･ﾟ✧ BEAUTIFUL DAY ✧

        ❛ okay, so get this, right... ❜ smoky has practically pounced on the first human they see, holding two hands splayed out in front of them as the third clutches a dangling paper bag with ‘BD’ emblazoned on the front. they’ve been struck with sudden inspiration for a pun, and to keep that bottled up for even one second longer than necessary would be an absolute disaster. besides, everyone in beach city knows that the gems exist and have weird habits, so it isn’t like their sudden bout of comedy would be weirding anyone out... any more than usual. right?

        ❛ they’re selling half-dozens of day-olds for only, like, five bucks. and they throw in an extra for no charge! ❜ excitedly, they gesture to the very slightly greasy bag in their third hand. they can feel the humour rising in them, begging to be released. ❛ pretty good, riiiight? you really... donut want to miss this deal! ❜

tell us your favourite quotes from your character. give us an idea of who they are by five things they’ve said.

❝ well, between the fight and now, i’ve really only existed for like, ten minutes, so uh... i don’t know. ❞

❝ oh, i’ve got plenty of tricks. ❞

❝ great job, smoky! thank you, thank you, smoky. ❞

❝ i guess zero plus zero equals zero. they say two wrongs don’t make a right, i guess i’m living proof that that’s true... i'm just one big, super-wrong, good-for-nothing dud with a yoyo! ❞

❝ i ain’t exactly a deck of cards here... ❞

       ‘ really. the second i show my face you two fuse together. ’      the fusion’s cheap jokes grate on every damn nerve she has – and it reflects in the uncharacteristic flatness of her tone, a fanged grimace starkly contrasting smoky’s light grin. it’d been INFURIATING — losing again and again and again to these abominations, victory just out of her reach, taunting. she hadn’t survived one of the most devastating, destructive wars in gem history, clawed and ripped herself out and away from this trap of a rock, just to be beaten – feel THREATENED by some half-gemling and some delayed mistake. the fury that crawls up her throat like magma, seethes passed jagged teeth, is palpable.         but it’s controlled. her prior defeat’s taught her a harsh lesson in underestimating them, and it isn’t happening again. she won’t allow it — and although she doesn’t know what she’s even fighting for anymore, a feckless shadow of her proud, twisted former self – she is tired — ( still remembers the helpless, frantic look on rose’s face before corruption had taken over, made her a beast ), the outwardly offensive move has her tensing, bristling, moving back.               ‘ you really want a rematch ?! haven’t you already GLOATED ENOUGH?!  ’

          they can feel the roiling heat of jasper’s rage from where they stand, and oh yes, it’s terrifying. they can feel her frustration, the feeling of impotence, of being beaten into the dirt no matter how many times she gets up again, and they’re torn — steven’s poor aching heart goes out to the berserker, but amethyst... amethyst takes a sick, sardonic satisfaction in seeing jasper on the receiving end of that feeling for once. smoky is left with no idea what to feel, only the knowledge that if their opponent tries anything, lifts so much as one finger towards the things they care about, the things she’s damaged so often before — they’ll happily knock her down.

          that said — jasper talks as if she doesn’t want a rematch. like she’s not here to fight. ( as if, amethyst growls from her corner of smoky’s thoughts. ) she’s even backing away just from the threat of an attack. it’s unusual, but be that as it may, her words still chafe. they scoff, and their third hand stops their yoyo in its whirling orbit. the string is wrapped once, twice, around the palm, and then the yoyo sleeps at their side — dormant, but still primed and ready.

        ❛ jeez, jaspy, i know they say to never give up, but you can have too much of a good thing, know what i’m sayin’? ❜

          as usual, jokes provide a smooth façade for sheer panic. they don’t know where jasper had come from, why she’s back again, what she could possibly want this time. most of all, they don’t know if they can defeat her a second time. but they can certainly try, and confidence is half the battle. so, smoky flashes a cocky, lopsided grin to their fellow quartz, snapping their yoyo’s string between their hands.

          after the thirteenth depressing ‘GAME OVER’ sound in a row emerging from the television ( a new new one, smoky having broken yet another set while demonstrating ‘shoot the moon, miss by a light-year, and end up on jupiter’ ), the portly fusion lets out a groan of emphatic distress and tosses down the controller. do they remember the counsel about fusion only being used for battle or other emergencies? yes. but being them is just too fun to ignore, and besides, steven and amethyst had agreed to only fuse for short bouts at a time.

          also, they’d wanted to see if having three hands makes one better at video games. the answer, apparently, is no.

        ❛ ooh! oh, garnet, hey! g-squad! over here! ❜ one pudgy hand waves eagerly in the air, with two resting on the string of their signature yoyo. smoky likes garnet — she’s the only fusion they know of who’s actually kind of normal, and not some giant multi-limbed fire-breathing amazoness. as they hop a little in their efforts to get garnet’s attention, the shimmering disc of the yoyo sleeps at their knee level. seemingly no effort on their part is required to keep it spinning.