Found the portal to Hell I hope to take others down with me
hey guys remember like half a year ago when I used to make posts about things other than Omori? IT'S FINALLY THAT TIME AGAIN
so I was a REEAAALLLLLYYYY big Steven Universe fan while it was airing. I consistently watched every new episode, participated in fandom, made up theories, drew my own art, knew all the songs, etc etc.
I HAD AN ARBITRARY RULE, THOUGH, that I was never allowed to rewatch ANY episode until the show was over. I could rewatch whatever the newest ones were, but I could never go back and watch older ones. This was so that I could give myself a unique, nostalgic experience that reminded me of where my life was at that point when I rewatched it.
Then Steven Universe Future came to an end in 2020
and I just. Never got around to it.
I kept intending to rewatch it, I did! It's just one of those things that slipped into the background? Like, I could do it any time. I wasn't in a hurry. And if I was going to watch it, I wanted to do it with my friend Error! BUT we're always watching stuff or playing games, we barely have enough time as it is, we'd have to wait until we have a free moment to pick up a new big show like that!
Then I was Really Really Sad and having the absolute most horrible day in September, hiding from home far away in the dark at nightime and all the solace I had was being able to VC with Error. and I decided......... yeah all I have is the phone, better to watch a show than play games. Let's watch this show I liked.
RIGHT NOW WE'RE AS FAR AS EARLY SEASON 3 but guess what this post isn't here to talk about my renewed thoughts or analyze the music I've been listening to on loop for weeks. No, people already have done that nine years ago. Instead I'm here to talk about an AU I've been writing in the past four days that already has so much content it's difficult to fit into one post and I'm a bit wary to figure out how I'm going to put this all succinctly enough.
Does anyone remember Momswap
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Pretty simple premise of "what if the bad guys were the good guys". These drawings were created by Facet-5 on Tumblr. Miraculously, their account isn't dead so you can see all these drawings for yourself!
Back in like 2015-2017 I was APPARENTLY, REALLY INSPIRED BY THESE, because while I was looking through some old old old Steven Universe stuff I made back then, I found some fanfiction I wrote about it that I had totally forgotten making! It was a quarter a rewrite of Gem Glow, the first episode, and FOR TEN YEAR OLD FANFICTION IT WAS PRETTY GOOD. Good enough it made me think "Hm, well, how would this AU be written in the modern day? With all the extra information we have now that we didn't back then, what could we do?"
I started writing out ideas that could reasonably happen within the pre-existing world without having to do any personality or lore swaps at all. A reasonable alternate timeline!?
I think the best way to go about this post is to discuss every character one by one.
All backstories are WIP, as I said I'm only back to season 3 of the show so a lot of this is based on me and my friend's old memories of the characters and is subject to change once we review the source material again!!!
First we'll start with Jasper!
Her backstory is a little wishy-washy as of now.
Jasper was born on Earth soon to be a solider in the war. She was VERY LOYAL to Pink Diamond. Loved her. and yknow, Pink loved her too! Thought, "What a good powerful loyal solider. I want her to be on my side," so she intentionally mistreated her to make her dislike Pink, and make her like Rose. The alternate idea is that maybe Rose just got to her soon enough before she became as diamond-allied, I'm sure a good story could be made up around it. Some combination of the two.
She is VERY LOYAL to her fellow Crystal Gems, often talking about and memorializing her fallen teammates. She was really sad when Rose died, but then had cute aggression towards Steven so didn't take it the hardest. She teaches Steven to be STRONG and COOL STUFF ABOUT BATTLE. her room in the temple has a bunch of giant weapons littered around lol
[Post here]
She's very vocal about the pride she has in her part in the war
(Error drew these, he makes the AU with me)
Overall she does pretty well on Earth. Likes terrorizing the humans.
Lapis next because it makes most sense chronologically
Lapis has mostly the same backstory as before. She was supposed to be on Earth for a short time, but then got caught up in the middle of the war and poofed. Thinking she was a Crystal Gem, the homeworld gems put her in a mirror and tried to force her to tell her about her leader. Not knowing the answer to any of their questions, they never released her. When the Homeworld gems fled, she got left behind...
...And eventually, found by Rose.
Rose, not having the same capabilities Pearl would to just put her in a pocket dimension, actually picked up with the mirror and played with it long enough to be able to talk to Lapis (much in the same way Steven did) and learn that inside was a real gem that needed to be freed.
Lapis was astounded by Rose's kindness, as she had only heard bad things about her. She wanted to go home, but with her gem being cracked she couldn't summon her wings. Rose healed her gem for her, but, unlike the normal show, instead of healing perfect it heals with an orange scar on it where the crack used to be. Lapis knew homeworld was in bad shape now, and would probably never take her back.
Rose was kind and showed her the beauty of the planet she fought for and Lapis decided to stay with them. (Helps there's a lot of water here, heh).
The characterization for her is more akin to how she was portrayed in Seasons 1-2, as (understandably) after having the trauma of those seasons pile up and break free from she started acting different in later appearances. A lot angrier, more sarcastic and done with everything. This version hasn't gone through as much, but she is still traumatized.
Lapis acts fairly cold and disconnected, but if anyone were in danger she would die for them. She's very self sacrificial and also not very sure why she's alive. She usually struggles to show it, but if her putting herself in danger would save people she'd do it. She WOULD put herself into a canon-Malachite equivalent situation to defend them.
She's completely lost faith in Homeworld and most of everything else in general. There's only a small amount of people in the world that can be trusted, and those people are precious few so she would do anything to protect them. Because she thinks they're important. Few other gems like them.
When Rose, one of the few people she truly felt loyal to, announced her plans to have a child, sacrificing herself in the process, Lapis put everything she had to try to convince her not to do it. But, ultimately, it failed, and Rose still left them. After that, she became detached...
She struggles to care deeply about many things, but she does get along well with Steven! AS LAPIS SHOULD.
Steven thinks Lapis is so nice but wonders why she doesn’t leave to explore very often. She had wings, after all. Lapis says that “I’ve already seen the Earth… besides, everything I need is right here!”
We also decided it'd be fun if in this AU she has orange eyes, because every part of her gem that got healed turned orange- and Lapis with her gem cracked didn't have pupils, so when they got healed, they also turned orange!
Error makes the best Lapis drawings.
She's easy for me to design outfits for so you'll see her wearing something different in all of them, lol.
She's more resentful of Greg. She doesn’t think he’s a bad person, and she’s completely given up on anything related to arguing about Rose."I don't hate you... I just don't like what you did. Or who you are." A lot more of a cold sting than it is the genuine argumentativeness Pearl has.
She’s very civil. She still doesn’t understand humans, nor does she try to. This… individual, who Lapis barely considers a person, came into Rose’s life and stole her. She feels hollow about it. Unable to be mad, even if there’s a rage within her… I imagine one day, it could explode. Who knows where, though.
She's got the only good scene in "The Smothering", an entire fanmade episode from like ten years ago that has a Momswap premise. FAN EPISODES ARE CUTE AND PASSION PROJECTS I love them dearly, I just also think since it's 10 years old I'm allowed to say that as someone who participates in fanmade episode animations, most of the appeal of them is "awww people worked really hard on this", not on the merits of the quality itself :P [tangent over]
With that sad story out of the way here's another one!
Peridot, my obsession!
She's one of more difficult ones to adapt. She's an Era 2 gem, meaning she was created after the war had already ended. For what reason could she have to be on Earth? And how the hell did she end up with the Crystal Gems!?!?!?!?
Answer: Essentially, it's like the plot from the show, but a couple hundred years earlier. She was sent to check on/do maintenance on Earth/see if there's any resources worth taking back home, so sent her out. I even wonder if she still could've been sent to check on the Cluster, if it is progressing as intended, but since it's eons earlier no one is in danger of it actually emerging.
Then she gets kidnapped and Rose ends up convincing her to stay.
Peridot never officially told off Yellow Diamond like she did in the show, she's marked as "missing" rather than a traitor. She just realized she got a lot more respect and happiness on Earth vs just stiffly following orders!! Rose is incredibly charismatic and is someone who has a commanding presence that could persuade Peridot. It's not quite the same as it is with Steven, though...
ALSO she gets to keep limb enhancers, because no one threw them into the ocean lol. But she didn't always wear them! She has other technology and could just exist without them.
She always wears them after Steven is born because
1. Visuals of growing up/having to take responsibility after Rose's death like the show
2. Genuinely useful. Rose isn't around to float anymore, so helicopter hands come in use.
3. Funny set-up for the swap where instead of Steven finding out Garnet is a fusion (important) he finds out Peridot is tiny (less important, funny)
4. represents her deep rooted fears that she's less strong/valuable than other members of the team and she's constantly trying to compensate to keep up with them
Definitely causes a bit more of a scare when she gets poofed, though XD
(Error doing a redraw from my blog? that's craaazyyy....)
She had a uhhhhhh complicated relationship with Rose, and of the three of them she is closest to Greg. If he has a problem, he'll go to her first. More of her plotlines will be discussed later. For now you just need to know she's wonderful and I love her
Ok now that we're over with the main characters........ What about the original Crystal Gems?!?!? Whatever happened to them!?
First, we'll talk about Garnet, as she seems like BY FAR the hardest to adapt while keeping the canonical plotline. Cross-fusions aren't even allowed on Homeworld! If you're not editing that, how can she exist!?
RUBY AND SAPPHIRE. They're still alive, they survived the war.
Instead of sending Peridot to check on the cluster, they send Sapphire because once she's on Earth she can use her future vision to find out when the Cluster will emerge, as well as any potential roadblocks. Simple in and out, then report. A less expensive technician may be able to accomplish the same task... but... well, the last time they sent a Peridot over, she never came back.
Sapphire is the first non-crystal gem Steven ever meets. He's messing around with warp pads and ends up alone encountering her in the Kindergarten and like she seems sooooo nice and Steven gets to befriend her and finds her so unique and fun because she's his size... and the prettiest little princess... He's never met a gem outside of his family! And she doesn't mind him very much because she's cold and knows everything. And maybe even knows he's part gem.
While wandering around together he learns about her future vision and she helps him, like says "duck" and then he listens and crouches down right before something almost hit him. He slowly trusts her more and more.
I'm imagining this sort of devastating sequence where Steven has been following her around starstruck all episode, and then he ends up in like this crazy gem situation just from following her- like the Kindergarten, he followed there and ended up like inside of an internal-ledge and he's going to fall. and he's like "Wait I'm going to fall!" and she's like. "I know." and has a slight smile on her face, as she walks away while he cries for help. Like she knew the whole time this would happen.
He falls and only just barely gets saved by his gem creating a bubble for him + a Crystal Gem quickly finding him.
Ruby appears during The Return equivalent. Or, Rubies to be more precise. They're rather puny and played off for jokes in the show, but in this version they spend most of their time (particularly their introduction) fused.
When it's basically JUST the Ruby we care about and Sapphire, desperate to protect her, Ruby fuses with her, then they end up escaping the ship onto somewhere in the wilderness on Earth. Ruby's goal is to keep Sapphire safe until Blue Diamond can take her home. Like with Peridot in the show, the Crystal Gems have to keep thwarting her attempts to reach the Diamond so that Earth doesn't get invaded. Except it's reaalllyyyyy difficult for them, because Sapphire and Garnet have future vision so are always three steps ahead of them.
The thing is about the Cluster......... In this AU, it was already taken care of. Hundreds of years ago, when Peridot came to Earth, they found out about it. Rose successfully bubbled it like the original plan they had in the show, before realizing it was impossible. Rose has grand powers and with effort and luck was able to bubble the entire thing. Homeworld doesn't know that, and they never brought up the Cluster to Steven because "Why tell him that horror story when it won't affect him?"
When they finally capture Sapphire, however, they find out the bubble won't last and is in danger of popping.
They defeated the Cluster in the show because Steven taught it how to bubble itself, keep itself together, but if Rose just bubbled it then it could still break that bubble when it emerges. They aren't indestructible! So they still need to go down there and stop it the right way this time.
When Ruby finally does get the communicator to contact Blue Diamond and get Sapphire off this planet, Blue is very emotionally uninvested. She agrees to send a ship to get them off of Earth, but is more interested in their report of the Cluster than anything. Sapphire asks what will happen when they get to Homeworld, and Blue honestly explains them going back to their duties and parting ways. Sapphire throughout the call realizes she would much rather stay on Earth with Ruby and be allowed to fuse and be gay than go home to a place that doesn't care about them, when they could care about each other here, so tells Blue off and they becoime traitors to Homeworld
NOW WE HAVE GARNET THOUGH YAAAAAAAY
Next we can talk abouttttt Amethyst!
So Amethyst is really difficult to adapt into this, because she was born on Earth. She knows the Crystal Gems because it's the first people she ever met. How would she have ended up on Homeworld?
Amethyst's story is the most changed out of anyone's to make this AU work. You could still have her have been overcooked and then I guess coincidentally there just happened to be a homeworld gem at the same time that picked her up and brought her back but had no interaction with the Crystal Gems beyond that, or somehow connect it to the Peridot thing even though that's a bit weird...
I didn't want to make it too complicated. Nothing contrived. So, I thought of something else.
Instead of staying in the ground too *long*, Amethyst came out of the ground too early. Instead of being overcooked, she was undercooked.
When she emerged, they thought if they just put her back in the ground, she would be able to grow to full size and finish cooking. She didn't need to breath, she *could* live in the dirt, but it was *claustraphobic.* She was poofed, and she felt incredibly cramped and wanted to stretch, but couldn't because she had been buried alive.
Then, worse, when she did get out of the dirt, she wasn't any bigger. Amethyst blames herself for it, so always tries to shapeshift to look bigger than she is (has to limit it to when it's necessary because it takes a lot of stress).
Like in the show, despite her smaller size, she's not any less capable than any other Quartz. She tries twice as hard as any of them, and is one of the most accomplished fighters they have, but she rarely gets the credit she deserves. They're especially strict with her, and the threat of being shattered always looms overhead.
She's like a "discount" Quartz... Not assigned to the big tasks the other Quartz are, even though she's just as capable and dangerous. Gems with higher status or lower stakes missions bring her along.
She ended up on Earth because she was Sapphire's first body guard before the Rubies!
When they brought in the ship, they still brought Amethyst because she knew stuff, but ended up getting relegated to a cell (like Lapis was) because she "failed" by making Sapphire bring in extra support.
Steven ran past her in her cell, and thought about freeing her, but remembered how Amethyst attacked him and decided against it. When the ship crashes Amethyst escapes, thinking she has no home now. Homeworld would shatter her for being useless and failing to stop the expensive ship from crashing, and the crystal gems are scary criminals that would surely harm her if they found her!
While the Crystal Gems were still trying to track down the Homeworld Gems, they found Amethyst once in the Prime Kindergarten but she overpowered them and escaped. At some point, the Crystal Gems have the three of them cornered, so Ruby and Sapphire offer to fuse with Amethyst. They're fine with the idea, because they already have experience with cross-gem fusion with Garnet (who exists purely for convenience, totally). Amethyst accepts, and they fuse into Sugilite.
Amethyst would struggle to let go of Sugilite because she thinks going home or getting caught means getting shattered, and the curse of future vision brings her some certainty to her demise. She kind of keeps the other two hostage (could have a fun astral projecting Steven episode about it).
It exists for a shorter time than Malachite did- waaay shorter. Reasons are
1. they’re not hiding under the ocean
2. they’re a bigger target than the three individually
3. They're not all holding onto each other, it's just Amethyst holding onto them
4. This is kind of like the climax to that plotline. Doesn't happen as early
Originally Sugilite wasn't in this AU, then Morny asked about it, and I was like "what's even the point of making a Steven Universe AU if you're not including more Sugilite?"
THEN THE LAST ONE, WHICH I'M SURE YOU'RE ALL CURIOUS ABOUT... PEARL.
(who somehow neither me nor Error have drawn a single picture of for this AU despite constantly talking about her so take a link to this song instead, it'll make what comes next even more devastating to read)
Pearl is one that also seems more difficult to swap in an alternate timeline rather than an alternate universe, where you don't change any baseline rules. If Pearls are meant to be hand servants, what is she doing as an antagonist? Does Sapphire have a Pearl? Why would it be Pink Diamond's Pearl of all options? She wouldn't be allowed to fight if she was on Homeworld.
Pearl was so loyal to Pink and Rose. She was the ONLY one that knew the secret. She sacrificed herself time and time again for Rose during the war. She did EVERYTHING for her.
The question is less "What are they doing now" and more "How did Rose manage to shake her off"
The answer?
She's in Lion's Mane.
She was still Rose's right hand most loyal solider, she still helped Rose fake her death, she still fought valiantly to protect the Earth with her.
...but her gem got cracked, and Rose couldn't heal her, so she put her somewhere special.
Story was written out earlier in bullet points:
- Steven finds Pearl's cracked gem in Lion's mane
- Found out if Pearls get broken they cannot be fixed so she's essentially shattered
- Pearl Restoration Area on Homeworld, implying that a special area had to be created for it to happen (which does not exist on Earth)
- Rose tried to heal her but couldn't on her own
- When Steven finds it he shows it to the gems
- Peridot "that's a pearl" Jasper "I KNOW THAT PEARL"
- "Rose must've put her there as like a special resting place because she was special to her and couldn't fix her"
- Steven wants to try fixing her anyways
- Fails at garden
- "Peridot you know a lot about gems can you fix it" "No" Steven/Lapis/Jasper "🥺" "Fine I'll think of something"
- Homemade version of Pearl restoration area. Lapis has water magic
- They do put it back together so its all in one piece and sturdy but doesn't reform
- Might never
- Steven carries it around with him for next few episodes
- Steven gets in trouble and Pearl reforms bc "Rose defense activation senses"
- Peridot cannot believe that worked and she is a necromancer now
- Trope of person who's been dead for 5000 years walking around in modern era
- Lapis and Jasper KNEW HER so they're HAPPY TO SEE HER
- Rose is dead
- Pearl confused not really sure what she's doing alive but Steven likes walking around with her
- Sweetie
- Pearl shows Steven some old ruins like she does in the show that the Momswap moms never did
- Gets idea in her head that she does canonically but loves Steven too much to try
- She does not have attachment to Steven
- Moment of desperation tries taking gem off him
- Ends up poofed
- Everyone is devastated (Steven was so happy to get her, Peridot undoes hard work, Jasper and Lapis lose friend, everyone is sad about it)
- In this AU the gems are pretty good at making Steven not feel uncomfortable about his mom, but now Steven has the thoughts of "wait what would happen if it was removed? Is my mom living in there?" at 14 instead of 10
I hate the irony of putting her in Lion's Mane. In "Rose's Scabbard", Pearl feels emotionally devastated that Rose kept secrets from her when she was supposed to know everything. The thing that kick-started that was Lion. And she's been trapped in there.................
In other versions of this story, Pearl's gem wasn't cracked, and Rose just put her in there to protect her temporarily, then just never freed her... Partly out of forgetting, partly out of cowardous, because the longer it went on the more awkward it would be to free her, so she just became slowly moved to the background. Now there's a lot less blame on her part (her gem was broken!) but I do still like some aspects from the old one haha. It's sort of based on Spinel in some ways- AGAIN, not something old Momswap authors could reference. This version of Pearl is GENUINELY really devastating. She was prepared to not see the end of the war... but she wasn't prepared to see the end of Rose, to be left behind for so long and forgotten by history.
I do know when I do draw her, it won't just be an outfit swap of canon, because if I gave Lapis scars from having a cracked gem I should give Pearl a few. WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS.
If you're wondering where Bisumith is, Pearl swapped her out of Lion's Mane, we decided she replaces the rubies that come to Earth to find Jasper! Instead of a bunch of tiny silly gems you get ONE SCARY HUGE GEM here to take back Sapphire. Oh boy. We're not that far yet, but that'll definitely be fun to write out, heheh.
Everyone is sick of Rupphire's PDA. It is never-ending no matter the timeline.
Lapis and Jasper feel especially envious of Garnet, because when they fuse, even in a universe where they're friends that work together and love each other, Malachite is still too strong for other of them to handle (more akin to original Sugilite- they get addicted to the feeling of power and struggle to unfuse, which makes them particularly dangerous to others around them). Garnet being so stable and able to unfuse and refuse so easily makes them want to THROW UP (and they don't even have organs!)
Random drawing of an argument between Lapis and Peridot. No particular context for this one- every team has its disagreements now and then.
Error's doing December Requests this year like Zar and this is a WIP of mine where I asked him to redraw the part from Fusion Cuisine where Steven is deciding which of his moms to take to dinner. Jasper is so large the kitchen stool under her broke and is going to be in multiple pieces.
Steven thinks Jasper looks the most motherly, looks strong enough to defend a family, BUT is rude and loud and would be too aggressive at dinner
Peridot is nice and smart, knows how to hold a conversation, and gets along with Greg- but... people would be weirded out by her floating fingers.
Lapis knows how to put on a smile and lets him do lots of fun things, but also doesn't know how to interact with humans (is too socially awkward and doesn't know how to believably lie).
So OBVIOUSLY the solution is they should all FUSE into the PERFECT MOM lol
It goes about as well as Alexandrite did at diinner
AGAINST ALL THE ODDS I designed a fusion between the three of them??? It's like Malachite except Peridot's keeping it together, SOMEHOW. Most of the information is on the page itself. I'm working on a digitized chibi version of it so you'll see it again soon, heheh.
1. Some aspects of its design are actually toned DOWN versions of Malachite, like Malachite having four monstrous legs coming from what looks like a second torso, vs this thing where the legs split at the knee instead. This is symbolicccc
2. Its hair is in pigtails so that it still resembles Lapis and Peridot's shorter hair, while still having it all, and letting Lapis' gem be visible!
3. Stripeyyyyy
Designing fusions is difficult because it is NOT a character blend, it's like trying to put all of their "vibes" into one design, AND IT SURE IS A CHALLENGE...
That was NOT the only fusion I designed, though
TIGER'S EYE!!!!!
I chose that gem because
1. Jasper's orange and has stripes
2. Peridot is cat coded
3. It's a cool lookin rock
There weren't any really good fanmade fusions I found to inspire my design off of, since most of them were made BEFORE the show revealed that Peridot was actually tiny, so a lot of them integrated her enhancers into part of the fusion design. WHICH, I KIND OF DID TOO, since I loved the weapon being like these wolverine metal claws bc it's kind of like the helmet + enhancers, is a tiger thing, and looks awesome heheheh.
Malachite replaces Sugilite, Apatite replaces Opal, and Labradorite replaces Alexandrite! So I'm excited to tell you all this replaces everyone's favorite arc, SARDONYX YAAAAAAAY. It's not exactly how you might expect, though.
"Jasper is VERY strong and can easily slip out of control[...] Malachite is so dangerous just because that amount of power goes unchecked- Lapis and Jasper can work together, for short periods, but whenever they have a disagreement it easily spirals into something cataclysmicallly dangerous.
So, when it comes to Peridot, rather than being equally powerful and being able to balance each other like Jasper and Lapis can, Peridot doesn't have that. She's weaker and can't pull the breaks like Lapis can... so she's a lot more liable to get hurt. but Jasper thinks that it's fun!!! And Peridot is totally having fun too!!!
It ends up a miscommunication and Peridot, as you guessed, feels used about it. Like she's just some thing for Jasper to get a slight extra power boost from, rather than an equal."
Jasper feels bad but struggles to understand the problem or how she should apologize, so it takes her a few episodes to fully get it and understand and figure out how to make Peridot feel respected again [...] also takes Peridot development on her side to realize that she isn't "weaker" and does have value."
Next to Lapis and Jasper, it's easy to feel like the weak link. They're so undoubtedly strong, the perfect quartz and an era 1 Lapis, then her who needs enhancers to do anything. Being fused with Jasper makes it even more clear this difference of strength between them! But it's difficult for Peridot to say no, because she's not used to voicing her wants. She just does whatever Jasper wants without fighting!
Until suddenly, Peridot's emotions overflew and she freaked out.
Except in the past, there was one fusion that Peridot seemed fine doing.
Her main motivation during her redemption arc was always to get approval from others. She changed her behavior in ways that would get her positive re-enforcement from her peers, best displayed in "Back to the Barn", where she repeats things Homeworld taught her, but when everyone responds negatively to it she changes, and especially "Too Far" where Amethyst shows her the slightest bit of approval so she keeps trying to get it again by doing the behavior that got her attention the first time.
But instead of Steven (supportive but does no bullshit) Pearl (argues with her) Garnet (never budges and is incredibly difficult to get emotion from) and Amethyst (drops her when she goes "too far") It’s Rose. A secret diamond with such a commanding presence she got hundreds of gems to defect from their leadership to join her in a WAR. . She manipulates people when she doesn’t intend to, and has such a commanding and ethereal presence that naturally makes you not want to disappoint her.
Peridot was so susceptible to that, that she never even got to the point of calling Yellow and realizing she wanted to choose to defect herself, because Rose was just able to persuade her to stay.
[I literally wrote out this part of the post and then when I uploaded it a huge section was cut out of the middle. I'm rewriting this, excuse it if it's awkward! MY LJ TROUBLES NEVER END]
Peridot and Jasper are tense for a few days, not in a "I'm mad at you and don't want to talk" way and more of just this tenseness where Peridot feels awkward around Jasper and Jasper can't fix it. So, when Greg offers a ROAD TRIP...
Peridot's not nearly as much of a handful as Ruby and Sapphire were. They actually get to enjoy the motel amedoties :P The main plot revolves around Peridot wondering "what if I am really as powerless as I fear? What purpose do I have?" so hangs out with Steven bc he's the one that she knows she'll always care about and doesn't angst over. The conclusion ends up being "Wait, I know who I am! I'm one of Steven's moms!". IT'S VERY CUTE AND SWEET.
I do have this one scene idea in my head where they're at the diner, and Peridot's disossiating thinking about negative thoughts, and she almost breaks the table because it's made out of metal
I cannot BELIEVE this part of the post tried to delete itself. What is this post supposed to be without the keystone motel parody!
One of the most well made pictures I made for this AU. This one has context I've just decided to omit it because it's funnier that way. Also IT'S CONNIE! She's got some story!
In canon, Pearl teaches Connie how to swordfight, but that's not part of this AU! So instead.......
Then the conclusion from the episode is "Connie you don't need to defend me I can help you fight- if we have to fight we'll do it together" and they end up beating Pearl with Steven using shield and Connie using sword, and Pearl rejects it she's like "No! You're not supposed to be in danger!" and they obviously argue about it because Steven wouldn't let Connie fight without him
With this one Steven and Connie come to same conclusion that they can fight better and beat Jasper in a spar if they work together, except Jasper doesn't have a self sacrificial sadness about her and at first sees it as "against rules" but also "hey wait it works, you know what good job"
This team struggles with fusion, none of them are stable, so Steven and Connie being able to fight together so easily to BEAT JASPER is inspiring
"why can't we be like those kids :|"
The main theme of Momswap is "Love is not found but built". Their disagreements and struggles are frequent but their ability to work through them and be there for each other ultimately despite it all is what's important.
They envy the stable fusion. "How are you so sure you want to give up everything for her? Everything you worked towards? Your lives, your bonds, your status, to become traitors just for each other? How is that choice so easy for you?"
these three don't have that same bond- they're a found family out of the scraps they have left, and have worked HARD to build what trust they have between each other. I think it's a cute theme to explore with these three, that they have their disagreements and struggles, but that doesn't diminish what they've built. It's like what Garnet said in "Love Letters". "Love at first sight doesn't exist. Love takes time, and love takes work."
I also think it's a fun tie-in to how they aren't friends canonically, lol. WELL PERI AND LAPIS GOT THERE but neither of them with Jasper haha
And to close off here's another random drawing from Error
Another Error wip, screenshot of a different episode where the gems briefly set up a restaurant in their house lol Jasper is the waiter and she gets a tuxedo with RIPPED SLEEVES because she's too buff, Lapis gets the nice formal white shirt, and Peridot isn't changing her clothes bc she'd have to take off the enhancers lmao. She can get a hat XD
This post took me like literally a week to write on and off AUHGGGG. I'm not even sure if this post is any good I'll be honest lol but I did try
NO DISCOURSE IN MY COMMENTS! I do not care if you have nuanced positive and negative thoughts on the show, this is just about being something that I LIKE and being HAPPY ABOUT THE EARNESTY OF CREATION. Got something negative to say???? Feel free to share... somewhere else!
Edit: THEN A WHOLE CHUNK OF IT DECIDED TO TRY TO DELETE ITSELF. WHY HAVE I BEEN FORSAKEN SO MANY TIMES BY THIS GOD DAMN WEBSITE
DW post
-.
so I was a REEAAALLLLLYYYY big Steven Universe fan while it was airing. I consistently watched every new episode, participated in fandom, made up theories, drew my own art, knew all the songs, etc etc.
I HAD AN ARBITRARY RULE, THOUGH, that I was never allowed to rewatch ANY episode until the show was over. I could rewatch whatever the newest ones were, but I could never go back and watch older ones. This was so that I could give myself a unique, nostalgic experience that reminded me of where my life was at that point when I rewatched it.
Then Steven Universe Future came to an end in 2020
and I just. Never got around to it.
I kept intending to rewatch it, I did! It's just one of those things that slipped into the background? Like, I could do it any time. I wasn't in a hurry. And if I was going to watch it, I wanted to do it with my friend Error! BUT we're always watching stuff or playing games, we barely have enough time as it is, we'd have to wait until we have a free moment to pick up a new big show like that!
Then I was Really Really Sad and having the absolute most horrible day in September, hiding from home far away in the dark at nightime and all the solace I had was being able to VC with Error. and I decided......... yeah all I have is the phone, better to watch a show than play games. Let's watch this show I liked.
RIGHT NOW WE'RE AS FAR AS EARLY SEASON 3 but guess what this post isn't here to talk about my renewed thoughts or analyze the music I've been listening to on loop for weeks. No, people already have done that nine years ago. Instead I'm here to talk about an AU I've been writing in the past four days that already has so much content it's difficult to fit into one post and I'm a bit wary to figure out how I'm going to put this all succinctly enough.
Does anyone remember Momswap
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Pretty simple premise of "what if the bad guys were the good guys". These drawings were created by Facet-5 on Tumblr. Miraculously, their account isn't dead so you can see all these drawings for yourself!
Back in like 2015-2017 I was APPARENTLY, REALLY INSPIRED BY THESE, because while I was looking through some old old old Steven Universe stuff I made back then, I found some fanfiction I wrote about it that I had totally forgotten making! It was a quarter a rewrite of Gem Glow, the first episode, and FOR TEN YEAR OLD FANFICTION IT WAS PRETTY GOOD. Good enough it made me think "Hm, well, how would this AU be written in the modern day? With all the extra information we have now that we didn't back then, what could we do?"
I started writing out ideas that could reasonably happen within the pre-existing world without having to do any personality or lore swaps at all. A reasonable alternate timeline!?
I think the best way to go about this post is to discuss every character one by one.
All backstories are WIP, as I said I'm only back to season 3 of the show so a lot of this is based on me and my friend's old memories of the characters and is subject to change once we review the source material again!!!
First we'll start with Jasper!
Her backstory is a little wishy-washy as of now.
Jasper was born on Earth soon to be a solider in the war. She was VERY LOYAL to Pink Diamond. Loved her. and yknow, Pink loved her too! Thought, "What a good powerful loyal solider. I want her to be on my side," so she intentionally mistreated her to make her dislike Pink, and make her like Rose. The alternate idea is that maybe Rose just got to her soon enough before she became as diamond-allied, I'm sure a good story could be made up around it. Some combination of the two.
She is VERY LOYAL to her fellow Crystal Gems, often talking about and memorializing her fallen teammates. She was really sad when Rose died, but then had cute aggression towards Steven so didn't take it the hardest. She teaches Steven to be STRONG and COOL STUFF ABOUT BATTLE. her room in the temple has a bunch of giant weapons littered around lol
[Post here]
She's very vocal about the pride she has in her part in the war
(Error drew these, he makes the AU with me)
Overall she does pretty well on Earth. Likes terrorizing the humans.
Lapis next because it makes most sense chronologically
Lapis has mostly the same backstory as before. She was supposed to be on Earth for a short time, but then got caught up in the middle of the war and poofed. Thinking she was a Crystal Gem, the homeworld gems put her in a mirror and tried to force her to tell her about her leader. Not knowing the answer to any of their questions, they never released her. When the Homeworld gems fled, she got left behind...
...And eventually, found by Rose.
Rose, not having the same capabilities Pearl would to just put her in a pocket dimension, actually picked up with the mirror and played with it long enough to be able to talk to Lapis (much in the same way Steven did) and learn that inside was a real gem that needed to be freed.
Lapis was astounded by Rose's kindness, as she had only heard bad things about her. She wanted to go home, but with her gem being cracked she couldn't summon her wings. Rose healed her gem for her, but, unlike the normal show, instead of healing perfect it heals with an orange scar on it where the crack used to be. Lapis knew homeworld was in bad shape now, and would probably never take her back.
Rose was kind and showed her the beauty of the planet she fought for and Lapis decided to stay with them. (Helps there's a lot of water here, heh).
The characterization for her is more akin to how she was portrayed in Seasons 1-2, as (understandably) after having the trauma of those seasons pile up and break free from she started acting different in later appearances. A lot angrier, more sarcastic and done with everything. This version hasn't gone through as much, but she is still traumatized.
Lapis acts fairly cold and disconnected, but if anyone were in danger she would die for them. She's very self sacrificial and also not very sure why she's alive. She usually struggles to show it, but if her putting herself in danger would save people she'd do it. She WOULD put herself into a canon-Malachite equivalent situation to defend them.
She's completely lost faith in Homeworld and most of everything else in general. There's only a small amount of people in the world that can be trusted, and those people are precious few so she would do anything to protect them. Because she thinks they're important. Few other gems like them.
When Rose, one of the few people she truly felt loyal to, announced her plans to have a child, sacrificing herself in the process, Lapis put everything she had to try to convince her not to do it. But, ultimately, it failed, and Rose still left them. After that, she became detached...
She struggles to care deeply about many things, but she does get along well with Steven! AS LAPIS SHOULD.
Steven thinks Lapis is so nice but wonders why she doesn’t leave to explore very often. She had wings, after all. Lapis says that “I’ve already seen the Earth… besides, everything I need is right here!”
We also decided it'd be fun if in this AU she has orange eyes, because every part of her gem that got healed turned orange- and Lapis with her gem cracked didn't have pupils, so when they got healed, they also turned orange!
Error makes the best Lapis drawings.
She's easy for me to design outfits for so you'll see her wearing something different in all of them, lol.
She's more resentful of Greg. She doesn’t think he’s a bad person, and she’s completely given up on anything related to arguing about Rose."I don't hate you... I just don't like what you did. Or who you are." A lot more of a cold sting than it is the genuine argumentativeness Pearl has.
She’s very civil. She still doesn’t understand humans, nor does she try to. This… individual, who Lapis barely considers a person, came into Rose’s life and stole her. She feels hollow about it. Unable to be mad, even if there’s a rage within her… I imagine one day, it could explode. Who knows where, though.
Click to viewShe's got the only good scene in "The Smothering", an entire fanmade episode from like ten years ago that has a Momswap premise. FAN EPISODES ARE CUTE AND PASSION PROJECTS I love them dearly, I just also think since it's 10 years old I'm allowed to say that as someone who participates in fanmade episode animations, most of the appeal of them is "awww people worked really hard on this", not on the merits of the quality itself :P [tangent over]
With that sad story out of the way here's another one!
Peridot, my obsession!
She's one of more difficult ones to adapt. She's an Era 2 gem, meaning she was created after the war had already ended. For what reason could she have to be on Earth? And how the hell did she end up with the Crystal Gems!?!?!?!?
Answer: Essentially, it's like the plot from the show, but a couple hundred years earlier. She was sent to check on/do maintenance on Earth/see if there's any resources worth taking back home, so sent her out. I even wonder if she still could've been sent to check on the Cluster, if it is progressing as intended, but since it's eons earlier no one is in danger of it actually emerging.
Then she gets kidnapped and Rose ends up convincing her to stay.
Peridot never officially told off Yellow Diamond like she did in the show, she's marked as "missing" rather than a traitor. She just realized she got a lot more respect and happiness on Earth vs just stiffly following orders!! Rose is incredibly charismatic and is someone who has a commanding presence that could persuade Peridot. It's not quite the same as it is with Steven, though...
ALSO she gets to keep limb enhancers, because no one threw them into the ocean lol. But she didn't always wear them! She has other technology and could just exist without them.
She always wears them after Steven is born because
1. Visuals of growing up/having to take responsibility after Rose's death like the show
2. Genuinely useful. Rose isn't around to float anymore, so helicopter hands come in use.
3. Funny set-up for the swap where instead of Steven finding out Garnet is a fusion (important) he finds out Peridot is tiny (less important, funny)
4. represents her deep rooted fears that she's less strong/valuable than other members of the team and she's constantly trying to compensate to keep up with them
Definitely causes a bit more of a scare when she gets poofed, though XD
(Error doing a redraw from my blog? that's craaazyyy....)
She had a uhhhhhh complicated relationship with Rose, and of the three of them she is closest to Greg. If he has a problem, he'll go to her first. More of her plotlines will be discussed later. For now you just need to know she's wonderful and I love her
Ok now that we're over with the main characters........ What about the original Crystal Gems?!?!? Whatever happened to them!?
First, we'll talk about Garnet, as she seems like BY FAR the hardest to adapt while keeping the canonical plotline. Cross-fusions aren't even allowed on Homeworld! If you're not editing that, how can she exist!?
RUBY AND SAPPHIRE. They're still alive, they survived the war.
Instead of sending Peridot to check on the cluster, they send Sapphire because once she's on Earth she can use her future vision to find out when the Cluster will emerge, as well as any potential roadblocks. Simple in and out, then report. A less expensive technician may be able to accomplish the same task... but... well, the last time they sent a Peridot over, she never came back.
Sapphire is the first non-crystal gem Steven ever meets. He's messing around with warp pads and ends up alone encountering her in the Kindergarten and like she seems sooooo nice and Steven gets to befriend her and finds her so unique and fun because she's his size... and the prettiest little princess... He's never met a gem outside of his family! And she doesn't mind him very much because she's cold and knows everything. And maybe even knows he's part gem.
While wandering around together he learns about her future vision and she helps him, like says "duck" and then he listens and crouches down right before something almost hit him. He slowly trusts her more and more.
I'm imagining this sort of devastating sequence where Steven has been following her around starstruck all episode, and then he ends up in like this crazy gem situation just from following her- like the Kindergarten, he followed there and ended up like inside of an internal-ledge and he's going to fall. and he's like "Wait I'm going to fall!" and she's like. "I know." and has a slight smile on her face, as she walks away while he cries for help. Like she knew the whole time this would happen.
He falls and only just barely gets saved by his gem creating a bubble for him + a Crystal Gem quickly finding him.
Ruby appears during The Return equivalent. Or, Rubies to be more precise. They're rather puny and played off for jokes in the show, but in this version they spend most of their time (particularly their introduction) fused.
When it's basically JUST the Ruby we care about and Sapphire, desperate to protect her, Ruby fuses with her, then they end up escaping the ship onto somewhere in the wilderness on Earth. Ruby's goal is to keep Sapphire safe until Blue Diamond can take her home. Like with Peridot in the show, the Crystal Gems have to keep thwarting her attempts to reach the Diamond so that Earth doesn't get invaded. Except it's reaalllyyyyy difficult for them, because Sapphire and Garnet have future vision so are always three steps ahead of them.
The thing is about the Cluster......... In this AU, it was already taken care of. Hundreds of years ago, when Peridot came to Earth, they found out about it. Rose successfully bubbled it like the original plan they had in the show, before realizing it was impossible. Rose has grand powers and with effort and luck was able to bubble the entire thing. Homeworld doesn't know that, and they never brought up the Cluster to Steven because "Why tell him that horror story when it won't affect him?"
When they finally capture Sapphire, however, they find out the bubble won't last and is in danger of popping.
They defeated the Cluster in the show because Steven taught it how to bubble itself, keep itself together, but if Rose just bubbled it then it could still break that bubble when it emerges. They aren't indestructible! So they still need to go down there and stop it the right way this time.
When Ruby finally does get the communicator to contact Blue Diamond and get Sapphire off this planet, Blue is very emotionally uninvested. She agrees to send a ship to get them off of Earth, but is more interested in their report of the Cluster than anything. Sapphire asks what will happen when they get to Homeworld, and Blue honestly explains them going back to their duties and parting ways. Sapphire throughout the call realizes she would much rather stay on Earth with Ruby and be allowed to fuse and be gay than go home to a place that doesn't care about them, when they could care about each other here, so tells Blue off and they becoime traitors to Homeworld
NOW WE HAVE GARNET THOUGH YAAAAAAAY
Next we can talk abouttttt Amethyst!
So Amethyst is really difficult to adapt into this, because she was born on Earth. She knows the Crystal Gems because it's the first people she ever met. How would she have ended up on Homeworld?
Amethyst's story is the most changed out of anyone's to make this AU work. You could still have her have been overcooked and then I guess coincidentally there just happened to be a homeworld gem at the same time that picked her up and brought her back but had no interaction with the Crystal Gems beyond that, or somehow connect it to the Peridot thing even though that's a bit weird...
I didn't want to make it too complicated. Nothing contrived. So, I thought of something else.
Instead of staying in the ground too *long*, Amethyst came out of the ground too early. Instead of being overcooked, she was undercooked.
When she emerged, they thought if they just put her back in the ground, she would be able to grow to full size and finish cooking. She didn't need to breath, she *could* live in the dirt, but it was *claustraphobic.* She was poofed, and she felt incredibly cramped and wanted to stretch, but couldn't because she had been buried alive.
Then, worse, when she did get out of the dirt, she wasn't any bigger. Amethyst blames herself for it, so always tries to shapeshift to look bigger than she is (has to limit it to when it's necessary because it takes a lot of stress).
Like in the show, despite her smaller size, she's not any less capable than any other Quartz. She tries twice as hard as any of them, and is one of the most accomplished fighters they have, but she rarely gets the credit she deserves. They're especially strict with her, and the threat of being shattered always looms overhead.
She's like a "discount" Quartz... Not assigned to the big tasks the other Quartz are, even though she's just as capable and dangerous. Gems with higher status or lower stakes missions bring her along.
She ended up on Earth because she was Sapphire's first body guard before the Rubies!
When they brought in the ship, they still brought Amethyst because she knew stuff, but ended up getting relegated to a cell (like Lapis was) because she "failed" by making Sapphire bring in extra support.
Steven ran past her in her cell, and thought about freeing her, but remembered how Amethyst attacked him and decided against it. When the ship crashes Amethyst escapes, thinking she has no home now. Homeworld would shatter her for being useless and failing to stop the expensive ship from crashing, and the crystal gems are scary criminals that would surely harm her if they found her!
While the Crystal Gems were still trying to track down the Homeworld Gems, they found Amethyst once in the Prime Kindergarten but she overpowered them and escaped. At some point, the Crystal Gems have the three of them cornered, so Ruby and Sapphire offer to fuse with Amethyst. They're fine with the idea, because they already have experience with cross-gem fusion with Garnet (who exists purely for convenience, totally). Amethyst accepts, and they fuse into Sugilite.
Amethyst would struggle to let go of Sugilite because she thinks going home or getting caught means getting shattered, and the curse of future vision brings her some certainty to her demise. She kind of keeps the other two hostage (could have a fun astral projecting Steven episode about it).
It exists for a shorter time than Malachite did- waaay shorter. Reasons are
1. they’re not hiding under the ocean
2. they’re a bigger target than the three individually
3. They're not all holding onto each other, it's just Amethyst holding onto them
4. This is kind of like the climax to that plotline. Doesn't happen as early
Originally Sugilite wasn't in this AU, then Morny asked about it, and I was like "what's even the point of making a Steven Universe AU if you're not including more Sugilite?"
THEN THE LAST ONE, WHICH I'M SURE YOU'RE ALL CURIOUS ABOUT... PEARL.
(who somehow neither me nor Error have drawn a single picture of for this AU despite constantly talking about her so take a link to this song instead, it'll make what comes next even more devastating to read)
Pearl is one that also seems more difficult to swap in an alternate timeline rather than an alternate universe, where you don't change any baseline rules. If Pearls are meant to be hand servants, what is she doing as an antagonist? Does Sapphire have a Pearl? Why would it be Pink Diamond's Pearl of all options? She wouldn't be allowed to fight if she was on Homeworld.
Pearl was so loyal to Pink and Rose. She was the ONLY one that knew the secret. She sacrificed herself time and time again for Rose during the war. She did EVERYTHING for her.
The question is less "What are they doing now" and more "How did Rose manage to shake her off"
The answer?
She's in Lion's Mane.
She was still Rose's right hand most loyal solider, she still helped Rose fake her death, she still fought valiantly to protect the Earth with her.
...but her gem got cracked, and Rose couldn't heal her, so she put her somewhere special.
Story was written out earlier in bullet points:
- Steven finds Pearl's cracked gem in Lion's mane
- Found out if Pearls get broken they cannot be fixed so she's essentially shattered
- Pearl Restoration Area on Homeworld, implying that a special area had to be created for it to happen (which does not exist on Earth)
- Rose tried to heal her but couldn't on her own
- When Steven finds it he shows it to the gems
- Peridot "that's a pearl" Jasper "I KNOW THAT PEARL"
- "Rose must've put her there as like a special resting place because she was special to her and couldn't fix her"
- Steven wants to try fixing her anyways
- Fails at garden
- "Peridot you know a lot about gems can you fix it" "No" Steven/Lapis/Jasper "🥺" "Fine I'll think of something"
- Homemade version of Pearl restoration area. Lapis has water magic
- They do put it back together so its all in one piece and sturdy but doesn't reform
- Might never
- Steven carries it around with him for next few episodes
- Steven gets in trouble and Pearl reforms bc "Rose defense activation senses"
- Peridot cannot believe that worked and she is a necromancer now
- Trope of person who's been dead for 5000 years walking around in modern era
- Lapis and Jasper KNEW HER so they're HAPPY TO SEE HER
- Rose is dead
- Pearl confused not really sure what she's doing alive but Steven likes walking around with her
- Sweetie
- Pearl shows Steven some old ruins like she does in the show that the Momswap moms never did
- Gets idea in her head that she does canonically but loves Steven too much to try
- She does not have attachment to Steven
- Moment of desperation tries taking gem off him
- Ends up poofed
- Everyone is devastated (Steven was so happy to get her, Peridot undoes hard work, Jasper and Lapis lose friend, everyone is sad about it)
- In this AU the gems are pretty good at making Steven not feel uncomfortable about his mom, but now Steven has the thoughts of "wait what would happen if it was removed? Is my mom living in there?" at 14 instead of 10
I hate the irony of putting her in Lion's Mane. In "Rose's Scabbard", Pearl feels emotionally devastated that Rose kept secrets from her when she was supposed to know everything. The thing that kick-started that was Lion. And she's been trapped in there.................
In other versions of this story, Pearl's gem wasn't cracked, and Rose just put her in there to protect her temporarily, then just never freed her... Partly out of forgetting, partly out of cowardous, because the longer it went on the more awkward it would be to free her, so she just became slowly moved to the background. Now there's a lot less blame on her part (her gem was broken!) but I do still like some aspects from the old one haha. It's sort of based on Spinel in some ways- AGAIN, not something old Momswap authors could reference. This version of Pearl is GENUINELY really devastating. She was prepared to not see the end of the war... but she wasn't prepared to see the end of Rose, to be left behind for so long and forgotten by history.
I do know when I do draw her, it won't just be an outfit swap of canon, because if I gave Lapis scars from having a cracked gem I should give Pearl a few. WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS.
If you're wondering where Bisumith is, Pearl swapped her out of Lion's Mane, we decided she replaces the rubies that come to Earth to find Jasper! Instead of a bunch of tiny silly gems you get ONE SCARY HUGE GEM here to take back Sapphire. Oh boy. We're not that far yet, but that'll definitely be fun to write out, heheh.
Everyone is sick of Rupphire's PDA. It is never-ending no matter the timeline.
Lapis and Jasper feel especially envious of Garnet, because when they fuse, even in a universe where they're friends that work together and love each other, Malachite is still too strong for other of them to handle (more akin to original Sugilite- they get addicted to the feeling of power and struggle to unfuse, which makes them particularly dangerous to others around them). Garnet being so stable and able to unfuse and refuse so easily makes them want to THROW UP (and they don't even have organs!)
Random drawing of an argument between Lapis and Peridot. No particular context for this one- every team has its disagreements now and then.
Error's doing December Requests this year like Zar and this is a WIP of mine where I asked him to redraw the part from Fusion Cuisine where Steven is deciding which of his moms to take to dinner. Jasper is so large the kitchen stool under her broke and is going to be in multiple pieces.
Steven thinks Jasper looks the most motherly, looks strong enough to defend a family, BUT is rude and loud and would be too aggressive at dinner
Peridot is nice and smart, knows how to hold a conversation, and gets along with Greg- but... people would be weirded out by her floating fingers.
Lapis knows how to put on a smile and lets him do lots of fun things, but also doesn't know how to interact with humans (is too socially awkward and doesn't know how to believably lie).
So OBVIOUSLY the solution is they should all FUSE into the PERFECT MOM lol
It goes about as well as Alexandrite did at diinner
AGAINST ALL THE ODDS I designed a fusion between the three of them??? It's like Malachite except Peridot's keeping it together, SOMEHOW. Most of the information is on the page itself. I'm working on a digitized chibi version of it so you'll see it again soon, heheh.
1. Some aspects of its design are actually toned DOWN versions of Malachite, like Malachite having four monstrous legs coming from what looks like a second torso, vs this thing where the legs split at the knee instead. This is symbolicccc
2. Its hair is in pigtails so that it still resembles Lapis and Peridot's shorter hair, while still having it all, and letting Lapis' gem be visible!
3. Stripeyyyyy
Designing fusions is difficult because it is NOT a character blend, it's like trying to put all of their "vibes" into one design, AND IT SURE IS A CHALLENGE...
That was NOT the only fusion I designed, though
TIGER'S EYE!!!!!
I chose that gem because
1. Jasper's orange and has stripes
2. Peridot is cat coded
3. It's a cool lookin rock
There weren't any really good fanmade fusions I found to inspire my design off of, since most of them were made BEFORE the show revealed that Peridot was actually tiny, so a lot of them integrated her enhancers into part of the fusion design. WHICH, I KIND OF DID TOO, since I loved the weapon being like these wolverine metal claws bc it's kind of like the helmet + enhancers, is a tiger thing, and looks awesome heheheh.
Malachite replaces Sugilite, Apatite replaces Opal, and Labradorite replaces Alexandrite! So I'm excited to tell you all this replaces everyone's favorite arc, SARDONYX YAAAAAAAY. It's not exactly how you might expect, though.
"Jasper is VERY strong and can easily slip out of control[...] Malachite is so dangerous just because that amount of power goes unchecked- Lapis and Jasper can work together, for short periods, but whenever they have a disagreement it easily spirals into something cataclysmicallly dangerous.
So, when it comes to Peridot, rather than being equally powerful and being able to balance each other like Jasper and Lapis can, Peridot doesn't have that. She's weaker and can't pull the breaks like Lapis can... so she's a lot more liable to get hurt. but Jasper thinks that it's fun!!! And Peridot is totally having fun too!!!
It ends up a miscommunication and Peridot, as you guessed, feels used about it. Like she's just some thing for Jasper to get a slight extra power boost from, rather than an equal."
Jasper feels bad but struggles to understand the problem or how she should apologize, so it takes her a few episodes to fully get it and understand and figure out how to make Peridot feel respected again [...] also takes Peridot development on her side to realize that she isn't "weaker" and does have value."
Next to Lapis and Jasper, it's easy to feel like the weak link. They're so undoubtedly strong, the perfect quartz and an era 1 Lapis, then her who needs enhancers to do anything. Being fused with Jasper makes it even more clear this difference of strength between them! But it's difficult for Peridot to say no, because she's not used to voicing her wants. She just does whatever Jasper wants without fighting!
Until suddenly, Peridot's emotions overflew and she freaked out.
Except in the past, there was one fusion that Peridot seemed fine doing.
Her main motivation during her redemption arc was always to get approval from others. She changed her behavior in ways that would get her positive re-enforcement from her peers, best displayed in "Back to the Barn", where she repeats things Homeworld taught her, but when everyone responds negatively to it she changes, and especially "Too Far" where Amethyst shows her the slightest bit of approval so she keeps trying to get it again by doing the behavior that got her attention the first time.
But instead of Steven (supportive but does no bullshit) Pearl (argues with her) Garnet (never budges and is incredibly difficult to get emotion from) and Amethyst (drops her when she goes "too far") It’s Rose. A secret diamond with such a commanding presence she got hundreds of gems to defect from their leadership to join her in a WAR. . She manipulates people when she doesn’t intend to, and has such a commanding and ethereal presence that naturally makes you not want to disappoint her.
Peridot was so susceptible to that, that she never even got to the point of calling Yellow and realizing she wanted to choose to defect herself, because Rose was just able to persuade her to stay.
[I literally wrote out this part of the post and then when I uploaded it a huge section was cut out of the middle. I'm rewriting this, excuse it if it's awkward! MY LJ TROUBLES NEVER END]
Peridot and Jasper are tense for a few days, not in a "I'm mad at you and don't want to talk" way and more of just this tenseness where Peridot feels awkward around Jasper and Jasper can't fix it. So, when Greg offers a ROAD TRIP...
Peridot's not nearly as much of a handful as Ruby and Sapphire were. They actually get to enjoy the motel amedoties :P The main plot revolves around Peridot wondering "what if I am really as powerless as I fear? What purpose do I have?" so hangs out with Steven bc he's the one that she knows she'll always care about and doesn't angst over. The conclusion ends up being "Wait, I know who I am! I'm one of Steven's moms!". IT'S VERY CUTE AND SWEET.
I do have this one scene idea in my head where they're at the diner, and Peridot's disossiating thinking about negative thoughts, and she almost breaks the table because it's made out of metal
I cannot BELIEVE this part of the post tried to delete itself. What is this post supposed to be without the keystone motel parody!
One of the most well made pictures I made for this AU. This one has context I've just decided to omit it because it's funnier that way. Also IT'S CONNIE! She's got some story!
In canon, Pearl teaches Connie how to swordfight, but that's not part of this AU! So instead.......
Then the conclusion from the episode is "Connie you don't need to defend me I can help you fight- if we have to fight we'll do it together" and they end up beating Pearl with Steven using shield and Connie using sword, and Pearl rejects it she's like "No! You're not supposed to be in danger!" and they obviously argue about it because Steven wouldn't let Connie fight without him
With this one Steven and Connie come to same conclusion that they can fight better and beat Jasper in a spar if they work together, except Jasper doesn't have a self sacrificial sadness about her and at first sees it as "against rules" but also "hey wait it works, you know what good job"
This team struggles with fusion, none of them are stable, so Steven and Connie being able to fight together so easily to BEAT JASPER is inspiring
"why can't we be like those kids :|"
The main theme of Momswap is "Love is not found but built". Their disagreements and struggles are frequent but their ability to work through them and be there for each other ultimately despite it all is what's important.
They envy the stable fusion. "How are you so sure you want to give up everything for her? Everything you worked towards? Your lives, your bonds, your status, to become traitors just for each other? How is that choice so easy for you?"
these three don't have that same bond- they're a found family out of the scraps they have left, and have worked HARD to build what trust they have between each other. I think it's a cute theme to explore with these three, that they have their disagreements and struggles, but that doesn't diminish what they've built. It's like what Garnet said in "Love Letters". "Love at first sight doesn't exist. Love takes time, and love takes work."
I also think it's a fun tie-in to how they aren't friends canonically, lol. WELL PERI AND LAPIS GOT THERE but neither of them with Jasper haha
And to close off here's another random drawing from Error
Another Error wip, screenshot of a different episode where the gems briefly set up a restaurant in their house lol Jasper is the waiter and she gets a tuxedo with RIPPED SLEEVES because she's too buff, Lapis gets the nice formal white shirt, and Peridot isn't changing her clothes bc she'd have to take off the enhancers lmao. She can get a hat XD
This post took me like literally a week to write on and off AUHGGGG. I'm not even sure if this post is any good I'll be honest lol but I did try
NO DISCOURSE IN MY COMMENTS! I do not care if you have nuanced positive and negative thoughts on the show, this is just about being something that I LIKE and being HAPPY ABOUT THE EARNESTY OF CREATION. Got something negative to say???? Feel free to share... somewhere else!
Edit: THEN A WHOLE CHUNK OF IT DECIDED TO TRY TO DELETE ITSELF. WHY HAVE I BEEN FORSAKEN SO MANY TIMES BY THIS GOD DAMN WEBSITE
DW post
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