"We can't have Trolls on Earth!" Pearl loudly claims. "They're savages! They kill without question and demolish entire worlds!"
"You guys! You haven't even meet the Trolls yet!" Steven argues.
"And neither have you, Steven," Garnet points out. "Pearl and I have both seen what Trolls have done to Homeworld and other worlds."
"And Steven," Peridot adds, barely sneaking out from behind Garnet's leg with a look of terror on her face. "Back on Homeworld I saw a troll prisoner break loose and shatter twelve gems before it was sedated! Who knows what they're going to do to us!?"
"They won't do anything!" Dave raises his voice, which seems to surprise the Kids. "The Trolls on that Meteor are nothing like you're describing!"
"Dave's right," Rose agrees. "There will always be stereotypes but they are usually proven false. I personally would and have trusted those Trolls with my life. Why can't you give them a chance!?"
"Hey," Davepeta says as they float down between the Kids and the Crystal Gems. "I think we all need to calm down for a moment and think about this. I don't mean to steal Karkat's thunder, but," Davepeta turns to the crystal gems to only address them now. "Both Trolls and Gems have been told lies about the other."
"How would you know?" Pearl questions.
"Because Nepeta was a troll and now she's a part of me," Davepeta reveals. They don't stop to let the Gems gasp or even threaten them, they just keep on going, "I have all her memories, her memories of the lies she was told about Homeworld and Gemkind, and they've all been proven wrong these past four days. To name a few 'Pearls are supposed to be seen, not heard', 'fusion is only between Gems of the same kind', 'all Gems are loyal to their Diamonds, and 'Gems only think about their Diamond and about themselves'."
The Gems have various reaction to this. Garnet and Pearl look like they trying to keep their original stances but Davepeta's made a good argument. Amethyst looks like she's more willing to consider what Davepeta's said, probably on the account that she's never actually seen any Trolls from being on Earth her whole life. Peridot still looks scared. Lapis looks neutral, but Steven thinks that she's trying to keep a straight face so her real emotions don't break though since he has no idea what Lapis has seen Trolls do before, like Garnet and Pearl. Steven hopes that Davepeta will manage to convince them all.
"So if these assumptions aren't true, then yours can't be true either," Davepeta continues. "And these trolls aren't normal Trolls. They've spent the last few years living with these humans knowing that they were the only members of their species left. They are all from the bottom of the barrel-and I know, part of me was one of them. They aren't like normal Trolls just like you aren't normal Gems. Give them a chance, please."
Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst share a silent look. Amethyst shrugs while Pearl curtly nods, gripping her spear tighter. Garnet turns to Davepeta, "We will give them a chance. But one slip up . . ."
"Got it," Davepeta says. They turn to Dave and Rose but says nothing before stepping to the side no that their job is done.
Dave and Rose share a grave look before silently turning to the meteor. The Alpha Kids follow them, saying something Steven can't hear, and they all disappear into the Meteor.
It's now awkward as they wait for the Trolls to be retrieved. John starts to draw in the sand with his foot while Jade side-steps over to Davepeta and starts a quite conversation. Steven's close enough to hear it, but it's definitely not loud enough for the other Gems to overhear.
"Good job," Jade whispers.
"Thanks. Do you think I stole Karkitty's thunder?" Davepeta questions.
"Nah. Even if Karkat says the same things you've said it'll be more entertaining with all of his swearing," Jade says, trying to hold back giggles.
"Okay that's true. Sometimes I wonder how he became such a decent leader when he inserts a string of swears every other noun."
"And to think that you-or a part of you-had to grow up with him! I couldn't stand him after only a couple chats!"
"Well, you get used to it. And I think he's done a lot of growing up since you've talked with him like that."
"Are you guys gossiping about Karkat?" John questions loudly.
"That's none of you beeswax John," Jade insists.
"Stop gossiping about my boyfriend," Dave says as he walks up, seeming to have forgotten the tenses of the situation. Rose walks up behind him but she's on her phone, texting someone.
"You and Karkat are dating?!" John sputters.
"It's really obvious John," Jade states.
"Have you not noticed that Rose and Kanaya are dating too?" Davepeta asks rhetorically.
John gasps, "They ARE!?"
"Yes, we are," Rose answers, barely looking up from her phone.
"I mean, look at Rose," Dave begins. "She's texting Kanaya right now, that's why she's glued to her phone. Their inter-species love cannot even be stopped by situations as tense as peace talks between two rival alien species."
"Holy shit John you are the densest person I have ever met," Davepeta continues. "They even kissed right in front of you."
"Maybe John needs a new glass prescription that will help him see the obvious," Dave burns. He and Davepeta high-five after that.
"What are you guys even talking about?" Amethyst interrupts. "Aren't we supposed to be in some sort of tense inter-species relationship discussion or something like you said?"
"Yes," Pearl agrees. "Where are the Trolls?"
"They'll be coming shortly, Rose says as she puts away her phone. "Some of them are upset by your aggression towards them."
"Meaning Karkat?" Jade guesses.
"Yes."
"Man, this Karkat sounds like a piece of work," Amethyst says.
"Oh he is," Dave agrees. "But he's my piece of work."
"Here they come," Davepeta points out.
All eyes turn to the Meteor where the door slowly swings open. A grey head pokes out with black hair and two orange horns before shouting, "ARE YOU SURE THEY AREN'T GOING TO TRY AND KILL US!?"
Another voice from inside the Meteor responds before anyone on the beach can, "IT'S NOT LIKE THEY CAN ANYWAYS! WE'LL JUST COME BACK, SO STOP COMPLAINING KARKAT AND LET ME THROUGH!"
"OKAY, FIRST OFF VRISKA, WE ALL AGREED THAT YOU'D BE THE WORST PERSON TO NEGOTIATE INTER-SPECIES RELATIONSHIPS SO HOLD YOUR FUCKING HOOFBEASTS! SECOND OFF, I STILL DON'T WANT TO BE KILLED! IT COULD BE HEROIC OR JUST, PROBABLY HEROIC SO I'M STAYING AS FAR AWAY FROM GETTING SKEWERED AS POSSIBLE!"
"WHATEVER ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIPS! YOU THINK YOU'E ANY BETTER AT THAT!?"
"YES!"
"We're good!" Dave shouts back. "And don't worry, I won't anything happen to you, babe!"
"OKAY!" Karkat shouts before he takes one step forward. His foot lands on nothing so he falls about two feet to the beach, flat on his face. It almost reminds Steven of Peridot.
Another Trolls jumps over him and tolls onto the beach, obviously showing off. She has more elaborate horns than Karkat's nubby ones, and longer hair. She starts to laugh at Karkat as soon as he starts to pick himself up. Steven assumes that she's Vriska, because her laugh has the same tone as her shouting.
Dave is already on the way over when a third Trolls jumps down next to Karkat and starts to help him up. She has white skin instead of gray, and she looks very prim and proper. She must be Kanaya, because Dave said that she had white skin earlier.
The two final Trolls leave the Meteor together. One has red glasses and pointy horns. She carries a red-tipped can which means that she's blind, but she's also an alien so Steven's not sure if the correlation is still there. Maybe she just really likes the color red. The other floats down with red fairy wings and has ram's horns. She has a smile on her face, though to Steven it feels like a creepy smile, not a genuine smile.
That's apparently all the Trolls because they start to walk over. Vriska has hooked arms with the probably blind Trolls and begins to lead her over. Karkat walks between Dave and Kanaya while the fairy Troll floats above them. As they get closer, it's clear that most of the Trolls are preparing for an attack of some type, no matter how ridiculous their weapons seem. Vriska's rolling some dice in her free hand rather menacingly, the blind Troll is gripping her cane in such a way that it could be easy to block an attack, Kanaya has a tube of lipstick clenched in her fist, and the flying Troll has a whip (which is the only real weapon). The only one who hasn't prepare anything is Karkat, who is holding Dave's hand rather tightly.
"Alright everyone," Dave begins. "This is Vriska, Terezi, Karkat, Aradia, and Kanaya. That's basically all I have to say so, take it away Karkat. I believe in you babe," Dave squeezes Karkat's hand before he rejoins the Beta Kids, leaving the floor solely to the Trolls.
Karkat steps forward and pulls a piece of paper out of his sweatpants pocket. He carefully begins to read, "Greeting Crystal Gems, I am Karkat Vantas, a Troll and . . . dammit this sounds so much fucking lamer when read out loud."
Steven supposes that the last part is improvised. Karkat balls up his script and tosses it into the ocean before starting over.
"Alright let's try that again. Hi, I'm Karkat. I'm obviously a Troll, you're Gems, and we're supposed to fucking hate each other, but you know what? Fuck that. Fuck that whole poopmunching grubfisting dickshit bigotry. You know why? All our lives we were fed lies about each other and it's really stupid.
"You guys were told that trolls were bloodthirsty warriors who only fought to kill, and in some sense, we were. 'Those nookwhiffing bagstench trolls are so stupid! They all blindly follow their leader when in reality, the Condescension is a bluh, bluh HUGE BITCH! They're so fucking stupid, they rely on their blood color to put themselves into castes, because they're organic! HA FUCKING HA!'
"And on the other side, we were taught to hate the Diamond Authority and gems were just holy fuckbiting shit-for-brains that the Diamonds controlled. They were rocks, they have no reason for resources aside from making more Gems, and so what good is their colonization? Who are they benefiting? No one but themselves. Their warriors are mindless, their servants frivolous. How dare they exist.
"But you see what I'm getting at, right? Homeworld and Alternia were at each other's throats for centuries-even in my dimension, and we both sucked! We both conquered planets because we were killing our own! So Trolls and Gems aren't that different."
"Are you sure?" Pearl questions as she raises her spear slightly. "I've seen trolls in battle during my time on other planets, savage monster who take life without a thought and destroy planets!"
"And is that not what Gems do?" Terezi steps up behind Karkat. She's staring right at Pearl and the grin on her face only leaves for a moment. "May I ask what Homeworld's original plan were for Earth?"
Pearl doesn't reply, and instead points her spear at Terezi.
"Yeah, you did the same thing as us. Like I said, our species are both conquers, flying through space at the speed of light picking up every single last heinous poopflinging jerkshit planet in the fucking universe!" Karkat argues. "I'm surprised that the Earth isn't a writhing douchefucking pile of trash by now! You guys usually hollow out entire planets to reproduce!"
"And trolls have drones to force the population to breed," Garnet interjects.
"Hey! I've admitted that Alternia has plenty of fucking faults, in fact, Alternia is a bullshit junglehumping cluckbeastshit planet that can go die in a hole . . . which it already did but guess what!? Sadly, it's fucking back," Karkat reveals.
"We still can't trust trolls. The human race is too fragile for trolls," Pearl insists.
"Hey! In our universe-we made the humans! We're humankind's gods!" Karkat declares. He pauses, "But I don't fucking care about being a god now. I just want all of this moronic heinous groincatch game to end. I want to just spend my days with my human matesprit boyfriend growing old on Earth!"
"Aw," Dave interjects.
"And we're not like all trolls," Karkat insists. "If we stayed on Alternia instead of playing the game, we would have died instead joining Her Imperious Condescension's Army-and even if we got the chance we would die serving her. Vriska's Lusus would have killed her eventually, Kanaya would spend all her life working in the breeding caverns, Terezi's . . . Terezi . . ."
"Thank-you," Terezi says, followed by a wicked laugh.
"As you can see," Karkat growls. "Aradia was already dead when we started playing the game! And me!" Karkat pauses to pull out a sickle from nowhere. The Gems raise their weapons in defense, but all Karkat did was roll up his shirt sleeve and cut himself. Red blood ran down his grey skin and the Gems gasp, "I'm a mutant. I would be culled where I stand if any normal troll saw me."
"It looks like you've got normal blood to me," Steven points out.
"Not to trolls, we've got a whole rainbow of blood colors: the hemospectrum," Terezi explains. "And it's all delicious!"
Kanaya coughs and raises her hand slightly, "Seconded."
"And don't get me started on you guys!" Karkat shouts. "I may be a lowblood-technically lower than a lowblood but what fucking ever-but I know enough about Gems to know that you-" Karkat points at Pearl, "-Should be a servant, just standing around looking like some rainbow vomit-inducing crotchstain instead of fighting! And you-" Karkat turns to Garnet, "-I see your two gems and I'm fucking sure Homeworld doesn't like you because you're nothing like any other fusions I've seen described. You-" Karkat points at Amethyst, "-I'm not really sure what's exactly wrong with you but I'm sure you've got something weird going on. And finally the obvious Homeworld Gems-" Karkat points at Peridot, who's still hiding behind Garnet, and Lapis "-Considering the Yellow and Blue Diamond symbol, but working with these oddball Gems, making you two traitors as well.
"We're all fucking outcasts. We'd all be hated by our own races. You see why we played that game? Do you see why we're here, begging you to let us in instead of going and knocking on Alternias doorstep! Look, I will even get down on my fucking knees and plead, this is how much I fucking want to be able to just live on earth, peacefully. We've lived with human for three years and none of them died once, we helped them fight the Condescension herself along with plenty of other bad guys who would have loved to destroy the multiverse! You want to protect the Earth, well we aren't planning on doing anything to it! We aren't going to poison your water supply, burn your crops, or deliver a plague onto your houses!"
"But are we going to wait until you do?" Pearl argues.
"You fucking should because then you'll be waiting a long fucking time BECAUSE WE AREN'T GOING TO DO THAT!" Karkat yells. He takes a few deep breaths and says, "I dunno what you guys want us to do. I've said everything I need to say. But whatever you want us to do, we'll do it. Even Vriska."
"Not guaranteed," Vriska says. All the Trolls glare at her and Aradia, who's still floating, kicks her in the back of the head. "Doof! Okay I will."
"We'll need to talk this over," Garnet decides. She leaves it at that, and turns around to make some distance between the Trolls and Crystal Gems. The others follow her, and Steven does too. They go up onto the deck of the house and sit around in silence for a moment, so Steven speaks up first.
"We have to let them stay," Steven insists.
"Steven-" Pearl begins, sounding like she's about to lecture him.
"No," Steven cuts her off. "I don't really know why you don't like the Trolls because you've never told me that they even existed, but from what Karkat says it sounds like you're wrong. These Trolls have done nothing and they have nowhere to go! They're just kids like . . . like the Kids! Look at them!"
Steven looks at the beach. They're far away, but he can see Karkat leaning on Dave, rose and Kanaya holding hands, Terezi and Vriska sitting down in the sand and talking, Aradia no longer smiling, and John, Jade and Davepeta trying to comfort everyone. They're just kids, a few years older than him.
"And it sounds like they've gone through a lot," Steven continues. "And they've shown no aggression towards us since they've shown up!" Unlike you guys, Steven leaves that thought out for clear reasons. "I don't see why we can't let them stay."
"Okay," Amethyst begins. "I have to agree with Steven on this one."
Peridot and Pearl look surprised. Pearl scolds, "Amethyst!"
"Yeah you've guys told me about the Trolls but these guys seem nothing like you've said," Amethyst continues. "And that Karkat's right: they're all outcasts just like us, not invaders like we were worried about."
"Worried about what?" Steven questions and he looks between Amethyst, Garnet and Pearl.
Pearl gives in first, sighs, and explains, "Long ago, right after the war, we were afraid that Alternia would come for Earth now that it was abandoned by Homeworld and claim it for themselves. Thankfully is never happened, for they must have thought that if Homeworld abandoned it, it would be of no use for them. The entire idea became an after-thought in our heads with Gem Monsters running around and much, much later, the threat of Homeworld returning again."
"Yeah, I never thought I'd actually see a Troll but here they are," Amethyst shrugs. "And they're friendly, they clearly don't want to kill us or take over the Earth, so why are we being all hostile?"
"You two have never met an adult Troll before," Pearl insists. "You don't know what they can do. And there's always the possibility that they can be tricking us."
Steven looks over to the beach. Dave and Karkat are still clinging to each other, Rose and Kanaya are now also sitting in the sand leaning on each other, Aradia's sitting next to Vriska and Terezi, but now John's doing tricks with the windy thing in the air to entertain. John's hood is dragging along in the sand so Terezi steps on it, causing him to get caught and fall into the sand. John doesn't seem to take it too hard as he knocks some sand into Terezi's face when he sits up, and it all seems to be taken into jest.
Steven turns to Pearl, "I don't believe that."
Pearl looks at Garnet, "Do you see this as a possibility?"
Garnet doesn't say anything as she seems to be lost in thought. Steven takes the chance to turn to Lapis and Peridot. Peridot is standing close to Lapis and Lapis is looking at the floor. Her head snaps up when Steven addresses them, "Lapis, Peridot, what do you think?"
"I . . . actually was never on any of the contested planets, even the ones Blue Diamond fought for," Lapis admits. "But I have heard of what the Trolls did to Gem troops. I saw some of the shards they left behind. I just don't want anything bad to happen here."
Pearl at Steven and Amethyst smugly.
"But also," Lapis continued. "If these guys are being genuine, then they're stuck here, just like me. We should then off them a place to stay."
Amethyst returns the smug look back to Pearl.
"Peridot?" Steven asks.
"Like I've said I've seen Trolls be monsters," Peridot starts. "May I remind you of the time I saw one Troll shatter thirteen Gems?"
"I thought it was twelve," Lapis counters.
"A high amount of Gems," Peridot corrects herself. "It was a lot trust me, but only one is already too much. And I would like to say that I am absolutely terrified of Trolls. But to look upon this with an indifferent point of view that was also an adult Troll and these are clearly adolescents. I doubt some of them have even hit their second molt because they're all too short (though that mutant one may never get any taller-I wonder how tall his ancestor was, because he would have been dwarfed by the other adults-"
Amethyst coughs, reminding Peridot to cut it with the height talk.
"-But Trolls height doesn't factor in here). They seem to be about, oh, 7 Alternia solar sweeps old, which is about 15 Earth years, And from the rough timeline we were given they destroyed their universe three years ago when they even younger (6 Alternia solar sweeps, or 13 Earth years) and more impressionable. They spent that time in the company of humans instead of adult Trolls in Her Imperious Condescension's army. They were given a completely different upbringing than most Trolls, isolated from their society and surrounded by soft humans. Plus, as stated, they were already outcasts. I suppose, once you factor all this in, that they are pretty far from violence of adult Trolls considering what type of Troll they were before this all even happened. And they currently seem pretty docile. If this trend continues I would be more lenient to accepting them. But I'm still terrified of Alternia-grown adult Trolls."
"Fair enough," Steven agrees. "So me and Amethyst are a yes, Peridot and Lapis are maybe, and Pearl's no. Garnet?"
"Currently," Garnet begins. "I don't see there being any possibility that these Trolls betray us in anyway."
"Are you sure?" Pearl gasps.
"In every timeline, no matter how wrong it goes, the Trolls don't betray us. They mean us and the Earth no harm," Garnet says. She sounds like she doesn't want to admit it herself, but it's the truth.
"Then they can stay?" Steven asks, already getting excited.
Garnet turns to Pearl, waiting for her to weigh in any final decisions. Garnet's had her say and she doesn't need to say anything else. Pearl sighs, "I . . . suppose. There's no reason they can't."
"Yay!" Steven celebrates and he high-fives Amethyst.
"But," Pearl continues. "I will be watching them very carefully."
"We all will," Garnet adds.
"Then let's go tell them the news!" Steven says. He turns around and starts running down to the beach, not looking back to see if the others are following him. He sees everyone on the beach looking at him and he can barely contain himself so he shouts, "YOU GUYS CAN STAY!"
The Kids and Trolls immediately jump up off the ground and start celebrating. Kanaya's spinning Rose around, Dave and Karkat are kissing, John's high fiving-everyone, Jade's squeezing the life out of Davepeta in something that could either be called a hug or a strangling, and Terezi and Vriska have pulled Aradia down from the sky in a hug.
"And since all that tense stuff is over," Steven says as their celebrations dies down and he's joined them. He looks over his shoulder quickly to see that the other Gems are joining him on the beach. "Let me properly introduce myself, I'm Steven Universe and these are the Crystal Gems: Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Lapis and Peridot!"
"Nice to meet you Steven," Kanaya replies with a curt nod, but she doesn't separate from hugging Rose to shake his hand.
"Yeah," Karkat says looking at the other Gems. He leaves Dave's side to walk up to Garnet and extends his hand, "Trolls don't shake hands, but since we're on Earth and this is a human thing: thank-you. All of you. I don't know what you said up there or who said what, but in the end, it doesn't matter. Thank-you for letting us stay. You won't regret it."
Garnet looks at Karkat for a moment before she shakes his hand, he winces but Steven hopes that Karkat doesn't take Garnet's strong handshake the wrong way (she just has a really strong handshake), "I hope we don't."
Karkat nods in reply and walks back over to the group, nursing his sore hand. Dave takes it and kisses it, which is really sweet but John saw it and is now making fun of them. Terezi steps on his foot to counter while Karkat yells at him. Vriska's laughing at their antics as she watches with Aradia, Rose and Kanaya. Jade now telling John off for being rude, Rose adds a sly comment which Kanaya compliments her on, but then Dave and Davepeta take it too far. Steven realizes that this is their dynamic, and as dysfunctional as it looks, it works well for them. They'll all fit in on Earth easily.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" Roxy shouts from the doorway of the Meteor, disrupting Steven's thoughts and the Kids' and Trolls' antics. "GEMS AND TROLLS. NOW IT'S TIME FOR THE MAIN ATTRACTION. THE ONE, THE ONLY, THE AMAZING CALLIOPE!"
The school year's starting soon, but I have no idea what my homework load is going to be since it's still summer for me. I'm taking 3 AP Classes though, two of them being math-heavy classes and one being a reading-heavy class, I'm assuming that I'm gonna have some. I'm also taking a science class and an engineering class to add onto that load so who knows? Which is why I'm gonna release a chapter every two weeks now instead every week. That's the plan right now but it might change in the future. Hopefully it doesn't have to go one longer because I have plans (read: a baseball chapter that's almost completely made up of Sandlot references) but right now I've planned out that the schedule will be till Christmas where we'll get a wonderful Christmas special (that I haven't written yet, just like everything else).
However, here's some good news: if anyone can find the secret hidden Spongebob reference this chapter, you'll be able to unlock secret content next chapter! Or whenever it's found. That'll be fun. It's not that secret or hidden so good luck!
And as always, thank-you all for reading and thank-you for your comments. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you next time (two weeks from now!)