Well this one took a lot longer than I expected, but I'm still overall happy with the finished products.
Thanks to all those that reviewed/favourite/followed this story from the last chapter. Hope you enjoy this next one just as much.
"Whoa. So, this is what your room looks like Jasper?" Steven said, marvelling at the sight of her personal room for the very first time.
Steven, along with Jasper, Lapis and Peridot, were trekking through what appeared to be a huge underground cavern, deep below the foundations of the Temple. The walls were made of solid rock and resembled steep mountain cliffs. The ground was compromised of pure red sand, that left imprints of their footprints as they walked, much like a real desert. Next to the footprints was a thin and unbroken line drawn in the sand that ran all the way back to the entrance of the room, curtesy of Steven trailing a stick he was carrying across the ground.
The landscape of the room was comprised of nothing but rock, ranging huge chunks of boulders the size of a house, to dozens of tiny granite cobbles, scattered about everywhere. Some of the rocks were piled up together in one big heap, while others were stacked on each other forming vague, incoherent structures.
The only consistent formations were large, rectangular shaped pillars, standing upright in the sand. Strange, unreadable runes were craved onto the sides of the pillars, while the edges and corner were sharp, lined with some kind of metal. Besides each of these pillars was a single thick, metal chains embedded into the top of the pillar.
Numerous glowing, red diamond shaped crystals hovered above their heads, close to the celling of the room, providing an ambient source of light that covered everything in an orange tint.
"How you can live in this type of environment is beyond me" Peridot said with distaste, eyes focused on her the finger-screen hovering in place of her hand. "Look all this disorganised mess. Totally devoid of any kind of logical structure or purpose. How do you even find your through here?"
The Gems stopped as they approached a large boulder that was blocking their path. Reeling her arm back, Jasper punched the centre of boulder, splitting clean in a half with absolute ease and effectively unblocking their path.
"I don't come into your room and complain about how it looks" Jasper retorted, clapping some of the dust off her hands. "If you don't like, you can leave"
"We are not stopping until we find the source of that foul odour that's polluting the temple" Peridot said, shuddering with revulsion. She looked down to her finger-screen. "And my scanners indicate it's somewhere in your room, Jasper"
"Ugh, you don't need scanners to find it" Lapis said, pinching her nose as she stepped over pieces of the boulder. "Just go wherever the smell gets worse".
They continued through Jasper's room, in the direction where the smell was strongest. They arrived at the edge of the cliffs, where they found three huge tunnels craved out in the rock. Each tunnel was about the size of garage door and was filled to the brim with hundreds of random objects, ranging from the everyday to the exotic. These included, yet definitely not limited to, books, furniture, garden gnomes, car engines, a full sized canoe, Terracotta statues, disco balls, a half-made space capsule, a sarcophagus, a guillotine, medicine balls, an entire stack of various playing cards, a shipping container, a golf cart, a churro stand, and somehow, a T-Rex skull.
"What are these holes for?" Steven asked. "And why are they filled with so much junk?"
"These are my junk holes" Jasper said, standing next to Steven. "Rose used to tell me that if I wanted to appreciate life on Earth, then I should start by appreciating the all different things made on Earth. Something about the endless, ever changing wonders of this world. I usually toned out when she went all speech-y like that. Anyway, whenever I find some new I like stuff, I add it to my pile. When the pile gets too big, I make another hole"
Steven continued to gaze around the individual piles of mismatched items, unable to take all of them due to all of them different, yet he did notice one underlying theme they seemed to have in common.
"How come nearly everything you have looks broken?" he asked.
Jasper remained silent for a very long moment before she answered in a very stiff manner. "Earth stuff is fragile"
"What kind of irrational being would throw all their belongings into a giant hole?" Peridot said, scornfully.
"It kinda remind of my Dad's storage unit where he keeps all his stuff" Steven said with adorable innocence.
"Thank you for agreeing with me, Steven" Peridot said, perfectly serious, her eyes on her screen.
Steven turned his head back to Jasper's junk hole and began prodding away at the various items with his stick when he felt it hit something small and squishy wedged in between a broken record player and a jewelled encrusted Aztec skull. Taking a quick sniff of the air, he confirmed that this was the source of the stench they had been tracking.
"I found it!" he called out to the others, reaching in to pick up the object. Shaking away some of the excess sand, Steven saw that the source of the odour was a bundle of tinfoil wrapped around something.
Before Steven could do anything with it, a green beam of energy hit the tinfoil, suspending it in a hovering bubble. The source of the beam was coming from the palm of Peridot's metal hand.
"Steven, get back!" Peridot positioned herself between Steven and the bubble in a protective manner. Releasing her bubble, she held the tinfoil in her hand, examining with a scientific curiosity.
"We must exercise caution. This appears to be some sort of specialised alloy housing a potentially volatile substance. I'll need to extract a sample to help us understand what we're dealing with"
Using two of her cylindrical fingers, she gripped the edge of the tin foil wrapping and meticulously began to pull it apart. The instant she did, a blue mushroom cloud of pure fungal rot burst out from within the wrapping, releasing a faint hissing noise that sounded akin to a someone dying, spraying Peridot directly in the face.
Her eyes bulging out of her sockets and her cheeks puffing outward like a bloated fish, Peridot dropped the tinfoil to the ground and clutched her throat, physically chocking on the stench she had just engulfed.
"I've been infected!" she screamed, gaging on her own words. "It's some kind of deadly parasitic bacteria. It's eroding my body from the inside. It's compromising the structural integrity of my gem! I can feel it beginning to shatter. This is the end for us all! We're doom!"
With one final, prolonged gasp, Peridot fell to the ground, lying perfectly still, her face buried in the sand. Without checking if she was alright, Jasper calmly stepped right over her fallen figure and picked up the bundle of tinfoil without the least bit of fear.
"That's not a virus" she said. She pulled the tinfoil apart, revealing what was inside; a mouldy piece of brown gunk, wrapped in a layer of expired bread. "It's my tuna burrito that I got from Aqua-Mexican".
"Didn't that place close down like five years ago?" Steven said, in disbelief.
"So, I guess we can't return it then, huh?" Lapis said, dryly. Down at her feet, Peridot gripped the helm of Lapis' skirt and used it as leverage to pull herself up. She then literally began to drag her way up Lapis' body, latching onto her hip and then her arm, like a mountaineer overcoming an impossible summit. Lapis glanced down at Peridot and remained casually still as she clambered up the side of her body, making no effort to help her, yet at the same time, appeared quite indifferent to fact she was being used as a Gem step ladder.
Standing up right again, Peridot held onto Lapis' shoulder to steady herself, gasping for breath, her legs still shaking.
"We have to destroy that…. thing!" she said, brandishing her hand at the burrito. "Its repulsive mixture of rotting vegetation and aquatic protein is contaminating the temple. We'll have to use some sort of incendiary device to disintegrate it and sterilise the surrounding area". Peridot brought up the display on her finger-screen, showing images of what appeared to be a large machinal machine, with flames erupting from the sides.
"Or perhaps if we can create a stable field of quantum energy, we could break it apart at the molecular level?" The image on the screen changed to show the burrito in a field of energy.
"Or could we jettison it into space, directly into the sun or a nearby black hole". The screen changed again, playing a scrolling video that depicted the burrito being placed inside the compartment of a small rocket engine and fired up into the sky, breaking through Earth's atmosphere.
"Or maybe, if could find a big enough vat of acid, we-"
Before Peridot could prattle off any other method of disposal, Jasper went with a much quicker and cleanlier (well, figuratively) solution; she took a bite out of the burrito.
Steven and Lapis both flinched the moment they saw Jasper take that first bite. Peridot's face instantly dropped, looking flabbergasted beyond words, before the strength in her legs gave way to her shock and she toppled to the ground yet again.
Lapis briefly looked down at the twitching Peridot and then over to Jasper. "Why do you keep that stuff anyway?" she asked. "You know we don't need to eat food"
"I like it eating" she replied, taking another bite out of the burrito, the sour beans smearing her face. "It feels a lot like smashing something, but instead of hitting it, you chew it up and shallow. Then poof! It's gone, like it never existed." Adding the appropriate emphasis to her point, Jasper chucked the reminder of the burrito into her mouth and licked away the last pieces of sludge on her lips, with a satisfied smile. Just as she had said, the burrito was now gone.
"Pretty cool, right?"
"Are you sure it's safe to eat that?" Steven asked, concerned. "It might make you sick"
Jasper scoffed boldly and crossed her arms as she proudly boasted. "Gems don't get sick, Steven. Especially not Gems like me"
"No, but we can certainly be disgusted" Peridot said, miserably, getting back to her feet much quicker this time round, though she looked to be devoid of any enthusiasm at this point.
"Oh, hey, look at this" Lapis said. Out of the corner of her eye, she had spotted something else buried within Jasper's junk hole, suddenly becoming far more alert. Shifting away some of the furniture, Lapis pulled out exquisite looking portrait.
"I remember this" Lapis said, with a happy smile. "It's one of the old meep morps we used to keep. I forgot where we left it"
"Meep morps?" Steven repeated.
"That's what Lapis calls art" Peridot explained to Steven in a low voice. She chuckled slightly. "Can you believe the ridiculous terminology that she uses for everyday things?"
The painting was that of Crystal Gems, along with Rose Quartz; it depicted the four of them in a small row boat in the middle of the sea with some human sailors, rescuing a man drowning in the water. In the background was what appeared to be a genuine pirate ship and in the foreground of the painting was Jasper, on the helm of the row boat grabbling with a giant squid that was threatening to capsize them. Behind Jasper, Lapis was standing in pose with her arms raised, levitating the sailors out of the water using her powers; Rose was next to Lapis, her eyes closed, looking as beautiful and serene as always. Peridot was the only one not in the boat. Instead she was above the boat, being flailed around in the air with a look of petrified terror, trapped in one of the squid's tendrils.
"It kinda looks like you guys and my Mom" Steven said, after examining the painting.
"That is us Steven" Lapis said. "The hardest part was getting the squid to pose. But the funniest part was that we had to keep throwing Peridot to it"
"As unpleasant as that experience was, I must admit, my essence was captured quite nicely" Peridot said, admiring the less than dignified depiction of herself with a surprising amount of pride.
"Why is everyone dressed like old timey people?" Steven asked, noticing the clothing they were all wearing.
"Because this portrait was commissioned back in the Earth's colonial, some three hundred years ago" Peridot said. "Appearance modifiers were somewhat more rigid back in those days"
"I really liked the hats though" Lapis said, with fond reminiscence. Steven's attention, however, was focused on something else
"You guys lived all the way back then?" he said in utter amazement. "But, wait. Then how old are you guys?"
"By human standards, all of us are several thousand years old" Peridot said, with a smile. Lapis nodded in agreement. Jasper opened her mouth to say something but suddenly clenched it shut again and inhaling sharply, as if struck by invisible blow. Her body tensed up, sweat beginning to form on her the brow of her forehead.
"Does that mean you'll live forever" Steven continued, excited by such a prospect.
"Gems can't die from aging, but we still get hurt and die" Lapis said gently
Steven briefly appeared disappointed by this news, but his face then lit up again as another thought occurred to him. "How do you guys get a cake big enough for all those candles?"
Lapis glanced over to Peridot, then back to Steven, clearly confused. "Why would we put candles inside a cake? That really doesn't sound safe to eat"
"Hmm". Peridot pulled up her finger-screen and opened another file. "I believe Steven is referring to the human custom of adoring confectionary ornament wheels with combustion sticks that are proportional to the chronological dating figure of a person."
Lapis turned to Peridot, appearing only more confused by her explanation.
"She…. means…. birthdays" Jasper grunted with considerable strain, as though every syllable she uttered was a dagger piercing her between the rips.
"Oh, right, those" Lapis said, understanding at once. "Well, Steven, we don't actually celebrate birthdays"
Steven let out a heavy gasp, looking horrified. "Why not?!"
"Technically speaking, we were never born" Peridot said. "At least not in the same manner that humans are. We just…. started existing. Birthdays are simply not something we need to concern ourselves with"
"Well I can't just ignore such this travesty of unjustice" Steven said, his voice ringing with righteousness. He turned his back to the Crystal Gems and raised his hand in a pose, for one no in particular. "I pledge that you will have your birthdays, with all the candy, cake, and ice cream you've been denied"
Steven held that stance for another few moments after making his declaration, long after the dramatic effect had worn off, if it had even been there in the first place. Not feeling the least bit embarrassed, Steven turned back to the Crystal Gems and together they began to make their way out of the temple. However, they soon stopped when they noticed that Jasper hadn't moved. She remained rooted on the spot, her arms still folded together, looking tall and intimidating as always, aside from the fact her entire body was trembling involuntarily.
"Jasper, are you feeling ok?" Steven asked, hesitantly.
"Yeah, never better" she said, sounding every bit to the contrary, her face crunched up in focus.
"You're not feeling sick, are you?"
"….No" she grunted, suppressing another tremor in her shoulders.
"Uh, ok then" Steven said, putting on a convincing smile. "Well, we're just gonna go set up some stuff for the party and everything and leave you here. All by yourself, where anything can happen without us watching and we'll totally believe anything you tell us later"
"Whatever" Jasper replied, barely even audible.
Steven quickly ushered Peridot and Lapis away, leaving Jasper alone just as he said he would. Jasper waited for another few seconds, making absolutely sure they were gone, before finally throwing her pride to wind and dropping down to her knees in a helpless manner, where she promptly returned the burrito, or at least something that may have resembled a burrito, back into the ground from where they had found it.
Sometime later, everyone had gathered outside on the beach in front of the temple. Steven had been true to his word and threw the Crystal Gems his idea of a lavish birthday celebration. Two sets of tables had been set up on the smooth surface of the sand, food and drinks spread out over the length both tables, along with a large a hastily made birthday cake, the top of which was literally covered in as many candles as possible, to the point you couldn't even see the cake underneath; Balloons, streamers, party hats and all the other assorted decorations were strewed across the tables.
On the beach was a large arm chair, acting in place of a real throne and was occupied by Jasper, who was wearing an ostentatious red cape over her shoulders. Peridot and Lapis were seated in front of the throne on two smaller folding chairs and Steven was sitting on top of the throne, directly above Jasper's head, holding up a large crown.
"And the birthday queen is, Jasper!" Steven said, setting the crown on her head. "I hope you like it, Dad made me this outfit and it brings me special birthday luck every year."
Jasper took a measured glance up at the crown on her and the cape on her shoulders and allowed herself a satisfied smirk. Putting her arms behind her head, she leaned back in her throne and threw her right leg up on the arm rest, making herself comfortable.
"Oh yeah, this definitely feels right" she said, sounding more than content with her with newfound circumstance.
"Yay!" Lapis said cheerfully, clapping her hands lightly. Peridot, on the hand, looked anything but cheerful.
"Ugh. As if Jasper needed more of an excuse to act high and mighty" she said, scowling with displeasure. "I still fail to grasp the practical benefit of this ritual, Steven. I mean, look at this". She picked up one of the nearby balloons; on its surface was a crudely drawn face in Peridot's own likeness.
"I can understand self-adoration, but this depiction doesn't resemble me at all. Where is my nose?"
Peridot yelped as the tip of something sharp and pointy hit her directly in the face. She glared at Jasper, who grinned in amusement as she began launching the party hats at her using the elastic bands as a slingshot. Peridot was about to return fire with her own party hat, until Steven pulled it out of her hands.
"Hey, those go on your head" he said, placing the hat back on Peridot's head. He then approached Jasper on her throne and took a knee before, his hands folded behind his back.
"And now I present to you, thee honourable baseball bat!"
Steven held up a wooden baseball bat that had a pink ribbon wrapped around the top and offered it to Jasper. Intrigued, Jasper took the bat from him and balanced it on the palm of her hand. She gripped the helm of the bat and performed a few practice swings with it, before she seemed happy with it.
"Now this is what I call a party" she said, before turning to Peridot with a fiendish gleam in her eyes.
"Jasper, you don't dare!" Peridot quickly got up from the chair in a panic as Jasper advanced on her, bat in hand before Steven quickly stepped in between them.
"No. It's for the piñata" he chided, wagging a disapproving finger at Jasper. "Down"
Jasper lowered the bat and muttered something that may have been an insincere apology. She remained silent as Steven tied the nesscessary blindfold over her eyes. Once the blindfold was in place, Steven picked up a stick with a colourful horse-shaped piñata attached to the end of a string.
"The piñata is an artefact from ancient Aqua Mexico" he said. He was about to follow up with another historical inaccuracy when Jasper let out a loud battle cry, swinging the baseball bat down in a vertical slash like a sword, smashing into a patch of sand next to Steven, creating a small crater upon impact.
Seeing Jasper about to get ready for another swing, Steven screamed, terrified as he realised the literal life and death situation he was now in. Reacting fast, he ran over to Peridot and thrust the stick into her hands. Peridot briefly eyed the stick for a moment with some surprise, but she soon found herself letting out a scream of her own when she saw the blindfolded Jasper coming charging toward her, swinging the bat wildly.
She ducked her head down, narrowly missing the decapitating swing of Jasper's arm. Peridot then broke into run and circled around the beach several times with Jasper giving chase; despite her lack of vision, she was able to track Peridot movement's perfectly, as she needed to do was to follow the sound of her relentless screaming. And throughout the whole case, Peridot continued carrying the piñata stick, the tiny horse flapping in the wind behind her as she ran.
Watching from the side-lines, Lapis laughed humorously at the antics of her fellow Crystal Gems, but after seeing the concerned look on Steven's face, she soon decided to intervene.
Forming her water wings, Lapis stretched them out over to Peridot and pulled the stick out of her hands. Keeping herself at a safe distance, Lapis used her wings to hold the stick up in front of Jasper, who stopped when she could no longer hear Peridot's screams. Lifting up the blindfold to see the piñata dangling in front of her, Jasper swung the bat hard and hit the piñata dead on, creating a mini sonic boom that send it flying into the direction of the ocean.
They watched the piñata sail through the sky, before landing out into the water, the splash of the impact just barely within their line of sight. There was a short moment of silence as they boom of Jasper's strike faded.
"Bored now" she said, tossing the bat over her shoulder with a casual flick of her wrist. "What's next?" she asked Steven.
"Well, you were supposed to eat the candy that fell out" he replied.
"You put candy in that thing?" Jasper said, glancing out over the water. "Great, now it's all the way at the bottom of the ocean. Way to go, Steven"
"Don't worry" Steven said, unfazed by her harshness. "They'll be even more delicious treats at Peridot's party"
The party had moved from the beach to the base of the cliff behind the Temple, just below the lighthouse. Together the Crystal Gems sat a on a small picnic blanket that just barely had enough room for all three them. Lapis was sitting on the left, smiling pleasantly, wearing one of the party hats. Jasper was sitting slouched on the right side, idly chewing away at the end of a party horn in her mouth. Peridot was situated between the two of them, now wearing the birthday crown on her head and the ceremonial cape wrapped snuggly over her shoulders.
"Hmm, I must admit. This cape feels…. impowering. Ooooh". Peridot giggled mischievously to herself, wiggling around inside the cape. All three of them looked up as Steven appeared before them.
"Happy Birthday! Honk!"
Instead of his usual pink shirt and blue jeans, Steven was now wearing an oversized vest that was baggy enough to expose his gem, along with a pair of sandals much too big for his feet. He was also wearing a bright rainbow coloured wig over his normal black hair, a red rubber clown nose on his face and white clown make up.
"Steven, you look…different" Lapis said slowly, taking in his new attire.
"Those are rather odd choices of appearance modifiers" Peridot said, unable to see any particular rationale for Steven's change in wardrobe.
"No, it's funny, see?" he said.
"Steven, you know we would never be as shallow as to mock you for your appearance" Peridot said gently.
"No, I'msupposed to look funny, so you'll laugh" Steven said.
"So…. you're encouraging us to mock you for your appearance?" Peridot replied. Even as she said, it was clear she was struggling to grasp the meaning behind such a paradoxical concept.
Steven hesitated at Peridot's question and tethered on the verge of trying to explain himself. "Oh geez, I'm breaking character. Wait, wait, wait. I wrote some jokes"
He pulled out a large and disorganised stack of papers from the back pocket of his pants. Steven then began to read a line off the first page.
"Why did Peridot throw butter out the window?" he asked. "To see a butter fly!"
Peridot gasped, stunned by what Steven had said. "That is a baseless accusation!" she cried indignantly. "I wouldn't just throw some butter in the air to see if it could fly. What a preposterous statement"
"Didn't you once knock a human off a roof to see if he could fly?" Lapis said, wryly.
Peridot glared dangerously at Lapis and was on the verge of arguing back when Steven interrupted them again.
"No, wait, I know" he said quickly. "Peridot, do you like pie?"
"Not particularly" she replied, with a slight shrug of her shoulders.
"I like pie" Jasper said, raising her hand.
"The question was directed to me, Jasper!" Peridot snapped at her.
"Well then, you're in luck" Steven said, reaching into a nearby weaver basket and pulling something out. "I baked you a pie".
"Oh, why thank you Steven" Peridot said, sincerely touched by his gesture. "That was very thoughtful of you. I mean, irrelevant in fact that I don't need to eat, but thoughtful none the less"
"I sure hope nothing happens to it!" Steven said, as he began walking toward her, pie in hand.
"Well, yes, that would be the preferably outcome"
"Whoops!" Steven slipped on his oversized sandal and fell forward to the ground, the pie directly under his face, but before Steven made contact with it, Peridot got up her from where she had been sitting and caught him with her tractor beam, suspending both him and the pie in mid-air.
"Careful Steven, you almost fell" Peridot said, setting him back on his feet and dispersing her tractor beam. "That would have been a most unfortune turn of events. At that angle of descent, you would most certainly have landed directly on the-"
Without giving her a chance to finish, Steven smashed the pie up into his face, causing Peridot to jump back from him in fright.
"See, Peridot?" Steven said, chuckling, his entire face now smeared in a bizarre mixture of pie cream and clown make up. "It's funny!"
Peridot said nothing while Steven continued to laugh, staring at him like he was some kind of dangerous animal, her eyes alight with fear. She slowly backed away from Steven and reconvened with Jasper and Lapis who were still standing by the picnic blanket.
"Do not be alarmed" she said in hushed whisper. "But I have reason to believe Steven has lost his mind and is suffering from some kind of spontaneous case of erratic insanity! I suggest we sedate him and bring him back to the Temple for re-conditioning. Lapis, you distract him. Jasper, you come from behind and restrain him. I'll administer a small electrical discharge to render him unconscious. Brace yourself, he may get violent, but we do this because we love him"
Peridot activated a small current of electricity on the tip of her metal finger, struggling to keep her hand steady as she began to choke up with emotion, tears already forming her eyes.
Lapis and Jasper shared the briefest of glances with each other, the both of them thinking the exact same thing and looking back at the now weeping Peridot with identical deadpan expressions, clearly not sharing the same level of concern as her. Jasper then called out to Steven.
"Steven, Peridot says she's all partied out and wants to go home"
"Oh, this isn't going anything like it should" Steven said, taking off his wig; his curly black hair remained flat for a brief second, then popped itself back into its normal shape. Despite his best attempt to remain optimistic, he was beginning to grow increasingly disappointed by the lukewarm reception he was receiving. "I've got to pull out the ultimate birthday."
"Okay, there's no way you're not gonna love this!" Steven had now taken the Gems to the parking lot behind the Big Donut, where he had prepared his secret birthday weapon; three miniature toy cars, each one big enough for a small toddler to ride in.
"It's kazoo racers!" he said, holding up a blue coloured kazoo. He played the tip of the kazoo in his mouth and hummed into it, producing a buzzing, whistling sound. "You get in a car, you play a kazoo. What more could you want? Dad used to do this for me every year"
Steven pulled out three more kazoos, one for each of the Crystal Gems and eagerly waited for them to take them. Unfortunately, it looked as though the Gems enthusiasm for birthdays had just about worn out; Jasper was scowling, appearing irritated, while Peridot was huddled behind her, timorously peaking at Steven from behind her arm.
The only one who looked excited was Lapis, now taking her turn to don the king costume. She happily accepted one of the kazoos from Steven and hummed into, giggling at the noise it made. Steven return the gesture by humming on his own kazoo. Then in unison, they both took a deep breath and hummed into their kazoos together for an excessively long moment, creating a harmonic buzz that rang throughout the air, much to the growing chagrin of Jasper and Peridot.
"See, that's half the fun already" Steven said, excitedly. "Now, you can get in one of the cars"
"Okay" Lapis said. "But why are the cars so small?"
Steven's smiled faltered for a moment. "They're not too small. Give it a try"
Lapis did as Steven asked and approached one of the cars, but she found herself uncertain of how to proceed. She gingerly placed one foot inside the car and arched her back down to grab hold of the steering wheel to steady herself. She then tried to stick her other foot inside the car, and for a moment she was literally standing inside it, as though it was some oversized, singular rollerblade. Steven began to grow more and more put off watching the difficulty that Lapis was having with getting into the car and tried to help her get into a comfortable position, without much success.
"I told you he's gone insane" Peridot whispered to Jasper, gripping her thick forearm. "He can't even tell the difference in proportions anymore. These birthday rituals are a gateway to madness!"
Jasper groaned heavily in exasperation. Shaking Peridot off her arm, she walked over to Steven and got down on one knee in front of him.
"Uh, Steven, thanks for all the birthday stuff, but do you think maybe we should call it a day?" she asked, somehow sounding both patience, yet blunt at the same time.
"We can't stop now" Steven said, frowning. "We still have thousands of birthdays worth of parting left to do!". Steven put his kazoo to his lips and began to play another tune but was abruptly silenced when Jasper grabbed the other end of the kazoo between her thumb and index finger, muffling the buzzing. Not saying a single word and with cold, clinical precision, she squeezed the end of the kazoo, crushing it with ease and ensuring it was ruined beyond use. She then pulled the kazoo Steven's mouth with a slight pop and tossed over her shoulder.
"No, Steven" she said, unamused. "We don't need birthdays, because we don't age. Our bodies are always gonna stay exactly they should be. This is just pointless. Also, Peridot thinks you're going crazy, which is starting to drive me crazy"
Steven turned to Peridot, who flinched uncomfortably at his gaze even though there was no real accusation in his eyes.
"My concern, Steven" she said, as placatively as she could. "Is that we may not in fact be properly adjusted enough to Earth lifestyle in order for us to enjoy these…birthday celebrations"
"How could anyone not enjoy this?" Steven asked, in joyous disbelief, almost as if he thought Peridot was joking. Peridot groaned heavily, looking and feeling incredibly guilty.
"Steven, we appreciate the effort you put into this, but based on all my observations, these activities that you've asked us to take part in, well, they seem to be better suited...… for human children"
"Children?" Steven said, still with that same sense of happy disbelief. "Everyone gets to have birthdays. Seriously, give it a try. You're never too old."
"The problem isn't that we're too old, it's that we're too big" Peridot continued. "It's mathematically impossible for any of us to successfully operate these miniaturised weight couriers"
"Yeah, I mean, I'd be up for a race" Jasper said. "But these cars are kinda tiny. Plus, they look really feeble". Jasper prodded one of the toy cars with her foot and flipped it over on its back, one of its wheels spinning idly.
"You're not too big" Steven said, frowning. To demonstrate his point, Steven stepped into one of the cars and held the steering wheel. "You just get in and-". Steven cut himself off when he noticed that something about the car wasn't quite right. Much to his own surprise, now that he was in the car himself, Steven realised that the car was far too small to ride in. Or rather, he realised he was far to big to ride in it.
"No, wait, I think I got it!" Lapis had finally seemed to gain a comfortable position inside her car. She was squatting in the seat, her legs bent and knees jutting outward at opposite angles. A moment later, she titled at an angle and then fell flat on her side, along with the tiny car. After remaining in that position for a long moment, Lapis stood up and out of the car.
"I'm sorry Steven, but I guess I can't fit" she said, with an apologetic look. Steven looked back and forth between Lapis, the cars and his own hands, a terrible truth beginning to wash over him.
"What if birthdays are for little kids? What even I'm too old?" There was a prolonged moment of silence as Steven's statement sunk in. There was an obvious shift in the atmosphere and for some reason, the world appeared a lot less brighter now than it did a few minutes ago
"Steve…..you're not upset, are you?" Peridot asked, hesitantly
Steven didn't answer her. Instead, he stepped out of the tiny car, and put his hands inside his pockets, stared down at the ground. When he spoke, his words were distant and melancholy
"Kazoo racers just seems undignified". Without any other acknowledgement, Steven simply walked away, leaving the parking lot and heading into town. The Crystal Gems watched him as he went, with a mixture of concern regarding his current state of mind.
"Should we-?" Lapis began.
"No" Jasper said firmly, raising her hand to silence Lapis. "Let's just give him some space"
Now alone, Steven trudged down the empty board walk, hands in his pockets and head lowered, his mind filled with thoughts of disappointment, regret and frustration.
"I never realized birthdays meant leaving things behind" he said. "All these parties, ugh, so embarrassing". Dejected, Steven continued walking forward, oblivious to the encompassing mist as he entered it. From within the shrouded mist, a faint, pink glow briefly appeared, silhouetting the outline of a small figure and then disappeared just as quickly.
Out on the other side of the mist came a greasy faced teenager, wearing a pink shirt and blue shorts far too small for his slightly robust physique, a bushel of thick curly black hair. The teen stopped outside of the arcade, observing Onion playing a game a game of skid ball.
"Oh Onion, so young, so innocent" he said, his voice cracking awkwardly. The teenager turned away just as Onion had finished prying open the ticket booth for the game, and spotted a familiar looking video game in the corner of the arcade
"Whacker Man Jr.!". The teenager momentarily appeared interested, but then glanced around the arcade in a self-conscious manner. "Ooh, I can't be seen playing a childish game like Whacker Man Jr. I better stick to sophisticated games, like regular Whacker Man."
The teenager turned to the aforementioned Whacker Man, which was situated right next to its younger counterpart. The teen placed a quarter into the game and half hearted began to whack the stuffed gangster heads that popped out of the holes. After a while, he left the arcade again, continuing down the boardwalk, which was still shrouded in mist.
"That was fun, but a boy on the cusp of manhood can't spend the whole day whackering. I need to take control of my life.". The teen stopped again, this time outside of a t-shirt store.
The door of the shop opened and closed; a tall, broad-shouldered man with a black curly hair and partial stubble entered. He was wearing an extremely tight looking shirt and blue shorts that showed off his hairy legs.
"It's time, to get a proper job" he said, his voice strong and sure, with a resolute sense of purpose. He ran his eyes over the different shirts on display. "But which one? Surf Master? No. Love Doctor? I'm too squeamish. Ah, now this is the job for me."
The tall man exited the shop, having purchased a pink coloured shirt that he felt best described his ideal job; Professional Beach Hunk.
"Ha, this day went so fast" he said. "I need a pick-me-up". The man now made his way up the boardwalk, heading toward the Big Donut on the hilltop.
Inside the Big Donut, Lars and Sadie were busy re-stocking the glass shelves behind the counter with donuts. They heard the bell ring as the door opened but didn't turn around to see who had entered, assuming that it was just a normal customer. In this case, it was a balding, middle-aged and overweight man in a pink shirt.
"Two of the usual please, I've had quite a day" he said, sounding tried and world weary, approaching the counter.
"Ha, you must be confused pal" Lars said, turning around to lean on the counter top. "I work here every day and I've never seen your mug before"
"Oh, hardy har, Lars" the man replied, with embitter sarcasm.
Sadie turned around from the shelf, looking just as surprised as Lars that the balding man knew him by name. They listened as he began to start ranting.
"I used to make jokes, but you know what? I've had a lot of time to think today and sometimes you gotta smarten up, act like an adult. Because one day, if you don't, everyone you know is gonna grow up without you. And then you won't have little Steven to pick on anymore because I'll be a grown up too"
"Steven…who?" Sadie said, slowly, with a delicate sense of caution.
The balding man appeared taken back by the question. "Steven Quartz Universe!" he exclaimed, impatiently. "And I want that doughnut, right there!"
He bent down to the display and rapped his finger against the glass, but then jumped back with a gasp, as though he had been scared by his own reflection.
"Sir are you okay?" Sadie asked, now sounding concerned, fearful that something may be truly wrong with this strange man.
"I'm OLD!" the man screamed in horror
"Yeah, and nuts!" Lars added, becoming increasing freaked out by the balding man's behaviour.
The balding man put his hands to his cheek, tears beginning to swell up in his eyes. "I'm going to have to eat fibre cereal, all my teeth are gonna fall out, and then, I'll have to eat oatmeal and it'll be sugar-free! Sugar-free!"
The man collapsed into the nearest chair and buried his face into his hands, sobbing loudly. Sadie moved over to the man and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, while Lars remained behind the counter, wanting to keep as much distance as possible between him and the stranger.
"I need to reverse this!" the man cried. "I need, a…reverse birthday". The man lifted his face up, struck by some realisation. "The king costume!"
He turned to Lars and Sadie and spoke with utmost earnest. "Will you help me into my birthday suit?
Whatever sympathy that Lars and, more importantly Sadie, had for this strange, rambling old man, had just official gone out the window. And a moment later, the balding man went straight out the door, being chased away by Sadie, now brandishing a chair at him.
"Yeah, you better run!"
The balding man ran from the Donut shop and down onto beach, running and running until his back gave out on him and he collapsed onto the sand, unable to move or get back up again. He lay there helpless, as the mist rolled in over the beach. After what might have been years, another figure, one on four legs walked out from within the grey haze.
Lion raised his snot into the air and sniffed at something, picking up traces of a familiar scent. He came upon something big and heavy on the sand; a grey bearded man, too old and weak to even stand up. The old man looked up at Lion, who looked back down at him impassively. Lion lowered his head and lightly licked the elderly man's cheek, as an affectionate as a dog with his master. Lion then picked the old man up in his mouth, careful not to harm him and sprinted off into the mist, in the direction of the Temple.
Back at the beach, the Crystal Gems were clearing away the last of the birthday decorations. Lapis was using her hydrokinesis to gather up the remaining balloons and other leftover decorations, surrounding them in individual orbs of water, levitating the orbs up into the air and then merging them together in one giant bubble.
Jasper, now wearing the king costume, was picking up the tables and chairs, stacking them up on one shoulder.
Peridot was the only one not contributing to the clean-up, too busy reading over a small book, her eyes glued to the pages with intensity.
"What are you doing with that?" Jasper said, sounding reluctant to even ask.
"I was hoping to gain a bit of insight from this whole birthday experience" Peridot replied. "After witnessing Steven's clown display, I've elected to learn more about the Earth humour"
"Didn't you say that birthdays were a gateway into madness?"
"…Yes" Peridot admitted, begrudgingly. "But that is not the point. Steven did seem somewhat upset that we weren't able to properly reciprocate his feelings toward his birthday celebrations. So, I thought, in an effort to make Steven feel a little better, I could try and learn more about what humans consider to be funny."
Jasper continued giving her a sceptical look. Peridot sighed impatiently
"Look, I want to at least try and understand it, ok?"
"Ok, ok" Jasper said, nodding quickly and turning away from Peridot, bending down to pick up another table and tossing onto the growing stack on her shoulder.
Peridot continued flipping through the joke book until she stopped on a certain page that caught her attention. Reading over the page a number of times, she glanced back and forth between Jasper and the book, the basis of an intriguing experimentation forming in her mind.
"Hey, Jasper" she said.
"What?" Jasper replied.
"What do you call an alligator in a vest? An investigator!" Peridot paused for a moment, waiting to see Jasper's reaction.
Jasper blinked once, looking just as stoic and unflinching as ever, not so much as cracking a sniffle.
"Hmm. I read it exactly as the text descripted" Peridot said, unperturbed, glancing down at the book again. "It would seem that delivery is a crucial element to the joke. Then again, I'd imagine the subtilities of such a transaction would easily go over your head"
"I got a joke" Jasper said.
"You do?" Peridot said, now curious.
"Catch".
Before Peridot could ask what she meant by this, Jasper held the stack of tables she had gathered up directly over her head and dropped them right on top of her. She chuckled snidely to herself as Peridot struggled to get up, while muttering her own preference of profanity.
"Dirty…muddy….stinking clod!"
Jasper continued to laugh as Peridot struggled to pull herself out free from under the tables. Lapis walked up beside her, one hand raised up in the direction of the floating body of water, keeping in its place. Her eyes settled on the cape Jasper was wearing.
"You know you don't need to wear that anymore, right?" she said.
"I like it" Jasper replied, rubbing the fabric of the cape between two of her fingers. "Looked better on me anyway"
"Oh hey, look, Lion's back" Lapis said, seeing the pink coloured feline approaching them in the distance.
"Is Steven with him?" Peridot asked, getting back to her feet and brushing away some of the sand.
Lion stopped in front of Lapis and from his mouth, he dropped the husk of an elderly man in a pink shirt down at her feet. Lapis bent over slightly to examine the stranger with an indifferent, yet somewhat curious expression.
"No, it's just some really, really old man wearing Steven's clothes" she answered back.
Surprised, Peridot and Jasper moved over to the old man who was lying sprawled out on the sand. Jasper bent down and turned him over, revealing his wrinkled and bearded face. And on his exposed belly, underneath the words Professional Beach Hunk, and between the tangled folds of grey hair, was a pink coloured gemstone in the place of the man's naval.
The Crystal Gems recoiled from the old man in shock the moment they saw this gemstone, knowing all too well what it was and who it belonged to. There was the sound of a loud pop, as the orb of water burst open, splashing onto the sand.
"Oh, my stars!" Peridot cried out in horror. "That is Steven!"
"What's happened to him?" Lapis said, getting down her knees and propping Steven's head up on her lap, now looking worried sick for his wellbeing.
Peridot fired a transparent beam out from her hand, scanning Steven's body. The results of the scan appeared on her finger-screen in the form of text that Peridot began to read it off.
"Heart rate failing. Decrease in oxygen levels. Muscles atrophying. An overwhelming odour of prunes and cats? He's aging. He's aging years in a matter of seconds"
"B-but, gems can't die from aging" Lapis said, panic slowly overwhelming her.
"But Steven's half human" Jasper pointed out. Even as she stated the fact, it made her no less terrified.
"Well, what do we do? How do we fix this?!" Lapis said, her voice rising higher and higher as her fear was already getting the best of her.
"My birthday….suit… might help" Steven said, sounding weak and raspy.
Upon hearing this, Lapis' eyes snapped onto Jasper, gazing at her the way a hawk would gaze at a field mouse. Before Jasper could get a word out, Lapis lunged at her, and practically ripped the cape and crown off her body in a shameless manner. Lapis quickly placed the crown on Steven's head and draped the cape of his shoulders, letting him curl up on the sand next to Lion.
"Thanks guys" he said. "But it looks like this suit's all out of birthday magic"
The Crystal Gems gazed down in grim silence at what was surely the soon-to-dead boy that they loved more than anything, feeling despair and hopelessness the likes of which they hadn't felt for thousands of years.
"More birthdays! NOW!" Jasper shouted, grabbing both Lapis and Peridot by the neck and pulled to them aside away from Steven, who looked to have already accepted his impending fate.
"Hey, Steven, look!"
Steven cracked his eyes open to see Lapis, standing with her arms spread out to the side in a pose that resembled a magician or performers lovely assistant, presenting an oversized Jasper riding around in one of the tiny cars Steven had prepared for them earlier.
"Steven, I'm in a tiny car!" Jasper said, with a nervous smile. "And I got a kazoo. What more can you ask for, right?"
Jasper placed the kazoo between her lips and blew on it loudly, as she rode around in a circle, making a rather flat sounding buzz. A moment later, the tiny car gave way under Jasper's weight, breaking into a hundred pieces
"Kids….stuff…" Steven said, wheezing and sounding weaker by the second, like a balloon being drained of air. His gem lit up again; his beard and hair grew out another few inches, his face becoming even more wrinkled and lifeless than before.
Becoming desperate, Lapis glanced around the beach for anything that may be of use, until her eyes settled on the horizon of the vast ocean. Getting an idea, Lapis sprouted her water wings and flew off into the distance, disappearing into the water with an echoing splash. After a few moments, she emerged from the water and retuned to the beach, now holding something in her hands.
"Piñata!"
Lapis smiled and presented Steven with the same piñata Jasper had knocked into the ocean hours ago, but it was now nothing but soggy clump of paste that barely even resembled what it once was, covered in seaweed and moss. She shook the piñata in front of Steven, making it d a little dance in an effort to raise his spirits. The head of the piñata snapped off and fell to the sand. The rest of the piñata soon crumbled out of Lapis hands into a pile of slimly mush on the sand, along with all her hopes.
Seeing this, Steven groaned again, gaining another foot of his beard.
"Nothing's working!" Lapis said, her terrible sense of panic returning. She turned to Jasper, her eyes practically begging her to have an answer, a solution of any kind, but Jasper looked to be just as lost and confused, having no idea what to do. Suddenly they heard Peridot's voice behind them.
"Wait, wait, I got it. I can save the day!"
Jasper and Lapis made way for the Peridot. Given the circumstance, neither of them had the chance to question her on her bizarre change of appearance; she was wearing the same baggy shirt and shorts that Steven had worn earlier, along with the same rainbow coloured wig sitting crooked on her diamond shaped head of hair, sloppily applied white face paint and a red clown nose over her own.
"Hello Steven!" she said cheerfully, wearing what may have been, the biggest and happiest smile she had ever worn up until this point in her existence as she approached him. "Are you ready to laugh? Haha! See, it's funny because that's a rhetorical question! Honk!"
Peridot laughed again and honked her red nose twice. Steven did not return the laugh. Instead, he just moaned in agony, growing even older and more decrepit with each passing exchange. Despite seeing Steven's condition growing steadily worse, Peridot remained unperturbed, continuing to smile confidently. She pulled her joke book she had been reading earlier and opened it on a specific page, clearing her throat.
"Why did the chicken cross the road?" she said. There was a pause before she continued. "The chicken wanted to get to the other side of the road". Peridot threw her head back and let out a boisterous laugh. She looked back down at Steven with anticipation.
Again, Steven did not laugh. He merely continued to gasp weakly for air, rapidly losing the strength to even keep breathing at this point. Peridot's face strained itself, frozen in a smile, her left eye beginning to twitch slightly. She dropped the joke book and swiftly fired her tractor beam off in a random direction, pulling over a small pie.
"Look, I have a delicious pie!" she said, holding the pie in both hand. "I sincerely hope nothing happens to it"
There was another pause as Peridot allowed her statement sink in, before she slapped the pie into her face, smothering herself in the whipped cream. Pulling the lid away, she smiled down at Steven, waiting to see him return to normal at any moment, having full confidence that her well timed and stimulating humour would be fully effective.
Steven let out one mighty gasp of breath and then aged into what most certainly had to be the body of a man who had lived for over a hundred years. He finally stopped moaning, going incredibly quiet and still. His breath slowed to a crawl and appeared to have fallen into a peaceful sleep; the kind of sleep that one does not wake up from.
This proved to be the breaking point for Peridot; the perpetual smile she had been wearing finally faded, and her face dropped into a huge frown. Her eyes went as wide as saucers and her lower lip began to quiver uncontrollably as she let out a low, penetrating, whining sound from her mouth. The sound gradually continued to build, until finally, the dam ruptured, and Peridot let out a heart wrenching wail of despair that must have been heard for miles. Trembling, she dropped to her knees in front of Steven, clutching either side of her pie covered face, pulling at her hair and green skin; if her skin wasn't made of solid light she likely would have ripped it clean off. She looked to be on the brink of pure madness, her terrifying screams echoing throughout the night.
Behind her, Jasper and Lapis gaped at Peridot in disbelief as she continued to wail up towards the sky, the both of them too dumbfounded to say anything. Shaking with fury, Jasper smacked her hand to her forehead, wishing more than anything she had something to break.
"Are you trying to kill him even faster!?" she yelled at Peridot.
Peridot gave no response but to just keep crying, tears streaming down her face, mixing with the pie cream in a truly pitiful display. She then got to her feet and ran over to Jasper, taking her by surprise by throwing her arms around her neck.
"Steven!" she sobbed, pulling Jasper's face into her chest. "Not my baby! NOOOO!"
"Peridot, get off me!" Jasper snapped, struggling to get hold of the hysterical Peridot, who started to babble incoherently.
Lapis watched silently as Jasper tried to restrain Peridot as she clambered over her shoulders, flailing around in a ridiculous fashion and then set her eyes back on Steven. Taking a deep breath, she walked to over to him and kneeled down on the sand next to him, propping his head under her hands.
Jasper and Peridot ceased their fighting when they saw that Lapis was now holding Steven, cradling him in her arms. They had no idea what to expect next, yet they were hoping against all odds that Lapis was about to pull of some kind of miracle that would save Steven.
Lapis gently placed her cool hand on Steven's cheek. He opened his eyes less than an inch to see her looking down at him. Then, in a blinding motion, Lapis pulled her hand back and slapped Steven across the face as hard as she could. Then she struck with him with her back hand, and then with another swing of her forehand. Again, and again she slapped Steven, who didn't appear to even feel her blows, his face helplessly flopping to either side with each slap like a wade of putty. Lapis quicken the pace of her slaps, her eyes now lit with a kind of mad, desperate fury, breathing sharply with each blow, hoping it would inevitably do something for Steven.
It took a good few seconds for Jasper and Peridot actually register what they were seeing, until finally they jumped back from one another in shock, screaming out in unison. "LAPIS, NO!"
Rushing over to her, they each grabbed one of her arms and pulled her off Steven, before she could hit him again. Emotions and panic getting the best of them, the Crystal Gems quickly broke down into senseless argument. Though he could hear nothing but his own heartbeat pounding on his ears, Steven opened his eyes again to see the Gems fighting amongst themselves.
Jasper was furiously berating Lapis for her actions, venting her own frustration. Lapis was yelling back at her, and then started grabbing fistfuls of her own blue hair, appearing incredibly distressed, perhaps even on the verge of a breakdown. Peridot looked as though she was ready to start crying again, whimpering again and burying her face in her hands.
Steven watched as they all continued to fight, acting like a bunch of hysterical children. How could beings that were thousands of years old act in such a way? The mere idea of it was making Steven feel more irritated than he had felt all day.
"Would you guys, just please-". Steven's gem began to glow once more, and he suddenly found the strength to stand on his feet again.
"Control yourselves?!" he snapped, his voice now full of energy and confidence. The Gems instantly stopped fighting and turned their eyes onto Steven, seeing him now standing upright in the body of a fully-grown man. His beard had receded, leaving behind only a slight stubble on his chin. The colour of his hair had also returned to black.
Realising their attention was now him, Steven appeared to lose the nerve he had just gain, looking frightened. His gem activated again, and his body changed into that of a greasy faced teenager.
"Ugh, oh no. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled" he said, his voice now cracking and awkward sounding. Steven's gem glowed for a third time and he returned to the form of an adult man. "But I can't stand to see you freaking out like this"
"Steven, you're changing" Jasper whispered,
"Your age is fluctuating according to your state of mind" Peridot said.
"Steven, you just have to stop feeling old!" Lapis said.
"But I wasted your time. We all have such little time" he said weakly, turning back into an old man, his grey beard sprouting out from his face.
"Steven, quick, think of yourself as a baby" Peridot said. "Small, incoherent and in need of constant supervision"
"A baby?" he said. This suggestion appeared to work, as Steven began to age in reversal again, turning younger and his beard receding again. But instead of stopping at his natural age, he continued to grow younger until his head and face shrank down to the size of a baby.
"Too young!" the Crystal Gems cried together in unison.
Steven changed again, his head growing larger and his grey beard immediately returning.
"Too old!"
Back to a baby.
"Older!"
Old man.
"Younger!"
Steven flipped back and forth between old man and baby, the speed of his changes became faster and faster, his face becoming a living blur until he halted the breaks and stopped back at teenager.
"What do you want from me?" he cried, feeling misunderstood.
"We don't want anything from you Steven" Peridot said, her words filled with hurt and regret. "We just want you back. The way you've always been!"
"That's right" Lapis said, clasping her hands together, almost in a pray like fashion. "Sweet and kind, and compassionate. And always thinking of everyone else before yourself"
"Like your hero, Peridot!"
"You really think I'm all those things?" Steven said, touched by their praise.
"Of course we do!" Jasper insisted. "That's why you threw us those parties in the first place! Who else would go out of their way do to something nice for a bunch of ungrateful jerks like us?"
"Oh my gosh" Steven said in amazement. "You're right! I am pretty great!" And with one final glow of his gem, Steven returned himself back to normal.
The Gems didn't even give Steven a second to recuperate; Lapis and Peridot rushed over and embraced him in a tight hug. Jasper hung back, yet she allowed herself a brief sigh of relief, putting a hand over her chest, shaking slightly.
Lapis was the first to release Steven, but Peridot spent another full minute hugging Steven's head to her chest; he didn't protest this, despite the lack of oxygen he was getting. When she finally let him go, Steven winced slightly, feeling a sudden, stinging pain on either side of his face.
"How come my face is so sore?" he asked, rubbing one of his cheeks
"Mosquitoes!" Lapis answered at once, before Peridot or Jasper could say anything. "Really, really big mosquitoes"
Steven stared at Lapis who smiled back at him nervously, but then shrugged, accepting the answer. He then found himself pulled into another hug from Peridot, who was unable to restrain her joy at seeing him safe again.
"Oh, my stars, Steven!" she said, fighting back tears as she released him. "You're back! Exactly the way I love you. From the top of your head all the way down to the tip of your toooooooeeeeee…..naaaaval area!" Peridot grimaced with disgust, her eyes stopping down at Steven's feet.
Confused, Steven glanced downwards and saw that he was now several inches higher off the ground than usual. That, and the fact that his legs were now covered in hair. Apparently, he wasn't able to return the lower part of his body back to normal. Everything below his waistline appeared to remain that of an adult, making him look extremely disproportionate.
"We'll, uh, work on the rest later" Jasper said, while Steven began to dance a merry jig, deciding to make the most out of his hopefully, temporary legs.
Pretty glad to have this over me. Going forward, I'll have to consider how long I want this chapters to be, but now that I think it on, I'd say the next chapter may be just as long, if not longer. If you feel like you would prefer shorter chapters over longer ones, please let me know as I appreciate feedback, especially constructive criticism
Anywho, to give you all a hint on what the next chapter will be, I'll just say this; It will include a fusion. Pretty sure that gives it all away anyway, but I need to bait you with something.
Thanks again for reading and I'll see you next time.