Written in tribute to the many wedgies of Cartoon Network original programming...
...even if Nickelodeon was the only channel that gave wedgies to ladies.
Happy New Year!
"So, did you two think it would all turn out like this?"
On the inside of an unusually large blue and red vertical stripped changing tent with a bare sand floor, Garnet of the Crystal Gems had asked this question of her longtime allies, companions, and teammates in motherhood, Pearl and Amethyst. While they were no longer the only original generation Gem rebels to walk free and sane on planet earth, this trio had something of an unbreakable bond beyond bonds between them as a result of the pivotal adventures they had all shared that went beyond even their joyful connections they had to the long lost comrades in arms that had unexpectedly come back to them after so many thousands of years, and the new friends and allies that had been waiting up in space.
With a slightly self-depreciating smile that now carried vastly less genuine self-loathing behind it, "The Original Free Pearl" as she blushed at being called by the new inhabitants of earth from time to time looked down at the sand floor and replied. "I... had stopped thinking about how things would change, after awhile. At first I wanted every day to be exactly like the last, but then I came to dread the same thing." Then, however, her smile got more vibrant and she threw up her hands in mock exasperation. "But, well, no, never thought it would all lead to this. I'm glad it did though."
"Even if I was the type to sweat this kinda stuff, I had no idea any of this was even possible until, like, ten years ago or something, it's crazy." Amethyst spoke up in a relaxed and intentionally cool attitude, leaning casually against a basic bench that the tent had been pitched around. The one eye not hidden behind her hair then narrowed in a coy fashion as she smiled and asked "Did you plan all this Garnet?" in a good natured tone of playful accusation.
Sitting down on her own bench and folding her arms behind her square hair, the powerfully built fusion closed all three eyes and had a small chuckle. "As much as I'd like to say I planned this all..." she said jokingly while crossing one leg over the other, before shifting tone to sound more earnest. "...future vision has its limits, for me and for Sapphire. I can look fairly far into the future via undisturbed meditation, but time has so many branches when you look that far head that its hard to do anything with it all."
"Hey, at least you found out it's possible." Amethyst commented reassuringly.
"Yeah." Garnet commented with a positive nod of her head. "Wouldn't have thought we'd get to this one without going through the Diamonds though."
The air in the tent ended up silent for a long moment, but before it could get uncomfortable Garnet slid into frame with a reassuring arm around the shoulders of her two close companions. "So!" She said, a cheery expression practically glowing in the fusion's three eyed face. Like the rest of her body, Garnet's face was left uncovered by her usual adornment, same as the rest of her body.
To her left and right, Amethyst and Pearl were similarly naked. For a golden thirty seconds, the requisite peep patch in the beachfront changing tent was a miraculous view to the three backsides of the core Crystal Gems in a rare, bare line. Despite the differences in scale seeming to downsize the pale and purple booties flanking Garnet's massive and muscular cheeks, the six hills still formed an impressive and colorful mountain range.
"This is finally our opportunity to reward ourselves and each other!" Garnet explained, pulling the two into a loose shoulder hug that drew three wide grins. "Today is our day to have fun, relax, let our wild sides out and our freak flags fly, blow off steam..." By now, the hug had broken apart, just in time for the fusion to swipe her star pointed shades into existence over her eyes while her expression turned slightly towards the mischievous. "...And finally get to play a little rough."
To punctuate this, Garnet licked her thumb and pressed it hard against the upper curve of one of her buttcheeks, and let the actual sizzle produced by this speak for itself. Pearl copied the maneuver but seemed briefly surprised that she had to supply the noise herself, trying and failing to whistle the sound of sizzling discreetly. Amethyst just gave Pearl a flat palmed slap on the ass, then pointed and laughed at the genuine jump she'd gotten from Pearl and the temporary red palm mark she'd applied to her flat behind.
"That's the spirit!" Garnet declared, and all three were quickly laughing together. "Crystal Gems, suit up!"
Against a now brightly colored and abstract background, the still naked Pearl took gorgeous ballerina leaps through a space much larger than the interior of the tent while faintly pink, practically see through ribbons of cloth whirled through the air to curl around her chest and waist. In a flash of light that gave way to a rain of rose pedals, Pearl was now clad in a pink two piece with an even spread of white dots across the wide but not particularly peaking landscape. The top was strapless and could only be undone by a small but mildly frilled metal buckle bridging the gap between both modest breasts, while the bottoms were wide cut and triangular but showed more thigh than both her friends had expected.
Amethyst's hair had abruptly become unwrapped and untamed like it had been years earlier, waving strong behind her left shoulder as she faced the camera with both arms just barely managing to shield her ample chest and plump hips from sight. Thick purple tassels flowing in from both sides and wrapped around her, and after a flash Amethyst was standing alone under a spotlight, both hands throwing up the horns as she yelled the sound of someone ready to party towards the ceiling, leaving every visual aspect of her swimsuit exposed: Both pieces of her bikini were solid back, high cut and made of straight narrow lines. A perfect balance of soft curves spilling out from the straining fabric triangles clinging to her breasts and butt made it clear that Amethyst was packing her curves loud and proud, while leaving an alluring amount to the imagination.
Garnet slid into frame against the brightly colored but geometric background while T-posing, motionless, still wearing her star shaped sunglasses but otherwise nude. As she descended from above, a sharp lined, straight cut and hard riding red and blue sling bikini calibrated to stretch over powerful muscle rose to meet her from below. The tight straps fit over the fusion's breasts and between her butt like smooth velcro, and became even more snug when Garnet grabbed the red and blue straps as they looped over her shoulders and pulled them full strength towards the sky, cool expression never so much as flinching.
When the flap to the sunlit outside was nearly blown clean away by the three stars of today's show emerging to the popping beach party happening under the watchful eyes of the great stone temple, a new ripple of energy rolled through the multi-colored crowd frolicking in the sun. Feeling invigorated by the warm solar glow as well as the eager crowd, the Crystal Gems had wordlessly agreed to strike a pose as they went through the flap, and all three were satisfied and grinning at the other two as they stood together.
Garnet took up the right half of the trio's tent framed formation, still taller than her two teammates after bending her knees but not so much that they would seem small in the wide eyes of beach goers gazing upon them. Pearl was the furthest out from the tent flap, her nose almost the tip of the three Gem formation as she crouched facing the crowd, letting her modest breasts hang low while her legs seemed ready to pounce. Amethyst, by comparison, had taken a spot behind Pearl to turn her back on the crowd to their unbridled excitement, as this demonstrated just how high above her plump purple buttcheeks the high cut black bottoms could climb.
Under the sun, a vibrant beach party full of New Age Crystal Gems was in full swing, and while the cheers of excitement that arose for the emerging icons of the revolution were thundering, they ultimately blended in seamlessly with the ongoing chatter and clatter made by the dizzying array of swimsuit clad Gems introducing themselves to the brighter side of life on earth!
The idea for this seaside celebration had first been proposed during a Crystal Gem brainstorming session ("Ugh... Steven was there for that one but as soon as this got proposed he was too deep into the discussion to just leave. He seemed uncomfortable." Pearl commented over the exposition with something between embarrassment and sudden regret) regarding how to best replace/co-opt the Diamond idolizing holidays and religious traditions still practiced by the recently liberated Gems now residing on earth, as well as devise new community celebrations that would embody the vastly more liberal ideals of the new governing body. ("I have submitted arguments for a bi-monthly Camp Pining Hearts marathon week 37 sessions in a row, and I will continue to submit my research until the logic of this is acknowledged!" Peridot added fervently.)
While the eventual plans for this festival underwent several changes, revisions, setbacks and breakthroughs before the Crystal Gem foundation committee had voted to begin organizing the event, the actual preparation and celebration had so far been smooth and passionate. The first Beach City Martial Sports Festival ended up being a variety festival/experimental beach party meant to try out numerous practices for promoting unity and dispelling class barriers among the New Age Crystal Gem population, introduce fun and relaxation to many Gems that had scant experience with such sensations, and spearhead a coordinated effort to keep underground shatter sports from establishing themselves on earth.
("Personally, I voted to name it Carnival Colosseum." commented Garnet.)
A proper, ornate colosseum facility carved from the imported stone of shattered worlds and large enough to host mock starship battles as well as the ritualistic slaughter of organic beasts by Gem gladiators was one of the signs of prestige that separated a colony from a proper settlement within the now dissolved Diamond Authority. While the Crystal Gems staunchly refused to allow such practices on earth, shatter matches between members of the disbanded military castes had become some of the most popular event in arenas both ornate and hardscrabble across the broken star empire for more than just the newly-introduced gambling involved: While they were all various shades of pro-Diamond and Gem-supremacist propaganda, the gruesome colosseum shows were some of the only forms of entertainment enjoyed by almost every class of Gem society, and for some types it was the only entertainment they were allowed to consume.
Another problem inherent in acclimating the New Age Crystal Gems to earth was that many of them still possessed highly aggressive mindsets and only knew how to respond to anything besides immediate obedience from their social inferiors by employing personal violence, which is a significant roadblock towards making Gem culture broadly egalitarian. It had been Amethyst who suggested that these Gems would need a non-lethal way to vent their aggressions and frustrations into physical action in order to keep social frictions from growing out of control, and it was also Amethyst who suggested that the solution was professional wrestling. ("She didn't explain it quite so... cleanly, but Amethyst was the one to cut to the heart of the matter and proposed an actual response." Pearl commented appreciatively.)
After a few committee meetings worth of modifications, the first Martial Sports Festival was fully realized! Invited to go wild, explore and express themselves with a literal free truckload of human swimwear, the crowds of Gems who accepted the broadly sent beach party invitations found themselves being graciously introduced to an all new style of roughhousing!
The bright, almost tropical sun illuminating a Peridot with a gemstone in place of an eye was abruptly darkened over the calculations she was scribbling in the sand as a Quartz warrior overshadowed the tiny technician. One muscular hand was able to get a grip on their bright red swims trunks from the back and hoist the short Gem to the sky, producing a passionate but nasally shriek
"OOOOooohhhh!" The Peridot squealed between puckered lips as her knees buckled and her face blushed. She thought to herself "The calculations were correct! I have mastered shape shifting!" with jubilant pride as her yell ended and mouth was left to hang open, trembling with satisfaction at the feelings rushing up from her carefully sculpted hard light nerves.
The Quartz giving the wedgie could only chuckle in satisfaction. "Enjoy the ride shortie, because it's just getting started!"
Gems were warned at admission: Participants could go as hard as they wanted in the various sand drawn wrestling circles and volleyball courts, so long as everyone involved agreed ahead of time and Gems be allowed to leave if they wish. With the only hard prohibitions to the event being shattering and forced fusion, an air of mischief and naughtiness quickly filled the sunny skies. Many of the attending Gems, including those of non-military castes, felt the thrill of being a champion gladiator!
While the warm sands of Beach City lacked the stepped stonework of the Homeworld constructed arenas, the range of powers and growing creativity of the Gems assembled provided for a variety of games to fill the flat coastland.
Though for many present, a complex game field was neither required nor desired.
"Alright ladies, since I'm sure you've been nothing but prim and proper dutiful soldiers since the last time I saw the whole Famethyst..." The Amethyst hero of the Crystal Gems spoke with obvious sarcastic sass as she swayed her hips, her one visible eye closed. The taller Amethysts and Jaspers had crowded into a circle around their earthborn icon, forming both the chuckling audience and the solid barrier to the approaching battle. "...Let's have a hands on demonstration!"
"Dream on short stuff! We've had a lot of time practice those suggestions of yours and put our own spin on things!" A short and round Carnelian with an energetic and mischievous grin said as good natured teasing, eager to scrap a little as a way of saying hello! The enthusiastic Off-Color had tried on a coconut bra with a grass skirt.
Standing alongside her fellow defective prison guard, Skinny Jasper had a more serious grappler's pose compared to her partner's teasing stance, but had an easy going smile on to offset the stance and complimented the smoothly fitting sports bikini she'd chosen. The soft shade of green on the vibrant elastic made a good complement to her orange stripes. "Last chance to back out." She stated with calm enthusiasm, already knowing what the answer would be.
Amethyst made a playfully mischievous but undeniably vicious grin. "Dream on!"
A regular sized and muscular Amethyst who had squeezed herself into a red lifeguard one piece blew a whistle and the battle began!
Carnelian and Jasper had a planned approach to split apart from each other when the match began in order to circle around Amethyst from both sides, but the rebel prankster was quick on the draw, jumping to her left low and fast to barrel towards the lanky Jasper with a low flying headbutt! Her target's arms had the potential to knock Amethyst into the sand before contact, but her reflexes simply weren't fast enough. As a result, Jasper's long and thin body was stretched over and reaching for the purple Gem's ankles at the moment her knobby kneecaps took a headbutt.
Amethyst righted her self to land on her feet once the torpedo headbutt had done its job, needing to skid on the sand to come to a stop in front of the cheering Famethyst crowd before she could turn to face her sparring partners.
Calling out "Timber!" and laughing until the bawdy chuckle turned into a high pitched yelp as a result of one of the crowd members slapping the experienced prankster on the butt from behind, telling Amethyst both to get back in the game and that her circle of rediscovered sisters were fitting in fast at this festival!
The cloud of sand Skinny Jasper kicked up when she landed face first on the beach cleared just as Amethyst walked up to her flatly splayed form, whistling innocently while one palm had a sizable pile of sand sitting on it. The under-muscled warrior Gem had a good natured grin on her face when it was pulled out of the sand that turned into a cross-eyed expression joined by a squeaky yelp when Amethyst's pile of coarse grains was dumped directly on Jasper's tiger stripped butt before the peeled back green bottoms with pulled hard and tight up her back. Amethyst with snickering with her one visible eye closed while yanking the elastic into a tight triangle between the squealing Jasper's moderate mound while one of the spectators abruptly stopped cheering to address the Gem next to her.
"I'll told you should have scrapped some of that sand from the human enclosure to dump down Holly Blue's pants!"
The hearty laugh Amethyst was having over the sand scratching tiger-colored Gem was interrupted by Carnelian eagerly rushing up behind her clique's champion to reach around the purple Gem's chest and squeeze tightly on Amethyst's breasts. "HAHA! Gotcha!" The squat red bundle of energy declared, unabashedly fondling and rotating the earth dweller's gemstone sheltering bosom in time with her squeezes and pinches, causing Amethyst's knees to quiver and her eyes to squeeze shut with a blush as the whole crowd cheered Carnelian's comeback. "Get ready for the most extreme titty twister in five galaxies!"
While twists and squeezes sending sharp pains through her boobs caused Amethyst to squirm, shiver and hoot from humiliation, she was to an extent playing it up. While Carnelian's form was impressive in terms of dealing out pain Amethyst could've escaped the hold whenever she wished. But since this was friendly, introductory roughhousing instead of serious wrestling the rambunctious retired ring star didn't mind letting the fam get some hits in so that everyone was having fun. The moves performed on her still stung, but the experienced horseplayer knew the exertion would melt into a full bodied but satisfying throb once the fighting spirit of everyone involved was exhausted, like the sort of pleasant sting of a bandaged knee scrape.
"Still, doesn't mean I'm gonna let her titty twist me ALL day long!" Amethyst thought to herself, ponytail whipping as her head rolled in response to the sharp sensations surging through her bosom. "I'll let them feel out some moves but I'm not giving my crown away without a genuine fight for it!"
Having decided that Carnelian's time was now up, Amethyst bent her legs and jumped backwards. While Carnelian clung tight with a painful squeeze that mashed both purple boobs together a dust cloud kicked up when the red Gem was pressed against the sand by the backside of her rival, and this sand storm only got stronger as the two short stacks had a rolling brawl towards the muscular edge of the ring!
Just as they were about to hit a wall made of hard light abs however, Amethyst seized control of the situation and jumped into the air in a foreword arc while dragging the screaming Carnelian (from a genuine mix of shock and excitement) to the sky with her by hooking both hers into Carnelian's armpits. The grass skirt had shifted and twisted in the brawl meaning that both red bubble cheeks went flying past the rowdy crowd and predictably got several strong handed passing spanks.
"HYPER BOMB!" Amethyst exclaimed with unrestrained hype as she reached the height of her jump. Skinny Jasper was still on her stomach squirming in discomfort from the extremely tight sand wedgie hiked up her butt, and attempted to crawl away faster when a shadow passed over her body, but there was no escape.
A flurry of pain stars stars, two matching winces, the harsh stretching of elastic along the half wincing, half impressed "Oooooh!" from the Amethyst and Jasper crowd and a whole lot of humiliation were the results of Carnelian being power bombed head first into the buttcheeks of her teammate. When the dust cleared Skinny had been pushed a few inches flatter into the sand, with the round red Gem's head jammed into the taller one's flatter buttchecks, kept in place by the green elastic stretched taut and tight over the smaller Gem and continuing on to atomic wedgie Skinny. The grass skirt had been thrown off the shorter of the two, but the coconut bra was now clasped to her even more red cheeks instead.
"Thank you, thank you, you're a beautiful crowd!" Amethyst answered to the cheering with a grin while making exaggerated bows to her circle of supporters and turning a few times to bow towards a fresh section. "If anyone else wants to try I'll be handing out monster wedgies all day!" Then, she walked up while dusting her hands and grinning with satisfaction. Without a word but with the aid of a spot of subtle shapeshifting to make her arms longer, Amethyst pulled both halves of the sliced fruit as high up as the strap clasp let them go.
The circling crowd cheered and hooted wildly after the coconut bra hung in place as tight wire stretched, then was let free to snap back!
While similar circular crowds of rowdy, mischievous Gems had gathered up and down the coastline to observe and cheer on similar sights of spontaneous roughhousing, the sunny beach had not entirely become a battlefield.
Gems walked about simply to experience the sensation of having material clothes resting over their self-sculpted bodies, getting the feel for the many new human-inspired senses and sensations they'd been taught how to shape shift into or out of. More conventional displays of body changing talents abounded for amusement, with a pair of Amethysts shifting into giant crabs to have an elaborate claw duel with one another being an early highlight to the party, as was a fused Emerald with a talent for taking vague requests from a crowd and improving on them. Volleyball games with tenuous connection to tournament rules but a lot of happy players formed and finished in the blink of an eye.
A pink-skinned Pearl with the newly practiced freedom to let her hair break the geometric mold and flow down her back wiggled and jiggled in her frilly yellow bikini while running, jumping and spiking back the ball in one such game. Her blue bikini'd Aragonite partner cheered the Pearl on and offered a high five as their opponents, a Ruby in a blue one piece swimsuit plus cowboy hat and a strongly built Amethyst in a yellow two piece, dove to intercept but couldn't make it. After doing a dorky little dance of success the victory serving Hippie Pearl walked off the court to claim her prize: A giggly Morganite sharing a knowing grin with the approaching Pearl while the rest of the volleyball court looked on knowingly as the tall Gem assumed the position and the game winner produced a ruler from inside her elbow mounted gemstone.
Closer to the sea some Desert Glass Gems were sculpting the sands into beautiful works of abstract art while a mixed crowd of Bismuths and Peridots combined their knowledge to create a stunning castle of sand standing at least twelve feet tall, and stable enough for a busy crowd of Pebbles to walk around inside, pantomiming an imitation of a Diamond court. In the skies above a Lapis Lazuli rested nude on a dense cloud of water she was controlling, looking carefully at a grid of twelve identical squares in the sand that had been made with quickly but precisely arranged sticks. Without warning, an ice tipped water hook launched like a harpoon from the underside of the cloud, spearing one of the sand squares and lifting the Cave Assault Ruby who had buried there high to the sky, before erasing the shivers caused by the ice hook wedgie with a kiss on the cheek.
Plenty of other Gems could be seen just talking, chilling, sunbathing and even barbecue grilling across the beach amid the improvised sand wrestling and other sports battles, though the collection of concoctions spread across the cooking grills tended to be... eccentric. A pair of Jaspers briefly had their contest who determine which of them possessed the most unbreakable back briefly interrupted by a blue hued Sapphire with blinding bangs running (though not as fast as she could have) across their zone in the sand, laughing heartily with a red bikini top flailing in her hand while being chased by a blushing, topless Ruby whose gemstone studded palm was raised eagerly despite her attempt at a sour expression. Both Jaspers hooted encouragingly at this display before resuming their contest, and the running duo swiftly left the light of the sun, the Sapphire exaggeratedly huffing in exhaustion as she leaned against a wooden pillar holding up the floor of an elevated pier-like structure above the dry sand.
"What's the matter, can't run anymore?" Ruby, wearing simple red swim shorts and still no top, asked with teasing menace while stepping deliberately through the support beams until she found her target and her lips dried a little. Sapphire was laying chest down on the sand but very clearly now topless herself and also missing her bottoms, which became very obvious as she swooned with exaggerated melodrama.
"I suppose I can't run forever..." She said with a smiling roll of her eye, which was now free to look at Ruby due to Sapphire using her partner in fusion's own swimsuit top to tie her bangs out of its way. "...I have decided to give myself up before things get worse, and accept the punishment due for my crimes. Show me no mercy, for I expect none at all!"
Sapphire's dramatic statement lost a bit of pacing as a result of Ruby drooling in open mouthed silence at her recently (well, from a Gem's perception of time at least) married wife, but she was quick to get back into the flow of the game and step up with a crack of her knuckles. "Oh don't worry Sappho, you are gonna get the punishment you so richly deserve and a whole lot more..."
Carefully placed break up the wrestling spots were small sized tiki huts, beach tents and elevated pier-patios where Gems could enjoy the slower paced comforts of earth or pick an extreme wedgie out of their ass without fear of a surprise attack aggravating a delicate situation. An energetic Lapis with a nice expression was even mixing drinks at one such relaxation spot, blushing in response to the enthusiastic belch a Topaz trooper with a bra tied around her square forehead released after down an experimental mix of grape soda, carefully dripped lime extract and industrial rust remover.
Next to her was a groggy eye'd Rose Quartz, freed from her status as a scapegoat and eager to enjoy the experiences of the little blue planet so inexplicably woven into the destiny of her gemtype... though perhaps drinking rubbing alcohol straight from the bottle wasn't the best test drive of her human inspired digestive faculties. Especially with the rhythmic slapping/pounding noises that kept stinging at her now painfully sensitive hearing from below the floorboards of the elevated seaside bar.
In another of these rest zones, a certain green skinned gremlin regaled an eager crowd of similarly short gemtypes with dashing tales of her inspired leadership as the strategic mastermind behind the Era II Crystal Gem Liberation Front while leaning back in a comfortable chair in the corner of a wooden patio.
The title was, as Peridot described it, a designation of humility. For while she still would describe herself, only when prompted of course, as the leader and mastermind behind the salvation of Gemkind and dissolution of the Diamond Authority, maturity and character development did eventually prompt her to cede credit where credit was due to the original founders of the movement as well as the human hybrid Steven Universe. To him, the metal controlling Gem freely gave the other half of the credit for transforming the old movement and expanding the anti-authoritarian philosophy into its present day, victorious institution.
"...and that was when I figured out that whatever your ideals are, you should cultivate them inside yourself instead of projecting them onto others." Peridot explained almost sagely, eyes tilted wistfully towards the sky behind her yellow shaded sunglasses. In addition to wearing a basic green two piece bikini to the day at the beach, the technician had also thrown on a predominately orange Hawaiian shirt. Despite the prominent S on the neck tag of it the cloth still flowed down her hips, leaving the dull shaded undercurve of her bikini bottoms the only part of said swimsuit that could be seen even fleetingly as she leaned back from the table after taking a long sip of her drink through an elaborate bendy straw. Then, with a mischievous snicker, she added "Then I called her a clod!"
Among these temporarily assembled tourist fixtures, one stood unique in its ability to serve anything in stock to a regular human and not kill them. It had been intentionally placed closest to the city by design, so that anyone who walked up off the street for a bit of quick boardwalk food wouldn't need a hospital visit. While the faintly yellow hued Watermelon Tourmaline delegated to play the role of a street vendor while a beach party was going on would normally be seen as having gotten the short end of the stick, the gleefully retired custom cut addition to the Homeworld Sciences Sphere was as over the moon as her fellow New Age Crystal Gems, despite her slightly sour natural expression.
Tourmaline adored living on the planet of humans, having discovered a natural curiosity towards the culinary arts during an early integration class. It felt so satisfying to her, finely tweaking and customizing the limits and agents of chemical concoctions so they would enrich living things, a vastly more complicated, intriguing and satisfying project to her than the blunt industrial work she had been originally cut for. Preparing food for her fellow Gems here on earth reminded her of that work sometimes, due to their generous palettes unfortunately, but she had found a satisfying lot in life.
Well, most of her fellow Gems.
"Mmm, mhm... what vintage did you say this is?" Pearl asked in between smacking her lips while pulling a wooden cup full of wine away from her lips.
"Two centuries exactly." Tourmaline answered during a slow point she'd previously occupied by experimenting with hot dogs and condiments. "Via a localized time acceleration mechanism, of course."
"Of course. I was wondering where that got to..." Pearl answered, somewhat distractedly before downing the rest of it and setting the cup aside. "Not your most amazing work but it still tops slurping up engine oil. It's good warm though. Lots of wine doesn't warm well." She critiqued casually but in a friendly tone, if a little distant. "Sorry, I'm more drinking to calm my nerves more than for flavor today, I should have asked for the cheaper stuff."
"If the drink met its specifications then it wasn't wasted." Tourmaline replied with a quiet but sincere smile of satisfaction. The Pearl in front of her was one of the most discriminating and taste sensitive beings she had ever worked her culinary passions for, far tougher a customer than even the most refined human she had undertaken research projects for. As a result, Tourmaline found it intensely satisfying when a creation of hers elicited Pearl's approval. "Besides, it's not often that I can chat for so long with a fellow Pro-Zero Eternalist."
Taller than a Pearl, shorter than a Garnet, rail thin compared to a soldier caste and sporting a wild crown of bleach white hair pointing towards the sky, Watermelon Tourmaline found the one piece black swimsuit she was wearing to feel supremely liberating compared to the laboratory protective gear she had spent a large percentage of her existence clad in, but which hadn't been airtight secure enough to prevent the vibrant, natural color lines on her body from muddying like ash and blending together in dull patches over her millennia of working with corrosive industrial chemistry. Reading the mood of the OG Crystal Gem that the New Age convert had befriended, the volunteer bartender readied Pearl a small shot glass made of solid ice and filled with something potent.
"It'll gradually melt in the sun and water down the drink. Swig it when you're ready to go." Tourmaline explained, and Pearl swiped up the glass before indecision could set in, downed it in one, and slammed the glass back down to the counter before standing up and walking back into the warzone, vowing to see her goal through. With a coy smile growing on her face and a fresh line of party animal Gems coming in from a round of shapeshift tag growing in line across her counter, Tourmaline realized once again that she hated to see Pearl go but loved seeing her walking away.
Others who sought a break from the sky up above or their bottoms being snapped relied on shade and secrecy instead of sanctuary. The caves and boulders of the seaside cliffs were not off-limits for roughhousing, as was freshly evident by the ever changing array of losers and short draws who wound up being hung from a cliff scrag by their underwear. Given the public nature of the rest areas however, it was the only place on the beach itself that offered isolation.
And that isolation, away from the partying crowds, was exactly what Purple Sapphire wanted most at the moment.
Having floated herself a short distance above the sand to snuggle up on a flat space of cliff and watch the ocean horizon, hair pulled back from her one eye in order to be styled into round buns while her dark purple body was clad in a blue and yellow stripped old timey bathing suit, laying against a flat cubby on the beach's stone heights that offered an excellent view of the ocean horizon. Once one of the most respected and reliable seers in all the Diamond Authority with her a personal palace on Homeworld itself, Purple's millennia old power base and career of accomplishment had been irreparably cracked when the slew of predictions she made promising the eternal rule of the Diamonds and the total annihilation of the planet she was now sitting on happened to fall immediately prior to Pink Diamond's heralded return to the capital. Needless to say, her position had crumbled beneath her and now she was simply watching the waves go by on planet earth.
Purple Sapphire hated every moment of it.
She hated the planet's natural sun and how its unregulated boiling could not be dimmed in response to the irritation of her beautiful eye to the future, she hated the tall, smelly apes who walked around on it, making disgusting noises and consistently defying all logical behavioral projections, she hated having to smile and feign obedience to a half-breed Diamond who asked and requested and compromised with Gems to get them to do things, instead of bending them to one superior vision. She hated having to treat other types of Gem as equals to herself, when the brilliance of a properly cut Sapphire was, in Purple's mind, second only to the Diamonds themselves
That was the special position Purple Sapphire and her fellow seers had held in the Diamond Authority, she had realized after centuries of scheming and political power climbing to reach the honored position of Sapphire Supreme: The Diamonds were will and control made manifest and through their unique powers the great hordes of Gemkind could be shaped, molded, directed into acting in concert to a single vision, and through such power the stars themselves could be used as sculpture material. "But they have all the power... and none of the mind necessary to change the cosmos."
Purple Sapphire had gained her eye opening first look into the Diamond's instabilities from the indirect result of a personal vision centuries ago. While attempting to scry out the best course of action to discredit a starship captain as part of a labyrinth scheme to gain leverage over a long since harvested Emerald fleet commander the most reckless, high risk and blatant move against the captain turned out to be the most likely to succeed, and a few decades later, Purple had found out why while going over sealed records she had inherited access to with a recent promotion: the political officer stationed aboard the captain's ship who would have uncovered Purple's plot had been blown up via communicator by Yellow Diamond when something they said in a mission report had upset the supreme commander of the military sphere.
"That is why we were the second most important, second most celebrated gemtype in the Diamond Authority." The former Sapphire Supreme pondered bitterly, mulling over familiar thoughts. "The Diamonds are strength, but they were always volatile, self-centered. We Sapphires gave the Authority its vision, its glory, and all other Gems are merely physical instruments to construct that vision. But we have lost that connection to the Diamonds, and I am seeing startlingly few ways to get it back, no certain paths..."
After letting that weigh on her mind a little bit, Purple Sapphire let out a sigh as her swimwear reshaped itself in a dazzle of light. While someone of her high caste was not unfamiliar with decorating herself in hard matter ornaments on top of shapeshifting to create an elaborate outfit, she was reluctant to wear the swimsuit she'd been offered and usually shapeshifted to suit her purpose. Most of the time she still needed pull-able material over her full purple body to avoid suspicion and reluctantly left herself vulnerable, but enjoyed the opportunities she'd had to make herself only appear to have physical bottoms, giving her an invisible advantage in the crowds.
Now, however, she needed to look casual more than ever. "Good thing a planet this simple requires no great effort to understand in totality after a week of planetary and cultural analysis." Based on this information gathering, Purple Sapphire had envisioned the ideal blending in outfit of both human and gem beach scenes, and could simply will her hard light outer shell to arrange itself and make it real. Which she did, right before floating back down to the sand.
The result was a flat, broad and very modest light pink top piece with an enthusiastic yellow star splashed across it and a poorly fitting, male-cut speedo. "I'm basically invisible in the crowd like this, so I should get to the meeting point early." Purple muttered aloud, before gliding around the rockier edges of the beach until she reached a heavily rock surrounded tide pool. Ironically, her "inconspicuous" beach outfit stood out more since of course no one was using a portion of the beach so rock studded for athletic contests. Not after the comprehensive and vivid lectures on separating fact from propaganda when it came to the physiological health and capacities of the solid stone that was the true Gem creature that Amethyst hosted all the time.
After just enough waiting to annoy her, Purple Sapphire received her delivery. Carefully guided by a subtle, seemingly intelligent current running sideways down the coast before washing into this tide pool was a simple, nondescript and watertight wax glazed brown wrap package. After contemplating it for a moment with small grin, the seer stowed it in her gemstone, mounted proudly on her back.
"Time to meet the perfect champion..." The scheming Sapphire muttered in satisfaction as she began the journey across the sand to the towering stone statue. While some of the deposed seer's future sight was committed to helping her weave through the fields of hot sand, most of it was being used to peer ahead at the approaching tournament so the plan she was devising could be tweaked and tuned for the highest probability of success.
As a downside however, this meant that she was completely blindsided when a blue blushing, pink bikinied Pearl with a goofy expression on her face came racing across the sand on her glimmering pale twig legs and dove straight for Purple Sapphire's speedo! The sound of elastic stretching and a cultivated accent of superiority crumbling into a surprised squeal filled the air when the prank target was stopped her target in their tracks by her swimsuit being stretched straight back to reveal a good look at Purple's small, tight butt before she was lifted off her stubby legs when the black elastic was hauled to the sky!
"WEDGIE!" Pearl yelled out with excitement, the giggles bubbling behind her words almost sounding drunken as the eons old straight lace indulged in an uninhibited act of pure naughtiness. The original Crystal Gem was almost embarrassed by how amusing she found Purple Sapphire's squeaky yelps to be as the black elastic of her ignorantly selected bottoms split her tight butt like a taut bungee cord. Wide eyed and cackling at how satisfying it was to feel the secret conspirator wiggle and wince in her grip, Pearl made the wedgie atomic before dropping her prey to the sand and running away laughing, capping things off with a crisp and loud parting slap to Purple Sapphire's severely split butt.
Letting out a very harsh and frustrated growl and she pulled herself up and pushed her hair out of her face, Purple Sapphire's sore feelings of frustration only intensified after she plucked the stretched speedo off of her head and locked over her shoulder, confirming that the agitating grind of the wedgie she'd gotten had come from a handful of sand Pearl had poured into her buttcheeks just before the liftoff that had trapped the hot grains tight with stretched elastic. "How did she...?" Purple couldn't help but mutter aloud, still sounding like a sore loser grump as she tried to pick her fierce wedgie with a thumb and a scowl.
At least until she began to feel the heat, that is. Then she sounded like someone whose ass was on fire.
The first warnings sign that Pearl had added just a pinch fire salt into the grains of the wedgie on the beach was a thin trail of smoke rising out of the Sapphire's sand splattered butt, which was quickly joined by a faint sizzling noise and a rapidly brightening blush under her eye. While the isolation of the stretch of beach she had visited could have protected her from the public humiliation of this prank, Purple Sapphire ended up losing this security in a heat clouded haze as she raced across the beach and through the energetic crowds at a rushed, awkward and hilarious looking wedgie waddle, cheeks split, burning and clapping in time with her shrieks of humiliation all the long way, to the extreme amusement of the rowdy crowd.
On the bright side, Purple did reach her meeting ahead of schedule.
All of the stands, tents and shacks that erratically vanished and reappeared across the brightly lit beach day seemed humble when compared to the large sun bleached wood and faint pink stone (moved to and carried away from the temple a mere four days in the future by imported from Homeworld matter compression technology that made transporting heavy piles of stone as easy as picking up a pebble) arena complex assembled before the great fusion statue, a vast but temporary expansion to the homely beach house situated there.
In terms of construction, of architectural style and design the whole thing was a shockingly profane beacon of visual scandal. More than one member of the deposed aristocracy who walked through the entrance arch realized that such a building would have been blasted from orbit under the old regime enforced culture. The military gemtypes tended to get a bawdy chuckle out of every fourth piece, usually from the raunchier art instillations. Peridots, Bismuths and the many Gems who had taught themselves engineering appreciated the variety of subtle breaks from Homeworld traditions that took sharper eyes to notice.
The wide gate all the Gems first entered the sports arena through carried straight on into the stands but was dotted on both sides with more narrow, dead end offshoots with various arts and experiences being hawked by a mix of enthusiastic Gems and human experts. Inside one of these, a replica gallery dedicated to the wide variety of art produced by the planet's indigenous sapient species, a Ruby was carefully evaluating two pieces put next to each other, hand tapping chin while her narrowed eyes darted back and forth predictably.
To one side was a bronzed over Grecco-Roman replica with the bright clay color patterns restored with the replication process, while the other target of Ruby's gaze was a simple poster on the wall. Unlike the collection of human public announcements on display with the minute instances of gemstone symbolism present in them explained by nearby plaques so as to impress upon them the weight gemkind had placed upon human history, or the more recently Gem made posters in various styles dotting the more public areas of the complex used as... decoration, this one simply framed an arrow pointed down at a trash can near the door, with the stylized face of an Amber gem type smiling with approval over the can.
The Ruby hummed approvingly. "Whoever this Human Being truly is, the raw width of their talent is undoubtedly impressive."
Behind her, the four other Rubies in her squad had begun fighting each other over a four player game of Blokapon Czardom, a multiplayer party game where up to four friends go on a humorous RPG journey through a satirical interpretation of generic Victorian fantasy, that they had settled down to play on one of the exhibit's video game consoles when their leader set out on being an art critic. One Ruby was uselessly garroting the other with the cord of her own controller while the other two Rubies stood on opposite sides cheering the fight on.
At the end of the double wide hallway was one of many entrances to and from the stands, where more Gems were fit into less space by completely abolishing sectional quality differences among the seating. Because Gems came in so many shapes and sizes the sharply escalating bleacher levels were wide and mostly flat save a provided bench that ran the length of each layer. Gems were free to bring their own chairs or towels and arrange themselves as they wished.
The only thing resembling an exclusive viewing suite was a rectangular wood cabin constructed atop the circular stone stands. Rather than serving as the peak of the social pyramid however, this was the working location of the tournament's two announcers and a revolving door of techies, message couriers and refreshment suppliers in their combined effort to bring fast paced commentary to all in attendance.
The sheer shock at the blatancy of it all, even among the many Gems present who admired the break from tradition, caused the interesting subject matter of the carvings, friezes, frescos and posters that decorated the arena building's walls to skate by below notice until well into the grand event.
The battlefield of the arena complex was downright simple and traditional compared to all this, particularly since it would be disassembled completely instead of continuously adjusted for a different event once the tournament was over. For the most part, it was simply a flat surface of sand that the stone stands circled around, though a square shaped vein of carefully arranged black sand near the edges of the round space marked the edges of the actual combat stage, the middle space against the curves of the audience being the realm of refs, officials and workers in the process of rushing from one ground level entrance to the opposite one across the arena, where the contestants prepared and would emerge on schedule from.
For the first few hours of the beach party the temporary arena was closed, but at a specific time many of the partiers had intently memorized, the gates opened and the stands quickly filled. Matches would happen on and off for the rest of the day, timing breaks taken between matches and audience members free to come and go from the stadium to observe whatever combination of battles they wished, though there was no formal reserving of seats. A majority of the festival patrons filed in for the beginning of the tournament, but would recede, ebb and flow like the tide for the rest of the day until the dedicated core that spent the entire event in the arena were rejoined in full for the final rounds.
The stand stuffing crowd came in a riotous diversity of colors and forms that glittered under the sun like a vibrant rainbow sea, flowing and flushing over the stands as they all found their places. A flock of nested themselves on the highest ring of seating, a safe but curious distance from the infamous Off-Color space pirates who were easily noticeable just from the massive form of Fluorite, the caterpillar fusion having curled up behind her fire forged friends at the top of the arena so she could watch the tournament through opera glasses without blocking anyone's view. A flight capable Aquamarine had swooped down from a higher layer of seating to a lower one to steal a bag of fries from a curios Topaz, only for her escape to be cut short when she flew sideways into the breast of a bikini clad Emerald fusion that bounced the thief away simply turning to see what had bumped into her. Elsewhere in the crowd, a calm looking Jasper with short, straight hair carried a pair of Rubies to their seats. Both of the small soldiers were hoisted by their britches the whole way, which one of them seemed to be enjoying much more than the other.
The one thing all these Gems had in common however was the electrical tingle of anticipation. Many in the crowd had gotten a personal taste of the kind of combat that would take place in the first ever Crystal Gem Martial Festival Tournament, and now they were all eager to see what the experts of this earth style could do.
By the time the arena's sound system crackled to life with all the static you'd expect from a setup made of various 2nd and 3rd hand rock concert equipment pieces tied together with frayed wires the crowds had largely settled in and stopped flowing, idle chatter quieting down in anticipation. Once the interference cleared, the voices of a familiar pair of Zircons could flow out from the electric system's hub of the wooden cabin resting on the highest layer of the arena.
"Welcome one and all to the fantastic Crystal Colosseum here on bright and beautiful earth! We hope everyone present is enjoying the first ever Martial Sports Festival and for all those out there watching, the Crystal Gems hope you enjoy the show and can make it to the next one!" The Blue hued Zircon announced to the crowd, her tone lacking the nervous fear of shatter that had filled her at that fateful trial. Even the surprise presence of the Yellow Zircon from that same event couldn't spoil the former's mood, and the two monocle wearing co-commentators were working together well enough so far.
"The event that you are watching live or viewing by broadcast is brought to you by the Crystal Gem Coalition for Culture; Together we can be strong in the real way!" Yellow Zircon continued the introduction, giving a straight faced and enthusiastic endorsement of the new regime and only wincing silently at how tacky the experienced flatterer thought the slogan she's been given sounded for a moment.
The eventual fates of his one time defense/prosecuting attorneys were some of the few guilty weights possessing the curtesy to pull themselves off of Steven's conscious without inflicting any additional trauma to the half-human. Following the disastrous trial where nothing true was uncovered but which did result in a human child being murdered by a police robot both members of the legal caste had been slated for transportation to a maximum security prison camp. Before that could happen though a political revolution swept the stellar empire in the blink of an eye from the perspective of a Gem. When both of them regenerated from their post-trial poofing, the first thing they heard about were the sweeping amnesty decrees that they qualified for.
Both immediately went their separate ways of course, and had only reunited on earth for this festival by chance. Blue Zircon had gone straight into the Crystal Gems as soon as she got all the details on where her amnesty had come from, and in the ensuing years had made many valuable contributions to the daunting task of reforming Homeworld's draconian legal code into something more egalitarian. Yellow on the other hand had immediately seen the writing on the wall and left the legal sphere entirely, having a hunch that her millennium long perfect record of successfully convicting political undesirables in show trials wouldn't be worth much in the new way of doing things. She had formally joined the Crystal Gems upon arriving on earth only a week ago, having spent the intermit period as a wandering frontier gunslinger.
"The rules of the tournament are simple!" Blue Zircon began explaining to the crowd as the finishing touches were put on backstage for the opening match. As she spoke, Yellow Zircon projected a holographic image from her monocle to provide an accompanying visual. "Each match is a one on one duel of physical prowess and mental cunning, with full use of hands, feet and innate powers permitted but direct contact with gemstone weaponry is forbidden." The visual explanation had begun with a one shade outline of a short red Gem with a square head, with checkmarks appearing near her fists and feet but an X near her shoulder mounted gemstone. "Victory is achieved by ripping the bottom piece of the opponent's swimsuit, forcing them to submit or by... poof."
A small flustered blush had gotten on Blue's face when she glanced over to trade off the exposition to her co-comm, only to finally notice the details of Yellow's display. The minimalistic outline of a Ruby was now joined by another vague outline of a Gem, taller than the Ruby but with a very distinct, moon shaped profile. Despite the height disadvantage, the one dimensional Ruby was the one demonstrating how to win one of these contests, tugging at the back of the taller figure until they collapsed. With a small smirk, Yellow Zircon turned off her projected imagine and launched into her half of the explanation, leaving Blue fumbling a few second behind to projecting the tournament bracket from her own monocle.
"Each round is single elimination! Winners move up, and the defeated go back to partying on the beach!" The former prosecutor explained as Blue Zircon adjusted to imagine to show a list of times. The tournament would be running for most of the day, provided everything stayed on schedule. "In the end, only one will be left standing! A true champion among Crystal Gems and the recipient of an illustrious prize!"
Inside the hallways and passages of the stadium complex the persistent hum of preparation work had finally dried up as the grand event was now in motion, the only consistent sound being the dulled roar of the crowd that echoed from the open air section. While this did mean Purple Sapphire could complete the last stretch of her badly wedgied, bowlegged waddle to her destination in isolation, the earlier humiliation of the beach partiers cheering and catcalling the seer as she streaked past burned enough for an eon. And the fire salt buffed sand that was still stuck by her tightly pulled speedo made the burn a physical sensation as well as an emotional one.
Muttering grumpily and distracted by the burning need to pluck this chaffing elastic string from her butt, Purple Sapphire only noticed she'd reached her destination when one of the Gems she had come to meet called out a greeting to her. "Hey Purp, glad you could make it. Whatsamatter, going native already?"
Waiting for the fallen head on the Ministry of Divination was a lanky green Rhodonite leaning against an inconspicuous corner wall, clad in simple pink swimsuit bottoms and a distinctly human black leather jacket with a bright star on the back, the symbol of her new organization. Formerly a quartermaster of little importance in the security division of some far away colony world, Rhodonite had embraced many Crystal Gem and human values since the beginning of Era III, but her loyalty to the new regime was no more sincere than Purple Sapphire's.
The shorter Gem scowled her single eye in response to this greeting, which only made Rhondonite's sleazy smile wider. "I'd sooner be harvested than go even an inch native to this barbaric planet." The Sapphire answered, before letting out an involuntary shiver as the sand rubbing her ass raw shifted uncomfortably.
"You sure about that? Cause you are looking like a bonafide earthling nerd in that wedgie, and I think that sand has gotten a little bit deeper than an inch..." The Rhondonite responded, grin getting wider as she chuckled at her own limit pushing.
"Do you want to get paid or not!?" Purple Sapphire spat venomously. Despite the both of them being self-styled wolves in sheep's clothing, the two were not on the same side. Green Rhondonite had joined the new movement in order to secure herself a minor administrative position that she could use to accumulate bribes and kickbacks for herself after falling in love with the countless luxuries human society had to offer to anyone who could afford them, while Purple was aiming for something much more ambitious and hoped to one day throw off her lambskin entirely.
"Yeah, I do. Where's the dough?" Rhondonite asked back, rubbing her thumb and index finger together. With a roll of her eye Purple Sapphire retrieved both the brown wrapped box from inside her gemstone, as well as a plastic sandwich bag containing a small fortune in crumpled, suspiciously stained American currency. Purple still shuddered every time she saw the symbol of her illustrious Diamonds defiled by its place on the back of such a base, organic social mechanism but this time Rhondonite didn't make a crack about it, being focused on counting it all.
"Half now, half once I get the word you delivered it properly." Purple Sapphire said firmly when Green Rhondonite raised at eyebrow at her when the count was finished.
"Fine, fine. Not like I won't be able to spot you from a mile away hot buns!" The leather jacket wearing Gem conceded before standing up straight from the wall, grapping the brown paper box and walking away, only pausing to shout "Bitch better have my money!" over her shoulder before leaving the scene.
Purple Sapphire was left clearly grumbling with annoyance at all this, but had to concede that her plan was still working. Green Rhondonite, as distasteful as Purple found her and the distinctly human strain of greed she had developed, was the only Crystal Gem with the level of backstage access needed to make this delivery who was also pliable enough to do it no questions asks.
Initially, Purple Sapphire had simply refused to sneak past the (not terribly attentive, all things considered) Famethyst Amethysts that had volunteered to work as bouncers for the contestants in waiting due to her own pride ("I'm not an Obsidian after all...") but given that she was now the perfect picture of a huffy, prideful shortstack who hadn't learned any kind of attitude adjustment from the first monster wedgie the seer was more happy than she'd care to admit at being able to pass the job off the Rhondonite. The twin sensations of seeing her secret weapon moving to where it needs to be and finally feeling the sand and latex pried all the way out of her ass almost left Purple Sapphire feeling happy.
Almost.
"Hey girl, what's the matter? You get lost looking for the bathroom?" Asked a deep voice with a barely contained chuckle. A chill went down Purple Sapphire's spine as she realized she'd zoned out a little while picking her butt after concluding the business deal, giving a bored pair of full sized Amethyst guards the chance to stumble across her while doing a final check of the back stage before heading to the stands.
While their intentions were perfectly friendly and helpful, the two still carried the squealing Sapphire back to the front by her already stretched out speedo.
Back in the sunlit arena of the stadium complex, it was finally time for the grand event to begin! The mounting buzz of excitement that had filled the air above the packed stands was silenced in a moment by the deep ring of a struck iron gong. The chatter of speculation became a tense silence of expectation. Not even the first heavy foot falling on the other side of the black sand square caused the crowd to erupt, still breathless (even though Gems didn't need to breathe) at the sight of a tall figure in an all covering, hooded and pink boxing champion robe striding out to the battlefield.
"Who could it be...?" Yellow Zircon speculated softly into her mic, moments before the robes launched to the sky and the mixed crowd of revived Crystal Gem veterans and New Age converts erupted in applause at the buff and burly body underneath it.
"It's Bismuth!" Blue Zircon announced with flustered excitement as the dreadlocked weapon smith basked in the applause and waved to a few familiar faces in the crowd! "The architect who dared to break tradition is our first contestant!" At what seemed to be an ideal, golden moment the forger of arms flexed both guns in the bright sunlight, proudly putting her strong and sturdy body on open display
The tightly clinging apron that already left little of Bismuth's sculpted form to the imagination had been forgone completely in favor of something even smaller and tighter fitting: a simple, sharp lined v-cut swimsuit bottom that rippled with the same vibrant shades as her gemstone was all Bismuth was clad in for the opening bout, and if this bothered her in the slightest she wasn't showing it. What seemed like miles of sculpted gray muscle were left on display by this skimpy attire, causing the small pair of pink tits she had shapeshifted for the occasion to draw the eye. They were small but very smoothly round in very sharp contrast to the rest of Bismuth's hard edged body, and almost seemed to tilt towards the sunny sky resting atop her pectoral muscles.
"Well, ahem, she's certainly packing some seriously impressive arms to the battle today..." Blue commented while eagerly accepting a paper fan from an Aquamarine aid to cool herself off with, clearly catching the vapors from all the hard light mass and barely clothed ass standing in the sand arena. To the Zircon's side, her Yellow counterpart was leaning on her elbows while casting her co-calm a wry expression, though a blush of her own was faintly visible above her slightly smug grin.
"Don't sublimate in your shorts too soon Blue." The former prosecutor remarked teasingly, causing the defending attorney's crush blush to blossom into a full red cloud of humiliation. While the comment had intentionally been caught by the mic, Yellow's next exclamation was directed into the instrument with much more obvious purpose. "Bismuth is no doubt mighty, but can her old school tactics stop the new age of beach fighting? Let's find out! Please welcome, all the way from the Zooman Memorial Station... BLUE! HAM!"
The overall enthusiasm the crowd had for the tall and muscular (but not quite perfect) Jasper who stepped into the arena was overall lower than the reception Bismuth had got, but the screaming enthusiasm and support that a specific section of seating had for the newcomer more than made up for it. The entire Famethyst (including two security guards who'd rushed back at the last second) had broken off from the fun on the beach to show support for the strong sister of the group that had elected to enter the tournament. Despite her also being entered in this competition and the fact that she had explained very firmly why "Blue Ham" was not as badass a wrestler name as the reject Jasper thought it was, Amethyst herself was right in the middle of them, eagerly cheering alongside Skinny and Carnelian despite power wedgieing them earlier today while surprising her mild wince at seeing her sister having to face Bismuth in the opening bout.
Rather than perform a flex routine reminiscent of chiseled stone, the Famethyst representative posed more rapidly and energetically for the crowd once she returned the love her sisters were hollering at her, though it still put her muscular body and tight fitting bikini on full display. In something of an unconventional color choice, both pieces of her outfit were sparkling, space age silver in design. The top piece was fashioned to resemble a sports bra that was trying and failing to contain a generous pair of breasts, while the bottoms covered slightly more skin than Bismuth's outfit while leaving both the Jasper's chiseled glutes halfway on display. Her hair had the poorly maintained wolf pelt rug style common among her gemtype but was shorter than average, resting comfortably above both cheeks.
The welcoming cheers stayed strong as the two bruisers stepped up to the dividing line evenly bisecting the arena floor but abruptly fell to a lower murmur when the two stopped, barely a foot apart, and sized each other up. Bismuth noticed that the purple hued Jasper staring at her with a battle hungry grin had her gemstone on her forehead. Across the line, the two clasped hands, raising a cheer from the crowd.
"Alright rookie!" Bismuth said with genuine relish for the fight ahead at the feeling of the arm straining against hers. "Show me what you got!"
"This one goes out to all my sisters!" Jasper called out with wild excitement, the muscles of her right arm straining to giver her opponent's hand the hardest possible squeeze.
With the strike of a great metal gong, the tournament had begun!