Summary: Magic goes wrong
Marco watched Star loudly laughing, jumping up and down. "I got it back, I got it back, I got it back!" He'd asked exactly what it was that was getting her so excited, except he was just in the shower, and the girl dragged him out in the middle of drying himself.
"Star, could you have waited at least five minutes!?" Marco yelled, doing his best to keep himself completely wrapped.
"Sorry Marco, but this I can't hold off on! My wand, I finally got it back!" Star held up the wand he hadn't seen since the whole spiel with Toffee. "That's right Earth, Star Butterfly is Back! Armed, dangerous, and ready for blasting!"
"That absolutely could have waited." He deadpanned. "Because now I don't have clothes I can wear to enjoy it."
"Hah, Marco, you don't need clothes to enjoy magic." Marco sincerely hoped that wasn't a philosophy Star lived by literally. "Especially when I can just magic them up for you! Mystic Shadow transf…" Star pointed her wand at him, and instead of the usual bright colors he associated with it, it glowed a dark green instead. "FORMMMMAAAAAAAAHHHH!" The wand blasted her into a nearby wall instead of hitting him.
"Star!? Are you okay?!" He rushed to her, which wasn't easy with the towel threatening to fall off.
"Sort of…guess the new wand has a bit of a kick to it." Star lightly tapped the wand gently, and it shot out green lighting that almost fried her hand. "A lot of kicks to it."
"Maybe you should put it down." Marco said. "Or aim it at the sky while you figure out how to work it."
"No no, I got this." She waved him off. "Rainbow Cupcake Kitty STO-AAHHH!" The spell hit a mirror, creating an effect where it bounced randomly off the room. "I wasn't even aiming there!"
"Well obviously the crack in the gem is making it act off!" Marco shouted, doing his best to avoid the blast of magic.
"Crack, gem, that's it! I'll just get Quartz to spit on it and that should make everything..LOOK OUT!" Star's warning came too late when the spell hit him right in the chest, flinging him into Star's way too big on the inside closet, luckily on a soft set of socks, and a bunch of assorted junk right by it."
"Why do you even have a closet if you never clean?" The boy asked, getting up and walking to the door, only for it to close in front of him, a clicking sound heard.
"It's my secret's closet, you know, for hiding away all my secrets like normal people do." Star explained as he heard the nod twist and turn. "Ahh, Marco, I think you might be trapped in there."
"It's a closet door, I've been trapped in worse stuff." Marco charged ahead with a kick…and was immediately sent flying back. "OW!"
"Oh right, I forgot, this door is magic, it can only be opened by magic."
"Well then magic it open!" The boy shouted from the infinite space.
"Right, magical unlocking CRYSTAL!" There was the sound of an explosion. "... So I have a couple of emergency snack storages in there …"
"Star!"
"It's not my fault, this thing is just so buggy! Ugggh!" The girl groaned in frustration. "Is this what my brother has to deal with all the time? Why did the universe make explosions a bad thing now!?"
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"Hey Quartz, we're gonna need an explosion." Ruby said, looking at the massive ice wall on top of the snowy mountain.
"Are you sure it won't cause an avalanche?" They almost forgot about the human half of his body, still a bit cold despite the many jackets, as he shivered. "And what do we need to grab inside anyway?"
"A shooting star." Pearl explained. "It's an invaluable piece of Gem tech that we'll need in order to ensure that the galaxy warps don't function, to keep anything off planet…well, off planet."
"And I have foreseen this path, there's not going to be an avalanche caused by any explosions that you create." Sapphire joining them on a mission also put Ruby in a good mood, especially since the shooting star in question would require them to fuse in order to grab it properly.
"Well if that's the case then I guess it's fine." The boy rubbed his hands. "Everyone step back?"
"You got it, Q-man!" Amethyst shot him a thumbs up with her tongue sticking out. "Give the boom master his space."
Quartz focused power, a strange green spark on his body as he formed a sickly looking bubble, shooting it forward … as it boomed, objects rushed into the empty space. "Did … did it just explode backwards?"
"I didn't foresee this." Sapphire spoke up with a hint of worry.
"No wait, I can do this, this is literally the best thing I'm good at…well except maybe music." Quartz focused his bubble again, forming another green bubble, and tossing it forward like a baseball. Only for it to spin around mid air and land in front of Ruby, blowing up.
"A boomerang bubble bomb, nice." Amethyst laughed, though Ruby was far less amused.
"Come on, I can do this." The third attempt created … a flat disc. "Great, now I can't even make a 3D bubble." He growled as it floated with the wind instead of forward.
"Ste-Quartz, something is obviously wrong here." Pearl spoke. "We should go back to the temple and look after you."
"No, I can do this! It's been my whole thing ever since I was a baby!" Quartz's face looked super stressed out, sweatling as he threw his arms up, "Come on, you stupid rock powers, work for once…!" His right arm was taken over by a green glow, before he was encased inside of another green bubble. "Oh come on!"
"Don't worry." Ruby spoke, forming her gauntlet. "We'll just pop the bubble and get you-" Before she could finish, the boy was warped away. "... QUARTZ!"
"...So he can teleport his bubbles now…I'm not sure if we can mark this as progress." Pearl looked super worried. "He'll be fine at the temple, right?"
"Yeah, he's just in a room … with bubbled gems." Amethyst spoke up.
"...We're so doomed."
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Glossaryck idly licked the wand. It tasted like sunshine rainbows, rock candy, and body spray, which was normal. But the hint of lavender pineapple concerned him. "Come on Glossaryck!" Star complained. "How do I dip down!?" She yelled at him.
"I told you, the wand is just a spoon of magic. You have to reach for the soup yourself." He didn't know how to make it any simpler.
"I did it as a baby, why is it so hard now?" The princess whined.
"Oh, that's right, I never explained the exact reason why that happened…." Glossaryck hummed. "Well, you remember the whole story from your mother, about the emotional connection as a baby and all that fluffy emotional stuff mixed with angst?"
"Not how I'd word it, but yes."
"Well as I'm sure you've been told by that little ice queen Sapphire, Gems have an interesting relationship with magic. In the Rose Guard's case, close enough interaction with her could amplify one's magical capability to heights previously unattainable, although there were only about two or three queens before you that were close enough on a personal level to do so."
"Which ones?"
"Skywyne, Eclipsa, and Comet Butterfly." Glossaryck chuckled. Comet's mainly directed all of it to mastering the confectionary arts. A true queen who knew how to use her natural born talents correctly. "You just happened to get a head start on all of them I suppose…although…hmm…"
"What?" Star asked, looking confused.
"I just realized your bond with Quartz might cause your magical misfire to connect with him." Toffee, you clever xenocidal maniac. Would have made Solaria proud as an enemy.
"Wait, so because I'm having trouble with Magic, his powers are getting all screwy too? How do we fix that?!"
"I'll worry about the wand." It was time to check inside. "I would suggest getting Marco out of the closet soon, before he finds something you don't want found … maybe."
"Wait, what do you mean by that?" He went into the wall. "Glossaryck? Glossaryck!?" It was best to leave Star only with half the instructions anyways, she performs better when she is able to figure most of it out by herself.
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"Great." Quartz muttered. "As if I didn't have enough problems to worry about." He grumbled. Evil homeworld, trapped souls, dangerous villains, now his powers are double the amount of wonky they were before. "I can freaking teleport, but I can't control where or when I do it." He groaned as he looked at where he was, a room he only saw once or twice before.
It was the bubble room, a place full of bubbled gems from the 'monsters' that they've been fighting with the Crystal Gems for the past few months. He knew there were a lot, but he never realized just … how many there were. There were bubbles containing Gems he'd seen, Gems he hadn't, even shards.
"All of them…they're just like Ruby, Sapphire, Amethyst, Pearl…Lapis." He said the name of his most recent friend a little bitterly. "Or at least, they were, until they went crazy." He knew there was a full story, but way too much happened recently and he didn't quite want the answers to it. "Maybe I should focus more on myself then them."
He looked at the pale green bubble he was trapped within. It was different, but it wasn't the nice kind of different. The pink bubbles gave him a little bit of comfort whenever he saw them. The green off of these bubbles just unnerved him. It felt more unnatural…it didn't feel like him.
Growling, he punched the bubble, the thing popping in result with ease. "Wow, didn't expect it to be that easy-" He fell onto another bubble, hearing it pop underneath him. "... Of course." He fell to the ground, luckily next to the pool of lava instead of in it, but not so luckily, the gem he accidentally popped landed on top of him, and it was starting to glow.
"Please don't be big, please don't be big." He never really fought one of these by himself without at least one of the gems present, and they could get tower-sized humongous on the worst days. "I really wished Star was here, or Kelly, that sword would be really handy now!"
The gem glowed, taking on the form of a giant bug that was instantly recognizable to him. "No, not the centipeetle!" He braced for impact…only for the glow to get smaller, and smaller, and small, until it resembled a form more akin to one of the Laser Puppies than a giant bug monster. "Oh … you're weak now … well this'll be easy at least."
He was proven wrong the moment acid started dripping out of its mouth, because of course nothing could be easy. It opened up and let out a screech. [Attacking Possible Threat]. What? He could understand what it was saying … no, saying something wasn't right. Was it intent? A feeling? This thing thought it was going to hurt him though, did that mean it was scared?
"Hey, it's okay." He raised his hand. "I'm not going to hurt you." He didn't want to fight an acid monster.
[Approach With Caution] The intent entered his head with another screech. [Accessing Danger Level.] Quartz stared at the creature with surprise, slowly reaching into his bag with an idea in mind. [Thing Grabbing Danger].
"No, no. I'm grabbing food." He pulled out a bag of Chaaaaps. "Do you eat?"
[Hunger. Distrust. Confusion.]
"No, food is good. See?" He bit into a chip himself, stopping himself from grabbing another handful of the addictive greasy snacks. "It can't hurt you at all, it just tastes really good." Well it did hurt his health as Mom would say, but that was future Quartz's problem.
The Centipeetle stared at him, slowly crawling forward and looking at the bag. [Trust Given]. It took one of the chips with its beak, pulling back, before tossing it into the air and devouring it. [Taste Good. Pleasure Found.]
"Yeah, food has a way of making you happy when you need it." He gave a small smile to the creature. "You want to be happy, don't you?"
[Happy. Fed. Free. Infestation. Home.] It stared at the bubbles, and at the door of the room.
"Yeah, I want to go home too." He slowly approached it, and lightly petted its white mane. "I can help you find your way home. I promise."
[Companion.] That felt nice. He had it's trust.
"Yo, Quartz!" Amethyst came in with the gems. "You stuck in a bubble or something, cause we can …" They all stared at the gem monster.
"It's fine, I freed myself and tamed Centipeedle. They just wanted company and chips." He placed another one into its mouth. "It's pretty easy when you can have a conversation."
"You…can talk to it?" Sapphire looked skeptical, although she had her hand raised, preventing everyone else from attacking.
"Yeah, it was really scary at first, but she just wants somebody to trust." He kept petting the mane of Centi, who seemed to be enjoying it.
[Hands. Soft. Provide. Comfort. Need. More. Comfort.]
"I can get you a bed if you like." He told the creature. "They're really soft and fluffy, like your mane."
[Compliment Creature. Accept Object.] It answered with a chirp.
"... Quartz." Pearl used his name. "This is the first time since I've met you that I'm genuinely concerned about your physical health over your mental one."
"Well I'm not going to re bubble her when I have her trust, so she's staying out."
"No, it's nothing like that." Ruby stared. "If it won't attack anyone they're fine. It's just … Rose couldn't talk to corrupted gems. Nobody could."
"...Then I guess this is something I have all to myself." He shrugged. He had a new friend, that made today good in his book. "Come on Centi, I know where we can find more friends."
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Star groaned, leaning against the door. "My wand is broken, my brother is probably in trouble, and you're stuck in a closet for the rest of your life."
"Meanwhile I found dirty laundry that can never be cleaned and a couple of bugs that probably will eat me when I die." She heard him complain.
"It's the circle of life, or however all that jazz goes." She pressed her head on the door. " I mean, life could be worse. You could be stranded on a deserted island getting your skin turned to bacon."
"Actually there's an island five blocks down … you may not clean your room but this closet really needs something serious." Marco chuckled.
"It's a closet full of secrets, where I intend to bury everything and never talk about them. Like the time I brought a cursed flower from the Boiling Isles back home. They're never meant to be seen by the common man."
"Really?" Marco asked with surprise. "You need to keep socks, cookie cats, and a book secre… Star's Diary?"
"Yes, it all needs to…Marco, put that book down!" She banged on the door.
"In a minute, I already opened it." Marco responded and she could hear the books being flipped. "Hard to see in the dark…what's this say…'my thoughts on Marco'..?"
She needed to get that book away from him. She needed to grab it. She needed, needed to get into that room. She needed to dip down. She placed effort onto herself harder than any exercise, body struggling with strain as she pushed harder and harder, the room shaking as the door finally clicked.
"I did it…I dipped down! I'm a dipper, not a skimmer!" She went up to the now free Marco. "Don't ever touch my diary again." She bapped the boy with the journal.
"Ow ow, understood" The boy grumbled. "Well I'm free now, so I'm going to go grab some clothes, this towel didn't help at all in there." He stopped, looking at the door. She turned, looking at Quartz walking in with a bag of chips and a tiny bug that drooled acid. Marco gave her brother a funny look. "Exactly how many wild animals do you need to take in?"
"It's not an animal … it's a person … scared and confused like me … and wanting to get their head straight." He looked at Star. "Did your day feel just as long as mine?"
"My wand might be broken, and it locked Marco in a closet while I dipped down." She shrugged. "Say … Glossaryck said your powers might get wonky too, you okay?"
"My bubbles explode backwards or get shaped funny, and I teleported when I didn't want to." Her brother sighed, petting the bug thing. "Also got this new thing where I can talk to Centi, so now we're friends."
The monster chirped happily, jumping onto her bed and resting there, acid ruining the sheets. "So you're basically in your taming wild warnicon stage, aren't you?" She sent him a smirk.
"You're not going to be able to magically make yourself new sheets." He wiped said smirk right off. This day was definitely not one of the better ones.