NOVEL NEXT Chapter 29: Chapter 28: Healing Sorrow
"So you don't want cat fingers, right?" Amethyst asked the little man. "Then let's try … dogs." She changed into a little dog, barking. "Woof woof." The kid wanted some help and his sister just loved seeing cool stuff, so she was totally down for giving tips.
"Okay, dog, become the dog, an actual dog this time, not a bunch of creepy heads!" Steven shouted to his hands, before closing his eyes and starting to sweat a little. "Come on…become a dog…become a DOG!" The boy opened his eyes. "Well?"
"You got like a tenth of it right." Star giggled, running her hands along the long and brown floppy dog ears that were right on the side of his head now. "At least you can use your powers to become even cuter." She pinched the boy's cheek.
"I'll take it over sentient limbs." The boy sighed, resenting his fate of adorableness. "How come you're so good at this?"
"I've been shapeshifting practically ever since I popped out of the ground." Amethyst shrugged, changing into a bird. "Whenever I came across something new and cool, I copied and followed it as much as I could, doing my best to get every detail down." Gave her something to do in that dank canyon for the first hundred years or so.
"Oh, can you do crazy stuff!" Star asked. "Like four arms, and Sugilite size?"
"The last one is a bit of a tall order, but I can totally do the first thing and then some" Amethyst grew four arms as a start, then six, and then eight, before changing shape completely and changing into a giant spider. "Hiss, I can eat flies and swing from buildings! Fear me!" She screamed playfully.
"No, not that! It's too powerful to compete with!" Star laughed with her. "Oh, what about limb cannon, where you coil it up and shoot it out!"
"Hah, easy peasy!" She chortled, taking a bite out of the ground and turning her limbs into cannons. "Thing about shapeshifting is that you have to be as relaxed as possible. Stressing out makes it go bad, and you'll lose control of it."
"That explains why cat fingers went so bad." The kid muttered. "So you must be super chill all the time if you're always doing it."
"Yep, that's me, master of chill." She demonstrated by going to the ledge, leaning off it. "Even now, I'm totally and completely serene."
"Ah, Amethyst, is that the safest thing for you to do?" Aw, the kid did worry about her. "I know you guys are super tough rock ladies, but I've seen rocks break, hundreds of times."
"I'm made out of tougher rocks than you've seen, Quartz. Besides, I'm totally safe right now.." She couldn't finish when the ledge gave out, sending her plummeting right into the giant rock down below. "Well … that severely damaged my pride." She mumbled, before hitting a rock at the bottom. And suddenly she felt the most severe pain she's ever felt in her life. Error. Damage Detected.
"Amethyst!" She heard Quartz call out to her, his sister and him jumping down right next to them. "Are you…your gem! It's cracked!
"Dude, I fall all the time, I'm fi-fi-fi." Error. Response Lost. Error. Data Not Found. Error. Form Malfunction Detected. She could feel her eyeball pop into a larger shape. "Hctarcs a tsuj."
"It looks more than just a scratch, girl!" Apparently Star was well versed in backwards speaking. "Please tell me all we need to do is put a bandaid on it, because I don't have my wand to try and fix it!"
"Detacilpmoc erom elttil a sti." She spoke. "Emoh daeh tsuj. Siht tog Smeg eht dna em." She rather not have the boy cry in an effort to heal her.
"Quartz is Rose's kid, and I'm Quartz's sister, that makes the gem business our business!"
"You were teaching me shapeshifting, it's my responsibility to make you better!" Quartz shouted.
It was sweet, and a part of her Error. Damage Detected. Hopped it would be easy and fast at least.
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Marco watched as the others came in with- "OH MY GOD!" He shouted, pointing at the defmored looking Amethyst. "What happened to her!?"
"Suoires ot Gnihton. Spots niap eht litnu tuo ti hguot ot tog tsuj." What the heck was going on here!?
"Amethyst!" Ruby rushed up to her. "Your Gem is cracked! Whoever did this, I'll punch them dead!"
"She fell off a cliff trying to show off shapeshifting tips." Quartz was holding up the purple girl's wonky eyeball.
"Edirp ym soeg ereht llew." The broken gem grumbled with a face palm … with a hand that popped off her body, only held together by a tiny cord. "Teews. Mra ecam."
"Yes, mace arms are awesome, but you look like you're in terrible pain!" Star responded.
"You understand what she's saying?" He asked the girl.
"I learned how to read backwards first before doing it the 'right way'." His friend shrugged. "It was the best way to talk about plans to do stuff in secret in front of mom." One of the few times he learned about something from Star that had genuine context.
"This is bad." Pearl paced. "I knew it was too dangerous up there. We need to build a fence." … Everyone looked at her. "Right, priorities." She blushed. Maybe when this was over, she and Marco could build that fence together.
"How do we fix this?" Quartz asked. "Some kind of gunk, or a princess spell?"
"Ignoring the fact that the butterfly wand is currently indisposed for the time being." Sapphire began to explain. "Magic has varying effects on Gem kind, there's no telling what could happen if you tried. Your exploding bubbles are one such example."
"Luckily, we do have other options." Ruby walked up next. "You grew up hearing stories about Rose's powers healing the plant life and people, right?" Quartz nodded. "The way she did it was through her tears. They were capable of restoring pretty much everything."
"So I just need to cry to heal her." He nodded. "Star, Marco, give me something depressing." He asked them.
"Your life?" … Given the way they all glared at him, maybe that wasn't the best example.
"I got this." Star walked over to her brother. "Snakes don't have hands, penguins don't fly, and dinosaurs are extinct in this dimension."
"Why must nature be so cruel!" The boy shouted in agony. "... Anything?"
"Nope, the well is dry."
"Oh come on, this should be easy! I cry all the time!" Quartz slapped his forehead. "Maybe I need to resort to physical pain.."
"Tell me there's a safer option that doesn't involve my brother hurting himself." Star put on the responsible older sibling face that was a rare but treasured treat to see in person.
"Luckily Rose thought there would be a time she wouldn't be available, and made a fountain full of her tears." Pearl's face got weirdly flushed. "It's just flowing with her soothing and calming essence.."
"Drop the fantasies, how do we get to it?" Quartz groaned. It had to be weird hearing someone talk about your mom like that.
"We simply warp there." Sapphire spoke up. "Although you may want to work fast, before the clog that blocked it up makes the vines want to murder us."
"Of course." Marco relented. After surviving toffee and the wand explosion, any other threats to his life felt very miniscule in comparison.
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"Why! Are! You! So! CLINGY!" Ruby shouted, setting another vine on fire as she punched it to oblivion. Pearl went on ahead with Sapphire to try and clear the clog, while they stayed behind with Amethyst in the empty fountain.
"And people used to mock me for having gardening shears handy." Marco replied, surprisingly being really handy with his tool and karate. "Now who's overprepared, Lars!?"
"You might want to point some of that therapy stuff at yourself sometime. You've got issues." Star said, trying to untangle her leg from a vine. "I would be raining weed killer over all you if I had my wand!"
"I've got the vines!" Quartz spoke, shooting some exploding bubbles at some plants. "Just get me crying. Puppy tears, Lion hurt, Quartz junior eaten, why isn't this working!"
"Sedud enif sti." Amethyst mumbled. "Eerf emoh erew dna golc taht no tiaw ot deen tsuj ew." She replied with a smirk, before a vine threw her into the ground.
Crack
"Aaah! That was right in the gem!" Quartz ran to the girl, her head falling on the ground with her neck looking like a long thin noodle. "Amethyst, it's going to be fine!" The boy held her head close to his chest. "Please, let everything be fine!"
The gem started to pat the boy on the back with their one working hand, as the vines became more aggressive. "Quartz look out!" Star warned as another vine was making their way towards the two. "Mega narwhal…Damn it, I keep forgetting the wand is not here!"
"I got it!" Ruby burned the thorny plant into ash before it could reach them. "What's taking them so long? Sapphire should know where it is!"
"This place is pretty old, maybe the plant clog is just really thick!" Marco chopped another vine. "How come there isn't anyone guarding this place like the moss pit?!"
"We never knew about the moss pit, and there are four of us! We can't keep track of every life and death disaster twenty four seven Marco!" Ruby shouted back.
"This is why I shall continue to wage war against all vegetables aside from corn!" Star was desperately trying to bite her way out of a thorny grip. "Oh come on! I fought monsters without the wand before, how is an overgrown plant giving me so much trouble!?" She looked at the statue of Rose. "Why does every plant you touch always try to kill people!?"
"No, it's not her, it's me!" Quartz shouted. "I was gone so this place wasn't looked after, I was learning and Amethyst got hurt, and now she won't get better because I can't cry!" He shouted, small tears forming in his eyes, ironically. "Everything always ends up on me because I can't …" The tear fell onto the gem … as nothing happened. "What the hell is wrong with me!?"
"Ste-Quartz, don't beat yourself up for this! We're all trying to figure stuff out just like you are!" Ruby called out to him.
"Yeah, look at me, Star nearly lost the wand forever cause I got caught!" Marco shouted. "It's not all on you man!"
"Don't blame yourself, blame the universe for messing up our fun times!" Star shouted. "We're going to heal Amethyst, even if we got to beat the water out of this stupid fountain!" The girl punched the statue, and it began to rumble. "Haha! Punching things always wo-" She was cut off by the stream of water washing her away.
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Star finally rose to the surface, gasping for air. "Okay, note to self, after you punch a statue, run." Just another note in the long list of lessons she's learned by being on earth.
"Who-hoo! I'm back, baby!" Amethyst swam to the surface, transformed into a seal. "Who says punching can't solve all of life's problems?"
"Me, because we just happened to clear away the drain." Pearl answered, showing up with Sapphire as the view reeled back, blooming just like the moss did. "Finally, this place actually looks presentable again."
"So the vines just wanted water …" A floating Quartz noted, looking at everything. "It's so beautiful."
"I need to wear sandals more." Marco spoke up. "Once more, wet socks haunt my waking self."
"Yeah, everything's fine…and I barely did anything." Star looked at her hands, hands that were wandless. "I could barely take apart the weed."
"Better than me." The boy grumbled. "I cried on the gem and it did nothing." She scooted next to her brother. "What's the point in learning all this stuff about my mom if I can't use it?"
"Hey, you still have your other powers. I almost got squeezed to death because I kept thinking I had the wand." She groaned.
"Like I said Star, you need to have options other than magic." Marco spoke. "Like exercise."
"No, we already agreed excersie is devil torture." Quartz sighed. "But I guess it would hurt to actually learn how to use a shield."
"And maybe I could carry a battle ax or something during a fight." Star sighed as well. "Aren't we something? Two butterflies figuring out how to flap our wings without magic."
"At least we still got each other." Star agreed, even if the sentiment felt bittersweet at the moment.
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"And now we're here." Kelly heard Quartz explain . "Drinking juice and sandwiches in the bounce lounge." The boy turned, watching his sister break dance on the bounce lounge dance floor with Ponyhead.
"Wow dude, that sounds heavy." Way more intense than the drama she just went through.
"Surprised Tad's been so quiet." He realized. "Usually he would have had advice to give about the whole thing and 'accepting nature as it is' or something like that."
"Oh, we broke up again. I actually managed to get him out of my head for once…literally." A part of her felt a little empty, but Quartz was already filling the void pretty well just by talking to her.
"Ah, right." The boy shrugged. "So now Pearl and Marco are building a fence, apparently when she realized how insistent he is on safety he became the 'one decent human' in her eyes."
"Yikes, gem stuff sounds more intense then our usual adventures."
"They are, and I feel guilty about not being more…okay with it, with them in general." Quartz frowned. "I'm supposed to be the missing person they had, fill the spot, but I'm just the weight left behind."
"The last thing you are is dead weight, Quartz. I've never had more fun in my life since you came all those months ago." Kelly reassured, taking a drink of a half full glass. "They probably just need more time getting used to how you roll."
"Thanks. It's also this whole thing with mom-the Rose one that is. This is supposed to be her team, and…my family I guess, and I don't want them to hurt, but…I'm not sure if I can be what they want me to be when I'm grown."
"I'm sure only Pearl wants you to be that. Everyone else seems pretty cool." Kelly shrugged. "The boy with knighthood dreams and … blurry cheeks." She tried to stare at him, noticing his figure change.
"Really? Star always described them as plushy."
"Someone might have roofied my drink." She grumbled, taking off her glasses to rub her eye. "I swear when I find the creep who did that I'm going to punch them.." She opened her eyes.." …with perfectly clear vision?"
"You wear glasses?"
"Used to!" She put her glasses on, and the world was blurry. She took them off, and it was clear. "My eyesight is better! It's like they got healed or something!"
"How's that possible…that's my drink you're holding." Quartz pointed to the glass she had, and it indeed was Quartz's juice.
"Yeah, and you've been holding mine…" Both of them blushed. They spent about the last eleven minutes indirectly kissing.
"You drank my backwash … my spit … I have healing spit." Quartz realized with wide eyes. "I HAVE HEALING SPIT!" He laughed, running to his sister. "Star, Star, I have healing spit powers!"
"Wait, so instead of healing tears you have healing kisses?!" His sister shouted.
"Not just kisses, Loogies!" The boy shouted. "Licks, wet willies! I have the power to heal with my mouth!"
"Q-fly, the girl you're gonna be with will have their world rocked!" Ponyhead laughed.
"Yeah…won't they be lucky." Kelly whispered to herself as the boy got embarrassed. She hoped he got over it fast, this date was just starting to get good.