted as if expecting Garnet to do it the old-fashioned way, like she was wearing real, physical armor, the sort Bismuth had crafted for her during the war. It spoke volumes of how far away Pearl’s mind was, but it gave Garnet ample opportunity to cradle her damp cheeks in her hands. “It’s okay.”
If Pearl’s protests were meant to be coherent, she wasn’t putting much effort into them; she reached for Garnet’s hands on either side of her face, whimpered something in a long-dead language that Garnet wasn’t sure she was meant to understand, and closed her eyes against the flurry of light motes that came with Garnet’s armor disappearing, carried away by the steam from the tub.
Without her breastplate and shoulder pads, Garnet looked smaller, somehow younger, and Pearl sank back into her bonelessly. The fusion wondered if, perhaps, Pearl was the one who ought to wear armor between them; she always displayed full vulnerability, wore her emotions on her sleeve, and looking into her eyes was like reading a screen.
Pearl wasn’t sobbing anymore, at least, but her breath hitched and her arms returned around Garnet’s bare shoulders, tugging at her uniform with trembling hands.
“It’s okay,” Garnet said again, a mantra Pearl knew the tune to, a brush of lips against her shoulder that made the slighter Gem shudder.
The knot to Pearl’s sash came away easily, and Pearl didn’t protest one bit as Garnet’s hand slipped up under her tunic to rub soothing shapes into the small of her back with her forefinger and thumb. There were other Gems, and certainly humans, she would have objected to—but not Garnet, never Garnet, who knew her almost as intimately as Rose had, even if they weren’t lovers. They shared more than anyone, save perhaps Ruby and Sapphire, and even then, it was a deliberate choice that they didn’t live out eternity as Sardonyx. Pearl crumpled into her, tucked her face into the sweep of Garnet’s neck, and her muffled apology was so quiet that Garnet barely heard it against her throat.
But she didn’t need to, not really. Not like this. They weren’t fused, and Garnet didn’t see any immediate futures where Sardonyx made an appearance, but Garnet had known Pearl since the moment she burst into existence; Pearl was always there, always been part of her world, a thread in the loom that was impossible to ignore or miss. Pearl didn’t need to be in her line of sight for her to sense her presence, to feel the way she tugged at the thread of the universe, and in turn Garnet didn’t often need to look for her—her thoughts turned to Pearl, reached out to wrap energy and love around her best friend without prompting, and she wasn’t sure if Pearl was in tune with the universe the way she was, but she liked to think she felt it.
Then again, she needn’t look for someone who was wrapped around her arm, anyway. Pearl made a point of staying close, especially in recent years, and Garnet enjoyed that more than she let on. The current that flowed from Garnet’s Gems took some conscious effort to reign in, with Pearl whispering against her neck, but Garnet didn’t think either of them wanted to short out the hot tub or the lights.
But Pearl couldn’t hide from her forever. Her hands had settled against Garnet’s chest, spread over her bust, mostly out of the water, and Garnet knew that their position looked anything but innocent. Her tri-colored gaze flitted toward the back door, then back to Pearl, and Garnet withdrew one hand from under her tunic to smooth down her hair in the back.
“Pearl, I want you to look at me,” the fusion said, voice gentle and firm, a rumble that made her best friend shudder. But Pearl was made for orders, made to obey, and even if she didn’t have to, she drew herself back to meet Garnet’s eyes.
#pearlnet#steven universe#gemcation#garnet#pearl#fanfiction#wip#my nano is not coming along smoothly
10 notes
·
View notes
Note
Why do you hate each of those episodes?
1.) The Zoo The fact that it took an environment that mirrored real life human zoos and even if you ignore that the humans there are in fact slaves,. Because they were most likely kidnapped there and they’re not allowed to leave. But then the show had the nerve to make light of that kind of situation.2.) That Will Be AllThe beginning of The Great Diamond Woobification, which killed all my hope for the Diamonds being interesting and complex villains. Also why didn’t Holly Blue notice that Pearl wasn’t wearing a Homeworld outfit? That really distracted me.3.) RocknaldoThe episode was falsely advertised and all it did was flanderize Ronaldo rather than…properly develop him which was annoying.4.) The Trial There’s so many plotholes in this episode I’d have to make a whole post addressing all of them.5.) Three Gems and a BabyPearl trying to kill baby Steven and not being called out on it ruined the whole thing for me. Also the moment of the Crystal Gems attacking one of Steven’s babysitters was less charming and more annoying for me.6.) Beach City DriftStevonnie being told that being rightfully angry at Kevin for harassing them makes them just as bad as Kevin is a gross moral, especially for kids. (The one thing I loved this episode was Stevonnie officially being given they pronouns. Bless. Ok and also the joke about Greg REALLY loving his car, that was legit gold.)7.) BismuthI don’t even need to explain this one. Just look at the other SU critical blogs that feel like Bismuth was unjustly treated. Becky even revealed through the release of the art book that Bismuth is an anti Black Lives Matter caricature. Considering the “reverse racism” execution of the episode, that’s horrible! And incredibly racist!8.) Gem HarvestEpisode moral was crap because it basically said “You HAVE to forgive your bigoted relatives cuz they’re family!” As if found family isn’t a completely viable option in these cases. As if tolerating relatives who want the POC family members dead/enslaved is wiser than hating said oppressive relative. As if in real life this approach to forgiving bigoted relatives would actually work. Also the deportation jokes were absolutely disgusting. What are you doing CN sensors? Also Pumpkin being brought into the show just to be a cutesy mascot was annoying9.) I Am My MomThe Crystal Gems being so stupidly useless so Aquamarine can seem strong was annoying. Steven not fusing with Connie to beat up Aquamarine and Topaz was annoying. Steven sacrificing himself to “atone for his mom’s crimes” was annoying.10.) Lion 4: Alternate Ending A needless fakeout episode that could’ve given us more lore on who or what Lion is but didn’t for no reason.11.) Steven’s DreamRacist Korean joke, beginning of Blue Diamond’s ugly design and woobification and a stupid reason for Steven going to Korea with just Greg. ALSO WHY DO NO HUMANS IN KOREA NOTICE THE GIANT BLUE WOMAN SHOWING UP EVERY FEW YEARS. WHERE IS THE GOVERNMENT IN SU. ANSWER ME, REBECCA.12.) Barn MatesOOC Lapidot fanservice clearly done just so Zuke can have her Lapidot roommates AU fantasy, which I thought was annoying. In all seriousness though I was originally looking forward to this episode. I wanted the show to make me like Lapidot. But it didn’t because I didn’t enjoy the new dynamic chosen for them which to be honest doesn’t really fit them imo. It also gave birth to neon gremlin Peridot which I will never forgive this episode for doing.13.) Cry For HelpMade Pearlnet toxic when it didn’t need to be. Pearl originally shuns Sugilite because of Garnet and Amethyst’s sensual dance, yet her dancing for the Sardonyx fusion is some of the most sexualized fusion dancing so far. Villainized Garnet for getting mad at Pearl when Pearl literally manipulated her. None of the gems were on Garnet’s side (except Ruby, we later find out) which is a questionable writing choice. Demonized Sugilite again at the end for no reason other than crewniverse might need to work out some worrisome world views.14.) Steven’s BirthdayOOC Connverse moments and makes Steven’s aging process even more confusing to avoid drawing an actual teen Steven.15.) The New Crystal GemsMore Lapidot fanservice filler, Lapis saying “I almost drowned a lot of people” and Pumpkin is still annoying for me.16.) Adventures in Light DistortionOne of the worst filler episodes to date imo (third to Rocknaldo for me and Gem harvest is second worst filler episode), the Steven crying scene was annoying even if half-understandable, no proper seizure warning for the ship’s lightspeed mode animation, the whole aspect of how the Red-eye ship travels doesn’t fit with how it functioned in past episodes and the Crystal Gems still not putting any effort to help the Rubies who are hardly a serious threat was annoying.
22 notes
·
View notes
Text
Sardonyx’s Fan Soundtrack
Asked by @hastings94posts quite a while ago, sorry sweetie ❤️❤️❤️ It’s about time!!
I’ve begun Netflix’ Luke Cage, which reminded me that my FST for Sards was very jazzy and Harlem-Renaissance style. I’ve also included some songs used in this show. Hope y’all won’t mind :D
Spoilers for Steven Universe, season 2, and some little spoilers for season 4 too. There’re mostly hinted, though.
0 - Henry Mancini - Baby Elephant Walk (instrumental)
Just a little chippy tune that I personally associate to Pearl and Garnet’s cheerful fusion, for some dumb reason ^^ But it also could be a Smokey Quartz song, or even Amethyst and Peridot’s fusion theme, if they come to existence at some point. The playlist is really starting at the next song!
*
1 - Charles Bradley - Ain't It A Sin
Well, well, well. If it’s not the anthem of the Cry For Help arc! The fusion dance, which can be resumed by the verb “sinning”, Garnet being used by her partner, Pearl doing her best - which is, in this very peculiar case, the worst...
I try to give love all over the world,
But I'm tired of being used, ow, aaah
Its my turn to love and be loved,
Its my turn to get out in the world and let my spirit speak
*
2 - C2C - Happy
Sardonyx is happy. Like, all the f*cking time. Or at least, she pretends to be. She’s gospel, she’s funk, she’s wrong, she’s real. I feel like this little hummey sound fits her well.
You'll never feel happy, until you try
Never feel happy, until you try
Everybody needs this
Everybody needs this, happy thing
*
3 - Louis Prima - Sing, Sing, Sing
Singin’ and cryin’ is a quite accurate depiction of this fusion. She’s merry and cheerful, but with some intense vibes going on. This song has a very strong game on its beats, and I feel like it’s a good tune to imagine Sards doing her hammer thing, poundering some towers or stuff.
Sing, sing, sing, sing
Everybody start to sing
La dee da, ho, ho, ho
Now you're singing with a swing
*
4- Glenn Miller - In The Mood (instrumental)
It’s an iconic song, and I can interpretate the very first Sardonyx performance as fitting to this, because it’s very theatrical. She’s basically showing off. Damn, I love her so much. She’s so full of herself!
“The proper words used to describe yours truly are... Specific! Intelligent! Accurate! Faultless! Elegant. Controlled! Surgical! Graceful! And powerful!”
(Cry For Help)
*
5 - Alicia Keys feat. Jay Z - Empire State Of Mind
I see really associate Pearlnet and Sardonyx to this song. I tried to make the playlist without it, but it didn’t sound the same, even if this song isn’t that much jazzy. It’s because it seems to be so laid-back, but when you think heavily about this, there’s so much suffering, hopelessness and despair.
For foreigners it ain't fair they act like they forgot how to add
Eight million stories out there in the naked (...)
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There's nothing you can’t do
*
6 - Estelle + The Party - L.A. Boy
A Pearlnet fanmade song, I know... But I couldn’t refuse to include it, especially when The Party is referred in “Last One Out Of Beach City”, because Pearl snorts: “Nostalgic for the suburbs? Psh. They've only existed for, what, 70 years?”
Round and round, let the city turn
Party in the hills, we can party in the burbs
Roof on fire- Let it burn, champagne in my hand I’m not concerned
(...) ‘Cuz there ain't no limit, would you be my love, my love?
Would you be mine?
*
7 - Gnarls Barkley - Storm Coming
It’s not a jazz song, per se, but the rythms, voice pattern and instruments use really remind me this musical style. Also, it’s a quite relevant music to associate to the moment when something is starting to sound off in Pearl’s behavior, especially their second fusion where she’s very syrupy and false. Sorry P. I still love you, don’t worry, but you really need to think about what you’ve done (spoilers: she does).
Hey, hey, hey
There's truth in the thunder
Love in the lightning
The feeling is frightening
*
8 - Ray Charles - Hit The Road, Jack
This is the song that I associate to the end of “Cry For Help”, and also, more specifically, to the beginning of “Keystone Motel”, because Garnet literally hits the road. Pearl’s behavior hurt her so much, that she feels the urge to take some space - to quote Sardonyx, “literally”.
Hit the road Jack
And don't you come back no more, no more, no more
Woah Woman, oh woman, don't treat me so mean,
You're the meanest old woman that I've ever seen.
*
9 - Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
Oh man, things are goin’ down... Down for real. For me, this song is a good soundtrack for the episodes between “Cry For Help” and “Friend Ship” (for instance, “Keystone Motel”), when Garnet refuses to speak to Pearl and we see her, depressed, not even cleaning the dirty dishes (true fact, check the eps!). Executive dysfunction at its finest.
We only said goodbye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to, I go back to, us
*
10 - John Coltrane - Giant Steps (instrumental)
Their reconciliation! It’s cheerful, but also dramatical, and I really like this song for these mixed signals its gives to the listener. Also, I think that the little show from “Know Your Fusion” would gladly be using this music, at some point. I like the labyrinthic, almost tortured path that the saxophone is taking. Coltrane’s sax, best sax!
*
Bonus Track - Miles Davis - Ezz-Thetic (instrumental)
I really like this song, and it makes me think of Pearlnet’s dynamics. Once again, I feel like the trumpet is singing how much it’s difficult for them to settle down and to have a okay relatiionship, but they still work very hard. This ship isn’t easy and smooth, it’s complicated and deep. I love them.
*
Thanks for reading all my stuff! Enyoy the playlist ✨ ✨ ✨
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
kinda thinkin out loud here (momswap)
so earlier i decided not to have a malachite arc equivalent because in this, peridot => amethyst, lapis => pearl, and jasper => garnet and my pearlnet heart loves sardonyx too much to make her a hell fusion right but then i remembered whats keeping me stuck in a canon timeline??? whats holding me back? like what if when jasper fights garnet, defuses her and runs up to the bridge with steven, peridot, and lapis, amethyst doesn't do the escape pod thing, just runs deeper into the ship in a wild panic. pearl's still sitting in her cell. then when the ship crashes and explodes, first ruby and sapphire dig themselves out, frightened and angry. they're not in the mood to do anything offensive, and want to run away — just like i planned before. but what if then amethyst digs herself out and freaks out bc holy shit, crystal gems everywhere, and desperately she asks ruby and sapphire to re-fuse and take her with them to form sugilite. panicked, R&S agree and sugilite forms to defeat the crystal gems. except that she doesn't. bc while garnet and amethyst are trying to control sugilite, sugi doesn't like that so much, and runs off on her own (just like canon, she has her own strong personality that develops more as time goes on). so now you have this giant purple nicki minaj running rampant somewhere thats not beach city, pearl is missing (everyone thinks she poofed in the crash but she's nowhere to be found), and everything kinda sucks!! maybe then later, steven finds sugilite a la super watermelon island and sends malachite off to pop her a good one, but malachite's defeated and sugi's this ready to make a fresh batch of blueberry and orange flavored frosted gem shards — and then all of a fuckin nowhere, pearl shows up and gives it to sugilite. or some shit. she de-fuses, ruby and sapphire are picked up by the CGs, but a panicked and real exhausted amethyst steals peridot's motor bike and splits. steven tries to get pearl to stay but she tells him that she can't, she has to keep searching for rose quartz's shards, certain that they're on this planet somewhere. (an even weirder dynamic to throw into pearl and steven's relationship here is if pearl knows pink diamond shattered rose quartz, and openly swears vengeance against pink in front of steven. so he has to like. constantly keep his shirt tucked in around her or else she might flip and try to kill him) meanwhile once ruby and sapphire recover, steven convinces them that they can be free as a fusion on earth, and that they don't have to be afraid of homeworld because earth has him and the CGs to protect it. (adding to the pressures and anxiety steven faces as the "heir" of pink diamond?) they begin to trust him completely and finally decide to stay fused together, and celebrate with an earth "wedding" (cue enraged shrieks from uncle andy) but (probably happens before happy wedding tbh) garnet is still very unnerved about something and steven asks, and she mentions that the original task was to check on something called "the cluster". she doesnt like to talk about it and gets very erratic, almost glitchy, when thinking about it. she doesnt know what it does; she was never told. only amethyst has any idea, garnet tells steven, and only because she has the information on her bracelets. she doesnt actually know anything about how it works since she was basically sent as a test dummy. but between amethyst and garnet, they might have a chance at figuring out and neutralizing the cluster. except that its not that easy because amethyst. if you have not figured out. is EXACTLY as stubborn as in canon. she will not under NO circumstances fail this mission because, quote, "then Holly Blue'll be RIGHT about me being worthless and, and the other quartzes will miss me, and i'll never be able to climb on carnelian's head to give jay wet willies ever again. and i'll never see P-9 have her baby, and skinny'll have to take over cleaning the human waste chute for me and she HATES that. no, im GOING back to that stupid base with all my data, and you cant stop me, you FUCKS!!" except that they do and jasper poofs amethyst into oblivion. she's bubbled and the CGs get her wrist computer thingies. the CGs decide they dont need amethyst and can use the information on the thingies just as fine without her, but this doesnt sit right with steven and he unbubbles her. without her cuffs, she's virtually defenseless, and steven's able to sit and talk with her. except that he can't do it with peridot, convincing her that they have to work together to defeat the cluster, since amethyst doesn't know shit and they both know that. so steven tells her, "you help us, we can give you a new family here. one where you dont have some old lady kicking you around!" or something like that. and its not exactly enough for amethyst but its better than being in a bubble. she gets in scuffles with jasper first (a la back to the barn) idk about what, and then peridot (too far 😏) and the answer is about resolving her conflict with garnet. garnet tells how ruby and sapphire met (same as the answer) and how they were drafted by blue diamond, and explains why fusion is so special. they resolve and im really tired now and not in the mood to draft the rest of the fuckin show. who knows where pearl is maybe same old world is more like mr greg and three gems and a baby where pearl comes to terms with the fact that rose is shattered and steven can't bring her back or something critique/questions/plot hole combing desired greatly
12 notes
·
View notes
Text
all my su ships are fucking dead tbh
#choi talks#pearlnet? jaspidot? were my only real su ships#and now they are fucking dead.#i still look back at like the first season and remember how good pearlnet couldve been before they Ruined Pearl
2 notes
·
View notes
Note
Have you seen the new episodes?
I have not yet! My queue currently has about a day’s worth of stuff in it, though, I think, and none of it is spoilery. (Is it all Blue Diamond facing left looking sad? Probably. I have a Type.) I’m preparing for a selling event on Sunday, so I will try to watch the new episodes and post spoilers to my reviews/spoilers blog @in-the-real-gay if I have them to post! I did watch Lion 4 when it leaked. I’m super behind on episode reviews over there.
As usual I will try to contain my hype on this blog until the episodes air properly, though!
I am still prayin’ for Pearlnet content, as always, but I realize it’s unlikely. xD
6 notes
·
View notes
Note
12 pearlnet please
Prompt: “I want you. Only you.”
Word count: 982
The first thing Garnet had ever learned about Pearl was that she, like Ruby, could manipulate the future. It was wild and unpredictable and difficult to be around her; Sapphire struggled with her future vision, with paths that went dark years after she had started down them, and Garnet lagged behind Pearl and Rose as she came into herself. Pearl often held her arm and guided her through the world, even after the war.
Pearl was at her side often. She held Garnet up while the Fusion quickly learned that Pearl needed someone else’s strength as much as she freely offered her own, and Garnet learned to hold Pearl’s elbow and say nothing when her companion stared off into the distance after Rose Quartz’s shadow.
This persisted for decades, which stretched into centuries, and in turn to millennia. The addition of Amethyst made Garnet wonder, sometimes, if the future meant anything at all; she hadn’t seen her coming, either.
Most of the time, it was love that changed the course of the river they traveled. Rose Quartz loved deeply and often, and Pearl curled around Garnet like a blanket, desperate to be of use to someone and impossibly lonely.
If only she knew.
But one thing was certain; it was never the right time. Scarcely two thousand years old, Garnet was no fool. Rose Quartz was an insurmountable obstacle, one she didn’t often want to overcome, for and despite her love for Pearl. The knight was as clueless as she was beautiful, and sometimes, when they were alone, Garnet fantasized about telling her.
I want you. Only you.
And in her fantasy, Pearl responded in kind—and Garnet knew that she was dreaming.
Years passed. Cities and civilizations rose and fell. Rose Quartz took more lovers than Garnet could imagine, and Pearl’s lost gaze looked forward to a future that would never be. Garnet wondered sometimes if she were guilty of the same foolishness; for there were futures where Pearl reciprocated, only Garnet didn’t know how to find them. Just that they existed as flickering possibilities.
She wasn't discontent. Whether Pearl meant to or not, she gave her just enough hope to keep holding on for the what ifs that never seemed to come true. Their closeness came and went like the tide, but never really seemed to fade. Pearl was always just out of reach, whether she was tucked neatly against Rose’s side or whether her arm was folded around Garnet’s. As the scars of war faded from Pearl’s bright blue eyes, as life came into her step when she danced, Garnet wondered how she could possibly love her more—even when she was petty and jealous over Rose’s lovers, somehow, Garnet couldn’t find it in her heart to resent her. She was flawed, but Garnet appreciated it. It made her real. Made her feelings make sense.
Pearl wasn’t up on some impossible pedestal the way Rose Quartz was; Garnet saw her mistakes, saw her quick temper and jealous streak a mile wide, and saw her grow—she made steps forward, slid backwards, and was more human than Garnet thought Rose Quartz could appreciate.
Because surely, if she did, she wouldn’t pursue humans. Her passing fancy in both men and women lasted only so long, only as long as their short lives, if that, and they all grieved with her. For her.
Later, they would grieve without her.
Greg Universe changed the path of fate in much the same way that Pearl had, only to results that seemed Earth-shatteringly disastrous at first. The first ten years after Steven’s birth—they resolutely refused to consider it Rose’s death, because the word was acrid and heavy and wrong—were slower than any since the end of the war. Steven was a beacon of light in their lives, and Garnet watched Pearl learn again to smile with his help.
I want you. Only you.
After five thousand years, she still did.
There were pitfalls. Pearl slipped and fell and Garnet doubted for weeks that she could risk her heart again to support the love of her life. But soon enough, there was no point in denying her feelings, and Pearl fought hard to regain her trust. Garnet could admire that.
Months passed. They defeated enemies, made new friends. Garnet briefly worried that she had lost her chance when Pearl chased a pink-haired human woman half way across the state just to come home with her phone number and no idea what to do with it.
And then Pearl surprised her.
They hadn’t been home long; hadn’t been back on Earth more than a few hours. The others were occupied by Connie relaying everything they had missed, showing them to the carwash, and Pearl slipped her arm through Garnet’s and pressed her face into her bicep the way she had almost a year earlier. Garnet felt her heart catch in her throat, and when Pearl asked to speak to her alone, she couldn’t find an excuse to deny her.
They walked along the northern side of the beach, and Pearl didn’t release her hold until they had to navigate the too-slippery tide pools, slick with seaweed and soaked from the ebbing tide. Garnet spotted Pearl almost dutifully, and when they were free and clear of any hazards, but still well out of sight of the beach house, Pearl took Garnet’s hands in hers and leaned daringly up for a chaste kiss.
Garnet didn’t dare to breathe.
“Pearl?” she managed, eyes wide behind her visor, and Pearl smiled like the world had never been ripped out from under her.
“I want you,” Pearl said firmly, “Only you. I… you don’t have to answer. But I wanted you to know.” She squeezed Garnet’s hands, and her smooth palms came in contact with the faces of her Gems. “I’ve been meaning to tell you for a long time.”
124 notes
·
View notes
Link
Chapters: 11/?
Fandom: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Garnet/Pearl (Steven Universe), Ruby/Sapphire (Steven Universe)
Characters: Garnet (Steven Universe), Pearl (Steven Universe), Amethyst (Steven Universe), Steven Universe, Malachite (Steven Universe), Original Gem Character(s), Greg Universe, Sadie Miller, Lars (Steven Universe)
Additional Tags: Fluff and Angst, Comfort/Angst, Sequel, Implied/Referenced Torture, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Series: Part 2 of Dream a Dream
Summary:
Everyone made it home in one piece... on the outside. Pearl struggles to regain her sense of identity post-Tektite while the other Crystal Gems try to help her get back to normal. Meanwhile Malachite looms, Peridot is on the loose, and Yellow Diamond still presents a very real threat. / Sequel to "Dream a Dream," eventual Pearlnet.
9 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
1948x
Wlf
banyan-banyan
Banyan Books & Illustrations
crookedpatrolhairdotoad-blog
Untitled
haagensenjain24
The Journey of Midtgaard 127
bluestudentzonkhands
Untitled