Hello party people! Well, it's good to be here, to be back. Well, I say that but this is technically my first story. Long time lurker on this site. Rarely review, never liked, but now I have a profile and I'm going to do that. And I figured for my first story, why not a little Steven Universe meets the One Piece universe.
Personally, I love this idea. Or well, the idea of the One Piece universe crossover with most things in general. Might come from my love of One Piece in general, but hey, I refuse to be ashamed of this. But now I'm just rambling. Let's get into this.
This is an idea that came to me as I attempted to sleep. (Yay, random inspirations at 3 in the morning!) It was simple enough. What if the Straw hats ended up in Beach City with Steven and the Crystal Gems? Personally, I love the idea of these two mixing. Despite the two different styles of animation, Steven Universe and One Piece mix rather well, though that can be attributed to their similar narratives. Seemingly goofy concepts that sometimes tackle really tough materials. One Piece more in the world around them and Steven Universe on a more interpersonal level. Again, rambling.
Well, I'll have more to say at the end of the chapter since I don't want to spoil anything in the beginning of the story. Honest criticism welcome. I don't really have a Beta-reader, so I'll try to keep mistakes to a minimum but any help will be welcome. I will edit as I can. Fair warning, I'm not going to get caught up in character descriptions (or at least try not to) so, unfortunately, if you're new to either fandom, I apologize.
Finally, couple things about the story itself. No pairings are planned for the moment beyond the obvious Steven and Connie pairing that obviously exists. (Even if I like Peridot and Steven as a pairing. _) The rating is currently T at the moment, but it may go up depending on my circumstances or where I decide to take the story. Updates will be irregular for the moment, so don't expect regularly scheduled updates to be consistent.
TL:DR- Finally posting a story on this site. Read the bottom for a talk through certain decisions.
"My Diamond! The experiment seems to have gone wrong!" A small figure exclaimed, quickly running into a large room. Before her, a massive chair that could only seat a giant sat with its back to her. A single hand moved from the chair and waved.
"Hm? Explain."
"Well, um, My Diamond, it seems that the experiment seems to have gone haywire and completely shorted out. A couple of Peridots were pulled into the effect field and their gems haven't reappeared. We believe that the machine has shattered." The small Peridot before her stood saluting the entire time, even if the diamond before her couldn't even see.
"I don't understand. If we had this technology hundreds of years ago, why does it appear to be so difficult for my science team to develop?" Though the words were said with a calm tone and a stoic expression upon the diamonds face, the Peridot burst into sweat.
"I'm sorry, My Diamond. Perhaps they simply had a material we did not. Or perhaps we are a missing a particular element within the machine." The Peridot quickly explained. "If we could revisit the colony and see if the plans that they used are still intact, perhaps it will add insight where we are failing." The Peridot was dripping in sweat the entire time. She had heard that most people don't even mention that colony without fear of punishment but her logical sense was only ever able to come to one conclusion.
The visible hand paused, simply retracting to a crooked position as if propping up the diamond's head. There was a few moments of grunting noises, as if the diamond before her was deep in thought about the idea. "Very well. It seems the most logical course of action. I shall send a small party to the abandoned Earth Colony to acquire these plans. You are dismissed Peridot."
It was just a normal day for Steven Universe at first. He woke up at his normal time, went into the bathroom for his normal daily routine, made himself a delicious breakfast and sat down to watch one of his favorite shows, The Crying Breakfast friends. This was a new episode he was dying to see, where the Crying Breakfast Friends finally met a new friend. He was almost jumping with excitement as the episode began, the theme song playing to announce the episode. No sooner had it ended, did the screen door suddenly fly open.
"Steven! Steven!" yelled the voice of his friend Connie. The prospect of Connie visiting immediately took over his excitement, and he rushed downstairs to greet her.
"Connie?! This is great! Now you can watch the super awesome special episode with me!" Steven called happily, bounding down the stairs. Connie seemed confused for a moment, before shaking her head.
"Wha…..Steven no! Haven't you looked outside!?" She asked. Steven paused, confusion on his face. Without further prompting, Connie took his hand, almost dragging him outside onto the deck. Steven, about to ask just what Connie was talking about, was struck speechless by what he saw.
Steven's eyes turned to stars as he looked at a massive ship docked nearly right in front of the beach house. It was a two-masted vessel with large, unfurled square shaped sails. Steven could see cannons on the side of it, with a couple pointing in his direction. From where he stood, he could see a small amount of the ship's deck, namely a lot of green which confused him slightly. He didn't know you could grow so many trees on a ship. The figurehead was bright yellow and looked like a sunflower, but the face on it reminded him a little more of Lion than a flower. Still, what caught Steven's attention the most was the skull and crossbones that was proudly painted on the ship's sails, and the black flag flapping in the wind.
"Oh my god!" He exclaimed, putting his hands to his checks and rushing down onto the beach. "A real life pirate ship! Connie, is this yours?"
"What…..No, Steven. I thought this was a Gem thing." Connie said, just as excited as her fellow companion. Steven paused, putting a finger to his chin and scratching. It could be a gem thing that he just didn't know about yet. The Crystal gems have been doing good about keeping him informed as an actual member lately but sometimes they did forget to tell him some things. He briefly thought about the revelation on the moon base before shaking his head. Those thoughts are too complicated. PIRATE SHIP! "It sorta looks like an old Sloop, but way bigger than the ones I've seen." Connie said, looking over the vessel.
"Do you think there are real pirates on board?" Steven asked, already imagining the captain on the vessel, pegleg and shoulder parrot included. Connie shook her head.
"I don't think pirates exist anymore Steven. At least, not like the ones they show you on tv." Connie tried to tell him. Steven looked down immediately before brightening up. The amount of possibilities that this pirate ship offered was just too big to let it get him down.
Luffy was never the first person awake on the ship. Whenever Luffy woke up, he would always be greeted to the sight of Brook tuning his instrument or Robin reading a book nearby. Sanji would already be in the kitchen, preparing something amazing that the crew would eat for breakfast. Sometimes, he would even wake up after Nami and Chopper, both of which hard at work for their role on the ship. For even though he never slept longer than a normal time, Luffy just sort of fell asleep whenever he felt tired. That's why when he woke up, he noticed something was off.
Well, it's more suffice to say when Luffy entered the kitchen and was not harassed by Sanji was loudly complaining for food, Luffy noticed something was wrong. There was no smell of cooking food, no noise of an instrument in the background, or anything like that. "Saaaaaanji! I'm hungry! Where are you!?" Luffy loudly called from inside the dining room. Luffy received no answer. Standing, Luffy quickly slid across the room and looked into the kitchen, wondering if the blond cook was hiding from him for some reason. Unsurprisingly, this was not the case. And unfortunately for Luffy, the fridge was still locked. Not that Luffy couldn't easily break the lock, but he knew his unfortunate fate if he did. With that, Luffy left the kitchen.
"Oi! Usopp! Let's go fishing!" Luffy called, sprinting across the deck and into Usopp's workshop, only to find the space empty. Luffy paused for a moment, before scratching the back of his head. And thus began the run across the ship as the Straw hatted captain ran across the ship, looking for any sign of his crew members. First he looked in the men's quarters for any sign of his members. Failing that, he checked Franky's room, but found nothing but tools and barrels of cola left idly by. Then came the kitchen again, but only because he was hungry and desperately tried to break into the fridge without leaving any evidence. Eventually, tired and hungry, Luffy decided to check the lookout for Zoro. It was then that he finally noticed that the Sunny was docked at a beach. "Whoa!" Luffy said excitedly, looking at the island in front of them.
It certainly seemed massive, as Luffy couldn't even see the other side of the island from where he was. His crew must have left him behind on ship while they went into the nearby town for supplies and to explore. He sagged a little at this revelation, hanging barely by one hand as he realized that this town didn't look all too dangerous to be at. Almost….peaceful. As he looked at the town, two small dots on the beach caught his attention. Eager to see what, Luffy stretched his hand and grabbed the railing, shooting himself towards the dots.
"Should we get Garnet?" Connie was asking as they continued to look at the ship. After searching in vain for some way to get onto the ship, the two had sat down on the beach and simply settled for watching it. It was oddly peaceful, watching this mysterious ship bounce along with the waves. Steven thought for a moment, before he shrugged.
"I think they are on some Gem mission somewhere." Steven said, not remember seeing any of them inside the Beach House.
"Oh." Connie was silent for a moment. "Do you think we should find your dad? He might know what this is." Steven had a brilliant idea.
"Maybe my dad's the pirate!" He said, imagining his dad suddenly leaping over the railing and speaking with a thick pirate accent. However, he simply shook his head. "No, that doesn't make sense." He was so lost in thought, he almost didn't notice the movement on the ship. Looking up, he saw that someone was on one of the rope ladders, although too far away for him to make out the figure. Luckily, Connie saw it too.
"Is that a person?" Connie asked, shielding her hands from the sun to see better. They both did their best to see closer, only pausing for a moment when it seemed to work. Only to realize the person was indeed looking clearer, but only because he was getting closer at a rapid rate. "Steven! Look out!" She called, pushing her friend to the side as the figure slammed into the ground where he stood. Steven landed on his stomach with a huff, covering his head as sand flew into the air and made it hard to see. It was only when the cloud died down did Steven finally look at the man before him.
He looked like a teenager, but older than the cool kids. He was wearing a bright red shirt that had an open chest and a pair of blue shorts. On his chest, was a nasty looked scar in an x-shaped pattern and there was a smaller scar underneath his eye. Topping his messy hair, was a single straw hat that covered his face in a small shadow. He seemed to be looking at the two individuals with a look of confusion. "What are you guys doing down there?" He asked, cocking his head.
"You almost hit us!" Connie called out, standing up and brushing sand off her dress. Steven followed suit, quickly checking his shirt for any tears. The man seem to think on this for a moment before letting out a laugh.
"Oh, I did? My bad!" He laughed. He looked around for a moment, carefully removing the strawhat from the top of his head and letting it hand by its strap. "What island am I on?"
"You're in Beach City." Steven said, walking over and holding out his hand. "I'm Steven by the way. And that's Connie." Luffy didn't take his hand but a large smile spread across his face.
"I'm Luffy, and I'm going to be king of the pirates!" He announced, proudly thumbing in his direction. Steven got stars in his eyes, forgetting all about the handshake he tried to start. Connie on the other hand cocked her head.
"Whoa! King of the pirates? That's sooo cool." Steven awed at him. Even Connie seemed somewhat impressed, if only by the sheer will the man said his intentions. Both were interrupted as Luffy's stomach gave a growl of hunger and a look of almost pained anguish passed along the teen's face. "Are you hungry?" Steven asked in response to this.
"Normally Sanji has made breakfast by now!" Luffy complained, dramatically dropping to the floor as though completely sapped of strength. Steven puffed up, ready to take the responsibility of feeding his new friend.
"Come on! We'll got by the Big Donut and get you something to eat!" Almost as if hit by a bolt of lightning, Luffy leapt to his feet at the very idea of this, his eyes sparking at the very thought of eating anything. Happy, Steven lead the strange pirate to Beach City, an unfortunate city which had no idea what was coming to it.
Warning: This will probably be long.
So, initially, I wasn't entirely sure how to start this whole thing off. I wasn't sure if I should start in the One Piece verse, describing how the Straw Hats end up in Beach City, or if I should have it be the Crystal Gems and Steven who find the ship first or if the whole crew should be there instead of just Luffy. I eventually decided that I should keep how the Straw Hats got there mired in mystery for the moment and eventually decided that Steven and Connie should have the first interaction with Luffy.
Interesting note, I was originally going to have Luffy speaking Japanese and have only the gems understand him, due to some sort of universal translator biz inside of their gems, when I read that the world of One Piece's language is actually English. Which I thought was funny. But considering that only Zoro is the only actual person of Japanese descent (technically) on the ship, I suppose this should have been more obvious.
Initially, I was going to have it just be Luffy on the beach, without his ship, but I decided against it. I'm not sure why, but I figured him having the ship would be an interesting idea instead of giving it to a more obvious choice such as Franky. That being said, I don't really have any amazing plans for it just yet, so right now, this is overall, a very minor change.
I would like to note, I am aiming to introduce a lot of new and old characters during this time. Some friendly, most not. That's all there really is to say on that whole subject. Well, see you next post!