Summary: The Crystal Gems happen upon a tiny little town just west of weird...
Oregon, 1843
Somewhere in the stars, there was a place they once called home.
None of them had seen it in centuries–one of them had never even seen it at all. None of them had any desire to see it either. Why would they want to when they want to, when everything they had fought so hard to save was right here on Earth?
No, as far as the Crystal Gems were concerned, they were exactly where they needed to be. For thousands of years, they'd wandered this strange, yet special planet together. They'd worked tirelessly to protect the humans who inhabited it from the echoes of the danger they first brought here. And though there were only four where there used to be many, they'd still stuck together through it all.
Even now as they headed into the unknown all over again.
Across hundreds of years of traveling the globe, the Gems had seen just about everything it had to offer. Sprawling deserts, towering tundras, lush rainforests, even the depths of the vast ocean. But there was something about the dense pine forest they found themselves wandering through that seemed… different than any other place they'd ever been to before. The canopy of trees blocked the sunny sky from view, casting the recently-forged trail ahead in deep shadow. In the distance, birds sang an almost haunting tune from their unseen perches as a gentle breeze whistled through the leaves.
The entire wood carried an eerie quality to it, the kind that would make the hair on the back of just about anyone's neck stand on end just by walking through it. But the Crystal Gems weren't just anybody. They'd seen and dealt with far more unnerving things than a peculiar forest before.
Still, that didn't stop Pearl from being the first to voice what all of them were thinking.
"Rose…" she fell in step with their leader, gently gripping her arm. "Forgive me if I sound a bit… paranoid, but… there's something about this place that doesn't feel quite right…"
"I know…" Rose hummed in agreement. Her focused frown soon shifted into a playful grin as she laid her hand over Pearl's, giving it a squeeze. "It's fascinating , isn't it?"
"...Fascinating isn't exactly the word I would have used, but…"
"Who knows what we'll find in a place like this?" Rose's smile widened as she pressed on ahead. "The people we could meet, the things we might see, oh, I'm so excited just thinking about it!"
"Yeah!" Amethyst chimed in. Rose laughed as the much smaller gem climbed up to sit on her shoulders. "I love checkin' out new places! And hopefully whatever humans they got hanging around here are way more fun than those two boring guys we kept running into back east were."
"Lewis and Clark were a bit of a drag," Garnet agreed, her arms crossed.
"Well… what if there aren't any people out this way at all?" Pearl asked, frowning.
"I don't think you'll have to worry about that, Pearl," Rose's eyes lit up as she noticed something on the road just ahead. "Look! People!"
"Oh… great…" Pearl deflated as she spotted them too. A covered wagon sat on the side of the fresh trail, its horses pausing to rest as the travelers accompanying it did the same. Rose hurried over to them, a friendly smile hanging on her pink lips as she waved them down. As happy to meet new humans as she always was, she didn't even notice the startled looks the party of pioneers sent her way as she approached.
"Hello, there!" she cheerfully greeted. "Where are all of you humans headed?"
The group exchanged a confused, almost unnerved glance. One of them, a man who was likely the leader of the tiny party, spoke up. "Er… we were just leavin' actually, ma'am."
"Leaving… where, exactly?" Pearl stepped in to stand at Rose's side.
"That god-forsaken valley just a few miles up ahead!" one of the other pioneers exclaimed, frantic. "The entire place is cursed , filled with all sorts of unspeakable creatures and vile monsters!"
"Monsters?" All four of the Gems questioned. They exchanged a worried glance, already on the same wavelength about exactly what these so-called creatures could be.
"It's much too bizarre and bewildering of a place for anyone to live," another traveler scoffed as he hitched up the horses. "Monsters aside, they say that settlement is haunted by a powerful sort of evil, a demon that watches ya in your dreams!"
"We don't want no parts of that kinda black magic witchcraftery," the leader of the group spit into the forest. By now, the rest of his party had reconvened and were ready to keep going in the opposite direction. Anything to get as far away from the place they all seemed so afraid of as quickly as they possibly could. "That's why we're headin' out. I recommend you ladies do the same, iffen ya know what's good for ya."
With a tip of his hat, the pioneer leader mounted his horse and called for the group to move on. The Gems stood by, watching them go as a newfound anxious silence settled over the woods. It was only broken as Amethyst snorted out a laugh. "Those guys were funny."
"Those monsters they were talking about…" Pearl mused. "You don't suppose they could be…?"
"Corrupted Gems," Garnet finished.
"Maybe…" Rose turned back towards the path. "Whatever it is, I think it's worth our while to check it out, especially if there are people living there that could be in trouble."
"What 'bout that, uh… diamond thing those guys mentioned?" Amethyst asked obliviously.
" Demon , Amethyst!" Pearl snapped harshly. Her hands coiled into tight fists, especially when she noticed Rose tense up beside her. "They said it was a demon . Which is nothing more than a silly old human superstition anyway."
"P-Pearl's right," Rose said, her voice tight, almost anxious even. "We… We have nothing to worry about. Let's keep going."
Rose's unsteadiness was largely lost on Amethyst and Garnet as they trailed along after their leader. Pearl lingered close by her side, not needing to say a word as she offered her a small, supportive smile. Even if it was a smile Rose struggled to return.
The Gems couldn't claim to know much about this area, only recently dubbed "Oregon" by other pioneers who had come out west to claim it. But if there was one thing they had plenty of experience with, as much as they wished they didn't, it was Gem monsters. After all, they'd defeated far more than enough of their corrupted comrades than they could even count.
As they ventured deeper into the woods, they kept their eyes wide open for any sign of corrupted Gem activity. What none of them noticed, however, were the many sets of eyes trained on them. At first, most were carved into the surrounding trees, largely unnoticed by the Gems as they passed them by. Rose shuddered when she did spot one of them, but when she glanced behind her shoulder, the frighteningly familiar slitted-pupiled gaze she thought she saw was gone. Nothing more than a trick played on her by the forest… and her own dread over something she'd left behind eons ago.
Or at least… that's all she hoped it was.
Ever adventurous, Amethyst sprinted ahead of the rest of the group, despite Pearl's warnings for her to slow down. She laughed as she haphazardly rolled down the hill leading to the valley the pioneers had mentioned, only stopping when she ran into something headfirst. "Ow!" she yelped, reeling back to sit on the grassy ground. She rubbed the side of her head as she finally noticed what she'd crashed into, a sight quite unlike anything she'd ever seen before. "Huh?"
She blinked, making sure she wasn't just seeing things. But sure enough, the tiny man, only about as tall as her already short waist, was sitting a few feet away, a coned hat on his head and a long, gray beard on his face. From the looks of it, he appeared to be every bit as disoriented as Amethyst was, and every bit as baffled by her as she was by him.
"Whoa!" she leaned forward, grinning as she poked the tip of the man's pointy hat. "What the heck are you ?"
"Schmebulock!" the man exclaimed gruffly.
"Ha!" Amethyst threw her head back, laughing. "That's gotta be the dumbest name I've ever heard! I love it!"
"...Schmebulock…" the man frowned, glancing away in embarrassment.
"Amethyst!" Pearl hurried down the hill much more cautiously. She stopped short, however, as soon as she noticed the tiny man Amethyst had just grabbed and pulled into a loose headlock. "What in the world is that thing?"
"I dunno," Amethyst shrugged. "A Schmebulock, I guess."
"Schmebulock,"' he repeated again. Oddly enough, he didn't even try to struggle out of Amethyst's hold, at least not until Pearl gently nudged him out of it with her foot.
"Let it go! You don't know where it's been!" she scolded.
"Aw, Pearl!" Amethyst pouted as Schmebulock tumbled out of her grip.
"Oh, look at that!" Rose gasped as she floated down to join the pair. Garnet followed along soon after. "It's a tiny tiny human! This one's even smaller than… oh, what are the little humans called again, Garnet?"
"Children."
"Yes, those," Rose knelt down so she could be at least a little more on the tiny man's level. "I didn't know they came in sizes this small though. How cute!"
"Schmebulock!"
"Oh!" Rose laughed brightly. "Well, 'Schmebulock' to you, too!"
"Rose," Garnet tapped her on the shoulder. She pointed her gaze up to the surrounding woods, where many other tiny men just like Schmebulock were peering out at them from behind bushes and trees.
"What in the…?" Pearl trailed off, beside herself with confusion. That confusion spread to the other Gems as Schmebulock suddenly jumped to his feet and scurried off towards his brethren, proclaiming his name one final time all the while.
"Schmeeeeeebuloooock!"
"...Nice to meet you too!" Rose called after him, waving.
"That was strange," Garnet stoically noted.
"Not as strange as that thing!" Amethyst chuckled, pointing to the forest behind them. A creature that appeared to be a bear emerged, though he was anything but ordinary. Not only did he walk on his hind legs, but he had not just one, but eight heads and eight limbs. He sauntered by the Gems, only pausing for a moment to stare at them curiously before he, of all things, spoke .
"Greetings," his uppermost head said almost cordially. With that, he headed off without another word, leaving a group of very bewildered Gems behind.
"Um… hello?" Rose returned after a moment of awkward silence.
"Was that thing… a fusion?" Pearl wondered to herself. "Oh, what am I saying? Bears can't fuse… can they?"
"Look out." Pearl started when Garnet suddenly grabbed her, moving her out of the way just in time before a peculiar flock could fly straight into her. It was led by a creature that looked as if it were a grotesque mix between a hawk and an octopus, followed by a horde of bats the size of turkeys and a pack of palm-sized people with glittering wings.
"W-what is all of this?!" Pearl exclaimed, frazzled. She couldn't hold back a startled cry when a giant wooden hand emerged from the forest canopy above. It grabbed a nearby grazing deer with ease before hauling it away to parts unknown.
"Oh my…" Rose frowned, worried for the animal. Pearl, however, had much bigger concerns on her mind and she had no problem voicing them.
"Rose, this place is… ridiculous !" she grabbed Rose's arm and held on tight. "Between the miniature men and bear fusions and… and horned horses ?" She scoffed as such a creature emerged from the woods to graze, sporting a colorful mane and a sparkling horn on its head.
"Hmph ," the "horse" turned its nose up at her. "Well, a horn is much more preferable to having some… some oversized gemstone on my forehead like you ." With another sneer, the creature elegantly trotted away, paying Pearl's offended gasp no mind.
"See what I mean?!" she ignored Amethyst's howling laughter behind her. "I think those travelers were right. Whatever this confounded place is, its-"
"It's perfect !"
"Huh?" Pearl blinked when he realized Rose had gone on ahead without her. She was peering through the next layer of trees, stars in her eyes as she took in the vast valley ahead. The other Gems joined her, curious to see what the source of all this strangeness was. And really, "strange" only barely began to explain what awaited in the valley below.
The first thing they noticed was the pair of cliffs on the far side of the expanse, both cleaved through as they stood facing each other. In the shadow of those cliffs was a large lake, fed by a towering waterfall that sparkled in the afternoon sun. Beside that lake was the very beginnings of a settlement, a tiny town made up of wooden cottages and ramshackle lean-tos.
Humans had only just moved into the valley, that much was clear. But their much more unusual neighbors seemed right at home as they traversed the area freely. A herd of horned horses galloped through an open field while another flock of giant bats darted to a nearby cave to rest. The same wooden giant from earlier passed the Gems by at a distance, lying down in a sizable clearing for his afternoon nap. A group of tiny men and winged people were in the midst of some kind of argument at the foot of the hill. A large, mysterious shape loomed low just under the surface of the lake and a family of plaid-colored platypuses made off with a stash of food they'd stolen from the human town near their nest.
In almost every direction the Gems looked, they saw something surreal and spectacular. For all the years they'd spent living on Earth, they'd never encountered a place quite like this. A place that appeared to be out of the very pages of the myths and legends humans enjoyed telling each other. A place that was filled with the impossible around every last turn.
A place that practically seemed to call to them to come closer, to see more, to learn more. To experience more than they ever had before.
"Uh… I don't think there are any corrupted Gems here," Amethyst pointed out the obvious.
"Nope," Garnet shook her head. "What is here looks like it's something far stranger than that."
"Strange… but special ," Rose wore a gentle smile. "I can't even believe this place is even real, it's so… so…"
"Worrisome?" Pearl guessed.
"Wild," Garnet chimed in.
"Weird?" Amethyst finished, smirking.
" Wonderful ," Rose sighed happily. "It's so wonderful, so beautiful because it's so unique ! I could have never imagined something like this existed on Earth, but here it is, right in front of us. So…" her smile turned a touch mischievous as she threw her arms around her entire team. "What are we waiting for? Let's go see it all for ourselves!"
"Yeah!" Amethyst cheered as Rose swept them off their feet. She took a mighty leap into the air, carrying all three of them as they floated together into the valley awaiting them.
"R-Rose, wait!" Pearl tried to warn, only to be drowned out by the rushing wind surrounding them. "Oh… I hope we don't end up staying here for too long…" she muttered with a tired sigh.
"You might want to hope for something else then," Garnet remarked, adjusting her shades. Pearl didn't have a chance to ask what she meant as they finally landed. Rose continued taking the lead as she eagerly ran on ahead into the valley proper, an excited smile spread wide across her face. The other Gems hurried after her, barely even noticing the relatively new sign they passed under. It gave a simple greeting to every new visitor to enter the valley, even visitors as otherworldly as the Crystal Gems:
"Welcome to Gravity Falls!"
Somewhere in the stars, there was a place they once called home.
And somewhere in these woods, they'd make a new one all their own.