Chapter 9: It Sinks In
"Pleeeeeeeaaaasse?" Steven begged on his knees. "Now Steven, you know full well that this number and type of company can only lead to a disaster," said Pearl, hands on her hips. Unable to keep a straight face, Steven broke down as Amethyst changed back into her own form, howling with laughter. "How long do you think Pearl will take this time?" Steven asked. Garnet walked over to the counter where Pearl's gemstone was. "We had an agreement before we left," she said, "which was we'd come back no later than three days, so as to have the best chance of succeeding our mission." "So, she'll be back day after tomorrow and then we can go hunt the gem monster?" Steven asked excitedly. Garnet smiled, "that's the plan."
At about 6:30, everything was set. After a long debate with Garnet, Steven had finally convinced her to let them have the party in Rose's room. The living room had been too small, outside was too sandy, and even Greg's van could only seat seven comfortably at the most. Steven had finally managed to convince Garnet that he now had complete control over the room's power. Garnet, however, looked into the future and saw that only 15% of the possible outcomes led to horrible disfiguration for the huntresses, so she finally agreed. Steven had left Team RWBY to their own devices while he set up everything. He first set up 9 mattresses in a circle (a double sized one for Garnet.) In the middle, Steven had then created an alarmingly large stack of board games, along with an underground cellar and freezer to keep all the snacks in. Speaking of snacks, Steven quickly dashed out of the room to see what they had. Luckily, he arrived right before Amethyst started her regular pantry/fridge raid. "Amethyst, we need all this for tonight!" he told her. "Oh come on, Steven! Just one bite!" Amethyst changed her mouth so that it turned into the size of Steven. "Amethyst, I really need all this. If you really feel like eating, why don't you go down to the Big Donut and raid their dumpster for old donuts again?" "Great idea Steven!" Amethyst took off out the door as fast as she could. In the distance, Steven heard a thud and a cry. "Oh, sorry Ruby!" he heard Amethyst call.
It was now 7:00, and everyone was seated on the couches, floor, or counter, waiting for the arrival of Peridot and Lapis. However, everyone was quite shocked when they finally warped into the temple. Earlier, Peridot had taken the liberty of researching slumber parties on her new tablet. And as a result, she and Lapis were both wearing fluffy onesies and each sported a large braid in their hair. Peridot was wearing an expression identical to Garnet when she first saw Stevonnie, and Lapis looked like she'd been forced to permanently change her name to Bob. "You two look...nice," Yang said awkwardly. Ruby on the other hand was awestruck. She rushed over to Lapis and Peridot and began feverously examining their braids. "How did you get it...always tangle this part...oh that's so elegant," Ruby suddenly looked up at Weiss. Weiss thought a moment, and then opened her eyes in terror. "Oh no, no way Ruby," she said, backing away. Ruby, however, got a mad gleam in her eye. She readied herself, then lunged at Weiss as fast as she could.
A few moments later the cartoon cloud obscuring everyone's vision lifted. Ruby looked extremely please with herself. "Ruby! This...is actually quite beautiful. Thank you," Weiss said, smiling at her training partner. "Alright, let's do this," Steven said. He walked to the Temple door, and opened it to Rose's room. Garnet and Amethyst merely walked in, but the rest were stunned by the room. "It's like, a world made out of cotton candy," Ruby said, kneeling down and feeling the soft and fluffy ground. The group settled into the circle of mattresses, with some complications. Lapis moved multiple times so that she wasn't beside Peridot, who seemed keen to be bunk mates. Ruby chose the mattress between Steven and Yang. The former was beside Garnet and the latter by an enthusiastic Amethyst. This meant that Weiss reluctantly settled between Lapis and Blake, who had Peridot on her other side.
"Alright! Now that we're all settled in, I declare this party officially started!" There was silence, until Garnet broke it with a monotonous, "woo hoo." Hmmm, maybe we need more of an atmosphere, Steven thought as he looked around at everyone around him. "Room, I want a wild party room!" Steven declared. Immediately, the clouds were replaced by a medium sized room complete with a dance floor, bar, turn tables, and a disco ball. That's better, but there's still something missing, Steven thought, completely ignoring the looks of awe from Team RWBY. He slightly heard Garnet explain the properties of the room as it hit Steven. They needed music! "Room, I want a DJ!" Steven requested. Immediately a tall boy with a pale blue hoodie appeared. "Hey Steven," Sour Cream waved casually as he began firing up all the DJ gear. "That's much better," Steven said in a satisfied way, "now what should we do first?" "Well according to a brief information reconnaissance on my newly acquired tablet, popular choices for slumber parties include Truth or Dare, board games, and something called strip poker..." "What's that last one about?" Steven asked innocently. "You don't need to know. It's not at all fun," Yang said hurriedly, "that's only for lame parties." Blake gave her an inquiring look, but Steven simply nodded. "Okay then. How do you all feel like Golf Quest Mini: The Board Game?" He pulled a box from the pile in the centre and began to set it up. "This looks childish," Peridot said dismissively.
Thirty minutes later, the entire group was completely engaged by the various figures and cards on the board, where Peridot was having a very intense battle against Yang. "You fool, prepare for annihilation! My wedge uses chip, which means the ball lands straight on the green. You only have ten yards left!" Yang smiled. "Not bad, Perimore. But you've made one fatal mistake!" Peridot's eyes opened wide. "No! You can't!" Yang grinned her evil grin. "Oh but I can! You've just activated my trap card! Sand trap, that is. Looks like you lose a turn, and you're accuracy harshly fell!" "Ooooooh! Power play!" Amethyst whooped, beating her mattress like a drum. "And, because this match is par 4, my 3-Wood just evolved into a 5-Iron, doubling it's stats!" Yang beamed as she admired her work at defeating everyone and winning the Magikup. Peridot began thrashing around on her bed, growling profusely. Steven looked worried. "Room, I want something that Peridot can take all her anger out on." A miniature punching bag appeared. Periodot immediately charged at it on all fours. Crashing into it, she howled in victory as it went swinging in the air. Unfortunately, it predictably came swinging back and knocked the poor gem clean off her gravity connectors. "Is she alright?" Weiss asked, looking concerned. "She'll be fine. Let's try doing something else," Garnet said.
"Oh, how about this. It's a game Connie and I made up. Room, I want some paper and a pencil for everyone!" The room obliged. "When I was at Connie's, she had all these cue cards in her room from when her mom was teaching her a bunch of stuff. I didn't get most of it, but we made a game out of me trying to guess." "So, how do actually play?" Amethyst asked. "Well, the first person writes something. It could be a tree, or a lake, or a giant dragon Watermelon Steven. Then, you pass the paper to the next person, who draws the thing. Then they fold the paper so the next person can't see the first bit of writing, and they write out what they think the drawing is. Everyone takes a turn until the paper gets back to the first person, and we compare the before and after." Amethyst suddenly looked like she had a great idea. "Hey Garnet, can you trade spots with Peridactyl for this one?" "Why do you want that?" Peridot, now calm again, asked. "Because if anyone's gonna mess this up at the last minute, it's you with your little touch stumps.
After a bit a hot debate, the game finally got going, with Peridot now occupying the double sized mattress beside Steven. Steven decided it would be safest if he went first. He thought for a moment, then wrote down "Muffin with a Jetpack." He smiled, and passed the paper to Ruby. She stifled a giggle, and began to draw. Unfortunately, her drawing skills were somewhat lacking, and her image came out looking more like a fat guy eating a really long pickle. This went on until the paper finally got to Peridot. She looked at the drawing, and scoffed dismissively. "Well this is completely obvious." "So what is it Peridot?" Steven asked. "Well clearly, it's a lake infested by centipeetles who are all overweight from eating cakes grown on the shoreline by a sad fat volcano with no friends! And there's also a beetle." Everyone burst out laughing. "I think you may have messed up a little," Steven said, looking at the drawing himself. "Nice one," Lapis said, joining in the laughter.
As everyone continued to berate an increasingly irate Peridot, Steven went over to talk to Lapis. "You know, we've been here for about an hour now, and you're still here," he said. She looked at him. "I guess, I've actually ended up really enjoying myself. It's nice to be somewhere where you don't have to worry about anything important for a while. Steven, thank you for inviting me here." She offered him a genuine smile, which caused Steven to melt inside from happiness.
"I'm telling you! You could not lift my scythe by yourself!" Ruby argued. The rest of the group's conversations had deteriorated from teasing Peridot to trying her trying to convince them all that she was to be feared. "Could to! I would just need to apply some logic to find the-" but before she could finish her unlikely claim, the whole group was startled by a knock on the door. "Ummm, who was that?" Blake asked, her bow seeming to perk up in fear. "I don't know, but we've nothing to fear," Garnet reassured her as she stood up. "We've got four well armed gems, four well armed huntresses, and if we fail I'm sure Peridot could make them laugh so hard they literally explode." "Hey!" Peridot shouted as Garnet approached the door. "Everyone ready?" She asked. Everyone drew their available weapons, except for Steven who'd only managed to summon his bubble. "Aw, not bubble! Shield!" he said dejectedly. "Alright, GO!" Garnet opened the door quickly, only to immediately stop in surprise. Standing in the door way was a rather tall, slender figure who held herself with a certain grace and delicacy. "I'm ready," Pearl said, uncharacteristically fiercely, "let's go!" She stood proud, until she looked into the room. Confidence was instantly replaced by a look of the utmost horror. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH ROSE'S ROOM?" She shrieked.