Exciting times ahead! It's less than a month until Steven Universe: The Movie drops. Ya'll seen the trailer? Oh, the animation, the sounds, the villain, the music, the NECC! It's gonna be a wild ride for sure!
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Lamp Entertainment presents…
The sky is draped in the cape of the night, with the endless stars sewn into it, winking at us small ones down here on Earth.
A night like this is best spent with friends and family, together. At least that's how it should be. In a perfect world. But this world of our… this fragile, precious little world of ours is not perfect.
Far too many hearts beat alone in the night.
Chapter 13: The Hermit, Act 2
Owner of a lonely heart
Much better than
Owner of a broken heart
Beach City, the Beach House…
Many thoughts were running through the heads of the people inside the little house. For some, it was the realization that a threat they thought long gone was back. It was like a nightmare come true.
For others, it was merely processing the massive amount of information just revealed. To think that such creatures, strong enough to put fear into the Crystal Gems themselves had existed alongside humans long ago.
There was one thought shared amongst the entire group, however. One that drained the warmth from the cozy and inviting house.
They had no idea where the pillar man was. He could be anywhere, biding his time and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
"Wow…" Katey said. "This is… heavy. But, um… there is still something I don't understand… well, there's a lot I don't understand. Like, what was 'Homeworld?' Are you guys aliens or something? Cause really, nothing would surprise me anymore… anyways, uh… What is this?" She held up her hand. Nothing happened. "Does this mean I'm one of those… pillar men now? A pillar woman?"
Joseph raised his eyebrow.
"That… is another long story," he sighed. "But that power isn't exclusive to the pillar men, nor does it originate from them. He held up his own hand.
"Wait, I don't ge…" Pearl began to speak, but was interrupted by… "Eek!" Something invisible wrapped itself around her arm. The others in the room followed suit, recoiling in shock as something they couldn't see touched them.
"Every living being has an inner spiritual potential," Joseph explained. "Sometimes, under certain conditions, this potential can be unleashed and form something called a stand. That is what you are feeling. That is my stand, Hermit Purple."
"Gah! Whatever it is, it's freaky!" Amethyst yelled, swatting at the invisible force. "What the heck even is it? Why can't I see it?"
"Wait… you can't see it? It's like plant vines…" Katey said.
"Stands are only visible to other stand users," Joseph said. "They come in all shapes and with every ability you can imagine… and a few you probably can't." Steven's TV suddenly turned itself on. The image flickered, showing a blurry image of a person. Before you could get a good look at the figure, static overtook the image and it switched to a news broadcast.
"The fire in the restaurant has finally been extinguished. There are as of yet no clues as to what caused the explosion…"
"My Hermit Purple lets me view remote people or events… or rather, it's supposed to…"
"So your stand lets you put on the news and mine… latches onto people and creates an evil twin?" Katey said.
Joseph nodded. "Believe it or not, that isn't the weirdest stand ability I've heard about. Each stand is unique, as unique as the person that owns it."
"This is…" Pearl tried to find the right word. Impossible? Unbelievable? Hard to comprehend? Crazy? "Bizarre! How does one even obtain one of these…'stands?'"
"There are a few different ways," Joseph said. "In general, stand are pretty rare, but there are a handful of people that are born with one or with the potential that can be unlocked later in life through determination or stress. However, what we should worry about are these," he said and took another photograph from his pocket. It showed three ornate arrows.
"These arrows are made from a metal found on a meteorite that crashed on the Earth about fifty thousand years ago. The meteorite carried a virus, a virus that still lives on in the arrows. Anyone who is infected by this virus is put through a trial; if their willpower is strong enough, they gain a stand. If not… they die."
The weight of the words Joseph spoke hit everyone in the room.
"And Santana… has these arrows?" Pearl asked finally.
"Yes," Joseph said. "He took them with him when he escaped.
"Whoever's idea it was to keep the pillar man in the same vault as the stone mask and those arrows…" Garnet spoke through clenched teeth. "Once this is over, I'm gonna have a short chat with them. A very short chat."
Joseph started to speak. "Garnet, I'm…"
She just waved his words away. "No excuses, JoJo! What were you thinking? Keeping not only that-that thing alive, but right next to the dangerous artifacts? It was a disaster waiting to happen. You should have known better! Now he's back, and he's more dangerous than ever! Who knows how many…"
"Garnet!" Steven interrupted her. "Please… I get that you're upset, but getting angry won't make things better."
Garnet looked at the boy, and then at the old man, and her expression became a bit softer.
"Sorry," she said. She leaned back against the wall again
"No, no, I… I understand," Joseph said, though he was clearly a bit shaken. "You're right. It was.. foolhardy of us to keep such dangerous items so close to each other… or even to keep the pillar man alive in the first place."
For a moment, there was silence. People reflecting on mistakes.
"Ugh… this is a fine mess!" Amethyst groaned. "I don't suppose you have any clever plans to defeat this pillar man, eh JoJo? I don't think we have any volcanoes around here…"
"I'm afraid I won't be very helpful," Joseph said. Amethyst's attempts to lighten the mood hadn't helped much. "However… help is coming."
"Oh, who?" Pearl asked. "Are there still some hamon masters left?"
Joseph's gaze fell. "No… not that I know of. And even if there still are some practitioners out there, hamon would most likely not be very useful if Santana has a stand. No, the help that's coming are stand users. My… my grandson Jotaro has gathered a few other powerful stand users. They are on their way here to help deal with Santana. They should be here within a day or two…"
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The pier…
Lapis was sitting alone, staring out onto the distant shore. Looking at nothing really, just… thinking.
Running away like that was a mistake. She knew it. She shouldn't have left the others. She should have stayed. So what if she lost that one fight, they didn't really care. Lapis knew that. It didn't really matter, they would be happy as long as she was okay.
But she wasn't okay.
Lapis knew her friends loved her. That they would do anything for her. That they wouldn't judge her if she was scared even when they weren't.
So why did she run away?
Was she embarrassed that she had lost?
Or was she afraid of whatever had attacked them and what would come next?
Maybe…
Lapis looked down on her own reflection in the water. It looked back at her. It was faint, but the water was still moving just enough to distort the image slightly. It looked back at her with dead and empty eyes.
She thought of the time she had spent deep under the sea, trapped inside Malachite. The struggle, the pain, and anger… the wet, cold, crushing weight of the ocean upon their body as they fought, locked in eternal combat. All those bad thoughts she had shared with Jasper…
Steven and Peridot both had tried to help her get past it, to get over the awful, awful memories. But no matter how much they tried, she… she just couldn't.
The memories from everything bad that had ever happened to her was still hovering over her. She would try to sleep, but even then… the chaotic battlefield, the thousands of years inside the mirror, Jasper, the Diamonds… they loomed over her, as a reminder of the past… and perhaps a warning for the future.
She was free from the mirror, from the prison cell, from the fusion… but Lapis Lazuli was still a prisoner of her own mind. Walls and chains of cold steel trapped and bound her heart and mind. No matter what she or anyone else did, she could not move forward.
Maybe… everyone would be better off without her? If she just… left. Before she dragged any more people down into her personal hell.
She stared down into the abyss, looking her reflection in the eye.
The reflection blinked at her.
Lapis nearly fell off the pier. What the…?
"Um… hello," Lapis' own mirror image said. It actually spoke, Lapis could hear it!
"I… wha…?" Lapis stuttered, not even able to form a complete word. What in the stars was this? Had she finally gone insane?
"I'm Lonely Heart," the reflection said. "I'm a, what's-it-called… a stand."
"Oh. Of course. That explains everything," Lapis muttered. She stood up and used her powers to lift some of the water into the air and shaping it into a mirror, so she could get a better look this… Lonely Heart.
It really was her own reflection. It looked exactly like Lapis, only it didn't follow her movements.
"Um… sorry to bother you," Lonely Heart said. "This is… really awkward."
It sure was. "What did you say you were? A stand?" Lapis asked the reflection.
"Yeah. I'm like… I guess I'm supposed to be the manifestation of my user's psychic energy or something." Lonely Heart shrugged. "I don't really know, I just sorta… exist. I'm usually bound to his mirror image, but he told me to go away, so I wandered into the closest reflection. And that just so happened to be you."
"Right… and, uh… where is your 'user' right now?"
"Oh, I think he's…" Lonely Heart gestured to the side, along the waterside. "I can't really see him, but…"
Lapis glanced towards where Lonely Heart was pointing, though she still kept the reflection within her sight. True enough, she saw a human a hundred or so meters away. The human quickly turned away, pretending he hadn't been staring at her.
"Say…" Lapis extended her power a bit further, feeling it move through the water towards where the human was standing. "Your user didn't send you here to… attack me or anything?" At a moment's notice, an enormous hand of water would burst forth to grab the human.
"Oh no, no!" Lonely Heart said. "Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. I'm just a mirror image, I can't hurt anyone…" The reflection frowned. "I… I think you of all people should know that."
Suddenly, the world seemed a lot darker.
"What… what is that supposed to mean?"
"S-sorry," Lonely Heart said. "That was… insensitive of me. When… when I attached to your reflection, I sorta… gained all your memories. It's-it's just part of my ability."
"R-right," Lapis said. The thought of someone being able to read her memories… "So you know… everything?"
"Pretty much," Lonely Heart said. "And, um… I really only have my user to compare with but, ah… your life seems pretty horrible."
And the absurdity of the whole situation hit Lapis.
"Hehe…" She tried not to, but she couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, tell me about it!"
"Uh… are you okay?" Lonely Heart asked carefully, looking at Lapis like she was a mad gem. Which, to be fair, she probably was.
"Hahaha! No!" Lapis exclaimed. "No, I'm not! " A tear rolled down her cheek and her laughing was replaced by sobs. She fell to her knees. "No, I'm not okay."
Lonely Heart looked positively horrified. "I-I get that," it said. "But if you just calm down a bit…"
"Sure thing!" Lapis said. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the human owner of Lonely Heart started to walk away. Whatever. She didn't care.
"So… do you wanna talk about it?" Lonely Heart asked tentatively.
"Not really," Lapis said. "What even is there to talk about? There's obviously something wrong with me…" She threw her arms into the air. "That's the only explanation! Why else…?"
"Why else what?"
Lapis sighed. "Why else… It's not like I'm special or anything. Peridot and Steven and even the other Crystal Gems… they have all been through horrible stuff too… but they're happy and I'm not. They have… moved on. So why can't I?"
"That's not entirely true," Lonely Heart said. "You were happy. You were happy when you were Peridot, right? And when Steven would come to visit. Those are happy memories, right?"
Lapis shrugged. "I guess… but look at me now! One little thing goes wrong, and here I am."
"Yeah but…" Lonely Hear frowned, concentrating as if trying to remember something… or like it was trying to find something in Lapis' memories. Stars, that was creepy, having someone looking through your memories like looking through an image gallery. "I'm sure your friends would understand."
"Maybe… but would they want me back after I ran away?" Lapis said. "I mean… I'm really just a burden…"
Lonely Heart sighed. "Listen," it said. "My master… doesn't have any friends. He is always alone. But you do have friends. And I think… I think you should at least try."
Lapis didn't respond immediately. She thought about her reflection's words.
Perhaps… perhaps it was right…
Lapis stood back up and turned away from the mirror.
"Thank you, " she whispered. "I didn't know that I nee…"
Lapis felt a cold hand on her shoulder.
"No prob, Bob," Lonely Heart said.
Before she could even fully comprehend what was going on, an invisible force tugged at Lapis, violently pulling her backward. She slammed into a hard wall and…
She was standing inside a featureless void. There was only a small window to the outside world. Through it, she saw the back of her own body still standing on the pier.
She was inside the mirror.
No!"
Lapis screamed. A high-pitched, desperate cry, barely recognizable as human or gem. She banged on the thin window, trying to break through it, trying to get back out. But it was useless. Useless, useless, useless.
She saw her own body shudder and come back to life.
Lonely Heart didn't even look back. It only spread its new wings and ascended into the air, and left the mirror and Lapis both to fade away; the mirror back into the ocean, and Lapis into the deep well of despair.
She was alone again.
All alone.
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Owner of a Lonely Heart
Bound type
User: Kevin MacLeod
Professional charmer, stealer of women's hearts and cool guy extraordinaire.
Description: Owner of a Lonely Heart (or Lonely Heart for short) normally takes the form of the user's reflection. However, it can be bound to any other person's reflection as well. The reflections are perfect with the only thing distinguishing them from the real reflections being that Lonely Heart can move and speak on its own.
Powers and Abilities:
•Sentience-Lonely Heart is sentient and can think and talk on its own. It can even lie. It is always subservient to the user, however.
•Binding-Lonely Heart can be bound to another person's reflection as long as it is within the same reflective medium as the user's (essentially, the stand user's and their desired target's mirror images must be in the same mirror). When doing this, the user loses their own reflection. Lonely Heart automatically gains the memories of whoever it is bound to.
•Possession-If the person that Lonely Heart is bound to turn away from the mirror image, Lonely Heart can possess them and trap the real person's soul inside the reflection instead.
Stats:
Destructive Power: None
Speed: N/A
Range: A
Durability: N/A
Precision: A
Development Potential: B
Notes: Lonely Heart can only possess a person if they turn or look away from the mirror image. If something obscures their vision, or the target simply moves so far away that they can't see the mirror image, the ability won't activate.
Lonely Heart makes it so that it's user never has to be alone.
Lapis Lazuli
A former terraformer for the Gem Homeworld. Commands extraordinary powers, but is fragile, in more ways than one.
Gem placement: Back
Weapon(s): Not weapons in the traditional sense, but Lapis can summon a pair of wings made of water from her gemstone.
Powers and Abilities
•Hydrokinesis-Lapis possess power over water and can move entire oceans and form massive constructs out of water. She can even create clones of people made from water.
•Flight-Using the wings from her gem, Lapis can fly. Her top speed is unknown, but she can close the distance between Homeworld and the earth relatively quickly.
•Memory Projection-Lapis can project her own memories in puddles of water.
Stats
Destructive Power: A
Speed: A (when flying, D on foot)
Range: A
Durability: C
Skill: C
Rarity: A
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Hmm… I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with this chapter… I don't know, it just felt a bit…Not as impactful as I wanted it to be? Something along those lines. What do you guys think?
Hopefully, the next installment will be a bit more exciting.
The stand ability Lonely Heart has had a long development history. Since 8th of June last year reason I remember that date is because it was on my graduation day. I suddenly had the idea while looking at my reflection in a window, and quickly jotted down some notes on my phone.
The stand went through a few changes over the year. The original wasn't even called Lonely Heart, it was called Mirror Mirror (after the song from the RWBY soundtrack) and had more of a 'deal with the devil' kinda theme going on. Lapis being back trapped in the mirror, however, was always predetermined. Cause, you know… Lapis and mirrors.
Anyways, see you next time. Until then, take care of the planet Earth and remember that anything can happen in space!
