Author's Note: Hello, everyone! My name is Julia, and this is my first fanfic in the Steven Universe fandom. I just got into the show recently, and now I'm all caught up! But to tell you the truth, I haven't written about canon characters in a long time. Since 2009 to be exact, and I'm afraid that I won't be able to do Steven and his friends justice no matter what, even though I've seen many episodes multiple times. But I want to write this fanfic, as I don't like keeping my stories inside. If you don't like it, that's perfectly fine. Anyway, presenting my first ever SU fan fic, Howling Gem!
Mythos 1: Revived Gem
The bright yellow sun warmed Beach City and everything underneath it, bathing it in golden light. Its rays reflected off of the clear ocean waves as they danced across the sand, reaching so far into the horizon that they looked as though they could touch the sky. Seagulls cawed as they soared over the ocean to perch on the woman shaped cliff's welcoming arms.
It was truly a spectacular day to be alive.
A chubby little boy of about twelve and a bespectacled girl with darker skin sat on the sand, the sun beating down on them. The boy had a tiny black afro on his head, with matching dark eyes shining like stars. His red shirt had a big yellow star on it, and some sand got onto his sandals. His large hands sat comfortably on his blue jeans, listening intently as the turquoise dressed girl held a book in front of his face, palavering on and on with enthusiasm.
"Look, Steven! This is called Selkie Woodlands!" The girl exclaimed, her eyes shining like diamonds.
"What's it about, Connie?" Steven asked, tilting his head to one side. "Is it like the Spirit Morph Saga?"
Connie shook her head adamantly. "Nope! But I finished reading it last night, and it's so cool! I just had to come here and show it to you! Okay, so it's about this girl named Saoirse whose mother died giving birth to her."
Steven hung his head low a little bit. His own mother had died the exact same way. But not exactly through natural circumstances. But he didn't let that deter him from listening further. Connie continued. "She's a half-seal, but she doesn't know she's a half-seal. She becomes friends with magical seals who accept her, and she's told that she has to save an underwater kingdom from an evil darkness called Macha, who wants to turn everyone into stones, and the only way to do it is to go all over the world finding eight rainbow colored seashells, which are the only things that can dispel Macha's magic."
"Wooooow. This is a really good story!" Steven exclaimed.
The dark haired girl couldn't stop herself from bursting into laughter. "You haven't even read it yet and you already think it's good?"
"Is that wrong?"
Connie let out a merry laugh. "Oh, Steven. Always so positive yet so simple. Hey! I can get you started if you want."
It was here that something protruding from the sand, reflecting sunlight caught Steven's attention. The item in question was round and had a distinct, pale shade of pink. Steven extended his big hand out, grabbed the item, and pulled it right out. It was a round, pale pink sea urchin shell with a myriad of small bumps covering its surface, and rubbing his finger on the bumps made him feel as though little hard balls were running across his finger. Connie leaned over to get a closer look. "Wow! That's pretty! That's a sea urchin shell."
"It kinda looks like my gem," Steven mused, pulling up his shirt to show Connie the rose pink gem resting on his abdomen. Then an idea hatched in his head that he just couldn't resist. "Hey! How about we look for pretty sea shells together! It'll be like Selkie Woodlands!" A brief pause. "I think."
The bespectacled girl stashed her book back in her backpack before standing right up. "Alrighty then!" She pointed her finger at Steven like she was a spiky haired lawyer. "Steven Quartz Universe, I challenge you to a seashell hunt! Whoever finds the coolest, awesomest, prettiest seashell wins!"
A challenge. Just the thought of a seashell collecting competition was enough to make the flames of desire stir in his soft heart. He pumped his fists, lowered his eyebrows, and gave Connie a smile that accepted her challenge. "I accept your proposal! And if you lose, you have to watch Crying Breakfast Friends with me!"
"Bring it on!"
"Ready? One...two...three...go!"
With the pink sea urchin shell in his pocket, Steven darted toward the cliff shaped like a woman, whereas Connie searched in the area closer to his beach house. Her skinny legs were submerged in cold, salty water. The feeling of water consuming her legs made her feel as though her legs lost all weight, and in a way it felt good to feel floaty and weightless. She looked in every direction, scanning the area for any seashells.
Steven crawled underneath the cliff, having already gathered plenty of seashells, namely white, blue, and brown ones. Some of them had spots on them in differing shapes, some resembling polka dots. He stashed most of them in his pocket so he wouldn't lose them. Steven sat on his knees, his bare feet digging into the sand. He had removed his sandals so it'd be easier to move around, and perhaps increase his chances of finding more seashells.
"Oh! There's one!" Steven exclaimed, standing up quickly to try and run to a blue seashell protruding up from the sand only a few feet away. All of a sudden, something snagged at his large toe, tearing open some skin. Since it wasn't attached to anything, it slipped out from underneath Steven's foot right as he tripped. He couldn't stop himself as he fell face first into the sand.
"Ouch!" He yelped. With a grunt, Steven turned himself around to observe the damage. The big toe on his left foot had a good chunk of skin ripped off, leaving a fresh, bloody wound, with the skin hanging by a thread. The culprit in question was a white rock with crack-like markings on it, along with an actual crack that split it all the way down, almost in half had it not stopped a centimeter above the very bottom. There was some blood in the crack that caught Steven's toe.
Normal kids would cry and ask their mother for a band-aid. But Steven's lips curled upward. He had a solution for this. "Nothing a little spit won't fix!" He spat a gob of spit on his hand and rubbed it on the wound. It stung as he smeared the saliva on the wound. Normally, the spit wouldn't do a thing. In this case, the saliva sparkled like a polished jewel, melting into the wound. The ripped skin melted back into Steven's toe, and the blood disappeared, and with that, his toe was good as new.
"When in doubt, use your healing spit, Steven!" He told himself, right before noting the rock he tripped on. He used his hand to pick it up and held it close. It was a shiny white rock the size of his palm. "This kinda looks like a gem. Or is it?" What he didn't know was that some of his spit melted into the rock.
"Hey Steven!" Connie found Steven and ran right up to him, her elbows almost overflowing with seashells in a variety of colors. "Check it out! Look at all of them!"
Steven took his eyes off of the rock in his hands and scanned the seashells in Connie's arms. "Hey! You collected way more than I did! But which one's the prettiest?"
"Well-"
"Huh?"
"What is it?" Connie asked, tilting her head to one side.
He held out the rock in his hand...and the crack completely disappeared! The white rock was now a perfect oval shape, without a dent in sight. If one didn't know any better, the black, crack-like markings would definitely be mistaken for cracks. But that wasn't the only thing odd about the rock.
As soon as Steven showed the rock to Connie, it suddenly emitted a piercing white light. The brightness made Steven and Connie cover their eyes, and all of their seashells fell softly into the sand. The shining gem's glow could be seen from atop the cliff. The gem floated out of Steven's hand, ascending at least two feet in the air. The two kids scrambled out of its way in case anything happened, but tried to watch and see what happened.
The white light burst into a mild explosion, and the gem generated a silhouette shaped like a human teenager of fifteen. Suddenly, the light dissipated, and out came a man with grey skin, with a shaggy head of darker grey hair and shimmering silver eyes. He was wearing a dull grey cape that was tied around his neck, stretching down to his lower back, along with a pair of puffy pants, silver sandals, and a matching belt around his waist. Attached to the back of the belt was a large ribbon, and the rock from before was on the man's left ankle. Covering his arms from his wrist to the elbow were long, dark grey arm bands. He wasn't wearing a shirt, so his chest, abdomen, and belly button were exposed for all to see.
Steven and Connie found it safe to open their eyes, and they couldn't prevent the ungraceful dropping of their jaws. A person came out of the stone! Before they could say anything, the man fell to the sand unconscious. "Whoa! Did you see that, Steven?!" Connie exclaimed, her eyes wide like saucers. "That was so cool! Is that a Gem?!"
"He might be!" Steven said as he and Connie ran over to the unconscious man. Much to their relief, they saw his chest rising and falling with the rhythm of his breathing.
"Come on! Let's go get Pearl and the others!" Connie exclaimed.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Steven told her. "The last time I made friends with a new Gem didn't go so well with them. Remember I told you about Lapis Lazuli?"
"Oh. Right," She looked down at the sleeping man. "So...what do we do? We can't just leave him here, and the Gems are sure to find out some time."
Steven crossed his arms and closed his eyes, ruminating. "Hmmm…"
It was at this time that the man opened his eyes, and with a grunt, he pulled himself up. Steven and Connie both backed up to let him stretch his arms out. The grey man turned around to see the two small children behind him. As soon as their eyes met, his eyes grew wide like saucers, and he took in a hoarse breath, like he saw a monster. He fell on his rear before scrambling toward two large rocks. The grey man crawled in between two large rocks, curled himself into a ball, buried his face in his arms, and began rocking back and forth.
The two kids looked at each other with confused faces. Was he scared? That seemed like the most plausible conclusion. Steven very slowly walked closer to the shivering grey man. "Hello!"
No answer. "Don't be afraid. We're not gonna hurt you. We wanna be your friends!"
Once again, no answer. But Steven wasn't deterred. "I'm Steven, and this is my bestie, Connie!" Connie's heart grew warm at the mention of she being his so-called bestie. She never had a best friend before she met Steven, so to hear this was something new to her...and she couldn't help but love it. "You're in Beach City, and this is my house! Well, my house is right up there," He pointed to the beach house resting on the Crystal Temple.
As usual, nothing. "Are you from Homeworld?"
"Maybe we should give him some space," Connie suggested. "It doesn't look like he wants to come out right now."
"Awww. I wanna be his friend. He seems cool," Steven complained, his voice adopting a slight whine to it. But he did think that Connie had a good point. He'll come out on his own time. There was no need to force it. "Alright then," Steven turned to the grey man. "We'll be in my house up there. If you need anything, don't be afraid to call us," He told him.
With that, he and Connie walked all the way up to the beach house, leaving the grey man to his own devices. "So did you collect any pretty seashells?"
"I don't know if they're pretty or not…"
"Well, the pink sea urchin shell's the prettiest...so that means I win! Let's watch Crying Breakfast Friends! Race ya!" Steven and Connie darted into the house.
The grey man sat in between the rocks, no longer in the fetal position. But he anxiously scanned everything around him, his eyebrows furrowing. The sky was a perfect blue, without a single cloud in sight. The sand beneath his sandals was soft and cool, namely because it was in the shade. Seagulls cawed loudly, flying across the sea with their long wings outstretched. To the normal person, a sight like this was commonplace, even beautiful. But this only made the grey man retreat further into the rocks, and he buried his face in his hands.
Memories flooded his mind, and his small body trembled. The yellow silhouette of a woman loomed over him, larger than even the giant stone woman looking over the ocean right now. Explosions forming colorful clouds of smoke billowing in the sky. The clashing of cold steel and metal, flying from all directions. He froze at the still lingering memories, sitting in tense silence. He was so sure he had escaped them. The flood of memories was overwhelming.
The past pours out all at once, and the crisp air of Beach City is suddenly cloying with the overlapping scents of smoke and melted metal. Burying his face in his arms, everything turned black. Just the way he liked it.
"Why did you do this?!" A sobbing apple bawled.
"I only wanted to make you happy!" A sentient carton of milk sobbed.
The tiny TV showed the apple and the milk carton bursting into tears amidst a blank, periwinkle background. Soon, a waffle entered the scene watching them cry before crying himself.
Steven's curious eyes were glued to the TV, his chin resting on both hands, lying on his white comforter with his back facing the ceiling. Connie sat at the foot of the bed with her legs crossed, but her face donned a confused, almost annoyed look. "Sorry, but I don't see what's so good about this show," She said without mincing her words. "All they do is cry over stupid things all the time!"
"That's kind of the point," Steven piped in.
"What do you see in this?"
"I think it's cute! Oh! A new episode's gonna air tomorrow! It's gonna be a really good one!" Steven exclaimed.
Connie let out a groan. She wished she hadn't accepted Steven's part of the challenge. Better yet, she wished she hadn't challenged him to a seashell hunt after all. Then again, she had seen worse shows, so perhaps Crying Breakfast Friends wasn't bad. But she still couldn't like it as much as Steven did. She did look out the big window next to her, seeing the waves drown the sand in its wake. How was that grey Gem doing? She hoped he hadn't disappeared or ran away. Was he still there?
"Do you think he's still there?" Steven asked. Good to know he was thinking the same thing.
"Probably. He could be scared," Connie answered.
Steven rummaged through some shelves and pulled out some books, stashing them into a large, cheeseburger shaped backpack. "I have an idea! How about we hang out where he's at! Maybe if he just sees us hanging around, he'll realize we're nothing to be afraid of," He suggested.
"But we shouldn't force it."
"I know. We can just do our own thing while he watches. Maybe he'll want to play with us later on."
"I see what you're getting at," Connie brushed some hair out of her face so she could see better. "It may take a while, though. He's not gonna want to be friends with us in a day, I think."
The chubby boy extended his arms out like a seagull stretching out its wings. "That's okay! It'll be fun! We can talk about lotsa stuff! Oh! That reminds me! I haven't told you about that living island we fought last week, didn't we?"
The bespectacled girl's eyes widened with surprise. "A living island?!" Was such a thing even possible? Then again, she had seen pink lions, watery skyscrapers, a giant penny, a green and pink person with three arms the size of her own house, maybe bigger, and who knows what else. Living islands just had to be possible. After all, magical destiny stuff was all around her, though it mostly revolved around Steven. She just had to hear this story. "Tell me!"
Eager to listen to his harrowing tale of battling the living island, the kids all raced back to where the grey Gem was. Much to their relief, there he was, still in the fetal position, his face buried in his arms. The kids sat down, and Steven palavered on and on about how he and the Crystal Gems battled a living island.
So...what do you think? Any problems? Did I keep Steven and Connie in character? I hope so. If not, please tell me and feel free to offer suggestions so I can change things accordingly. Don't worry, the Gem is an OC, but he won't be a Gary Stu, I promise. The story will be twelve chapters total, and I have a lot planned for it, so look forward to it! The next chapter will be longer, so this'll just be a bite sized sample of what's to come. Plus, I'm trying to recover from some verbal abuse another fandom put me through, so if you don't like my story, that's perfectly fine. Any concrit is welcome, but PLEASE be polite and civilized about it. I don't like drama or whiners.
Crystal Gems forever! And who's excited for StevenBomb 4.0?! I sure am!