Chapter 26: Birthday Magic
June...
"It's Connie's eleventh birthday today!"
Lapis watched the demigem's optimism bubble up. The two were alone in the apartment, thus Connie wouldn't hear his exclamation. She continued cutting newspapers with an ice scissor.
"Yep. Another trip around the sun since her last birthday." Lapis stated, holding up an article about drug abuse. Well, she owned the whole drug cartel at this point, and she wanted to be up to date with what people thought about it. "How wonderful that humans celebrate this activity to show how close you are to the possibility of certain death."
"Lapis, you're no fun." he said, frowning.
"I'm just kidding." the water Gem shrugged it off, calmly stacking up papers about the same topic and hiding it from Steven.
"You think it's funny, but it's actually really creepy, mom." Steven remarked, looking up at her with disgust. She thought it was adorable how he couldn't do such a thing.
Later...
Steven had his gift wrapped up and was ready to enter the Maheswaran household. Lapis brought a box that Steven suspected had a tree branch she picked up from the pavement a while ago. He didn't know if that would qualify as a present, but he didn't want to question Lapis' ways. She always seemed so... bored. Just a while ago, she was cutting newspaper articles! He didn't know what they were about, but it wasn't natural for the thought of cutting newspaper articles to suddenly come to mind.
The two walked up to the Maheswaran household, knocking on the door.
A purple bird flew onto their windowsill, looking innocent.
The door opened up, revealing Priyanka, the mother of Connie and a professional doctor. She had a smile on her face, as it was her daughter's birthday and guests had finally arrived.
"Miss Maheswaran, how are you?" Lapis asked, lending out her hand to shake. The doctor took it with glee.
"I'm fine. How's your skin discoloration doing?" she replied.
"Uh—Um..." Lapis nervously scratched the back of her hair. Of course, it was an act, she didn't have such a profound disease.
Priyanka shook her hands. "It's okay. No need to answer. I know how sensitive that topic can be. Please, enter." She opened the door wider, and let the two enter the household.
"How do you do that?" Steven whispered, as they walked into the living room of the house.
"I've lived over a thousand years, studied human emotions in ten, and combine all that experience, I'm practically an oscar-winning actor." she bragged proudly, in a low volume to keep humans from knowing her secret.
"I still wouldn't classify you as that." he retorted quietly.
"Or, you could just say I adapt pretty quick." she shrugged, then placed her hands on her hips. "And mimic lots of Pearl's emotions and character." Lapis coughed, "Oh, Rose... how I wish I could hold you longer... if only I were fast enough. Oh wait, we're Gems, you've regenerated. Easy as that."
"Uh... what?"
The blue Gem laughed forcibly. "I-I don't know. I was just..." Her smile turned into a frown. "..."
Connie ran down the stairs, enlightened by the prospect of seeing her two best friends.
"Guys, you're here!" she exclaimed, crashing into Steven and hugging him tight. She then let go and started hugging Lapis too, except not as tight. "I've been waiting like forever! I'm eleven now! Just at your age!" she poked Steven on the star of his red long-sleeved shirt.
The demigem had been enamored by what she was wearing.
A purple jumpsuit with red highlights, added with her glasses with no lens. Her hair was tucked into a ponytail. She had red socks on.
"Wow, you look..." Steven trailed off, his breath taken away. Connie chuckled at him.
"...like a total dweeb, I know. And you..." She pointed at what he was wearing, which was his usual red shirt with white sleeves and sides, a big yellow star on his chest and on his shoulders that act like shoulder pads. He had blue trousers and pink sneakers. "...look like you're prepared to face anything."
Steven cracked a lopsided smile.
"Ya know, cause you wear it all the time." Connie joked.
"Yeah, I've been thinking of giving him combat boots to complete the look." Lapis said, rubbing her chin.
"Combat boots would look sick on you!" the girl remarked, playfully punching him on the arm.
Steven winced at that, rubbing his arm to numb the pain. He didn't expect her to be so strong.
"I think you'd look good with combat boots too." he replied, having nothing else to add on. Lapis saw the look of awkwardness on Steven's face, and began to fade away into the background, actually going to the kitchen to get a drink.
"Yeah, but it'd suit you more." Connie told him.
Steven couldn't help but keep smiling through his embarrassment. "Why do all of you agree on that?"
Amethyst arrived at the table unexpectedly, everyone staring at her in confusion. Lapis had never told Amethyst anything, and neither did the kids. Connie's parents almost had a heart attack, thinking she was a thief. Doug Maheswaran was a security guard and was about to activate his self-defense protocols, before recognizing her as a non threatening entity when Lapis and Steven approached her peacefully.
"How did you get in here?" Priyanka asked. Skin discoloration was hereditary in this universe, so the first thought she had was: Is she a relative to them?
"I flew into your window." Amethyst boasted, swishing her long white hair. "I was that purple pigeon in the windowsill over there."
"You... flew?" the professional doctor repeated, raising a brow. "And you were a... pigeon?"
Amethyst's eyes widened in realization and snapped her head at Lapis. "You didn't tell them?"
"Amethyst..." Lapis gritted her teeth, pinching the bridge of her nose. She turned to the the only demigem in the universe. "Steven, say they didn't hear it." she requested, sighing.
"You didn't hear it." Steven ordered to Connie's parents, his voice strong with influence. The young swordswoman was confused at how it worked so conveniently.
"Uh, what? What didn't I hear?" Doug asked curiously, scratching his head. He spotted Amethyst for the first time again. Brows furrowed, he stared at the purple-skinned girl. "Uh, who's she? A relative?"
"Yes! I invited her! And two more relatives will come over!" Lapis promptly exclaimed.
"Great! More guests. I was afraid I made too much food." Priyanka admitted, clapping her hands together in giddy.
Amethyst grinned like she never caused a problem. "Oh, that won't be a problem."
KNOCK KNOCK! There was someone knocking at the door.
"Oh, that must be them." Lapis said, rolling her eyes. She glared at Amethyst, who took a cup of juice from the kitchen and proceeded to hide from her gaze by drinking the cup.
"I'll get it." Connie told them, running for the door.
She opened it wide, expecting two Gems. But what she found was rather unexpecting. There was a boy from her school. The kid had blond hair, and a solemn look on his face, oozing off confidence and brashness.
"Zack? What are you doing here?"
"I heard it's your birthday." the blond kid replied, rather uninterested. He was wearing a formal black suit, like he was attending a funeral. But he actually wasn't. He thought this was the way how to dress good. "But that's not what I came here for. It's June, school's going to be over. I'm not coming back."
Steven walked over to Connie's side, recognizing the boy from school.
"Oh! Hey, Zack." the demigem greeted.
"Why aren't you coming back?" Connie asked, raising a brow. "And why are you telling me this?"
Zack glanced at Steven, and back at the girl. He had an eerie look when he observed the chubby boy.
"I might not come back."
"Wait, are you going to kill yourself?" Connie inquired of him, inwardly realizing she was a bit too blunt about it. Steven cringed at how she sounded worried for Zack, a kid their age that bullied Connie.
Zack laughed, as if it was a joke.
"No, of course not. I'm not suicidal. I'd rather say I'm more of a nihilist." the blond kid stated.
"Nihilist?" the demigem repeated inquisitively.
"It means he thinks life has no meaning." she answered, before focusing back on the task at hand. It was her birthday, yet all these problems keep showing up at her door. And she didn't know why it was happening or how it was related to her, because this jerk was definitely talking about something that did not connect to her at all.
Steven lightly shrugged his head. He did say something about being a necessary evil the first time I went to school...
"Anyway, here's a going away present. I'm running away, if you still didn't know." Zack held out a gift box.
Steven really wanted to say he didn't care, but thought it was too insensitive for him to say.
"Uh. Thanks." Connie said, slowly taking the present. She kept her eye on him. "I'm guessing you aren't gonna stay."
"Affirmative. I'm leaving. Toodles." Zack waved and walked away.
Once he was out of proximity, Connie realized she held the gift in her hands for too long, and put it in Steven's hands. She vigorously wiped her palms on her trousers to get rid of any evidence of Zack on her.
"That was weird." the demigem remarked, "Weirder than... whatever I've ever encountered."
"What's in the box?" she asked, pointing at the present like she'd never seen it in her life before.
Steven ripped away the birthday wrapping and opened the pale box, revealing a pair of fingerless gloves. They were muddy green, like they were made specifically for military use.
"Oh." was Connie's only response. "You can have them. It'll make you look more like a soldier. Then, we can get you some combat boots. And then, you'll look like a real hero."
Steven fitted the gloves and stretched his fingers, still able to maneuver them as easily as without the gloves. It kept his palms warm, so he kept them on.
"I don't think heroes rely on looks." he said.
"Well, heroes do need to inspire people. They have to look good and colorful to do so." she told him.
Steven thought back to his mother's destiny for him. I'm the bridge between Gems and humans; the best of both worlds. I saved the world with Peridot, Lapis and the Crystal Gems. Without me, Peridot said they couldn't have saved Earth... I should be proud of that, shouldn't I?
Connie returned to the living room, where she caught her parents talking about icing on the cake and reminiscing about the past. She decided that listening to Lapis' conversation with Amethyst would be more interesting. She watched them on the sly, Lapis leaning on the wall with her leather jacket and Amethyst plopping onto the sofa.
"How did you get here?" the blue Gem demanded.
"Ughh, you and Lavagirl are so rude." the shapeshifting queen remarked. "You were chill back then. What's happened?"
"I'm only being rude because you almost ruined Connie's life," Lapis snarked, "be grateful I saved your ass."
"Whatevs. Not even gonna try." Amethyst responded nonchalantly.
"You didn't answer the question." Lapis inwardly seethed, crossing her arms.
"Alright, ya caught me red-handed. Used Peri's supercomputer to hack into the Earth database and looked up Connie's birthday, then went to spy on you and Steven as a pigeon to lead me so I could testify if the information was false or not." Amethyst jumped off the couch and did a backflip onto the floor, with Lapis quickly following to block the Maheswarans' vision of Amethyst doing a stunt. "What are you doin—"
"Don't jump in this place. The Maheswarans are strict with their rules."
"C'mon now, you could get Steven to do that... Jedi mind trick. Besides," Amethyst's Gem glowed, and from its pocket dimension, came a giant present with a violet cloth draped over it. "I brought a gift just in case, and it's big!"
Lapis Lazuli's eyes and head gradually turned to check the Doug and Priyanka's responses, but gave a sigh of relief when she saw that they were chatting in the other room. Connie chuckled, but got startled when Steven was snickering beside her.
She turned her gaze back towards Amethyst. "Don't. Do that. Again."
"Oh, yeah..." Amethyst smacked her forehead, remembering something. "I forgot there were other things I had to do."
Lapis raised an eyebrow.
Amethyst scratched her hair.
"So." Lapis said.
"What?" Amethyst replied.
"What did you forget to do?" Lapis asked.
"Uh... What's on your ear?" Amethyst pointed at a side of Lapis' face.
"I don't..." she narrowed her eyes. "...what's on my ear?"
"Yeah. What's wrong with your... ear..." Amethyst leaned forward and picked at Lapis' hair. She dug deep, shocking the blue Gem, and quickly fished out a red Gem from her blue hair before both of them got uncomfortable with the touching.
"Whaaa..." Lapis trailed away, eyeing the giant red ruby Amethyst got from her hair. The water Gem ruffled her hair afterwards, trying to see if there was anything else in there. It didn't make sense, how did she—
VEEOOM! Ruby generated from the Gemstone in Amethyst's hand, and smacked a fist right into Lapis' face. POOWW!
"YES! PRANKED YOU HARD!" the hotheaded Gem shouted, high fiving Amethyst with a satisfying snap of the air. "All that patience! Yes!"
Lapis rubbed her cheek as she laid on the ground, glaring daggers at Ruby. She forgot she was in the Maheswaran household, and the punch was immediately caught by Connie's parents.
"Oh my god, what happened?" Priyanka asked, rushing into the living room. She reached over to check Lapis. "Are you alright? Are you fine? Is this red fellow a relative?" At that point, Lapis was tempted to answer no.
Ruby's parade ended, and Amethyst saved her butt by responding. "Yes! She is! This is Ruby."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I still don't know your name." Priyanka apologized.
"Amethyst." the purple Gem said.
"Ethyst?" she tried to repeat.
"No. Amethyst, like the gem." she stated, with Ruby trying to hold back laughter for mistaking her name. "I didn't say "I am" if you're confused."
"Oh. Amethyst." Priyanka turned to Lapis, whispering, "Are all of your family named after gems?"
"It's more likely than you think." the water witch answered, grunting.
"So, that leaves one more guest to wait?" Doug asked, looking warily at the red Gem.
There was a knock on the door.
Connie rushed to the door, opening it.
"Hello. Happy birthday." Melancholy oozed from Sapphire's voice.
They were all sitted at the dining table. The vanilla cake had an eleventh birthday candle. Connie was the only one that was still standing, after blowing out the candles and everyone clapping.
"Honey, you don't have to stand. Have a seat." Priyanka urged.
"Yeah." Lapis said, looking disinterested. "Have a seat."
Connie took her seat, which was the long end of the dining table.
PPFFBBBFFTT!
Connie pulled up a whoopie cushion from her chair. She surveyed the table, observing everyone's concerned and lively expressions, until she came across the biggest smile her mentor had given.
"Lapis..." the girl groaned. The look on said Gem's face hardened.
"What? Is it not good enough for you?" the water Gem replied.
"I personally thought it was a good prank." Priyanka, Connie's mom, remarked.
Amethyst scrunched her nose at the shameless prank, thinking it was low of Lapis to use whoopie cushions when she'd been overly independent for her whole life.
"Mooommm..." Connie groaned again.
Steven cheered, "It's time to open presents! A lively time for both us outcasts!"
"If you're a member of the outcast society, say aye." Connie said.
"Aye." Steven assented cheerfully. In the back, Lapis could be seen raising a hand up and putting it down, still looking uninterested.
"And what doth knight Steven gotten me?" Connie asked, faking an accent.
"Thy highness," Steven bowed, lifting his present. "I hath gotten thou a blessing from the scribe gods."
"Thank thee." Connie took the gift from his hands, and unwrapped it carefully. Her eyes glimmered as she saw the book title. "You got me the latest copy of Unfamiliar Familiar? Destiny's End?"
"Yeah! It took some chores, but I got it." Steven replied, smiling as he rubbed his fingers over his new gloves. "I... I think I have an addiction to these fingerless gloves."
Connie already started reading the pages of the book. "Boy, I hope the author gives this book an extra punch of feels! I mean, it's the finale, can't be anything like a fifty page wedding cake description, right?" She peeked from the book. "Oh, what were you saying?"
Steven stared at his gloves. "I think Zack got the perfect ones."
"HEYA!" Amethyst loomed over Steven, slightly melting like butter. She shapeshifted back into her normal form when Connie's parents looked. The purple Gem hopped onto his shoulders with her small shapeshifted body composition, and leaned over to Connie to boop her nose. "I've got a surprise for you two!"
Amethyst had a wide grin on her face, hopping off Steven's shoulders and backflipping perfectly onto the carpet. She silently bumped into Lapis (who was sitting on a recliner behind them and glaring at her), and regained her cool composure.
"Ya know... I didn't know what to give you for a gift. So, I dug up something from my room, and found this! And Lapis, you can stop glaring at me or I will sock you in the face." she said all that completely with a smile. The purple Gem ripped the violet cloth from the giant mysterious present, and revealed a giant pink cannon. "A laser light cannon!"
"A... Laser light cannon? You mean the one Steven's mom built?" Connie asked with stars in her eyes, the book she was holding dropped onto the ground with a resounding tap.
Lapis opened her mouth to scold her, but no words came out.
"Heck yeah!" Amethyst exclaimed, confirming her theory.
Steven was in awe at the weapon. "This was my... mom's... and now Connie's?" He wasn't mad, he was pretty disappointed by how simple the cannon looked.
"Well, it's a gift for both of you." Amethyst shrugged, "You two can use it. But don't use it irresponsibly and destroy the town. Cause that will suuuck for Pearl to clean up that mess."
Out of the blue, Amethyst was pulled back by a red arm. Dragging her to a private corner, Ruby gritted her teeth as she glared holes in her.
"Where did you get that thing?" Ruby demanded quickly at a soft volume.
"I think... well, Greg had placed a note on that weapon... And it was the passcode for activating it... And, uh,after he died, we scavenged all the stuff in his garage... And I might've hidden this from you—" she whispered.
"Amethyst! We could've used that!" Ruby interrupted her.
She raised a brow. "For what?"
"As a weapon against Amber. Why didn't you tell us?" the hotheaded Gem answered exasperatedly.
"Well, I didn't think it would work. I mean, it took all of us to defeat Amber. Not like the light cannon is more powerful than us." Amethyst answered.
Ruby pinched the bridge of her nose. "Amethyst, the light cannon... it's the most powerful weapon on the entire Earth. It could've saved us a bunch of times, no matter how weak it is against the combination of all our powers... It's a valuable asset!"
"And that's why I gave it to them." the leader replied, thinking this would all make sense.
"The kids can't be trusted with this thing!" she retorted. The purple Gem realized the catastrophe that could emerge if the light cannon was with the kids, but shrugged it off again.
"It's okay. They don't know what the passcode is." Amethyst reassured. "Besides, Sapphire isn't against this."
"And you'd trust Sapphire—"
Amethyst stopped her there, her own cheesy smile vanished like it's never been there.
"No. Don't continue." Amethyst's eyes hardened, her tone serious now. "You've been avoiding her like the plague. The conflict between you two is over. The reason you two are apart is fixed; Steven's here with us, Lapis isn't the enemy. And you still choose to..." she shook her head disappointingly, "...go against her. For ten years. What is your problem?"
Ruby was taken aback by the sharpness in her voice.
"I've been thinking about things..." Amethyst's voice quivered. "...I-I had to say goodbye to the person I love. Probably forever, who knows? And I... still can't get over it. Sure, it's been two months, but it doesn't feel like it's going to change. But you? I don't get how you can go ten years without Sapphire after being fused with her for centuries. I... I've never fused with Peridot."
Ruby looked ashamed.
"I never knew how it's like to be with her. As our own creation. And I want to ask... have you ever felt that way towards Sapphire? Longing for the other? In those ten years of... separation?"
She didn't get an answer.
"If no, then thank you for revealing to me, that in my whole life... Garnet wasn't a thing."
Connie started unwrapping Lapis' present for her, with the blue Gem looking over her in excitement.
Connie's curiosity met an end when she thought of an even bigger question. She carefully pulled out a thin tree branch from the wrapping and the box. She stared at it intently, scratching her head as she wondered what could possibly have turned this brown piece of wood into a "wonderful" present?
"What is this?" she asked.
"It's a Gem wand." Lapis answered excitedly. Connie glanced up at her, slowly looking down at the branch in her hand.
Connie blinked, her thumb gently stroking the rigid material.
"It's a stick." she slowly corrected.
"Yeah..." the ocean Gem smirked, "Don't get too... attached to it."
"Ahh... haha... ha." she laughed, realizing the pun. "How long did it take you to think of that? Two hours?"
"Is nothing sacred anymore?" Lapis asked, bellowing to the heavens. She shrugged off the dramatic act, and pulled out a real case from her jacket. "You're lucky you're my student, or else I wouldn't have gotten you the real thing."
Lapis handed the gray case over to Connie, who opened it and took out the small staff. It looked like an actual wand. It had a silver handle, and a spiral that made its way to the tip of a comparatively giant golden star. The back end of the wand had a strip of gold hanging from it.
"Woah..."
"So, the Gem wand." Lapis looked down at her disciple expectingly. "Want to abuse its power in the Ancient Gem Arena?"
Connie thought back to the Gem arena she was talking about.
Flashback...
"Alright, this ancient place better not fall on us now." Lapis remarked, stomping on the tiled floor.
The two were up above the sky, on a hovering Gem arena. Clouds were everywhere, obscuring the sight of the Earth below them. The floor had giant tiles, there were pillars sprouted on the corners, and statues of popular Gem beings. The Ancient Sky Arena looked demolished, like it was a piece of a bigger arena. Nevertheless, the arena still had an edge that lead to stairs and seats. There were symbols on each pillar, stemming from some sort of alien language.
Lapis glanced at the stairs, which reached to the top, where there was an opening to the other side of the arena, where she knew a Warp Pad was stationed. But, above the opening, was a logo of the Diamond Authority. Four Diamonds, four different colors, four different rulers. One shattered, one exiled, two in operation. In total, three were still alive.
Somewhere in the universe.
"Woah, so coool!" Connie grinned, walking around the arena. She tried to express as much joy as possible. This was her first time here, and this was just after the first time she'd flown with Lapis. And just after the meeting she had with Lapis and only being her disciple for ten minutes. "I feel lightheaded."
Lapis crossed her arms.
"So, what do you want to learn?"
"Uh, fighting." Connie thought she should lessen the workload. "Or anything defensive... and offensive. So, uh, basically fighting."
"What kind of fighting?" Lapis instantly corrected herself. "No, wait, that's a bad question. I think I've got a skillset for you! With your small and nimble body, you could easily dodge oncoming attacks, so I should train you to dodge! And, maybe some basic fighting manuevers. Then, we get to sword training! Because if you're going on the offense, I think swords are your best option."
"Okay—" Connie went quiet when she saw Lapis snap her fingers and a frozen sword popped into existence. The Gem tossed it at her. "Woah!" The girl caught the ice sword in her arms, feeling peculiar that it wasn't freezing. Her eyes glimmered with fascination. "Magic..."
Her eyes brimmed with stars.
"Heck yeah!"
The Gem arena, the present...
"Alright, here we are. Didn't take too long this time." Lapis commented on her own flying abilities, with the ego she had.
Connie had changed into her training clothes, which consisted of a gray, upturned collar, sleeveless vest, a pair of baggy green pants, and brown boots. She waved the wand around like it was a sword, gripping it with two hands and clashing blades with an invisible figure.
"Connie," Lapis turned to her. "We're gonna make fire erupt from that stick."
The eleven year-old girl looked up at her. "Cool."
"So, the wand requires determination, which I assume you have." she playfully stated.
"The power of this holy wand fills me with..." Connie brought her arms up, "...DETERMINATION!"
"Yeah, yeah, determination, comic sans the font is best font, I'm the undying and you're the cool skeleton spaghetti, I know, I remember." Lapis reminded. "The Gem Wand gets its power from magical beings. There's a natural aura of wavelengths that you need to tap into to use that infinite pool of energy. This magical aura is everywhere, within living things and even inanimate objects. Once you put your head into the game, there's no stopping what you can do. And I assume you understand what I just said, because you've read fictional books."
Connie pointed the tip of the wand at a direction. Smoke started to simmer from the star, but that was it.
"This Gem Wand is a powerful weapon from the Gem wars. I would know. I saw it in action and scavenged it. Now the Crystal Gems are gonna finally know where it's been hiding." Lapis informed.
"You hid this from them?" Connie asked.
"Not really. They never found it. And since three weeks ago, I did." she stated, folding her arms. "Safe to say that the weapon's a little rusty. That smoke is probably the only thing that will ever come out of it, now that I think about it."
"But you said it gathers power from everything." Connie said, raising a brow.
"Yeah, it gathers power. Not energy. If we could charge this, then..." Lapis shrugged, not even bothering to finish her sentence.
In a few moments, the Gem Wand suddenly brimmed with energy, glowing like a heartbeat. Lapis' eyes widened, surprised that it was at full power.
"What..."
"I used the leftover juice to focus on electricity. Then I think the Gem Wand used that energy to create electric power, and absorbed that bigger power and reignited itself into a continuous flow of magic." Connie informed, waving the wand as it trailed strong light behind it.
"You are a genius." Lapis remarked, laughing lightly. "I don't know how that worked because by logical properties, that shouldn't have worked."
"So, whoever holds this had the utmost power in the Gem war? Wouldn't this be the weapon that Gems would try to get most? Why didn't the Crystal Gems try to find this?" she asked.
"Well, the Gem who held it made it so that any other Gem would have their hands melted from touching it. Gems tried it and had their hands permanently damaged. Thus, nobody wanted it afterwards." the water Gem explained, "But you're not a Gem, so I used that exception. And I only got a hold of it through water, but even then I couldn't use it. And Steven... uh..."
"He's cursed."
"Yeah."
"So... I could do anything with this wand?" Connie inquired of her.
"It has its limits." Lapis answered. "And you'd need to learn more stuff more the advanced controls. But you're already an expert at generating lightning, so I don't think you'll need anything else. Lightning is one of the most powerful attacks. Not gonna teach you water manipulation 'cause that's my gimmick."
"You mean, you don't know?" Connie retorted with a smirk.
"He-e-ey, I'm the teacher around these parts. You're the one who's gonna get schooled here, not me." the Gem bantered.
A/N: I introduce to you... magic.
You know how Rose Quartz is cursed never to use physical magic?
Uh, yeah. It's why Steven can't use the wand.
Poor guy.
Anyway, I wanna ask: What're you expecting to see from this story? 'Cause I was just sitting around, watching The Raid fight scenes, and I was wondering what do people look most forward to in the story? It's probably the action, because this story focuses on that. Or maybe the plot because you came here for the AU. Or the character interpretations or relationships! I dunno, I wanna hear it from you!
Breaking News: It's Connie's birthday, and her present is a magic Gem wand. It really is Birthday Magic!
Next Chapter's Title: "Rogue Time"
Matt Quantiny: "ODSLV LV WUDSSHG."
