Connie was spending a nice day away from the Beach house and the Temps, trying to have a day full of her own, personal fun like Steven had suggested. She rode on Lion, practiced her violin just for fun, and she ran into the ocean, splashing around just because she could, laughing. So far, the day had been just wonderful.

To start off that afternoon, she hurriedly ran over to the fry shop in an attempt to pick up some fry bits before heading over to the arcade. She was about to order some when she heard a heavy sigh not too far away.

Mr. Frowny as always was in a bad mood, even as he placed a new game, or what looked like a game.

"Hm. I wonder what that is?" Connie muttered, walking over to it.

The device held a young woman in the glass box, looking up from a crystal ball and wearing all sorts of beautiful jewelry and silks. She looked very mysterious indeed. The box was labeled: Madam Jonda: Teller of the Future.

Connie smirked. This machine couldn't possibly tell the future. If she had learned anything from fighting the real future-seeing Garnet, it was that there was no single future. There were many, many possibilities, and therefore, different universes and futures. There probably was a universe where she didn't even have a gem! That was pretty hard to believe though.

"I didn't even know these things still existed, Mr. Frowny!" Connie smiled. "Madam Jonda must be a relic!"

"If you wanted to say I'm old, then you should've just said it." Mr. Frowny sighed, glancing at the machine. "I've been hiding her and everything else from my sad and mysterious past in storage…"

Connie blinked in slight confusion and surprise, but her smile returned. "Does she still work?"

"I haven't checked, you can, if you want."

Connie nodded, and hurriedly fished out a quarter and the man plugged it in.

Madam Jonda sputtered to life, and a slightly distorted voice came out, an audio recording made long ago. "Greetings. I am Madam Jonda. I shall answer any questions you have about the future, mortal human."

"Ask her anything at all." Frowny mumbled, not really that interested.

Connie looked at her quarter and gripped it hard. She then put it in with a nervous smile, thinking of a generic question. "Hmm… Well, will that book I've been wanting to read actually come to the library?"

Jonda paused for a moment then seemed to jerk back into the position she had before waking up. Once again, the slightly annoying voice came out, "Your lucky numbers today are.. 8, 39, and K."

She then glanced up at Mr. Frowny with the sweetest smile she could make. "... Sir, may I please have my quarter back?"

Frowny didn't move a muscle, only staring down at her through his mop of brown hair. "If I had a quarter every time somebody asked for their quarter back... Oh wait, I do…"

Connie stared up at him.

"That was a joke. I suppose children these days don't appreciate a good joke. It's more likely that I was never funny in the first place. The people who hired me as a comedian probably only took pity on me."

"You were a comedian, Mr. Frowney? I would have never guessed!" Connie gasped in surprise.

"Oh. That's your form of comedy. Sarcasm. Very… funny."

Connie giggled, seeing Mr. Frowney actually saying something other than an insult to himself was rare. She had to keep it coming! "Uh, do you mind telling me some jokes you did in your shows? I'm sure they're hilarious!"

Mr. Frowney suddenly seemed to close up once more, going back into a slouch. "... I don't feel in the mood. They were just silly jokes."

"Oh. Well, I could tell you a joke, and then you can tell me one, how does that sound?" Connie asked with a beam.

"Hmm…. not very fun. Why don't you just ask Madam Jonda your questions, and stop bothering me…?" Frowney asked, slow as a turtle.

The girl glanced away to the ground in a huff and then turned to the machine, inserting another quarter. "Madam, can you please tell me why Mr. Frowney quit Comedy?"

Madam Jonda froze up then and said nothing. Connie went over and gave a small tap on the robot's shoulder. Suddenly, the woman exploded into bits and pieces, making Connie gave a short scream.

"Oh, you broke her…" Mr. Frowney moaned in disappointment. "She was so expensive! It's just like always, I get rotten luck…"

"Mr. Frowney, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to!" Connie cried. She hurriedly glanced in her purse and sadly met with only a few quarters after having spent quite a lot of money on getting a book on the entire history of the Spirit Morph saga, including rough drafts, character sheets for nearly every person that appeared in any book, and notes from the author herself. The girl didn't regret her decision, she only sighed. "I really don't want to be banned from here too! Is there anything I can do to help?"

Mr. Frowney frowned deeper but then gave a short nod. "You can, if you're not afraid of tight spaces."

Connie soon sat in the booth of Madam Jonda, which was now hollowed out intirly so she could fit. The girl wore a silky purple gown that trailed behind her when she moved along with many golden bangles and necklaces. She blew a small strand of hair out of her face, quite glad her hair was up in a big bun.

She was very thankful that Amethyst had found a completely abandoned costume shop when out on one of her many adventures around the tri-state area and was so quick to give it to her when she came into the barn entirely out of breath.

The girl waited, adjusting her legs and arms ever so often. She then heard the familiar voice of Sadie as she and Lars rounded the corner.

"Lars, please? Come on! We could just go to your place and play games all day, or watch movies or anything we want! Nobody would even notice we're gone!" Sadie moaned, clearly talking about how they were headed to work.

"Somebody will notice. You know, when they need a doughnut? And right after that shift, we have the bookstore. You know we're going to see Connie today and she'll be super confused as to why we wouldn't be there when she wants to read, and you know how sad she gets when she can't read at least one new thing everyday!"

Connie frowned. She did not! … At least, not every single day, Lars and Sadie had the weekends free from her.

"Please, we don't see her every day, we haven't seen her all morning!" Sadie groaned.

Connie than put on a straight face and pretended at once to be the machine, since otherwise, Mr. Frowney would probably ban her from the one business he hadn't yet. "Greetings! I am the all-knowing Madam Jonda! Ask me your burning question for one beautiful quarter!"

Lars frowned in confusion. "What's this?" He asked, walking up to the booth.

Sadie followed him with a slight growl. "Don't change the subject!"

"This fortune teller, she looks a lot like Connie!"

"Hey, stop trying to me feel guilty!" Sadie grumbled. "You just mentioned her and how sad she'd get and now suddenly this creepy-looking future girl machine looks like her? It's just a coincidence and you're trying to make me think it really do-"

"Please! That's enough! Ask me your question!" Connie suddenly cried.

They both flinched and Connie quickly got rid of the emotion from her face, pretending once again to be the machine so she wouldn't get banned.

"Um… okay then…" Lars whispered with his eyes wide, glancing at Sadie. "Should we… skip work?"

"No." Connie answered bluntly. "It would be rather irresponsible to do so since neither of you are sick, and people depend on you for doughnuts and books! Besides, Sadie loves the feeling of taking charge and working hard! She pretends to be lazy most of the time so you'll pay a bit more attention to her."

Sadie's cheeks flushed in surprise and shook her head in anger. "What?! T-That's not true!"

"And Lars, you really don't want to work, you pretend like you do, but it's just because you want to get closer to Sadie! You roll your eyes or make a face every time the girl who goes in the store drops a book or someone orders something other than the usual doughnut. You don't really like working."

"I… Um… How did you know that!? And how did you know our names!?" Lars cried.

"Madam Jonda knows all." Connie replied mysteriously.

"L-Let's go to work, Lars." Sadie mumbled in shock, quickly walking away from Connie and her strange knowledge.

"Right behind you!" Lars cried, running after her.

Just as they left though, Connie noticed little Onion walking up to the arcade with a crowbar in his arms. Just before he went in, Connie called out, "Stop!"

Onion glanced up, not seeming too surprised or even interested in her.

"Young man, you can still change your fate! The future depends on your choices! Please, don't throw yourself into jail, change!"

Onion looked shocked, but then smiled in a thought. Connie didn't see him come back only moments later, having changed into wearing a black ski cap. Yes. He did change indeed.

As the day went on, Madam Jonda grew rather famous, many people stopped by her booth in order to learn of their futures. Of course, Connie only said what she thought could happen.

Jenny and Kiki asked if she thought they should each have their own rooms. Connie replied that though they both were wonderful young women, who deserved their privacy, they would most likely have to wait to live apart, since they simply didn't have the resources to make another room. The twins looked disheartened but then quickly agreed with her, realizing the truth and that they'd probably miss each other anyway.

"You don't need to worry about that stain." Connie had said to Buck, who had recently got a brand-new jacket with what looked like mustard on an elbow. "You can make anything look cool!"

The Frymans had all gotten into a fight. Connie was quick to resolve it by saying: "You will soon forgive one another, he seems stuck in his ways, but deep down, your father really loves you." The sons happily hugged their father, realizing that that was the truth.

Later in the day, the girl sat still in the booth.

"Well, Connie… I hope you're quite literally paying me back." Connie yelped in shock, turning to see Mr. Frowney.

She smiled. "Yes, sir, I am! I'm also making many people quite happy!"

Mr. Frowney seemed to glanced out at the sky for a moment, then mumbled, "It…. makes a person… happy, to make people smile… I wish I could still do that." He then suddenly grabbed a sack full of quarters from the machine and shuffled away sadly.

Connie frowned in disappointment. A smile. It was a precious treasure from anyone, and especially Mr. Frowney, because the girl never saw him smile. She sometimes wondered if he even could. She was suddenly jolted out of her thoughts by a big, full laugh. It seemed rather contiguous.

She glanced up in surprise and saw a man she never had before. He was a large, African-American man with a tropical shirt and a huge smile. The girl didn't know why, but she liked him already, and felt like somehow, he had been missing from the town.

"I haven't seen one of these in years!" The man chuckled. Connie tried not to smile back, forcing a stoic expression. "... What should I ask you?"

"Ask me anything, Madam Jonda knows all." Connie replied stiffly.

The man slipped in a quarter and his smile seemed somehow less cheery, and more melancholy. . "... Should I have come here?"

Connie blinked in surprise. What did he mean? To Madam Jonda? To Funland? To Beach City itself? "... I believe all things happen for a reason, you are here to… change your future, so you should stay."

"Change my future, huh?" The man smirked. "Well, that sounds like a good sign!"

Connie heard another quarter clank to the bottom of the machine and was surprised to see the man wanted more answers from her.

"Will he be upset to see me after all this time?" The man asked quickly, it was as if he didn't realize the machine was just that as long as Connie kept the secret. It couldn't really know the answer.

"I know much, but there are far too many tracks of fate that could result from your reunion. I don't have a single answer." Connie replied, trying not to sound apologetic. She saw another coin go in. "You see-"

"Was it my fault he left?"

Connie blinked in surprise. The tone of his voice sounded so strange compared to all he had said before with the big smile. "... Um…"

The man's smile returned in full force as he gave a weak laugh. "Welp, I'm out of quarters. That was fun, pretending you could really answer that stuff."

Connie watched after him for a moment as he walked away slowly, looking at the beach from the distance.

"He's such a happy man but… I don't know any way to make him feel better." Connie whispered, mostly to herself. "I wish I could know all my possiblites… maybe he could've been actually encouraged by one."

"Kiddo? What are you doing in there?" She suddenly heard, seeing the very gem she had wanted to. "Did someone put you in there? Who did this!? I'll give them a piece of my mi-"

"N-No-one!" Connie quickly cried, seeing Jasper's fists already made. "I'm just doing this for Mr. Frowney!"

"Aw jeez. Let me guess, you're trying to help Mr. Frowney because he may not like you, because knowing you, you are always upset when you think people don't like you, and that makes you doubt yourself, and your bad moral would bring the whole team down, which would overall make it a lot more difficult to save the world from gem threats, so you'd feel entirely at fault for the slow decline of safety in this town. But you haven't planned those parts quite yet, right?"

Connie stared in awe. "That's… exactly what I would've done if I thought about it! How did you know that?"

"Your body language and overall personality. I've had 14 years of raising you, and thousands of years paying attention to everything that could happen to someone based on just their thoughts and appearances…. But it's not future vision like Sapphire, remember that." Jasper muttered. "None of my predictions are to be taken too seriously because they're all just theories, not definite."

"But they're always so close…" Connie mumbled, looking over to see the strange man, still looking out at the beach. "I need your help."

After a few minutes of observing the newcomer, Jasper hid just behind Connie's booth. The bigger gem had given the stranger a quarter, telling him that Madam Jonda would see him now.

"What should I say to him?" The man asked softly.

Connie barely heard Jasper whisper:

"Kid, I can't think of any possible futures were it goes anywhere near smooth. This guy is sweating bullets! He'd mess up any chance of reconnection when he's this nervous! Plus, he'd probably make a bad joke."

Connie glanced back to Jasper and whispered through her teeth, "Are you sure?"

"I'm never sure about this stuff, kiddo." Jasper hissed. "But this guy's nerves and personality mixed together form a ticking time bomb. He'd get real creepy real quick if he forced out that huge smile when he's that desperate. Anyone would be afraid. And for some reason, not smiling doesn't seem like a option for this dude."

Connie looked back to see the man waiting for her response. "Er…. ERROR! There is a error! Question does not compute! Please, t-try again l-la...ter…." She then closed her eyes and pretended like the machine had malfunctioned.

"Oh, sorry, ol' girl…" The man laughed. He then gave a sigh. "He'd probably just be upset I was here, probably think I only came back to tease him or something like that… Ha, i-it really isn't a wonder Mr Frowney and Mr Smiley didn't work! I better just get on that old bus and ride on home, he wouldn't want to see me."

Connie's head jolted up at once in surprise.

Luckily, the man, Mr. Smiley, had already started to walk away.

"Kid, did you hear that?" Jasper hissed.

Connie quickly turned to her with wide eyes. "I sure did!"

A few minutes later, Connie told Suitcase Sam that the question he had asked, it wasn't for her, but rather his doctor.

Just then, Mr. Frowney lumbered his way over to her booth.

"Oh! Mr. Frowney! You won't believe it! I saw Mr. Smiley!" Connie cried with a grin.

Mr. Frowney froze suddenly, as if Connie had triggered some sort of memory. His voice suddenly gained energy Connie had never heard, and the girl realized that she could now hear his British accent, the one he had hidden when he spoke so dull and deeply in sadness. "H-Harold? How do you know him?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing!" Connie replied.

Jasper stepped out and helped Connie get out of her cramped little booth, they both looked at Mr. Frowney in attecipatuon.

"Oh… we were in a silly routine together, but that was so long ago, I thought he'd forgotten all about me."

"Ah, a comedy routine!" Connie exclaimed.

Jasper crosses her arms in confusion. "You don't seem like the funny type, Frowney."

"Yes, but that was the bit." Mr Frowney mumbled wistfully. He then reverted back to the monotone voice Connie was used to. "But… Harold never took it seriously, he was always joking around and playing pranks on me, even off stage. I just got tired of it all, though now… I miss him quite often. He seemed to be wanting to do something with those silly jokes, but I never bothered to ask what…"

"You should ask him! You can catch up to him! He's heading towards the bus stop!"

"But he's leaving, he wouldn't want to see me anyway…" Frowney sighed, starting to slouch away but Connie grabbed his hand. "What would I even say?"

Connie glanced at Jasper for help but she just shrugged. "It'll end badly no matter what he says, he's that much of a downer."

The girl looked back to the man. "Mr. Frowney, I've grown up in this town my whole life, and I know you all too well. You never laugh, or even give the tiniest smile, you barely even react at all, that's the way it's always been; But today… I saw you react when I told you about that man. He is really, really important to you! Do you… really want to lose him again?"

Mr Frowney froze at the last sentence. "I don't think I do."

"Harold, please wait."

Mr. Smiley turned in surprise, hearing the very famliar British drall of his old friend. His huge smile faltered when he turned to face the man. After all this time, he still looked the same, but today, saw his eyes, his gentle, brown, sad-looking eyes. They were actually open in his want to actually see him, not closed from crying. "Q-Quientn…? How did you know I'd be here?"

"She told me." Mr. Frowney said softly, gesturing to Connie.

"Madam Jonda?" Mr. Smiley gasped. He then gave a laugh. "You fooled me good, kid!"

Connie frowned in guilt. "I'm sorry if you didn't want your secret revealed, sir. I just had to let Mr. Frowney know!"

"Eh, it's alright. I came back to see him anyway!" Smiley chuckled. After a moment or two, he stopped and looked at the old friend that had left him behind.

"I truly wanted it to work, our act, I mean… " Mr. Frowney mumbled softly. "I'm… sorry I ruined it all for you, I must've made you miserable, just my luck."

Mr. Smiley's grin faded. "No, no, that wasn't it at all, Quinten… I wanted you to have fun! To be happy!"

"And I just wanted you to take it seriously." Frowney whispered weakly.

They stared at each other for a few moments, realising the simple truth that had been there all along.

"It was never gonna work…Was it?" Smiley muttered, saying it out loud to confirm it true. "And I thought we had something good going, you and me!"

Mr. Frowney gave a sad sigh, a single tear rolled down his cheek. "The past is the past, I suppose… I'll… I'll let you go now."

Connie tried to protest but Frowney gently shoved her out of his way as he walked right back into his miserable life. The girl gave a sigh, perhaps Jasper was right...

"You having a bad day, Frowney?"

They both turned to see Mr. Smiley wearing a weak smile.

Mr. Frowney looked surprised, but then went into a slightly higher voice, sounding like he would cry at any moment. "H-Horrible."

"Well, why don't you go outside?" Smiley asked with excitement. "The sun always cheers me up!"

"I did, but it rained." Frowney mumbled, but to Connnie, he didn't sound like the depressed man she'd always known, he was now a preformer it seemed, and his real sadnesses seemed to be gone when in the role.

Smiley playfully bumped into Frowney, making him crack a tiny smile. "Why don't you use a umbrella?"

"I did, but it blew away." Frowney replied somberly.

"Ooh! You must've been shocked!"

"Yeah, that's when the lightning hit me."

Connie giggled. They really were a good team!

"Smiley, what do you do when you're sad?" Mr. Frowney asked then.

"I just turn my frown," Smiley suddenly picked Frowney up by the waist and held him upside down. "upside down!"

Mr. Frowney chuckled then, lost in wonderful memories as Connie cheered for them.

"You're ruining the bit!" Smiley hissed with a grin. "I thought you were a professional!"

They then separated for only a few moments before Frowney happily wrapped his arms around his dear friend. " I made you so unhappy, I should've seen you were trying to help."

Smiley was shocked but then accepted the hug with just as much care. "Don't be sad, buddy! You were just a bit slow to pick up on the joke!"

A few minutes later, Smiley waved goodbye from his seat to Frowney and Connie, calling that he'd see them again soon.

Connie watched after the bus with a smile as it drove away, waving until she couldn't see it anymore. "Um, Mr. Frowney, I don't suppose you could consider that a payment-?"

Frowney ruffed her hair with a slight laugh, but then his eyes closed and in his slight British accent that Connie was now getting used to, he uttered his answer, "Thank you for helping me, Miss Universe, but no. You'll work for every cent Jonda was worth!"

Connie gave a whimper in annoyance. But, at least she had done what seemed not possible before, she had made that man smile, and that was really all the payment she would need.