#dondai

God I’m finally done this redraw 😩

This thing took 10 hrs 😬

Original:

(Also please appreciate that I fully drew the seats of the dondai despite them being fully hidden by the characters)

(Fanfic I made, about my fan fusion of Jasper and Steven. Takes place after Prickly Pair and has reference to self-harm and mental breakdowns, mostly in part two. Here’s a link to part two by the way. Link: https://loveaurapearl.tumblr.com/post/190464683545/tiger-misanthropic-part-2 )

Steven looked at the outside of his house, Bismuth, Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst were helping rebuild the building after Cactus Steven had runaway. He sadly smiled as Bismuth walked up to him. “Thanks for helping us rebuild my house, Bismuth. Sorry for the inconvenience.” He said with a little bit of shame. Bismuth laughed. “It’s alright, Steven. It’s no problem. Besides, after finishing up on the construction of little homeworld, I was hoping for another big job.” She said with gusto. Steven laughed awkwardly and looked to the side. Bismuth noticed this and put her hand on his shoulder. “Hey, are you okay? The OG gems told me about the cactus creature and how it mimicked you. If there’s anything you want to talk about, I’m always up to the task if you don’t want to tell the others.” Bismuth offered. Steven looked at her and softly smiled. “Thanks for the offer. But… I’ll be fine. I just… need some space.” He said as he tried to back off telling anyone. Bismuth folded her arms. “Steven, you know better than anyone that bottling your emotions isn’t healthy. You NEED to talk to SOMEONE about this. If you can’t trust me or the Crystal Gems, who can you trust with these feelings?” Bismuth questioned him. He sighed and clutched his fists. “I know. I know. But I don’t want to hurt anyone's feelings… especially after what happened with Cactus Steven.” Steven told her. He felt nervous. Bismuth sighed. “Steven, I know you’re scared. But remember, you can trust the Crystal Gems to handle this. Just talk to them. However, if you’re really that scared of hurting their feelings, perhaps you should talk to someone who won’t care that you are saying whatever you’re afraid of saying. I mean, it’s not like they’d care.” Bismuth explained as she provided options. Steven blinked as an idea came into his head. “Someone who won’t care… I just know just the gem for the job. Thanks, Bismuth. I’m gonna go out and talk to them. You tell the gems I’m off to Little Homeworld.” Steven said with a happy grin. Bismuth smiled. “Well, okay then. Just be sure you don’t destroy anything! I’ll go back to Buismuth!” Bismuth said as she made a terrible pun. Steven chuckled and walked over to the Dondai. He got in and soon began to drive away.

The air was crisp as the young teen walked through the woods. He looked ahead and then stopped and looked back. He groaned. “Why am I doing this? She’s not going to listen to me, and she doesn’t want to teach me anything. This is NEVER going to work!” Steven told himself as he began to have doubts. He shocked his head. “No, I need to talk to SOMEONE! I need to do something other than be around the crystal gems. To be around the mess I made.” The last part said out of shame. He turned around and continued walking until he was in Jasper’s area. He stopped just before the plucked ground, took in a deep breath and looked around for Jasper. He made sure to look for anything bumpy since it would be a given that she was camouflaging herself again. However, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

“Hello? Jasper, I know you’re here. I’ve come to talk to you.” Steven yelled out. An annoyed groan came from the cave and Jasper exited from behind the drape. She looked at the boy with a frustrated look on her face. “What are you doing here? Do you want to recruit me for your crummy school again or do you want me to teach you how to fight like a real quartz? I was really hoping that since you stopped visiting me awhile back, you had given up trying to ‘convert’ me into believing the same weak ideals as you.” Jasper interrogated him. Steven rolled his eyes. “Jasper, I’m not here to force you to do something you don’t want to do. Besides, I’ve given up running the school. I don’t have the authority to enroll you as a teacher anymore. Not to mention, I only want to help you! Nothing about you has changed since the last time we’ve met. You’re still here, still hating yourself, still directionless! I was at least TRYING to give you a purpose!” Steven yelled at her. Jasper snorted and chuckled. “Wait… (Laughs.) Did YOU give up on that crummy school of yours? I thought you loved bossing other gems around, Rose. Using them so you could feel like you were one of the Diamonds. But I guess a weakling like you couldn’t handle being in charge.” Jasper retorted, getting under Steven’s skin.

“NO! I made the school to help gems! I didn’t make it so I could feel like a diamond! Plus, I’m not Rose Quartz or Pink Diamond! Get it through your head! Besides, the Crystal gems can handle the school without me. All I was doing was getting in the way of everyone’s dreams.” Steven said as his anger turned into self-hatred. He shocked his head as Jasper laughed. “You truly are a worthless piece of dirt, Rose. Why are you even here to begin with? Shouldn’t you be oft doing whatever earthlings do instead of bothering me.” Jasper asked as she crossed her arms in smug pride. Steven looked at her with a worried look on his face. “Well, I… I…” He began to say but began to freeze up. He lowered his head and whispered to himself, “Come on Universe. You can do this. Just… Just talk about it.” He took a deep breath and then lifted his head. “I… need your help.” He said as the words felt like daggers in his chest. This surprised the big Cheeto ball, but she quickly sneered at him. “With what? Helping fight some monster you unleash, or maybe helping those earthlings? Couldn’t you just use or fuse with one of your weakling gems to deal with it?” Jasper asked, not really wanting to help him. The young teen shocked his head. “No, it’s nothing like that. You saw what was wrong with me when we fought recently. You are the only gem whom I can trust to talk about my problems. I… I can’t talk to the others about this, otherwise, I’ll just hurt them,” He said as his mind immediately flashed back to his fight with Cactus Steven and what happened at the reef.

“What are you even talking about, dirtbag?” Jasper as she walked closer to him as a threat. Steven took in a deep breath and then looked Jasper in the eyes. “Jasper… you were right about me. I am nothing without my friends. Everyone in Beach city is moving away to bigger and better stuff, and I don’t know what to do with my life. I thought if I worked really hard at Little Homeworld, I could fill this empty void in my heart, but after Little Homeworld’s Graduation, I realized that the school doesn’t need me. I tried improving Amethyst’s mentorship plan, but I took it over and forced everyone into the roles I wanted. I couldn’t fix Volleyball’s scar… my mom’s first pearl from the damage dealt to her by Pink Diamond in the past. I was tricked into believing Bluebird Azurite wanted to change for the better, then had to watch my dad lose a good chunk of his hair to get away from her. I had to go through a lot of trouble making a gem safety video for Sunstone, using MYSELF as the genie pig for the lesson. I’ve been using that Pink form you saw me in our fight, throwing tantrums left and right. Bubbling my friends in a dome and almost crushing them to death! And, when I tried to relax and enjoy gardening, I create a cactus monster that Spewed Out EVERY TERRIBLE THOUGHT I HAVE ABOUT MYSELF AND THE GEMS, THEN LEFT ME ALONE AFTER I APOLOGIZED!” He soon fell to his knees and began to cry. “Why… why can’t I fix this? Why do I need people? Why… why am I like this?” He asked himself, the pain was overwhelming. Jasper looked at the boy in shock. She was trying her best to process what just happened. She then sneered at him. “Pathetic.” She said, causing Steven to sniffle and look up to her. Tears were streaking his face as her massive form hovered over him.

“I knew you were some snot nose kid before, but this… this is just low, even for you. You badger on and on about how I NEED help and how you try to give me a purpose, when you, the ‘savior’ of the galaxy, don’t even know your own. Hahahaha. Oh, the irony. You truly are something kid.” Jasper said. Steven holds himself, the pain of her words dug deep. He gritted his teeth. “THAT’S NOT WHAT I WANT TO HEAR!” He yelled, his body becoming engulfed in pink light. Jasper jumped back. Steven stood up as the tears flowed down his face. “I… I just wanted to hear someone say, ‘It’s going to be alright Steven… Everything is going fine. We love you.’ BUT NO! All you do mock me! Call me names and belittle me for feeling this way! I thought you would understand! I thought you understood how it felt to be constantly under the pressure to be something more! I thought you could relate your feelings of worthlessness to my own! I thought you would help me out in my time of need! I… I thought you would fuse with me…” He said, the last bit, surprised both himself and Jasper.

“You… want to fuse with me?” Jasper said in surprise. Steven held himself as the ‘pink state’ died down and he returned to his normal colors. “Yeah… I… I guess I do. Although I never thought I would say THAT to you, I guess you know now. I always remembered how you said nobody wanted to fuse with you. How you had to climb your way of Earth and had been fighting for your whole life to be free. I guess a part of me wanted to be that person to help you and fuse with. I never said that because… I… I was scared. I was scared of you rejecting me or worse, our fusion would be as unstable as Malachite. After all, we don’t see eye to eye, you JUST belittled me and said those awful things, and you don’t want to be a part of my life. I don’t want to give away my feelings to someone whom I can’t trust.” Steven confessed. Jasper looked down as she thought about what Steven said. The boy let out a sigh and got up. “I don’t even know why I bothered coming here. I guess my gut was right and I shouldn’t have gone up to visit you. I’ll be going now. I guess I’ll see you never. After all, why do I need to come back if I know you won’t help me?” He said in a cold voice. He began to walk away, but Jasper grabbed his hand, surprising the boy. He turned around and let out a confused “Huh?”. Jasper looked at the boy, then back at the ground. She began to move her mouth, but she soon shut it as if she had trouble talking. The young human/gem hybrid wasn’t used to seeing this from her. “Human… I never thought I was ever going to say this to you but… it’s going to be alright. I’m here.” She said, confusing the boy even more.

“Um… what’s going on?” He asked, very confused and a bit scared. Jasper sighed and then looked to the side. “Y… you are the first person to ever say something like that to me. Even after all this time, you still thought you could trust me with something as important as a fusion with you. That you trust me enough to think we are equals on the battlefield. It honestly surprised me.” Jasper said. Steven blushed in embarrassment. “Well, I could feel how much pain was in your heart, especially when you were corrupting. I thought if I could heal you, we could be friends. I thought fusion could help us see eye to eye for once. I don’t know if I could ever see the world as you do, but maybe this is just we need.” Steven said, offering a hand of friendship, “Although, it would be nice if you just called me Steven Universe instead of Rose.” He chuckled. Jasper rolled her eyes. “Fine. Just, don’t try and force me to live under the ocean like Lapis did or runaway like that Corrupted monster.” Jasper said. Steven smiled. “My lungs couldn’t even handle that much water. (Laughter.) But remember Jasper, we can’t stay the fusion for too long. Our minds could begin to deteriorate. And if you ever feel like you don’t want to be a part of this fusion, you can just unfuse with me and I’ll be fine. I won’t hold you back or try to keep us together as Lapis did.” Steven said, making sure Jasper knew all the rules. She just rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever.” She stated in a calm voice.

“You take the lead. I’ve never seen you dance except with Lapis, so you’ll have to go first. I’ll sync my dance to yours.” Steven said a smile on his face. Jasper grumbled and began to dance. Her movement was crisp and clear like a ballerina dancer. Steven followed, syncing his movement with Jasper. The two gems stones glowed as they got closer. They soon do a pose together and their bodies soon turn into light and fuse into one large being. The light dissipated as the new being opened their eyes. “Wow! This… is new. This… is different.” They let out in surprise. They had a female voice, but it wasn’t a mash-up of Jasper or Steven’s voice, it was its own voice and it was a slightly higher pitch than Jasper and it sounds somewhat like Smokey Quartz, although not quiet.

The fusion looked at itself. They were about a few feet taller than Jasper, they had two sets of eyes, two arms and two legs. They had medium length brown hair that went to below their shoulders. They had two fairly-size horns that were larger than what Jasper had with the one on the left being larger, the one on the left was bent to the left and then shifted up, they had the same partner design as Jasper’s horns although their colors were mostly dark purple with one horn with an under layer of light purple. A dark purple wavy stripe was across most of Steven’s eyes, some of Jasper’s eyes, and most of Jasper’s gem. The gem was a light yellow, gold and dark brown color. A dark golden-brown stripe was on the fusion’s left cheek, and a stripe of dark golden-brown was across their upper chest. The top eyes of the fusion belonged to Jasper and the lower ones were Steven’s although his eyes looked sinister and they had fangs. Their main color was a light golden brown with darker golden-brown stripes, but they could also see from their arms that they also had two other colors, a deep dark purple-red and a lighter version of that color. They had only two arms with strips of dark golden-brown, dark purple and light purple on their right arm, and a stripe of light brown on their left arm and dark purple and light purple splotches on their left hand. They wore Steven’s jacket but the sleeves only reached halfway up their arms, Steven shirt wasn’t long enough so their stomach area was exposed, although Jasper’s top overlaid Steven’s shirt, covering most of it and blocking out most of the star with only the top bit poking out. Steven’s gem was exposed and around his gem were dark purple and light purple splotches around the gemstone like Cherry Quartz, although there was another blotch of dark purple and light purple on the right of their stomach, separate from the ones near the gem. The gem itself shows multiple shades of gold, yellow, and brown. Steven’s pants reached all the way to their ankles with Jasper’s boots on their feet. However, what surprised them the most was the fact that they had a long lizard-like tail with a row of spikes leading to the end of the tail. The spikes were a mix of the light golden-brown and the darker golden-brown while the tail itself had an upper layer of dark purple scales and a ‘belly’ layer of light purple scales.

“Wh-what the? A… a tail? Why do we have a tail? Why is it like that? If it’s a sign of corruption from you, Jasper, it should be like a dog’s tail, since ya know, that’s kind of what your corrupted form looked like.” The fusion asked itself as it began to panic. Suddenly the fusion slapped itself and took a deep breath. “Calm yourself, obviously this is Steven’s contribution to the fusion. B-but if it’s me, then does that mean I could? UGH! Shut up and calm down! You panicking like this isn’t going to solve anything, Universe. Besides, I don’t see why you should. Unless, you think us uncorrupted gems can NEVER fuse, otherwise we spread the ‘problem’ of corruption.” The fusion began to argue itself, pitching itself up whenever it was Steven in control and pitching itself down for Jasper. The fusion took in a deep breath and began to calm down. “No, everything is fine. We’re fine. This is fine… we’re just… fine.” They said, then smiled. They looked at their hands. “This… is fine.” They said again, then looked around in wonder. “So… this is how it feels to be us, huh. It… feels different. We don’t even know how to feel about ourselves. Still, what should we do now that we’re like this? We don’t want to just stay here and train. We want to experience this new existence. To do things we normally feel as Jasper…and maybe as Steven.” The fusion said, then an idea popped into their mind. “Oh! How about going to beach City! There are games and rides like Whackerman and Video games! But, ugh, that is so Human! I don’t want to interact with those… things. Oh, come on, Jasper, we got to meet halfway.” The fusion told itself.

The fusion sighed and held its nose gem. “Fine. We’ll go. Can we fly? I don’t know. Steg and Smokey Quartz can. Speaking of, what are we?” The fusion asked himself. They began to think. “Jasper and Pink Diamond…Rose quartz… ugh. I don’t know. We’re brown, we have strips, we have a tail, so maybe if we think together maybe it’ll just click like that. So… what’s gold/brown, has stripped, and has a tail… wait… a tiger! We’re Tiger Philanthropist… wait, who? Oh, an identity I made for wrestling way back. I could tell you his backstory if you want. … No. But we’re not this Tiger whatever, we’re a gem. What gem that’s like a Tiger? Wait… Tiger’s Eye! We’re a Tiger’s Eye!” Tiger’s Eye said as they realized what they were. They chuckled to themselves. “Aw man, that’s SO COOL!” They soon giggled to themselves. After a few seconds, they calmed down. “So, can we fly? I don’t know, let’s find out.” Tiger wondered before becoming determined.

They soon jumped high into the air, a few feet above the trees. They shifted their bodies to move forward, but they soon noticed that they weren’t gaining any height, they were just falling slowly towards the exit of the forest. “Ugh, no, we only have your floating powers.” They said in anger, but this made them begin to fall faster. They quickly grab onto a tree before they fell to their deaths. The momentum causes them to scratch on the tree until their momentum stopped. They sigh in relief before looking at the tree in shame. They lifted one of their arms, using their legs and their other arm to keep their position, then licked their hand and use Steven’s healing spit to repair the tree. “Sorry tree.” Tiger’s Eye said in its higher voice, then groan, “Don’t apologize. It’s just an earthling.” The fusion sighed in frustration and then jumped to tree to tree, getting a little bit lower each time until they were at the ground and right next to the Dondai. “Welp, that was a bust, but now I know that we can’t fly, and we got remember that my floaty powers are controlled by me being happy or upset. Ugh. Just like all my stupid powers.” Tiger’s Eye said, annoyed at itself. They shocked their head. “Anyway, since we can’t fly, we’ll have to use the Dondai. But…” They looked at the car then at their tail and compared their height to the car. “I’m too big! It was a pain getting a Quartz in there, now I got to find a way to fit myself and my new tail in there without wrecking the car!” They poked at spikes on their tail. It was sharp, so they had to worry about the spikes. “Hmmm. I could shapeshift to be smaller. But I don’t LIKE that! Shapeshifting is just EMBARRASSING! But I HAVE TO! I DON’T WANNA WALK ALL THE WAY TO LITTLE HOMEWORLD OR BEACH CITY! IT WOULD TAKE FOREVER!” They grunted and held their face. They sighed.

“Fine, but once we’re in Beach City, we get out of the car and return to normal size… after finding a good place to park my baby… Man… Steven, you such a wimp.” The fusion said, arguing with itself again. They take in a deep breath and glowed, their body shifting into the size of Steven. Other than their pants being a bit too long, their clothes fit perfectly with Steven’s shirt covering up his gem again. They pull out the car keys and unlock the car. “Alright, now. To get this tail in without hurting the car.” They said. They looked for a good approach, then an idea appeared in their head. They lifted their tail up and lean it against the back of the seat. They get in the car, got buckled, and leaned forward so they wouldn’t lean up against their tail. “Ya know, if you lived closer to Little Homeworld, we could have just used the warp,” Tiger said as they turned on the car. They soon sighed. “Man, this fusion is just… so fun.” They said sarcastically, “Hopefully once we’re in town, we’ll have a better time.” They then drove back into town.

They looked at the picture of Amethyst, Pearl and Garnet Steven had taped onto the top of the hood. They softly chuckled. “So, you care about them so much. Y-yeah. I do. It’s just… hard living with them sometimes. Sometimes… it’s like they still treat me like a kid. I know they don’t want to do it; they just want to have fun with me. It’s just… hard sometimes.” Tiger’s Eye began talking to itself, switching between Steven and Jasper. “Honestly, I don’t know how you can even stand them sometimes. Honestly… I sometimes ask myself that question too. Oh… really?” Tiger looked at the road, making sure they were driving safely. They still had a way to go before they reach Beach City.

“Yeah. Like… I don’t know. It’s just hard having people needing to depend on you for emotional support. And… to tell you the truth, I know they need me to be strong but sometimes, I don’t want to be strong. I just wanna be a kid and have silly adventures. The Crystal Gems don’t know how to handle me or my powers. They’re scared of me losing control. Like, one time, I so afraid of being seen as a kid, I kept aging into different periods of adulthood until I was an old man and almost died from it. The gems brought me back to normal but… it was still a scary time. Then there was the time that I stretched my body to look older, so I won’t look like that small boy you used to see me as to impress everyone. I… I was so tired of being this little kid, especially after I learned that it wasn’t normal for me to keep looking like I used to. But… I couldn’t hold the form and reverted into a baby. Connie helped me recover from that, and once I learned I was growing facial hair, that helped me feel more confident about my body. But it still was a strange time. And then… there was the time I tried to relax and shapeshift into a cat, but I could only change one of my fingers into a cat. At first, it was fine, but then more cats formed on my fingers and I started losing control, and I was becoming an adorable cat monster! And… and Dad had to be the one to help me and the only way to save me was to go through the Car Wash! And then… c-calm down. I’m here. We don’t need to shapeshift. This is only temporary.” Tiger’s Eye said, Steven’s panicking made her tighten her grip on the wheel before loosening it as Jasper’s mind helped calm them down. They take a deep breath. “Y-yeah. Just… just wanted to explain why we couldn’t just shapeshift with wings or something. Hahahaha.” Tiger’s Eye laughed as tears formed in Steven’s eyes, “It’s… it’s okay. I don’t like shapeshifting too. It just feels so unnatural. I can see the practical uses of it for battle, but I will never use it myself, and you shouldn’t feel pressured to need to master it either.” Jasper told Steven. The fusion sighed and nodded. They soon noticed that they had entered Beach City. They quickly find a place to park the car and get out.

Once out, they release their shapeshifted form and sighed in relief. Although keeping a smaller form was much easier than keeping a larger form, they still felt more comfortable being their regular size. They whip the tears out of their eyes. They take a few deep breaths and then stood up. “Okay, we’re here. Now what…” Tiger asked themselves. Suddenly their stomach growled. “What was that?” Tiger asked themselves, before Steven’s personality kicked in, “Oh. I guess all that crying and talking and… stuff must’ve worn us out. I need to eat. Now, if you don’t want to try the food, that’s all right. We can just unfuse and I’ll get something to eat.” However, part of them was intrigued. “Eat. What do you mean by eat? Well, humans don’t have infinite energy, so we chew up items like pizza, fish, and potatoes to eat. It’s actually quite good. Amethyst likes to eat a lot, but gems like you don’t need to do it. We can just unfuse if you want.” Tiger talked to themselves, letting Jasper have an out. Tiger shocked their head. “No. I won’t let a puny little thing like ‘eating’ separate us like that. Besides, I can withstand any weird feeling you put on me. Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Tiger explained. They soon walked over to the Fry Stand. Peedee was working at the place when he noticed them. “Um hello, miss…” Peedee began to say in a polite manner.

“Tiger’s Eye. Um… yeah. I can accept female pronouns. But letting you know; I also use They and Them pronouns as well.” Tiger’s Eye explained. Peedee nodded and looked at the gem. “Neat… Hey, isn’t that Steven’s jacket? Steven is that you?” Peedee asked. Tiger’s Eye laughed in glee. “Yep. It’s me, Peedee! Well, it’s more than me. I’m a fusion with Jasper right now! We’re doing some bonding time!” Steven’s personality shined through as she said that. Peedee smiled. “Wow… wait, wasn’t Jasper that big mean lady you’ve told us about. Um… Sorry about that.” Peedee said, then quickly apologized when he realized he was also talking to said the lady. Tiger’s eye rolled her eyes. “Yeah. But supposedly it’ll be different. However, right now, I’m not so sure about it. Anyway, I’ll have… the bits.” She said as she tried to act cool. Peedee nodded. “One plate of the bits, then.” He said then moved to the back of the area. Tiger looked at the boy. “So, he’s your friend, right? Uh-huh. Why does he work for a place like this? Well, because he likes it. He has his own truck where he sells his own food, but Peedee still tends to work here every now and again. I just hope…” Tiger’s Eye began to say but was interrupted by a loud squeal of excitement that was all TOO familiar. Tiger groaned and facepalmed herself as she looked at the sound. “A snerson! Peedee, you got to see this! It’s a real-life snerson!” Ronaldo said as he pulled out his phone. “Huh?” Peedee said as he brought out a bag full of potato bits.

Ronaldo was standing a few feet away from Tiger. He most likely came from the boardwalk. Tiger’s Eye turned towards the man. “Ronaldo, I’m not a snerson, it’s me, Steven! I just fused with Jasper and some of her corrupted forms have transferred to me… Steven… man being a fusion can be so confusing. Anyway, I’m not corrupted, it’s just a side-effect of us fusing.” Tiger tried to explain. Ronaldo squinted his eyes in suspension. “Sure, you are, Snerson. But how do I know you’re not just some Snerson pretending to be Steven fused with this Jasper.” Ronaldo asked. Tiger growled in anger. “Ugh, I’m wearing Steven’s jacket and clothes! I have his and Jasper’s gems! What more proof do you need!?” Tiger asked in frustration. Ronaldo looked at her and then went around her. “So, if you are Steven and Jasper, how come you have a snake tail and snake horns?” Ronaldo asked before stopping in front of them. Tiger groaned. “The horns were on Jasper’s corrupted form first, our fusion just made them more different. Also, what snakes have horns? As for the tail, it must be from Steven. I don’t know how or why, but something about him makes him into a snerson when he corrupts… n-not that I am corrupted or anything. This… this is just hypothetical.” Tiger said a bit scared at the end.

“I mean, one of the corrupted gems used to be that Big Crab we used to record for your vlog thing, so it’s not too weird that maybe Steven would be a snake if he corrupted. Hey… maybe that’s why there’s a snake on the dollar bill! The founding fathers must’ve known the Diamond Authority would become snakes if they turned into monsters!” Peedee said with confidence. Ronaldo gasped and pulled out a dollar bill. “Of course! It all makes sense! The Diamonds ARE SNEEPLE ALL ALONG! But how did the US government know this in advance? Was the Great Diamond authority in on this?” Ronaldo wondered.

“What, that’s absurd. I’ve been with the Diamonds for over two years and other than making peace with the US government, there have been no signs of the Government knowing about the Diamond Authority or about Sneeple.” Tiger’s eyes said. She pulled out a dollar and gives it to Peedee. She then grabs her food and begins to eat. “Okay, but then how did the Government know about this? Why would they put this obvious connection on their money? Perhaps, the Diamonds have been hiding stuff from you, Steven… and whoever you’re fused with!?” Ronaldo said, causing Tiger to chock on her bits. They quickly cough and release the pressure they accidentally build up. “That’s absurd, Ronaldo! The diamonds… they… they trust me…” Tiger’s eye began to say but felt the fear build up in their mind. Images of Pink Diamond sobbing in her room, yelling at the Diamonds, and breaking items flashed in their mind. They held their head. “They… they’re not the same as back then. They… they trust me…” Tiger’s Eye said as to try and rebuild their confidence. Flashes of Jasper fighting in the war, images of gems talking behind Jaspers’ back, then images of Jasper begging Yellow Diamond to attack earth flashed in their mind. “I’m… I’m not worthless…” They said, then images of ‘classic’ Steven waiting for the gems to come back from their mission and Steven’s imagined conversation from an Indirect Kiss entered their mind. Tears flowed out their eyes as the pain was becoming too much.

“Steven, Jasper, Tiger’s Eye! It’s okay! We’re here! RIGHT, Ronaldo! Please, they need us.” Peedee said, the last part a whisper to the boy’s brother. Ronaldo blinked and then awkwardly laughed. “Y-yeah! Tiger’s Eye! That’s right! Besides, it could all just be the Government who’s lying! Of course, not Nanefua, she’s one of the few that aren’t like that.” Ronaldo said as to try and cheer them up. The fusion sniffled and looked at him. “R-really?” They asked. Ronaldo nodded. “Yeah, the Government is always trying to hide things! Anyways, enough sadness! Let’s think of something to CHEER. YOU. UP!” Ronaldo said as to try and help Steven. Tiger took in a deep breath. They quickly finished up eating and sighed. “Welp… at least I’m no longer hungry.” They said. Ronaldo sighed in relief.

“So… Tiger’s eye. That’s a cool name. What do want to do? Who is… Tiger’s Eye?” Ronaldo asked. Peedee nodded. “Yeah, I mean, you’re a whole new fusion, Steven. Maybe you can show some sick moves!” Peedee said with excitement. Tiger chuckled. “Really?” They asked. The two brothers nodded in excitement. Tiger’s Eye laughed and rushed onto the Beach. “Alright, let’s see what my weapon is!” She said as she pulled out Steven’s Shield and Jasper’s helmet. She looked at both objects. Peedee and Ronaldo sat down at the edge of the pier. “Hmmm, a shield and a helmet… what do these two things have in common or… what can I make with them?” Tiger wondered. The group thought. “Oh! How about a complete battle armor!” Peedee said. Ronaldo scolded, “No, that’s too basic for something like her! Oh! How about a laser gun! Or a broad sword! Or a cannon! OH! A SWORD GUN!” Ronaldo yelled out. People began walking towards them. Tiger’s eye began shaking seeing them. They close their eyes and then a thought appeared. They grab the helmet and chuck it into the air. They throw the shield and the two hit each other and glowed. They fuse into one weapon as a double-headed Axe with a medium-sized handle. “Wow! An ax! That’s clever!” Ronaldo said, impressed. Tiger’s Eye chuckled and quickly put their weapon away as it disappeared into light particles.  “Yeah… although, it is the most weapon like a weapon I’ve had with a fusion. Well, that’s because you think of simple toys. I think of something more practical.” Tiger’s Eye said, then giggled.

The people on the boardwalk looked at the fusion, waved at them, and then continued their way. Tiger sighed in relief. “Man, this fusion is really hard to keep it together… but I know we can do this! Besides, we haven’t even done anything fun yet. All we had were meltdowns and crying! I do NOT want to keep doing this! I want to have FUN! I want to know what makes living on Earth worth it to Steven!” Tiger yelled. They were getting so fed up with having to deal with their two sides constantly fighting with each other or having a meltdown. “Alright, alright, calm down. There are tons of fun things to do, like, um, the arcade, there’s the pier, video games at Steven’s house, the Big Donut, um… Oh! Hey, there’s supposed to be a wrestling match tonight! It’s supposed to be like a multi-match event. Supposedly it’s like survival of the fittest or something, whoever stays in the ring long enough wins the wrestling cup. Doubles or Singles are allowed tonight. That sounds like fun!” Peedee explained. This peaked Tiger’s Eye interest. “Oh yeah, Steven did say that he used to use wrestling. Although, I think we got tired of it because he was being too nice, so Lars didn’t like his character anymore, and Amethyst didn’t want to play wrestling now that she was MATURE now.” She said in a bitter tone. She shocked his head.

“Anyway, we weren’t interested because he tried to explain his ‘backstory’ for the event. It sounded pretty dumb from what little we heard. But what was that about the survival of the fittest?” The fusion asked. Ronaldo stood up as shadow draped over his eyes. “The world of wrestling is a dangerous and evil land where only the strong can survive. I tried my hand at the ring and was punched so hard, I never went back.” Ronaldo stated, exaggerating his story. Tiger’s Eye chuckled. “Oh yeah, that was pretty funny. And… punching… that’s something I can do. That sounds like the perfect thing for us to do. But… I still like the idea of building a character… ugh… my head.” Tiger said, then held their head. This made the two brothers worried. “Hey, are you okay? Maybe you should unfuse, at least until tonight. You two might need a break from each other.” Peedee said. Ronaldo nodded. “Yeah. Plus, all your bad mojo could collide with each other too much if you don’t give each other some time to think for yourselves.” Ronaldo said.

Tiger’s Eye looked away. “I… We’ll think about it. For now, we’re fine. We’re going to go walk the boardwalk for now.” They said. Ronaldo and Peedee looked at each other and then at the fusion. Peedee stood up. “Welp, be careful. See you at the ring tonight. Oh! I almost forgot; the wresting even will be at 8 pm at the abandoned warehouse.” Peedee said, then went back to the shop. Tiger’s eye waved at him. “I got my eye on you, Tiger’s Eye. Don’t go pull any Snerson tricks up your sleeves. I don’t want you to hurt yourself or Society.” Ronaldo said, then walked away. Tiger’s eye nodded and then her stomach growled again. She blushed in embarrassment. “I guess that wasn’t enough to satisfy our hunger. What time is it?” They wondered as they pulled out Steven’s phone. They activated it and put in the numbers, but it was much harder thanks to their pretty meaty fingers. “Ugh. Why do these tiny earthling communication devices have to be so small?” They wondered in annoyance. They soon looked at the device and saw it was around 1:30. “Wow, time sure flew. It’s already past lunchtime. No wonder we’re hungry. Why don’t we get a salad and something to drink? Maybe we’ll like that more than just eating some bits. …Whatever.” Tiger said to herself. She put the phone back in their coat pocket and walked over to Fish Stew Pizza.