Summary:
We try to ignore how bad it is ... all of us do.
Hunter watched as the Clawthorne boy trudged out of the door. "I'm off to spend the weekend with my sperm…" Ms. Noceda coughed, sending a glare that would make anyone freeze in place. "With…the…paternal half of my bloodline."
"Better….not by much, but better." Luz's mom nodded.
"Wow, never thought I would see you buckle down under authority." Hunter laughed.
"Do you want to argue with her?" Clawthorne growled.
"Why would I argue with someone so nice?" He asked with a smirk. "Maybe you're the one who needs to accept his role in life better."
"Shut up you a-" Ms. noceda held up a bar of soap. "You..butt kisser."
"Ooof, she made him tone down the cursing too…that's rough buddy." Willow patted Clawthorne's shoulder. "You'll make it out of this, I'll be praying for you."
"If I'm not back by midnight in two days … get me a lawyer." The boy said, before walking out of the door.
"Earth truly is a place full of miracles. Clawthorne actually looked like a somewhat model citizen." Hunter couldn't help but laugh.
"He looked like a ticking time bomb." Amity muttered. "Between him and Boscha, I'm not sure who's going to start a fire first."
"Boscha is the one in charge of our food, so probably her." Luz said. "Knew we should've talked them out of that race. As if they needed any more reason to hate this world."
"If we talked them out of it that wouldn't have solved anything. They'd just get more and more angry at that one guy until they destroyed his house." Gus said. "This in all honesty was the least destructive outcome."
"Either way, Lucci's going to hate being human even more after today." Luz sighed. "So, I'm going to focus on homework. Later guys." She began walking upstairs.
"I'll help Luz however I can." Amity instantly followed.
"I got another shift at the Fryshop. I'm working on my dancing tater tot routine." He showed off an illusion of the dancing potato cuts in a chorus line. "Pretty cool, huh?"
"Any lyrics?" Hunter asked.
"Yummy yummy in your tummy, just go ahead and eat us, you'll never regret it!"Tiny high pitched voices called out.
"...."
"... I'll workshop it. I'm not a lyricist like Lucci is." Gus shrugged. "Later guys."
"Why does no one ever question the illusions?" Hunter asked.
"I think most people see it as 'CGI'...whatever that means." Willow answered. "You have anything planned Hunter?"
"Sadie and Lars said I need a week off or whatever." He said. "It feels unnatural to take more than one day a year off." The former Golden Guard shivered. "How do normal people live with so much free time?"
"Well, as someone who tries to be as normal as possible for the sake of the group's collective sanity, gardening is my usual forte." Willow nodded. "Are there any hobbies you got interested in back at the castle?"
"Not really, your flyer derby team was the first time I genuinely had fun." Hunter nodded. "Although Darius did try to teach me how to sew. I still have bits of thread on the ends of my fingers."
"Maybe you could pick that up again. Making sweaters for everyone seems like a fun idea." She smiled.
"Maybe … what about you, Captain?" He asked. "Any plans?"
"Basically getting myself more familiar with earth plants and foliage, see if I can grow some of the more rare ones." Willow smirked.
"You really are the most calm and collected…well, I guess you're technically tied with Gus, since the only thing that freaks him out is discovering more earth stuff." Hunter noted.
"Yep, keepin the whole gang together." She smiled as she walked out the door. Hunter was about to leave … until he saw some grass on the ground.
"Wait Captain, I think you-"
"Sorry, can't talk, wind's carrying me away, gotta go now, BYYYEEEEEEE!" Willow shouted as she got on Clover and flew off.
"....It's weird when someone else says it." Hunter observed, looking at the grass that had formed in the house. "What do you think, Flapjack? Something bothering Willow?"
"Chirp." Is that a rhetorical question?
"Yeah, you're right." He nodded. "... Are we gonna talk about how you were Caleb and Evelyns's palisman, and how you met Rose?"
"Chirp." Not much of a story. Witches came to gravesfield all the time back then, Rose kept witch hunters from killing them all in the temple. Evelyn was the biggest troublemaker, so Rose ended up bonding with her the most as a result.
"Fair enough." Hunter looked at the door. "... I guess if I have the free time I should help Captain … plus it gives me an excuse to stay away from the volatile Boscha." He could feel the house already heating up.
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Spinel stuck her head out of the window of the car that the fatter Lucci called 'a van'. "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" She shouted out. "I see why so many dogs do this stuff! This is the best feeling ever!"
"Meh, not as nice as flying, but it does create a nice cool feeling like it." Lucci nodded, gazing out the open window. "I don't know how you people live in such cold weather. The lack of humidity just makes the air feel so….unclean."
"Are you kidding? Today has that post rain glow to it." The fat Lucci spoke. "What kinda place did you come from?"
"The ocean boiled … like, all of it, constantly." Lucci explained with a far off look. "The grass was red and griffons flew through the air like there was no tomorrow. It … was so serene, expansive, beautiful …" Spinel noted mentally how he always talked about the place. It was like how the garden made Spinel feel…or…felt really. Going back to it now…at least without pink there, just gave her a sense of dread.
"I get it. It's how I feel about my Van." Fatter Lucci smirked. "Some people see it as a pile of junk, but this baby has been with me for years. To be without it is like ripping off a piece of myself."
Lucci hummed at that, looking bored. Looks like it was her turn to cheer him up again. "Hey, wanna play a game?" Spinel asked. "We can stretch our limbs and try launching ourselves across the road."
"Aren't road shenanigans why you're in hot water with Camila right now?" Fatter Lucci asked.
"I don't know, aren't you in hot water with Luz's mom now?" Lucci countered.
"That's…complicated. Relationships can be messy, especially when you're a grownup."
"Going by my mom's past experiences, I can believe that." The boy nodded. "I used to hold a list of all her ex's thinking one of them might've been you."
"You spent all this time trying to find me?" Fat Lucci asked.
"It's been my life's goal to punch my birth father in the face." He explained. "Part revenge for leaving mom all alone…although you legitimately didn't know where I was or that I existed, so some of the appeal has lost its edge."
"..Good to…know…" Fat Lucci winced. "So…your…mom….what's she like?"
"Sassy, witty, arsonist." Lucci smiled. "She constantly cares for me and King, my brother, and does everything she can to make sure we stay out of any serious danger. The greatest criminal and witch in the Boiling Isles, and I'd never ask for anyone else."
"Sounds like you're pretty fond of her."
"I love her more than anyone in the universe. I know people like you say it's crazy and wrong because she's a criminal, but she did everything she could to keep us afloat-"
"No, I get it. Rose was a criminal from her home planet. Even after the fact, her existence living here wasn't exactly legal." Fat Lucci said. "I loved her more than anything, and I didn't care if my music career failed. I had her in my life. That was enough."
Lucci gave the man a glance for a moment, before nodding. "Sounds about right."
"Yeah, who cares about being legal or illegal! As long as you're having a fun good time, anything goes!" She cheered.
"Ah…you sure you want to bring the talking backpack you have there?"
"She is my friend." Lucci said with a bit of disdain. "Wherever she goes, I go, no. matter. What."
Oooh, tension was in the air. Time to lighten things up a bit. "Plus he needs someone to store all his stuff. He can't keep everything in his hair all the time."
The man stared at her, before snorting. "It's like Pearl and your mom all over again."
"Do not mention Pearl. I just got her to back off." Lucci rolled his eyes. "It's like 'squawk, squawk, squawk' with her. You tell her to leave you alone and she never does!"
"Tell me about it. And that 'mightier than thou' attitude. It's like she thinks she's the greatest thing to ever exist." Fat lucci snorted. "You know, when I first came over to the temple, she said we should 'build a fence to keep the humans out'."
"For someone that protects humans, she doesn't seem to like them that much…actually that could apply to Luz too…and me….weird."
"Wanna know my little theory?" The man asked with a smirk. "She only likes the earth and humans because Rose liked them."
"Really, going that far to impress a crush? Lame." He rolled his eyes. "I don't pretend to like Grudgby just because Boscha loves it."
"But I thought you liked playing ball games." Spinel asked.
"I do like playing games, just not super competitive ones where someone bets my life on it." He explained. "It's like Pink giving you to someone else if she lost a game. Suddenly everything would feel less fun, wouldn't it?"
"No, then she'd just win me back, doi." She smiled at the simple solution. "Winning or losing don't matter in a game if you just want to have fun, but if you want to win, you just gotta try harder than anyone else no matter what." Like how they won that race!
"Fair point." Lucci nodded. "So…where exactly are we heading? This is my first time being outside Graves Field on earth."
"Nothing fancy. My family has a barn I like to visit when I want to get away from it all." Fat Lucci answered. "Belongs to the family."
"The Universe Family?"
"Heh….no…the Demayos." Fat lucci explained. "I..changed it when I drove off on my own."
"....Changing your last name must've been the first smart thing you've ever done."
"Trust me, I know that all too well."
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Pearl hummed as she watered the flowers … the last good thing left inside of this temple. After reforming again she's had time to think. What she said might have been a little out of hand, but she wasn't in the wrong. They wanted training and had the option to quit at any time.
She had a lot to catch up on, top priority being Moldavite's latest plan…as in they had no idea WHAT that plan was, other than the fact it involved a lot of metal. And apparently there was some sort of experimentation at the kindergarten, though Garnet refused to elaborate on it more, given how shaken her leader was.
And then she heard that Steven got arrested! Out of all the things to do in town, law breaking was at the top!? If she had the authority she'd discipline him herself. She should've known this wasn't going to end well when she heard the boy's 'last name' so to speak…Clawthorne.
Pearl wasn't afraid to admit … to herself at least … that she was a jealous gem. One of her most recurring fantasies was flying across the galaxy with Rose and exploring the universe together, completely alone … for some reason they were on a Pizza when they did it, but semantics. Point was that Rose's love for the planet and its inhabitants often…distracted her. She learned to hold it in most of the time, but that changed when Evelyn came into the picture.
At first, she was afraid it would be the usual story. Rose becoming entranced by another life and having a small little tryst she tended to have. But the end result of that meeting ended with Rose vanishing for a hundred years . All because the two, while friendly, were in active competition with each other for another man, Caleb.
To Rose's, and Pearl's, utter shock, the Wittabane man hardly gave Rose a glance in terms of romantic interest, solely gazing onto Evelyn. For once, Rose was in her position, being pushed to the side when her feelings weren't reciprocated in the way they wanted. While the majority of her felt despair at seeing her in pain, a very, very small part of her felt vindicated by the shared feeling. Pearl thought it would be her chance, to finally make Rose hers and fully dedicated to her…
But she vanished to the Demon realm for one hundred years for that rivalry. Sure, Rose claimed it was to help the despondent Philip, but Pearl knew better. Something happened in there that Rose refused to speak of … the Boiling Isles ruined everything in the end, didn't it? They were protectors of earth and earth only, not some dreadful, backwards, hellscape of a world full of the most degenerate species imaginable-
"You're overwatering the flowers." A voice took her out of the mood, revealing one of Steven's friends…Willow if she remembered correctly.
"Oh, my mistake." She instantly stopped, seeing the water dripping down. She really shouldn't focus on things like that when doing other tasks. "Can I help you?"
"I'm looking for Vee actually." Willow said. "I wanted to talk to her about Rose's tears."
"Rose's tears…" Why was it that everyone else was interested in learning about Rose except Rose's own child. "I may be able to provide a more in depth explanation. I've known Rose the longest. I've personally witnessed the effect of her healing powers both directly and indirectly."
"Oh … so how do they work? Drink and heal?" The witch asked.
"No no no, Rose's tears work on all life. If consumed it would interfere with the bacteria in the stomach and cause it to grow exponentially." Pearl explained. "I've watched men destroyed from the inside out … quite literally." Took a week to wash the blood out of the tear pool. "It's also why Rose has never been able to heal diseases such as cancer and tumors. The healing properties would only accelerate the harmful cells' progress."
"Huh, so Amity was right to not let Lucci cure the common mold." She muttered. "So they just…let it wash over them and they're better?"
"Yes for the most part. To damaged bones and punctured organs, they reconstruct and instantly rebuild the damage painlessly. To cracked gems, she was able to restore them to their previous forms without even a scratch." Pearl remembered fondly of how many times Rose's lovely essence washed over herself.
"And … what about plants?" Willow asked. "The whole 'becoming monster men' thing?"
"That's a partial extension to her identity as a diamond." Pearl explained. "The essence of all diamond's are responsible for creating gem life, but Rose's essence in particular was potent, to the point where it was able to affect organic life, although it should be noted that she only brought them to life in a battle scenario. Before she was given a planet, Pink would use this ability in her own garden to preserve it despite the lack of soil."
"I see …" Willow looked curious, before a flash of light drew their attention to the warp pad, where Lapis and the imposter came back.
"You sure you don't want to watch the new trailer? Dogcopter three looks epic." The imposter asked.
"Sorry kiddo, I need to check for Moldy on other continents. Who knows where they're hiding out." Lapis answered. "Hey P. Brainwash any human's lately?"
"I did not…what are you two doing?"
"Just helping Vee get her nutrition, you know, like someone who actually cares would." Lapis growled.
"Just getting myself a refreshment." She stared at the imposter as they drank a bottle of water. "It may be weird to drink a woman's tears, but it's better than living creatures."
"How is she able to survive on that when you said humans can't?" Willow asked.
"Honestly, I'm at a loss myself." Pearl glared at the imposter.
"I survive off of eating magic, rose tears give me the same effect." The imposter answered. So it ruined the tears with every sip by draining them of their properties, like a parasite, the very opposite of Rose.
"So…if the tears can preserve plants without soil…what about soil itself?" Willow asked.
"Hm, I haven't thought about that particular situation before…but I suppose Rose's tears would enrich the minerals."
"Oh, like the giant strawberry field?" The imposter asked.
"...Yes, like that." Pearl really….REALLY wanted to avoid the imposter. "I can take you to it if you want to see it for yourself." She offered Willow.
"Yeah … that sounds nice." The witch smiled. Maybe if she was impressed enough, it could be an opportunity to show Steven to give earth a chance…it was a long shot, but she was willing to try anything at this point to keep the boy here.
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Lucci stared at the dusty barn covered in trash. "... It's not very well kept, is it?" He muttered.
"It's been a while since I've come here." The man mentioned sheepishly. "Before I left on my own, my family used to meet up here once a year and just hang out and just catch up with each other."
"So you hate your family?" He presumed. That would make this whole thing pretty ironic.
"No..I mean..my mom and dad, yeah, I couldn't stand them growing up. Everyone else I was okay with." He responded. "Way too controlling, trying to run my life in a specific way that just didn't match what I wanted, or any of my passions." The man turned to him. "They tried to tell me music was a terrible career that wouldn't get me anywhere, so I should ditch my instruments."
"Wow, and in seconds I realize there ARE people on earth just as bad as Amity's parents." Lucci nodded. "If anyone ever tried to take my lute away, I'd send them into the sun…literally, I've tried to do that to five or six coven guards with Bard magic. Only got as far as above the clouds."
He gave a nervous chuckle. "Yeah … so … my old stuff is in the attic if you wanna check it out."
"It's only by the fact my mom makes a living selling old human junk that I'm mildly interested." Maybe there was some extra scrap he could use here for another morp. They walked up a ladder as Spinel began messing with some junk, finding a framed photo of a younger looking Universe and another man next to … "What's this?" He asked.
"Oh, that's me and my cousin Andy." The man said.
"No, the metal thing you're next to." Lucci clarified.
"Oh, that's a plane." There was a silence. "You know, it's like a car, but goes in the air."
"Wait, you guys have metal monsters that actually let you fly?"
"... Don't you fly on your wooden snake or something?"
"Yeah, sugar is the best." He said.
"Shh." She loved him too.
"And we also have carriages for winged demons … I thought humans didn't have anything like that. Why doesn't everyone have one if flying is an option."
"Do you see the size of that thing? Imagine the lack of space and cost of fuel." The man pointed out.
"Fair point, but still." He looked at it. "So do you have one in storage too?"
"I don't, but Andy probably does. My extended family has a bit of an aviation history." The man he had to call dad said. "They flew all over the world with nothing but the endless sky. That's partially why I took off on the road."
"So you drove all the way around the world?" That actually sounded interesting.
"Well you can't exactly drive a car across the ocean, but I did travel across the country." He pulled out a map from a box. "Every red spot was a gig, and every green one was a place I'd never wanted to forget."
"I only traveled to one other island, and it was full of cult maniacs that wanted to kill my little brother…other than that secret island where mom found him. There this drill zombie wanted to kill me."
"I think you may want to avoid giving people reasons, it sounds like your list is already big enough." The man sweated.
"What, my mom taught me to take care of myself." Lucci showed off his spike shield. "So guessing by the fact you're still here, you never traveled the world."
"I would've wanted to go international, taken a plane and then keep driving once I landed…but then I met your mom, and, well…things changed."
"Why does everything go back to Rose?" He groaned. "Everyone always talks about how she's some perfect paragon, yet the only impression I have of her is all her mistakes blowing up in my face."
"I never said she was perfect. I just fell in love with her." The man spoke. "If every pork chop was perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs."
"Hot dog?" He asked. "Is that supposed to be like some kind of cookie cat opposite?"
"What-no, it's meat grinded into a tube-you've never had a hotdog before?"
"Um … Pizza, Fries, Ice cream, donuts … nope, no hotdogs." He listed. "Human food isn't that filling for me, so I mainly eat what's around.
"This won't do at all." The man went to the back of the van. "I have two whole packs and buns with me. We just need a fire-"
"Done." Lucci pointed next to him, where a small patch of flames was burning.
"…It both amazes and disturbs me how fast you got that started."
"Mama always told me there's never a reason to not be prepared to start a fire." Lucci answered with a wide smile. "So we're going to cook something or what?" If there was food involved, then the experience didn't have to be all terrible.
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Willow gazed down at the small patch of soil with a sigh. "Deep breaths Willow …" What was in front of her messed with every nerve ending she had. It was just … empty, devoid, quiet. The soil from the Kindergarten, a place of no life, a place of empty despair. It was literally all her nightmares given physical form.
But now she had an idea, a way to fix this broken, horrid piece of rock that should not exist. She pulled out two objects. The first was a seed … and the second was Rose's tears. With these two objects, she would begin an experiment to restore life to this deslant and empty land.
She had to do this in secret. Just like her experience with Lucci and the palistrum tree, if the others caught wind of this too soon, they might do something to stop her..and Willow needed to make this work.
Willow has been here for over a month and she hardly felt like she's pulled enough weight. The group was all struggling with personal issues, in their last fight with Moldavite, she was the most useless, and it was getting harder and harder to keep in her own stress, her own worries about her dads.
No, none of that. She needed to be the pillar, she needed to hold them together. Luz was already teetering on very negative emotions, Lucci was quickly becoming a ticking time bomb of emotionally charged superpowered rage that would blow up, and Hunter looked like he was constantly on the verge of panicking.
She needed some hope for everyone, and Willow would give it her own way. She placed the seed in the soil, slowly covering, and once fully planted, gently fed it Rose's tears. And then, she added her own magic to the mix. "Please little guy … please grow."
There was a pink glow that ran all over the dirt, and a little green sprout began forming from it. "Yes, yes!" It grew..before beginning to whither.
"No, no, no doubt you die on me, don't you dare die on me!" She channeled her magic, and forced the plant to stay alive with all the energy that she had. "You need to stay alive… just stay alive!"
"Willow, you okay!?" Luz yelled as the door began opening.
"I … kinda." She sighed. "I got a spark of life."
"Are you losing your powers!?" She shouted in horror.
"No…I'll tell you about it later." Or not at all, given how she was doomed for failure. "How was homework?" She asked.
"Brutal." Luz sighed. "History is the worst."
"And you get on me for not wanting to look too deeply into my past." They turned to see the approaching Clawthorne boy.
"So, did you manage to survive the trip without strangling anyone?" Luz asked the returned Lucci.
"Yeah, it was…okay. Mr. Universe wasn't that bad when he wasn't trying to push the father-son thing."
"I thought we agreed he was Kevin bad?" Amity asked as she walked into the room.
"I'm not saying I'm instantly forgiving him or calling him my dad anytime soon. I'm just saying I'm willing to not go out of my way to punch him in the face anytime soon." Lucci explained.
"That's definitely an improvement in our lives." Luz sighed in relief. "Where'd you put Spinel? I don't hear anything breaking."
"She shrunk down and is playing with sugar in my hair." He answered. "I think the noise is giving me a bit of a headache though. Definitely need to figure out a way to break down playing all the time isn't the answer. What's up with you guys?"
"Nothing much, been pretty quiet the past two days." Amity admitted. "Other than Boscha grumbling in the kitchen…although I have to admit, she's a pretty good cook. Honestly didn't expect that."
"My Angel will make lovely brews of all varieties." Lucci said with that that dopey smile. "From fruitcake to chemical weapons."
"I can't tell which one you plan on eating and or using against an enemy, and that genuinely concerns me." Luz said bluntly.
"My stomachs stronger than most peoples, it's a gift that keeps on giving." Lucci smirked. "So we find anything on Moldavite yet?"
"No. We've gone back to that horrible kindergarten a hundred times, and other than a few of those injector things being gone, nadda." Willow hit her head on the desk. "Nothing, absolutely nothing in that horrible, horrible place!"
Pooof
The pot of soil she had experimented with bloomed into being, the colors of green, blue, and purple filling into the air… life was springing from it.
"… Willow, you doing okay?" Amity asked slowly, concern in her voice.
"I did it….the pot..the soil has life….i sprouted life from the dead soil!" Willow jumped in the air. "I can do this, I can actually do this!"
"You can … grow a flower?" Luz asked.
"Not by myself, I needed help with this, I … I need this to be stronger…" Willow said wistfully, realizing the strain needed for this single pot. "I…I need Orchid."