Summary:
A change few are comfortable with
Steven finally calmed down after the biggest asshole of all time got shouted at, even if he already heard it before. He cleared his head, moving through the town. "Come on … where are you Kelly?" He looked at the now…bright daylight sun? How long had he been punching those rocks in frustration?
He needed to move fast. If Marco's soul was back, then there should be no doubt that Kelly's was too. He couldn't imagine just how scared and confused she probably was now. Then again, he didn't remember getting his soul sucked out at all, just having the vague feeling he's met god in the form of a cat.
He continued to walk out, eventually seeing Jorby. "Jorby!" He waved, the beast now running at him. "It's great to see you're okay! Have you-wait, slow down, slow down!" His plead came to late at the giant dog creature pounced on him in an affectionate, yet painfu, way that reminded Steven of Lion.
"Whoa, Pink dude, you're actually alive! Didn't expect that in all honesty."
"Yep … I'm okay … just in unbelievable agony." He was going to power nap for a week when this was over. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know where Kelly would be right now, right?"
"Oooh….this is going to be awkward." Jorby laughed tentatively, before turning his head to the side with a glare. "She's not here right now, and you can thank this jerk for that." He reached down and picked up a green ball of hair with his teeth.
"I didn't do nothin to nobody, you hairy mutt!" The annoying green bum he worried about but silently wished he never saw again growled. "And like I have nothing to say to the pink butterball over here!"
"… Tad." He stared down, looking the guy in the eyes. "I fought Meteora to a stand still." Only half the truth, but the details weren't important. "Do you want to see what I can do to you if you don't explain what happened?"
"Like you have the-" Tad shut his trap when Steven let the horns grow out of his head. "...Okay, so I've been living in Kelly's hair again for about a month and I may have sort of neglected to tell her that…"
"You what?" He asked, letting his throat growl.wl and his teeth sharpen.
"AHHH! Calm down, and let me finish, let me finish!" The bum waved his hands in defense, and Steven reluctantly agreed. "Apparently she didn't like that, because thanks to you she completely forgot about our whole system of getting back together when she's done using her current break up buddy…"
"Get to the POINT!" Steven was five seconds away from going full Meteora on this guy. He just watched a mother attempt to obliterate her own daughter, he really wasn't in the mood.
"ANDANDANDAND…." The bum shook like the spineless coward he was. "Went into this crazy delusional rant about how terrible of a person she was and how she 'wanted to be better' or some stupid junk like that." Tad rolled his eyes at that. "So weird, that's why I'm the brains of our relationship."
Steven really didn't want to commit murder, escpially after the lengths he just went through going back and forth on the topic, so he didn the next best thing and sealed the ball of cotton with legs inside of a bubble for a moment. "Is there anything else that I should know about?"
"Well, after that time kinda skipped …" He responded. "So one moment I'm shouting at her she's a moron, the next she's tossing a letter on the ground before jumping into a portal."
"Letter, what letter?" Steven asked, and was presented with said object by Jorby. He really hoped this wasn't what he was fearing it was…but there was only one way to find out for sure.
"Dear Steven. If you're reading this, and judging by the fact I'm writing this at all that'll probably be the case, you're alive and we actually managed to accomplish the impossible yet again. That seems to be a habit whenever I'm around you, and I can't help but love every second of it."
So far, so good. "Steven, the past few months have been some of the best times of my life. I never felt more loved and appreciated in a relationship than with you."
Aww, that was sweet. "Which is why I'm breaking up with you." … What? "I'm a toxic person that clings onto others because I can't deal with my own problems. Everytime I broke up with Tad, I went to you because you would accept me without a problem. When fusion came into the mix, I wanted to use you to feel better about myself. I shouldn't have kept Tad's messages, I shouldn't be thinking about him at all, I shouldn't have expected our relationship to be like Tad's. That's unfair to you."
"Jorby, keep him there please, I wanna decide what to do with him after I'm done reading." He muttered, walking to a tree.
"I want to have relationships so that I can feel better and push away my problems without a care. I can't keep doing that anymore. I need to learn how to respect myself, to stand strong for myself, to love myself as much as you love me. And to do that…I need to be by myself for a while. Don't try to find me, I'm hopping randomly, so I don't even know where I'll end up."
He didn't mind helping her with her problems though! He wanted to help her. Not even just as her boyfriend, just her friend in general! "I won't be selfish and ask you to wait for me as I get out of my own head, but if I come back, and if you'll find it in yourself to forgive me, I'd like for us to start again with a clean slate."
He stared at the note for a second, keeping his gaze on it as he kept mentally repeating his first love left because she felt she wasn't good enough "GAAAHHH!!" Without looking, he punched a tree hard enough to send it flying.
"Dude, are you going to be okay?" Jorby asked with Tad, still in the bubble, in his mouth.
"Yeah…I just needed to get that out of my system." He wanted to rip up the letter…but he couldn't find it in himself to do it. "If she wants to be off on her own, then I shouldn't stop her." Steven shook his head. "I just need to forget about dating for a while."
"Wow, and I thought she was the-"
"Finish that sentence and I will plant a moron tree." Steven growled. "And you don't have much air in that bubble left, so I'd be quiet."
"Didn't we spend three days in a bubble? I thought these things just filtered air."
"I was in space floating aimlessly, for about three hours a while back, and I'm guessing we didn't suffocate before because time was froze-why am I still talking to you?" Steven huffed. "I'm going home."
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"And there." Ludo smiled, watching the progress grow. "I'm amazed you were able to get so many parts on such short notice Dennis." He smiled at his brother.
"Yeah … so many parts …" The boy smiled ominously as he worked. Ludo knew there was an evil bone in him. He was conflicted on whether or not he should be proud of him for that.
"And you got the rest of our siblings to help out too! Mudo, Dudo, Foodo, Munodo, Kudo, Zoodo, Tudo…"
"So does everyone other than Dennis Rhyme?" Star Butterfly asked, moving some rocks with magic.
"Yeah, that's kinda the family thing." Denis nodded. "Is your brother okay by the way? He seems … strained." Ludo's little brother looked at said Butterfly brother, who was busy with the gardening with Pludo, though he seemed extra focused on the cactus plant.
"It's okay, you're going to stay planted in the ground forever and never leave me. You're a cuddly bundle of green joy that'll never go anywhere." The boy proceeded to hug the spiky plant, even as it caused tears of pain to form.
"Second break up." The girl responded instantly. "Believe it or not, he took the first even worse. In all honesty, he's handling this much better than I thought he would."
"Have you thought about sending him into the void? The vast emptiness of space can do wonders for opening up your mind to new possibilities.." Ludo suggested.
"No … anyone we send there either goes crazy or tries to kill us … usually both." Star spoke in a daze.
"Alright, let's see here." A tiny green girl came in with blue papers. "I'm thinking of a water mane here, followed by a cooler here considering it's currently the warm season."
"Wow, you seem pretty smart." Ludo complimented as he took a look at the blueprints. "These designs are much more intricate than the previous one. Do you do this often?"
"Of course! While I am more familiar working with metal rather than stone, building, wielding, and crafting is built into my gemstone." The green girl bowed.
"Oh, you even have plans for a swimming pool!" Ludo pointed with glee, before looking confused. "But what is this … 'Internet'?"
"Ohohoho, a fresh and vulnerable mind." The girl's gleamed with a certain sparkle. "Don't worry, I was once ignorant to the possibilities as well, but with the internet, you'll have access to a world wide web of knowledge and information at your beck and call! Anything you wish to see you can!"
"So I can see moving pictures of cat's messing around with balls of yarn and getting scared by pickles?" Ludo became elated at the possibilities this magnificent device now allowed him access too.
"Even in another dimension that's someone's first thought." Marco deadpanned, lifting holders with the Afro girl. "Cause why not?"
"Cat's are adorable." The afro girl pointed to the giant pink lion, cuddling with the smaller kitten on top of its mane.
"Say, aren't you all them rock people that I turned into vicious animals and mind controlled to do my bidding?" Ludo couldn't help but ask.
"Pretty much, but don't worry about it, it's all hydrogen dioxide under the pathway across a ledge." The green one waved off. "I attempted to help blow up an entire planet once, and now everyone loves me!"
"I tried to turn the planet's water into a spaceship, now everyone's cool with me." The blue one said as she used water to cut rock into rectangles.
"It doesn't matter what people did in the past, as long as they're willing to be better in the future." Steven said as he waved a needle filled hand.
Everyone was helping him build his family's castle … it felt amazing to be this loved.
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Eclipsa could barely pay attention to the world around her, and she absolutely didn't mind if that stayed the case forever. For the first time in over three hundred years, she got to hold her darling baby girl Meteroa in her arms, and she'd be damned to corn if she would let anyone get in the way of that. "Eclipsa, we need you to be ready." Star tapped on her shoulder as they were both standing on the sidelines of a stage.
"Of course, I'm ready…for whatever it is that you want me to do…which is…?"
"We want you to-ow-tell everyone-ow-the truth." Steven answered, cradling a cactus. "About the cover-ow-ups, and the lies, and-ow-how monsters are good."
"Ah, that old nugget." She giggled, cooing the sleeping Meteora in her grasp. "And you want me to do this because…"
"Because if I'm handing over the throne to you, wand and all, we need to start this off as honestly as possible." Star clarified.
"Didn't the last time we decided honesty was the best policy, the musical song incident happened?" Marco asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well the-ow Rose Guard thing worked out for-ow…pretty-ow….well-ow." Steven said as she was certain the plant was going to give him permanent scarring at this rate, accelerated healing abilities or not. "And its-ow… better to get it out-ow all now rather than someone discovering it and accusing-ow us of lying about-ow.. it."
"Dude, you can afford to let go of that cactus for five seconds." Star rolled her eyes.
"No way." The boy resounded. "As soon as I let go, he's gonna run away."
"Steven, it's a plant." Lapis responded. "I'm sure it's not gonna walk any-"
"I don't want people to keep leaving me." They all turned to the little guy as it grew a Steven-like face.
"Aww, charmingly prickly." Eclipsa giggled.
"I want hugs, I want to cuddle." The cactus continued to talk. "I want to smother everyone I know with affection so they hopefully will never think I'm a terrible person that can never make anyone happy."
"....You know what, maybe I should think of a place to plant this little guy." Steven began to sweat at all the eyes now staring at him.
"You can silence me but you can never silence the truth-" It was cut off by being shoved into a portal, closed up instantly.
"So Eclipsa, that speech?" Steven asked her, hoping she'd take the attention from him.
"Oh very well, I suppose I should get on with that. However, if you're in desperate need of something prickly that craves attention, might I suggest holding on to my precious little hellion right here?" She handed off her daughter to Steven.
"Awaga." Her precious little imp stared with sparkling eyes at the boy, lighting gnawing on Steven's finger affectionately.
"Super adorable." Marco leaned in, the little girl hissing at him. "… She doesn't remember anything, right?"
"No … hopefully." In all honesty, she was hoping that whatever trauma her daughter experienced as Heinous would all end up being a bad dream at most for Meteora. "Now I must address my people." She walked up to the stage, Star walking right by her side in support. The crowd looked at her in shock, horror, and bewilderment, all expressions that she expected to her.
"It's the queen of darkness!" One commoner shouted. "Let's set her on fire!"
"Hey, hey, hey! None of that! None of that here!" Star shouted to the crowd. "If I see any fires, you're all getting Starfish Tsumani'd!"
"Aww, and I thought I was gonna make a fortune." A man with a cart full of torches sighed, pushing it away.
"She stole the royal wand!" Another villager exclaimed. "Quick, grab the pitchforks!"
"No, I gave it to her! Put away your weapons, and we will explain!" Star shouted again.
"Aww." A man with a cart of pitchforks began to wheel away.
"As you all know, Eclipsa Butterfly, three hundred some years ago, was crystalized for her 'crimes' against the kingdom." Star started off. "Whether said crimes were legitimate is irrelevant to the crimes that the Magical High Commission has been keeping underwraps for hundreds of years."
"The Magic High Commission wouldn't lie to us!" A woman exclaimed from the crowd.
"You once all said the same thing about my Mom, and looked at what happened."
"Oh yeah … maybe we shouldn't trust you. The evil queen might have brainwashed you."
"No…she's right." Out from the crowd came….Rhombulus. Eclipsa in all honesty never would have expected that. "We hid her baby and replaced it with a random one we found on the streets. Festiva Butterfly…was never a Butterfly. Neither was any other Queen after her."
"… Everything we trust is a lie!" One man shouted. "Anarchy is the only solution!" He grabbed a trash can. "Everyone for themselves!!"
"These people are hopeless." Star grumbled with a face palm.
"Why do you think it was so easy for me to abandon the kingdom the first time?" Eclipsa chuckled a bit sadly. She wasn't exactly ecstatic about being Queen again, but now that she was here, she might as well make the best of it. "As my first decree as the returning Queen of Mewni, I declare that monsters shall be given back all the territory Mewni has stolen from them. So all of you might want to start packing up your belongings."
"... The Queen is Mad, we must overthrow the government!" A farmer shouted, raising a scythe. "Never trust a monster!!"
"The thing is, I have magic and you don't." Eclipsa pointed out. The townspeople groaned and lowered their tools. "Wait, they just had those on hand?"
"Yeah, we're farmers." Star pointed out. "You know, living for life, liberty, and corn."
"I guess three hundred years still has my mind in a bit of a fog." Eclipsa sighed. It looks like this was going to be a long process. But once Monsters and Mewmans lived together, it would be the perfect home for her entire family….especially for her husband Globgor.
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Star sighed, sitting down with Tom. "Alright, Eclipsa is in, hopefully, nice power, Ludo's mental stability seems to be fine for now, and Steven is getting interrogated by everyone about his abandonment issues." Star glanced out the window and watched her brother run.
"You can't hide what you feel!" The returning cactus plant roared as it grew bigger and spikier. "You can't hide the fact you feel useless if you're not helping someone at least once a day!"
"I tossed you into the ocean in another dimension, how did you come back!?" He shouted, bashing it with a shield. "And can you please shut up!!?"
"That means we've got … about half an hour to ourselves." Star smiled, resting her head on her boyfriend's shoulder.
"Yeah…that seems like plenty of time to get this off my chest." Tom huffed and scooted himself away from her, looking at Star face to face. "Why didn't you tell me you kissed Marco?"
"Oh …" She blinked. "I thought we were taking that to the grave cause we were locked inside of a photo booth without an exit."
"Okay…that explains what led UP to it." Tom wasn't freaking out or burning with fiery rage…and that was scaring Star more than the anger. "So when the two of you were locked in a secluded space, you felt like you needed to kiss him?"
"It wasn't like that! The little goblin living inside the booth locked us in there because he was a creep that wanted to see us kiss!" Star exclaimed. "I blasted him across five dimensions before sending him down a trench."
"I get that, I get that…but you still didn't tell me about it." Tom sighed.
"It just … didn't feel important." She responded, looking down. "I wanted to move on from Marco, but the universe keeps trying to push me to him. I'm finally in a genuine relationship and I like you, but for some reason he keeps coming back into my life."
"He does that…because you WANT him to be in your life." Tom rolled his eyes. "If you'd said something about it right away, the moment you were out of that booth, I would've believed it was just the stress from being locked up alone with him, but the fact you tried to hide it…it means you wanted it to happen."
"No, no, I really didn't want that to happen."
"Star, give me a break. He's your personal squire, you spend more time with him everyday then we do together…"
"He's only my squire because Steven offered him the job first…"
"And you could've put him anywhere else. Remember? Being Princess? You can do almost whatever you want." Tom countered. "I'm not mad, I'm just wondering, are you sure you know what you want? Are you, one hundred percent certain, without a doubt, certain you want to be with me? Forever?"
"Of cou…." She found herself pausing. "Forever?"
"You know how serious I want to take this. I want us to stay together, for this to last into adulthood and into something more serious." Tom sighed. "Do you picture doing that with me?"
That sounded nice, and Tom went through so much to change for her…but something about that still felt off. "I…I don't know.."
"I thought so." The boy sighed. "Kelly broke it off with Steven and … I think maybe we should do the same." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "If you wanna do it forever, let me know but … I don't think I can keep dating you like this."
"Tom…I'm sorry…"
"No you're not…and that's okay." Tom breathed calmly. "I'll see you later, Star." She watched him walk away after giving her a goodbye hug.
He really has become a better person, hasn't he … it was a shame she couldn't do the same for him. She turned to the cactus monster, raising her hand. "Pyrotechnic Destruction Fireworks." She muttered.
"Oh look, big blanket Star is coming. You can't do anything unless she's holding your.." The cactus exploded into a million pieces.
"...I hate today." Steven sighed as he laid down on the ground.
"You're not alone bro, you're not alone." She jumped out of the windowsill and laid down right next to him. "Love sucks…hard."
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Centipeetle loved warmth, she was certain she made that abundantly clear by this point. Although seeing as how the master and the blonde one have been cuddling into her mane in the garden for over twelve hours, she might have come to the conclusion there was such a thing as TOO much warmth. "You'll never leave us, right Centipeetle?" She couldn't even understand, but she knew it was clingy.
"Yeah, she'll never leave us, just like how Steven Jr will never leave us." The blonde said as she squeezed the smaller one eyed feline. "You're much more loyal than a Lion or a demon, because you never run away and always want to cuddle mama." The small feline turned to the larger one, letting out a mewel. The latter walked over, snatching the former before walking back to their corner of the room. "And now she ran away …"
"Ugggh, that's what happens now isn't it? We do something good, and something bad really happens." The master ground, plant his face into the ground. "We restored the throne to the rightful family, and everyone suddenly wants to leave us.
"Karma is a lie, the universe is run by entropy." The blonde sighed. "All things leave in the end. Why can't it ever be like the good old days?"
"Because the both of you grew up and changed." Every creature turned their heads to the red hooded figure, watching in mild disappointment. "The problems got a little harder, so you both tried harder, and you grew. Heck, both Earth and Mewni are still standing because of how you two changed."
"Change sucks." The master groaned. "I shapeshift all the time, it's never pleasant."
"I ment metaphorically, not literally."
"With me it's the same difference, the older I feel the older I get, at least that's what happened when we went to the Neverzone."
"When I went to the realm of magic, it messed with my head so much I actually turned into a kid, so same for me I guess." The blonde muttered. "Great, now I remember that Mom's still missing, and I don't know where in the universe to find her now!"
"All moms leave me…I'm cursed, there's no unconvincing me of that now." The master sighed. "Soon the gems will leave me and I'll be all alone as the world crumbles around me."
"Don't worry bro, I have nowhere to go either. I'm not a princess, I'm not a queen, I'm not even someone's girlfriend." The blonde turned her squeezing needs towards the boy. "I'm just a nobody."
"... Why don't we go somewhere fun?" The hoodie suggested. "Instead of crazy places … like a road trip." The boy held up his scissors. "We travel at our own pace, stay wherever we want and leave whenever we want, and meet whoever we want."
The master blinked before smiling. "We don't even have to come back soon, we have no more castles to run or anything …"
"Yeah…YEAH!" The blonde jumped in the air, the energy being shoved back right into her. "I'm not the Queen of Mewni, I don't have to look after the wand anymore, I'm…free." The blonde shot a fist in the air. "For the first time in my life, I'm truly free!"
"And Earth isn't ending anytime soon … Mina just wants revenge on me …" The master muttered. "Let's go on a road trip!"
"Alright!" The hoodie laughed. "... We should still tell someone though."
"We'll tell our dad's and things should be good from there." Master shrugged. "So where should we go first?"
"There's still a lot of places on earth I haven't been to, and I've been wanting an excuse to see more of it." The blonde scrolled through her little mirror. "And I heard there may be a little magic in a place called Gravity Falls."