A black screen was presented, a small loading icon in the center. It started to flicker, a low hum being heard as it started to glitch into a string of text. Multiple symbols, ranging from butterflies to lizards, diamonds and demons, and a lion as it all converged into a simple message … 'Black Universe'. The hum turned into a high pitched whine … before the screen cracked. "Aww man, we need a new one." Star sighed.
"Kind of a bad time too, since we're no longer royalty." Steven mentioned off handedly. "Man, I did not realize how much money let us get away with until now. We kind of took it for granted."
"Well me and you are still squires…I think. I'm not sure where we fall under with Eclipsa in charge." Marc added.
"And since Marco lost his sales with the whole gender reveal …" Kelly muttered. "Hey Peri, how much money do we have?"
"Six hundred dollars." The gem stated without remorse.
"Not even six hundred fifty like usual, we are broke." Jana sighed. "Damn it, if only adventuring actually paid."
"We can also do what the McDuck family does and hunt for buried treasure." Star suggested. "I'd say that would be a nice replacement for monster fighting."
"Maybe, but now that we opened up the Multiversal chat that kinda became a free for all, and with Dipper running the lead …" Steven sighed. "We'll have to get a job or something."
"Dang it, I've been learning this whole time how to be a queen and now all my experience is completely pointless!" Star groaned.
"Yep … so, we're sticking with six universes now, that's nice." Marco noted.
"Give us more time to sit and forget about the bad stuff happening in our own universe." Kelly pointed out.
"Alright multiverse, show us what you got!"
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"Come on come on come on!" Star never really knew what Rhinestone meant when he said that Connie was annoying … until now. "One more warp!"
"Connie, would you please give it a rest?" Her brother groaned. "I'm not even supposed to be using these things. The gems barely look past the fact I shoot lightning as it is."
"Rhinestone, you just discovered you can teleport anywhere across the planet, how are you not more excited?" He simply pulled out dimensional scissors in response. "….Well you barely take me to any other dimension as it is, so consider this my compensation."
"Look, even if I wanted to warp you, it's limited to places on earth I can see in my mind." He pointed out. "It doesn't even have the ability to go off earth."
"So in either words, bitch dimensional scissors." Star nodded in understanding.
"Star, your magic right?" Connie suddenly turned her attention to her.
"To the dismay of half of every living creature on Mewni, yes." Star nodded in confirmation. She was half certain the commission planned to hire an assassin or something.
"Then can you, I don't know, blast the warp and make it go wherever you want with your wand?" The glasses wearing girl suggested.
"Huh, never thought of using magic like that before." Star pondered. "Sounds interesting."
"Can you even do that?" Rhinestone asked. "I don't remember that spell being in the book, and your creation process is … how do I put this delicately." He looked at the sky. "Simple as fuck."
"I don't need anything elaborate. I can accomplish most things with my bare hands anyways. And levitato does the trick half the time anyways."
"You can only use levitato in the opposite direction."
"Like your one to talk about power use, mr 'too afraid to learn about gem stuff'."
"Rose Quartz stared into my bedroom window with dead eyes, being scared is common sense!"
"Guys!" The only non-hybrid person in the group shouted. "Can you at least give it a shot just this once, please?" Connie made a pouty face that instantly made her brother blush.
"Sure, sure, if it's coming from Rhinestone's special little mate." She smirked.
"Don't word it like that! The last thing I want is for Dr. Manasswarren to kick me out of the house with a knife in my back!" That was a fair point. The woman could stare at her dad's fearless and ruthless eyes without even blinking.
"Alright, just need to think of the words." She aimed the wand at the warp pad. "Random warp drive teleport!" The laser that fired bounced off the warp pad.
"What are you still doing-" And hit the gemstone of Rose Quartz … which began to softly glow. "… What did you do?"
"It was her fault!" For once being on the same page, the sibling pointed to Connie immediately.
"Don't just throw me under…!" Connie didn't have time to finish as the warp activated and sent the three off again, only this time the ride was a little more shaky.
"I told you this was a bad idea!" Rhinestone complained.
"Oh yeah, thank you for being right! Now we get to die knowing you had to be right!" Star said sarcastically.
"Why did you title the spell 'Random warp'!? That was asking for trouble!"
"Guys…"
"Butt out!"' The two agreed once more as they came crashing down on another pad, hard. Rhinestone himself tumbled down a flight of stairs as she and Connie landed on top of each other.
"That could've been better." Star grumbled as she picked herself up, looking at the sky. "Well, you wanted to be off planet, I say you got your wish.
"And we ended up … in a breathable garden?" Connie asked in confusion, looking around. Everything around them seemed wilted or dead, with rotted vines and dirty water on the side. "Doesn't look like someone's been here for a while."
"I wouldn't say that." They turned to Rhinestone, who was walking back to them with a pink gem, looking like an old timey cartoon, with her arms literally wrapped around her brother.
"Hello there." The girl smiled at them. "I see you're new friends! Oh, that reminds me!" She unstretched her body, standing still with her feet so rooted into the ground vines had grown over them. "I'm in the middle of playing a game, do you wanna join?"
"A game?" Connie asked.
"Yep. Pink said that if I wait here and not move until she comes back, I win!" They stretched their arms like a fabled 'inflatable tube man'.
"And how long have you been playing?" Star asked tentatively.
"What day is it?"
"Tuesday."
"I don't know what that is." Right, alien. "By my best guess then, going by the stars, about six thousand years."
"Six thousand!" Rhinestone said, just as horrified as they were.
"I know, I'm super good at this game!" She laughed. "What's your record?"
"About one hour at most." Rhinestone shook his head. "Why don't you come with us and.."
"Don't be silly, Pink Diamond promised she'd come back, and I have no reason to believe she won't!" Pink Diamond? There were more Diamonds?
"Pink Diamond?" Rhinestone looked just as confused, before he snapped his fingers. "Hey, you wouldn't have to recognise this, would you?" Rhinestone showed off his chest, an act he never did causally to anyone.
"Oh, Yellow Diamond!" She gasped. "I didn't think you would play games. Pink always gets super upset whenever you tell her you don't have time." Sounded like an overworked parent.
"Yeah…I just so happen to have time now." Rhinestone went along with it. "In fact, I'm playing a new game of hide and seek, and Pink Diamond has been in hiding for a while now. If you come with us, we can find her together."
"Hmm … I dunno … it'd be nice to see her again, but I'd lose if I moved from my spot."
"Well … I could … convince her you won!" It was so weird to see her brother have so much concern over someone he just met. Then again, you'd have to be a heartless bastard to not want to help this poor girl. "You've been here for so long, you got…the universe record for standing still for centuries! Such dedication needs to be awarded!"
"I set a record, and an award from Yellow Diamond!" Her smile went beyond her face … literally, it stretched. "Yippee! Alright, let's go find Pink! Do you know where to start?"
"I do….or rather, I know who can get us on the right path." Rhinestone said calmly. "But we need to do it quietly, or else we can't catch Pink Diamond off guard with a surprise."
"Right, of course, super sneaky." She giggled, zipping up her lips.
"Was he this nice as a kid?" Connie whispered, staring at him.
"Not really, but he doesn't like seeing people get hurt." Star shrugged. "He kind of has a thing for strays."
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"Behold brother, the place of our ancestors." Meteora smiled. "Mewni!" She showed off the land.
"Wow … it's like the forest in the backyard, but bigger!" The diamond shaped pupils in his eyes sparkled. "I thought mom described this place as a savage wasteland."
"I know, personally, I don't see it." She smiled. "Sunny skies, clear rivers, and the singing birds."
"Such a calming atmosphere." Her brother agreed. "Definitely a change of pace from Echo City."
"Why is it called that? There's no big buildings around and anything interesting about it is on the boardwalk." Meteora questioned.
"Apparently it was that or Beach Creek, and that's just a stupid name." Her brother explained. "Then again it would be accurate …"
"Earth, sometimes I wonder why mom chose that of all places in the universe to live in." Meteroa pondered. "I mean, I get that she has the pink rock lady friend, but she's a jerk." And always watched her brother when he slept. Granted, Earl did the same, but she was family.
"Yeah, why would she leave her home … Hey, do you hear something?" He asked her
"Yeah … it almost sounds like … running?"
It got closer and closer, until a buff frog looking guy ran up, panting, noticing them with wide eyes. "Children!? You need to get away, before it's too la-" He was cut off, unable to say words … on account of the hand that went straight through his back and held out his own lungs in front of him.
"Shit, was going for the stomach. Was gonna be poetic about a 'stomachless cowardly monster' or something like that." Spoke the girl as she pushed the frog man down, whipping off her hands. Her skin was white, red eyes visible with a burning crown on top of her head. "Man, burning down monster settlements is a lot more difficult than mom makes it look." She muttered like she was talking about taking out the trash or doing laundry.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Meteroa screamed as Steven did his best to keep her away from this blood hungry maniac."
"Hmm?" The girl turned to them with curious eyes. "What the … why does a monster have Mewni marks?" They asked, before smiling. "Aww, is the freak of nature trying to be smart and blend in?" She was treating her like a fucking puppy.
"Back off." Steven said as his eyes glowed white. "Don't get any closer to my sister."
"Sister …" She looked even more befuddled. "Aww, now I see. It's like wolves taking in a cub, you think of yourself a monster. Such a shame." She sighed, pulling out a star shaped stick. "It seems I need to put you both down for the betterment of Mewni, and to put you out of your misery."
"I said stay back!" Steven's horn thing glowed like his eyes, and a nifty looking staff with its own star design at the top came out of it. "Step a foot closer and I'll fire."
"Hah, I'd like to see you try!" The pale skinned girl mocked as she twirled her stick around. "I'm the perfect mix of Lucitor and Butterfly fly blood, there isn't a single thing in this universe that can touch-"
Steven fired when the loonitic took a step forward, and a white beam of light shot from the staff, sending the demon girl through quite a few trees. "Run!"
She acted instantly, expanding her legs to give them an extra oomf as she grabbed Steven and tried to outrun the monstrous woman. "I WILL TEAR OUT YOUR SOULS!!" And that convinced Meteora to double time it.
"Alright, let's review. Mewni is home to peaceful nature and crazy ladies with anger issues and-" A blast came next to them. "And flaming rainbows-how does that work!?"
"I'm magic, I can do whatever I want!" The demon girl was riding on a wave of rainbow fire that burned everything in its path. "Be lucky I'll be satisfied with just cutting off your heads! I have thought of so many ways to make your lives a living hell!"
"You must live a sad and lonely life then!" Meteroa shouted as she made giant leaps away from the psycho, while Steven clung to her back and fired off as many shots as he could.
"I have a lot of friends, now stay still so I can blast your skulls off!" The girls shot a firey rainbow fist at them.
"Why are you so blood hungry to begin with!?" Steven shouted as he used his staff to hit the magic away like a baseball to a bat.
"I'm just following my mom's teachings! You need to kill monsters before they kill you and everyone you love!" A particularly strong clash caused another explosion.
"What kind of backwater dimension did we step into!?" Meteora shouted as the fire started to graze by her skin.
"We were wrong, Mewni is a terrible place! We leave as soon as we ditch her!" Steven clung to her tightly.
"Working on it, working on…"
"Rainbow Licorice fly trap!" The moment she landed, her feet were suddenly stuck to the ground and she and her brother were forced to fall face first on the ground. "Not one of my better spells, but it is always perfect for capturing unwanted rodents." The lunatic stood right in front of them, her wand turning into a blazing lightning shaped sword that looked like it would chop them like butter.
"You … callous … heartless …" Steven's body began to glow a bright white. "Just leave us alone!" He ran up and hit the sword head on, an explosion of white blinding her, feeling a wrongness inside of her body.
"What…how's this…?" The demon seemed flummoxed as the sword seemed to glitch in and out upon making contact with it. "I don't know how you're messing with my magic, but I'm going to rip that horn out of your own head and stab you until you have more holes than a slice of swiss cheese!"
"We haven't done anything to you other than trying to leave!" The light got brighter, as Meteora felt a cool warmth inside of her body. "So why don't you just stop talking, and go….. away!! " An explosion of pure energy sent them flying.
"Steven!" Meteroa grabbed her brother as they were flown through the air, enlarging her body as she tried to cushion the impact as much as possible crashing through several rocks as they did. "How'd you do that?!"
"Don't know, and I don't have time to care." Steven rubbed his head. "We need to get out of here before…" A portal opened up next to them. "...Earl saw us leave, didn't she?"
"Be grateful that she did." Their mom looked at them disappointedly.
"Mom I'm so glad you're here, and I'll accept punishment, but we need to go now." Meteora said with worry. "I messed up badly."
A pillar of fire rose in the distance. "I can see." She dragged the two of them by the ears and dragged them back to the portal, where it closed immediately. "Now do you see why I've never had any intention of living on Mewni again?"
"I … I do …" Steven stared at the barn wall, looking down at his hand. "It was … horrible …"
"We saw a man die….that girl…that…that…. heinous person…she was just so happy at the idea of killing us….do all monsters have to live with that?"
"Unfortunately yes." Mom sighed. "I made a deal to teach someone how to take the life of an immortal, genocidal maniac in exchange for my freedom … but when a little girl is presented with the option to kill and takes it … the mind is forever scared."
"I see…" Meteora looked into her mother's eyes, ones full of regret for what she had done. "I'm going…I'm going to go to sleep now."
"'I'll …" Steven hit the ground, snoring. They had a lot to think about. The one thought in her mind as she closed her eyes was what she was going to do to save her people from that horrible place.
=======================================================================
Rose watched as Steven glared at the man of crystals. "Free her." He demanded, glancing at the sealed queen of darkness … her old friend … one she watched a boy she thought was an enemy save.
"Woah, I'm letting you two chat, I'm not freeing her all the way." Rhombulus argued. "She's the queen of darkness."
"And she'll be very dangerous against someone that never knew what darkness was to begin with." He retorted. "White Diamond is immune to magic, even more so than Yellow."
"Each diamond has a different reaction in relation to the supernatural elements." Rose explained further. "White completely repels any form of magic that touches her, but that can only go so far when we're dealing with dark magic." Rose explained further.
"What about Yellow?"
"She just destroys any magic she can punch." It was very scary to watch the woman manage to hurt Glossaryck, no matter how funny at the time.
"Which is why we need her help …" He turned to the jailer. "So let … her out."
"I don't know, doing it once for Queen Moon was one thing, but I probably have to draw the line with.."
"It's alright, Rhombulus. I've thought long and hard about it." A new presence made itself known, and in walked in Omnitraxus Gamma, the absolute one person that in all the universe that Rose thought Steven was batshit insane for thinking he'd actually try to help them with this. "The Diamonds are the greater threat to consider in the grand scheme of things."
"Are they really that threatening? Rose managed to kill one." Rhombulous pointed to her.
"The details on that are … complicated." Steven stared at her with knowing eyes.
"Let's just say in the long run, Pink Diamond was a small pebble compared to the others. Once they set their sights on a planet, it could take a whole millennium to fight them off." Rose continued. "If White's this determined to bring Steven back to homeworld as one of them, then we can't trust them to keep their hands off of Mewni or Earth for much longer."
"Fine fine …" He raised his crystals. "But if she backstabs us, I blame you."
"You always blame me." Rose retorted. "Now hurry up, she's not going to get any younger in there."
"She's not getting any older there either." Rhombulous grumbled as he blasted the crystals, which began to melt slowly away.
"...Heart." Eclipsa said the moment she was freed, likely still on the same thought train she was on thirty years ago. Her old friend blinked and looked around. "Please don't tell me you waited another three hundred years."
"No … thirty years this time." Rose winced.
"Ah, just a missing zero, how original." Eclipsa said with a bit of a sarcastic remark. "So you're the next Butterfly looking for a way to attack an immortal?"
"No, I'm the son of Blue Diamond." Steven answered. "But yes, I do need a way to kill an immortal in order to be with the one I love, who just so happens to be the next Butterfly."
"I have a couple of demands." Eclipsa stated uncharacteristically.
"Didn't we just free you?" Steven asked.
"Moon Butterfly already did that … and I'm guessing from you gathering me you already recruited Toffee, the one whose death was supposed to free me anyway." She shrugged. "So you can either give me my favor, or freeze me again and let your threat run rampant."
"Fine, fine, name what you want."
"I want my daughter and husband, and our old castle to live out our days." She stated, glaring at the space cloud.
"Well, in regards to Meteora, you don't have to worry about anything." Rose answered. "When you were captured, Globgore placed her in the care of Blue Diamond, and the Commission had no choice but to let her take the throne unless they wanted an all out war." It honestly shocked Rose to see her 'sister' hold so much empathy for an organic being. "All the Butterflys' are her grandchildren, which means they're your family as well."
She stared at Rose for a bit, before smiling at Steven. "I wish I could have thanked your mother …"
"I get to stare at the most beautiful face everyday, so I say we can call it even." Steven returned the kind gesture. "Fair and gleaming purple skin and six amazing arms."
"It seems the monster genes took precedence." The former queen chuckled, to the boy's confusion. "So, what can I do for you?"
"The enemy has more anti magic based light than a supernova …" he stated. "I don't need your everyday average darkness …"
"I see." The woman let out a mischievous smile. "I'll bring out the advanced stuff." The Queen of Darkness turned to Omni next. "I'm surprised to see you here at all."
"Steven made a compelling argument that I couldn't find myself to disagree with." The void of space answered. "Plus we're sending all the monsters to live on another planet afterwards, so we're killing two birds with one stone here."
"Of course you are." The disappointment was evident. "Very well … let's slay a goddess."
========================================================================
Hekapoo took another bite out of the fried dragon. "Mm, you were right Amethyst, AntiFreeze is an amazing dipping sauce."
"I don't know, motor oil has more of a kick to it." Dante said as he dipped his own in the black goo. "And it helps me breathe fire more easily."
"I should try some myself." Star reached for some, only for Nora to grab her hand.
"Please don't … they do it because they're not normal." The girl spoke rudely.
"Oh yes, normal. Because if there's anything the literal ice queen at the table, who was raised by alien rocks, would know, it's how to be normal." Dante snarked right back. "Are you certain we're related?" The supposed twins stared at each other. "I don't see the resemblance."
"Apparently our gems are linked or something." The girl shrugged. "Also … you are the first living being I genuinely can't contextualize a single future for … why are you on a horse?"
"I don't know. I usually ride Leo through the Neverzone. Normal horses usually keel over dead after a day, and I enjoy a free meal for a week." Her adopted son responded. "Although I do look good in a cowboy hat, not going to lie."
"See, I can't predict anything he says." The girl told her sister. "It's baffling in all honesty."
"Sapphire would say the same thing about Ruby. Even after five thousand years, she was never able to completely anticipate her every move." Rose, the one at the table she had the most uneasy(and that was putting it lightly) relationship with, spoke. "Although I'm curious exactly how Dante ended up in the Neverzone. We weren't even aware Garnet was carrying twins."
"Found him floating downstream, he set me on fire when I poked him, so I decided to keep him as my own." She shrugged as she took another bite. "He hasn't aged a day past seven."
"Which means I'll never get all wrinkly and old and keep my charming good looks forever." Dante smirked as he flicked his food into his mouth.
"You'll also never get muscles or see an R rated movie." Nora deadpanned.
"I set people on fire, I hardly needed it." Her little hellion counted back. "And I've been bounty hunting with mom for the past nine thousand years by this point, my life's a real life r-rated movie."
"That alone is a very concerning fact of life." Pearl responded with a stare. "We were lucky to raise the sane one."
"Are you calling my son mentally damaged?" Hekapoo asked with a bit of heat. "Because you'd better watch what you say next, you Pale Pencil Neck."
"What the buzzkill was trying to say is that we've never taken you for the parental type." Amethyst corrected for her teammate.
"What can I say, an eternity without romance wakes up a maternal instinct." She shrugged. "I think I'm doin a fine job."
"You see, the best way to approach an alligator is to jump it from a tree and wrap your arms around its neck while you can." Dante explained to an intently listening Star. "You'll avoid getting chomped in half and it'll only take three minutes for it to pass out when you start squeezing."
"I can learn so much from this kid." Star smiled to Rose. "Why don't you ever tell me how to wrestle alligators?"
"Because it's the general duty of any parent/guardian to make sure their kids avoid doing asinine things." The pink lady rolled her eyes. "And Greg would have a hard attack if either of you were near a wild animal…oh stars, we haven't told him about Dante yet."
"Who's Greg?" The boy asked.
"Our dad." Nora responded.
"… What's a dad?" He asked with innocent eyes.
Everyone turned to Heckapoo in disbelief. "What, he's adopted and I'm single, there's no need to bring up the d-word." She shrugged as she pinched her son's cheek. "You've become such a strong little man, isn't that right, my precious little hellspawn?"
"The strongest little hellspawn around!" He laughed.
"I didn't think our family could get any stranger." Nora said in bafflement.
"You mean besides the fact you're half alien and that your sister is from another dimension?" Heckapoo raised an eyebrow.
"....I'm from what now?"
"Oh yeah, we had to take you out cause the war was getting to extreme and …" She noticed Rose waving her arms around erratically. "Really, you haven't told her? I told Dante about his adoption when he was four. It's not really the thing you should keep secrets about." Heckapoo guessed not everyone could be as great of a parent as her. Dante was a major step up from Festiva.
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Jackie held her breath, listening as those gem mutants ruffle about. "Dang it, those things are relentless for a couple of brainless rock zombies."
"Actually, they're more like frankenstein, since it's a bunch of gem shards forced fused together….or something like that." Steven, her hero and fellow post apocalyptic survivor/boyfriend said with a whisper. "The gems kept pushing me out of the conversation whenever I wanted to join in."
"Does it matter what they are?" Marco asked, whispering as well. "This is the apocalypse. Political correctness means nothing to anyone." A bit rude. "So what's our plan, the moment we break one the rest will notice us, and Jana can't hang on much longer." He gestured to the sick individual in their group.
"Ugh…should've known….eating out of the dumpster….would've come back to bite me." Jana groaned in pain. "Then again…the world's practically a dumpster now anyways….so this was probably inevitable."
"The fountain is one quick mad dash forward, and there's about a dozen or so in front of us." Steven reminded them all. "So one of us needs to lure the attention away while the other two get Jana to the water as quickly as possible." He turned to Marco. "You're the most annoying guy here, so you're perfect for the job."
"Wow, coming from Mr jokes a lot, that feels really hypocritical." Marco retorted, before he heard more coughing. "Fine, I suppose I can smash a few of them while you guys get Jana to the fountain."
"Save…me…a shard…" Her old friend coughed as her face started to burn up more and more.
"You do realize that by doing that, you'll be dragging around a sentient disembodied limb, right?" Jackie told her.
"You know…I like it freaky." Jana coughed a laugh.
"Alright, hand me your whip." Marco held out his hand. "I could use a weapon against those guys and it's not like you're gonna use it."
"What the … it doesn't work like that!" Steven shouted.
"Don't be stingy and just hand it over!" Marco shouted back.
"That's not what I meant! It's made out of light and it can only be..!" A hand grabbed Steven's face and dragged him away. "Damn it Diaz! Change of plans!" Steven took out two whips and lit them on fire. "I'll hold them off, you get Jana through!"
"Right!" Marco shouted, grabbing Jana onto his back and running. "Come on Jackie!"
"Hold on Jana, it's going to be a rough ride." She held onto Jana's most trusted weapon and toll, a metal pipe and began swinging it at any mutants that even attempted to get close. "Wow, I can see why you always carry this around!"
"The most … practical … of weapons." She muttered in a daze.
"Hold on, hold on, it's going to be fine…it's going to be fine!" Marco's body flared as that monster arm came out again and started bulldozing its way through. "I am not losing another friend to you gem based mutated freaks!" He shouted as they made their way through the horde of mutants.
"Geez, tell me how you really feel, monster boy!" Steven rolled into that spin dash he did and bounced all over the place like a ball, ricocheting through their bodies like they were made out of butter.
"How much farther!?" Jackie shouted, knocking another mutant out of the way, wiggling its feet like a spider.
" Five….more…..feeet…" The bodies started piling on Marco, who threw Jana right into her arms as he began to drown under the pile. "Keep going….you're almost…ther…"
"Mar-mar-co!" Jana tried to call out and reach back, but Jackie was forced to keep them going.
"He'll survive, we need to move!" … She really hoped the guy was as durable as Steven could be.
========================================================================
Steven tapped his hand against his chin, focusing seriously. This was a test that could bring glory or shame. "Is it … the right coconut?" He pointed to the far right one.
She shook her head no, pulling out the middle one, which had the leaf inside it. "So close." He snapped his fingers. While the girl may have not been able to speak properly like he could, she was really creative and crafty when it came to games.
"You know, I've been coming here for a while, and I don't even know your name….wait, do you guys have names here?"
She thought for a second, tapping her finger against her forehead. "S-R42." She responded. "Big voices announce it through pretty ear rocks." She pointed to the piercings all the 'zoomen' were required to have.
"Right, of course you'd be stuck with facet and cut names." Steven muttered, unimpressed with the lack of creativity. "S and R …" He glanced at the ceiling, noticing the night sky projecting due to the 'time of day'. "How about … Star?"
"Star?" She stared at him in confusion.
"Those dots right there, the white thingy." He pointed to the stars painted up there. "They're bright balls of light, and they're always shining and pretty to look at." He blushed when he looked at the girl again. "I mean, you are really pretty, and bright, so I thought it would fit."
"Bright and pretty … Thank you." She smiled at him. "You are pretty and bright too."
"Heheh, thanks…Everyone keeps saying that, but I usually don't take it seriously." Steven chuckled, the blush still on his face. "Everyone's always on about my gem being amazing."
"Gem … everyday." She raised a finger. "Smile … awesome." And placed it on his lips.
He almost assumed he was a Ruby with all the heat suddenly rushing into his face. "That's nice." He squeaked out. "Do you, um, have friends?" He asked, trying to change the subject.
The girl nodded. "M-091, P-H8." She pointed to some random human on the side…with a floating equine creature resting on top of its head.
"I would ask how that's possible, but I'm already a freak of nature myself." He chuckled, hearing a knocking signal. "I have to leave again."
"No. No. Stay." Star whined, holding onto him.
"I'll be back, don't worry. You're super fun." The girl kept holding on, pulling on his arm as he tried to keep up."
"Please, please stay." She pulled harder.
"I really need to go. If I don't, I won't be able to come-ah!" Steven fell forward on from all the tugging…and landed on top of Star…where their lips met. "Mwh!"
"Mhh?" Star looked straight into his eyes the entire time as their lips made contact. "Mh." She shrugged as she pressed forward, pressing her mouth harder against his.
He was stunned as she did this, slowly pulling back as his face felt red, heart rate skyrocketing as he could hear it in his head. Was he sick? Why did everything feel so warm and strange? Why did she look like she was glowing?
"Yo, Steven! We need to get going! Blue will send an army if she sees if…" Spinel opened the door and saw the compromising position he was in. "Oooh, what kind of game are you playing! Can I join?"
"No!" Steven shouted, standing up. "I'll talk later, gotta go!" He never felt more awkward in his entire life.
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"Aww, love can bloom anywhere!" Mabel cried out while the rest of the new friends they made watched the scene in discomfort, as they should.
"Can we not?" Steven asked with a whine. "How would you feel if people shipped you and Dipper?"
"You'd be surprised, and horrifyingly distrubed." Luz said as she poked at the projector they were all watching on. "So you can suddenly just watch any universe you want with this thing?"
"It wasn't even magic this time." Star explained. "We just jumped through so many universes that it started sparking and showing us the story."
"Well the watcher did say Steven was going to help me watch the multiverse…I didn't think about how literal that would be…or so soon." Anne commented
"Oh, do you actually mind taking the projector this time? I'd rather not have to deal with-"
A familiar warp opened, a pissed looking skull on it glared at the group, grabbing the projector. "Curse you, Steven Quartz Demayo Universe Butterfly." He said, before warping away.
"Weird, that pharmacist said the same thing about the platypus." Number Four noted.
"We're not actually breaking any rules by watching this right?" Phineas asked.
"Oh an ungodly amount." Marco butted in. "But since Star is royalty we're safe …" His eyes widened. "Star's not royal anymore."
"Eh, I'm pretty sure Eclipsa got me covered, benefits to your grandma being the Queen." Star shrugged. "Besides, like we have any reason to listen to those jerks after all the lies they told."
"Also we keep solving their problems for them." Steven clarified. "If they arrest us, they'll have no one to save the universe."
"So in short words, adults stink?" Number four asked.
"Actually our town has a really weird complex on it. Technically the kids are the only sane ones and adults are the only ones with experience." Dipper noted. "They actually beat a demon god by switching clothes."
"And our Uncle Scrooge is the wealthiest and most skilled Billionaire in the world." Louie added.
"And Grandpa Max can kick my butt no matter what alien I become." Ben brought up.
"And Eda's the foxy and troublemaking parental figure I've always wanted." Luz added.
"Oh … so it's just our group that hasn't met a single decent adult." Star groaned. "Other than Greg."
"Oh, that reminds me." Anne stared at him and Luz with mischief. "Did you two see the spark?"
"What spark?" The two of them answered at the same time.
"Single dad, single mom, both know loss opposite family styles, kids always going off into other dimensions."
"Ahh…I have no comment." Steven said, trying to stay as neutral as possible. He wasn't against the idea, but it was weird to imagine his dad dating anyone, probably because he always seemed to be so chill about being single.
"And repressed … I'm good to go." Luz smiled. "So, who wants to see a magical corpse!?"
"We do!" Almost everyone said at the same time. It was amazing to have so many incredible friends.