1001 Nights in Their Garden
The Sixth Night- Cherry 2.0
Promises III
Author's Note: Apologies for more multiparters than ever. No update next week, instead I'll set to the much needed task of condensing down these multiparters to hopefully give new readers an easier go of it. Hope you like the first appearance of Cherry. I'm still not 100% on how I want to write her, so if they come off as a little much, please let me know. Thanks for reading.
I'm Spinel and I ran away from Steven. What does it matter? Pink's Pearl was a friend and my friend was taken from me. That was supposed to be about me, but it just wound up being about that miserable clod. She's the reason that I was never Cherry again.
I ran back to the only place that felt familiar. Fitting that after years of rottin' in that awful place I'd just crawl right back to where she left me. I expected that old place, the one of rotted vines, and so like everything else, I was disappointed. No, it was still alive.
The fountains bubbled away in course, and the trees and flowers were bright and well-watered. There was a new brass of Steven on the bridge now. It looked like he was trying to catch me if I should fall in my balancing act. I shouted, "You mellow-dramatic clod, ya probably get your kicks doin' this to me!" I wound up for the pitch, and my good arm became a spring. I was ready to knock his block off. My arm connected… but with no force.
I sighed, and put my arm around the oddly life-like statue. "Ya know, it was a pleasure, a real trip, when I had my injector. Yesterday I had you, and I had this place. What's funny is that I think I could've been happy. Don't ya think?" He wasn't being very wordy this evening.
"Oh, don't look at me like that." I said looking into his nondescript brass face. "You see I like being me… with… you…" I groaned and face palmed. "I'm Spinel your best friend, don't I deserve to be the center of your world? Just the idea of you giving other people your time made me wanna." I giggled playfully putting my arms up like a sparring Ruby, "rip 'em to bits heh… I'm supposed to be important, I'm supposed to matteh… ya know?" I made a pleading gesture. "I mean I'm not about to brag but I've entertained Diamonds on Homeworld, yes those Diamonds," I said to him, grabbing his metallic cheek.
Such a good listener I continued, "Pink and I, before we came here, we'd go to balls and even dance together. Once, I even did a routine that made Blue smile, of course that made her cry tears of joy which kinda flooded the palace. I tell ya Steven you shouldah heard those rubies as they panicked and sizzled.
The combination turned the palace into a sauna that didn't dry for weeks. Yellow and White were sooooooo mad!" I looked at my deaf and dumb companion again. It's good to have someone to share the good times with. Can't say I'd mind telling you about the bad times either."
Then there was a hand on my shoulder, "Well if it isn't the real deal." I said smiling. There was a glow, and that's when everything got a little silly.
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That's right ladies, gems, gents, everyone, everything on this dandy ball of mud. Your's truly is finally here to tell you this story as I'd have it. So sit right there, don't look at the blood curdling monster behind you, and be sure to leave your kudos, comment's, and reviews. Be sure to mention what a darling your friend Cherry is, lest I be as forgotten as Petey, lest I be as hopeless as mayor Dewey's reelection bid. Keep reading… you're my only hope.
Thought I'd begin my adventure by finishing off our last adventure with my better and lesser halves. I believe they were in the grim predicament of drowning. Tisk tisk. Didn't even bother to wear life jackets as the Kaiser's finest descended upon them in such a way as to make the latest Dog Copter film seem like midseason filler on Lil Butler. You may be asking how they get out of this mess…. Weellllllll…. Hmmh…
See there was this big wave, a big purply gelatine wave, and they were carried with that chest of macguffins to this big beautiful tropical jungle, you know, the one from chapter one. That's when this giant beast five hundred no thousand…. Wait just a tic'… Sorry sometimes I get just a teensy bit carried away. What can I say, that pink haired clod is always so scatterbrained. I suppose she can be a sweetie though, why else would Steven bother.
Where was I? Oh, yeah.
Steven felt time stop as the cart went over the docks. There was a moment of breathless, weightless clarity, and then the splash that made his world go black. He was out like a lamp, out cold, outta time, he was, scared that this would be the end. Scared for a million and one reasons, most of all though, he was scared that he could never see Spinel outside of the gloom and decay of the city that was an inferno behind him.
His friend, his partner, "my love." That was his last thought before drifting off into everlasting slumber. Everlasting? Fat chance, not if "his love" had anything to say about it. Love ya Steven but that was laying it on a little thick.
Spinel didn't care about the cold. She felt the same in summer as she did in winter. Her gem powers made her far more durable than her friend. He was bound by the particulars of his meaty, fleshy, and sometimes smelly existence, and she wasn't.
The fall had destroyed their cart and smashed it to bits. It was ironic that the horses escaped without a scratch. "Just too bad." Spinel would later recall, if there was a later. Smithereens flew in splashes, crashes and gurgles, as the business side of their partnership found itself pretty well sunk.
Durable enough to survive, she was, but it took considerable effort to get over the shock of the thing. Her thoughts rang like church bells in her gem as it glowed. She cast the light on a graveyard. In happy, pardon, happier times the city's harbor was revered as one of the best and deepest on the continent. Fifteen hundred years of history was now laid out in ghostly light.
Thousands of vessels, from wooden fishing-boats to iron-clad battle ships stretched in every visible direction. She felt lost, and she felt ruined. Then she saw two objects coming down in roughly the same area as she was. The chest and, "Steven!" She yelled, not that it did much good at this depth. The terrified pink noodle stretched for both.
She pulled Steven close. The gem felt the subtle, slowing rhythm of his poor heart, about to give out from the strain. Stars, Steven you can do this! You can't leave me here alone! You idiot I need you! She pressed her lips to his and the light grew brighter from her gem. Just before their minds formed into the delicious soup of consciousness that is yours truly, one thought went through her mind, impossible.
It is a fortunate thing that I inherited Bubblegum-for-Brain's powers, or that was one payday we'd never see. We formed a bubble around that blasted trunk. And rode the bubble to the surface. The look must've been obscene, childish and ridiculous. I had a real ball you might say. Bouncing across the water in leaps and bounds. We headed west on the sea, jumping hundreds of feet into the air. Moment by moment, we finally put the past behind us. I got a teensy bit carried away. It felt good to be so close to each other, to be each other, together.
We had sinking feelings all that day, we were running from a human tsunami on horseback, then we sunk into the harbor, and as you might imagine it ended with us all washed up. Our bubble burst and we split on a tropical island.
Wherever we were, it was beautiful, the setting sun could be seen over the crashing clear waves
Steven and Spinel were hurting from the days journey. Reluctantly, she crossed the sand and settled next to her, her… what exactly? "Hey Steven, you still on this side of the Pearly Gates?"
"Yeah Spinel, can I ask ya something?" He asked.
"Sure Stevie." She added, too tired to quip.
"Were we someone else?" He said, too tired to weigh the implications.
"We were." She said.
"And we used a bubble like a pogo stick across the waves?" He asked, coolly.
"Heh, yeah." She said.
"So, you saved my ass again?"
"Don't I always?" She giggled, even though it was all she could do to stay in physical form.
With great effort he reached out and grabbed her hand. "Will you marry me?"
"Thought you'd never ask."
End of Promises
Next Time- 7th Day