Chapter 17: Adjustment Pains

Summary: Adjusting to this new lifestyle isn't easy.

"So ever since then Mom's been tense, but luckily Dad is fine as it is. Apparently he's gonna spend the day at Star's place." Jana watched the boy check his bags. "Now I'm going on missions with the Gems to 'get a feel' for their culture."

"Aren't you lucky? I've tried for years to get Amethyst to show me around the temple." She laughed. The kid this time around actually came to her for a change. "Always said my squishy human body would explode or something if I got near it."

The boy raised an eyebrow. "Star and I go inside all the time, even Marco at one point."

"Yeah, I called bs on it too. Amethyst usually tried to never mention anything about gem stuff when we hung around, probably thinking I find it boring or whatever."

"Oh, it's far from boring, really shiny in fact, and apparently they each have their own rooms that only open up to specific gems. Pear's mainly has a lot of water, and I think Ruby stays inside a pit of lava. They think I have a room too, but the conditions are more mental than physical." Quartz gave her a look. "How do you know Amethyst anyways?"

"Giant glow worm almost ate me when I was younger, she poofed it, and we spent the rest of the day freaking tourists out with her shapeshifting." She snickered. "She's the only gem that actually goes into town actively, so getting along with her shouldn't be that hard."

"Yeah…maybe." Quartzy mumbled. "Things still feel weird though. I'm glad they cleared stuff like fusion up for me, but half the time I feel…talked down to, like they think I'd have a hard time understanding what they're saying."

"To be fair they have technically been alive since … cavemen if I heard it right." Jana spoke. "Amethyst does it easier cause she literally acts like one, but there are moments it's still like talking to an elder who speaks in riddles."

"No wonder Star has trouble being with them, that's basically how she describes mom." He snickered. "I just hope she's fine being alone right now, the drama is really getting to her." Quartz shook his head. "I wonder if normal families have this much drama."

"The two good things I can say about having nice and boring parents is that they don't fight, and they don't question you when you tell them you're going to spend the night in a cemetery." 

"Oh … visiting a relative?" He asked.

"Nope, talking with strangers." Some were more interesting than others. The rocker chick with flaming blue hair was fun.

"...Eh, that's not too far off from what happens in Mewni. The Lucitors occasionally torture past members of the Butterfly family if their souls haven't moved on. Luckily none of the queens have ever been there…though now I'm afraid of what Tom might do on the low chance Star ends up there."

"I have a book of spells that you can use if you want." She offered. "Plenty of binding a demon to you for life…" She paused. "Does being half gem extend your lifespan?"

"...I don't know, and now I finally have context for why the Calzone was being so vague to me that day." Quartz looked at his hands. "Am I immortal? Will I outlive everyone I've ever known, will I watch them die, will I even have to face death…"

"This is one of those times where you just have to cross the bridge when you get to it." Jana interrupted that existential train of thought. "If you happen to live longer, then you just have more time to have fun."

"Hmm … I guess I'll process that for later." He smiled. "Thanks, I've gotta head out. Apparently we're gonna be exploring a pyramid in a graveyard or something."

"Dang, you get to go to all the exciting places today, don't you?" She slapped Quartzy on the back. "See yah, and here's my number." She handed him a piece of paper. "Tell me everything afterwards. Amethyst never gives me the deets about this stuff either."

"Oh, sure thing." He sent her a warm smile as he walked out the door. "Later!" Quartzy was actually a pretty cool guy to hang with even if she wasn't teasing him. That was a slight pro he had over Marco.

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"Wow Marco." He watched Star smirk at him. "Never took you for a sandals guy."

"I'm not, it's just I can't wear socks without them getting wet, which may I remind people, is torture in some countries!" He shouted at the girl. "How many times is your father going to drown the living room!?"

"Probably until he turns it into a swamp complete with alligators and sea serpents…or until he gets bored with flushing everything down the toilet." Star rolled her eyes. "It's addicting, so don't count on that last one."

"Star, your dad has to either stop partying or leave at some point." He told her. "I know being a gracious host is a thing, but you're stretching the limits, look how tired my mom and dad are!"

"No no … we can keep it going … more pizza rolls, anyone?" Spoke his sleep deprived father.

"Trust me, Marco, I want him gone just as much as you do! I haven't been able to sleep without a gnome barfing rainbows in my face for days." She groaned. "But I can't talk about that to my dad, he's the one good parent I have left …" She looked out the window. "With Moon turning out to be a bitch."

Well this got dark very quickly. Sighing, Marco reached for the glasses again. "Don't you think that's a little harsh? Calling her by her first name is one thing…"

"If anything, it's not harsh enough." Star grumbled. "You lie for thirteen years, and you think you can get away with it scott free? Who thinks like that!? She's just lucky Quartz is too pure to ever hate her for anything. Which means I've gotta hate her for the both of us."

"Or you can just…not hate her."

"After all that?!" Star shouted with an accusing finger. "It's getting so bad that even my dad can't handle being around the castle."

"Fine, but you can't act like your dad's being the perfect role model here either." Marco pointed to all the torches that lined up on their walls now, a few spears next to them, some with live animal heads.

"... I'll ask him to tone down the night parties." Why was that the best he could hope for? "Why did everything have to go wrong all at once? Moon is a lying scumbag, Dad's a party animal that doesn't know how to take a break, and those crystal ladies are super weird and annoying to be around."

"They do say secrets have a cost." Marco shrugged. This was much more drama than he was used to handling all out once. "Now if you excuse me, I have to make sure no one steals anything from the house." That pale lady with the owl staff had a sack resting on her shoulders that he knew was empty before she came.

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Steven looked at the mural in front of him, three images. "So let me get this straight … the Rose Guard … my mom … fought in two separate wars between two different species?"

"Yes, while the monsters were laughable as opponents, if a bit complicated from political and ethical standpoints, the gem wars were a much more serious matter, battling the evil tyrants that wished to drain the earth of its life."

"Why would they want to do that?" The boy asked.

"It's how Gems are born." Ruby explained. "Find a planet, drain it of all its gem support down the core, the planet rots to nothing." Ruby looked at her hand. "We wanted to save earth because … humans."

"So was there no other life on the planets that were destroyed before?" Stev…Quartz asked them. Pearl had to mentally bite her tongue to remember the boy's preferred name, lest he get upset with them.

"There was, lots of them. But Rose was the first gem to stand against the homeworld's way of life." Pearl's memories of the woman sent a wave of warmth through her body. "She personally saw to interact and personally witnessed how humans lived their lives, and believed their lives were worth protecting." The ability to be born free of duty and responsibility, to choose what you want instead of doing whatever you were 'made' to do.

"Wow, that's kind of like me with the monsters of Mewni." The boy's eyes lit up. "I've gotten to know and talk to a few. They're mostly just a bunch of sad people trying to find a home."

"If there's one thing you inherited from her, it's her everlasting kindness." Pearl smiled, looking in front of them. "Alright, three paths … and the door closed behind us, because why not."

"This is an abandoned homeworld base after all." Ruby all around, eyeing the murals that depicted the battle between Rose and the Great Diamond Authority. "Okay, if my memory serves correctly, only one of these paths will lead to a way out, the other's will just loop us around back to this room again."

"Circle back?" Steven looked at the entrances curiously, looking slight green in the face.

"Okay, so three paths, four of us." Pearl reiterated. "You two head off on your own and I'll look after Ste…Quartz…wait, where are they?" She looked around.

"They already ran through." The boy pointed at the two open doors, slamming shut behind them. "So Ruby is as bored of drawings and hyperactive as Star?" He asked her. "I thought that would be Amethyst."

"No, Ruby just happens to be a bit headstrong and straight forward." As Garnet, it wasn't a problem, but on her own, the little red gem could be even more reckless than Amethyst at times. They made their way through the door, coming across a precarious pit with magma at the bottom. "Alright, let's just slowly approach…"

The boy walked forward, before jumping and landing on a tile without a second thought! "So this place belonged to Homeworld, but why would they have bases on earth instead of just in orbit?" He asked as if he wasn't jumping from tile to ledge!!

"There was, but Homeworld likes to be…don't ask that right now! You're seconds away from being melted alive!"

"My bubbles don't melt with magma, and they act as a temporary footstool. If it was sparkly glitter, then I'd be concerned." What in the name of the star's did that have to do with anything!? "Besides, have you ever had dinner in the Underworld? I've felt much hotter before."

"Gems aren't required to…not the time to ask!" Pearl leaped her way towards him, grateful he at least knew how to keep his balance. "Now if we can just keep a cool head for a single second.."

"Pearl, look out!" Steven grabbed her arm and let her dangle off the edge for a second before pulling herself back up, where she could see a blade in the direction of where she was standing. "You've gotta be more careful, I thought you would have seen that coming with all your experience."

"I … but you … how …"

"This is the kinda stuff me and Star started doing around five, it's no big deal really." The boy shrugged before making his way out the exit. Pearl was having a minor crisis. On one hand, the boy was more prepared to handle the stress of Gem missions then she had initially assumed, but on the other hand, what kind of experiences did they put her baby through for him to reach this level with a shrug of the shoulders!?

She would've asked for more information, but the two of them found themselves back in the center of the temple, with Amethyst and Ruby meeting back with them. "Hey Rubs, thought you said one of them was supposed to take us outside?"

"It's supposed to be!" The girl shouted, running through a door.

"This is her third try, I gave up after the second." Amethyst spoke far too casually.

"So everyone keeps coming back to the same room again? Like it keeps spinning." Steven had a thoughtful look on his face. "That's it, this thing is like a mary-go-round! Everything but the center keeps spinning!" The boy held his bubble over his head. "Which means whatever's causing it to spin is underneath us!"

"Steven, wait, let us think this through!" She screamed for the boy to show some restraint in the moment, but was too late as he smashed his bubble on the ground.

The floor beneath them crumbled, and the entire team flew through, but instead of the dark and empty abyss Pearl was expecting to find, she found herself floating around and around at hi speeds on a tiny upside down pyramid. Looking around her, she saw that Amethyst, Ruby, and Steven were in the same position as well. "Whoa! Go Quartzy! You da man!" Amethyst cheered for Rose's kid.

The boy looked proud at Amethyst's praise, before turning green. "Almost forgot, I get really sick when I spin … does anyone have a barf bag?"

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"...She suddenly has the gall to be disappointed in me when she's practically a pathological liar by this point!" Glosseryck let Moon talk endlessly through the mirror as the woman just went on and on about the current personal drama that was taking place within the Butterfly family. "And that's not even getting into River! Is it that much to ask him to make the bed when he gets up every morning? Just once?! No! I have to blast him with the make the bed spell just to get it done!" He could still hear the party the husband was having downstairs, so that argument would probably keep going. "And now Quartz is constantly hanging out with the Gems and risking exposure of his heritage, do you know the kind of disaster that will cause!?"

The commission getting all nosy and control hungry if they ever found out, or the homeworld sending out invasion after invasion when they have evidence Rose's gem survived? Yes, he could imagine the domino effect this would have in the long run. But there was something the Queen was overlooking. "You do realize you're not the holder of the wand anymore, you can't just rant to me unless it's a life or death situation … well unless Star and Quartz's lives are on the line."

"This is a matter of life and death! Quartz is on the edge more than he should be, and my entire family is falling apart fast because I can't trust anybody and no one's willing to trust me!"

A cold presence suddenly made its way into the room. "Not true, I believe you've put a great amount of trust in us to look over Quartz." The short blue gem known as Sapphire entered the room. "Glossaryck." She nodded to him.

"Hello there Righty." He greeted the woman.

"A millennium passes and you're still an asshole."

"I'm impartial. Whatever feelings you derive from what I say is on you." Glossaryck smiled even when he knew the gem wanted to throw an icicle dagger at him. "Honestly surprised you didn't see this outcome sooner, the boy has been coming to earth before you met him."

"You're omniscient, you know my future vision is limited like this." Fair enough.

"Pardon me for interrupting, but why are you here Sapphire?" Moon asked.

"My future vision told me that after Quartz figures out how the temple's traps work, he would come here just as your husband is living…or rather thrown out the door."

"…" The queen looked at him. "You didn't think to inform me he was there?"

"Again, impartial to all who don't own the book." He shrugged. "I'm still running around the technicalities of a bonded owner asking for assistance."

"Well you seem to be just as helpful now as you were back then." Moon rolled her eyes.

"Fear not, your majesty. All will be fine eventually." Sapphire continued to talk. "I foresee all of the Butterfly family together again, happy and stronger than ever." Holy universe, if she saw that she really was limited.

"...Thank you…thank you." The queen was barely able to respond back without holding back the tears. "It's just so difficult, trying to do your best to both protect your family and keep them happy."

"I can guarantee you that Rose felt the exact same way, both caring for her team and the Butterfly family." The short woman gave a small nod of reassurance. "And if there's one thing I can assure that you did right, it's giving Star the best brother she could've asked for."

"Of course … if there's one thing this family has tried it's best to keep protected … It's family." Well that was mainly true after Lyric, but the few exceptions were notable. "Thank you Saphire, you have no idea how much I needed to hear that."

"No problem. I'm just doing my best to help all of Quartz's family. Good day." The blue woman started to leave.

"A word of advice." He spoke to the gem heading towards the exit. "You and Lefty may want to clap again soon."

"...That situation is complicated now, but I'll be sure to remember the advice."

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Star felt really, really, bad about this. But sometimes it needed into be said. "Everybody, out!" She shouted. "You don't have to head home, but you can't stay here!!"

"Hey, the party is never over you little-" She didn't let the talking sun finish.

"Cookie cat BLIZZARD!" She pelted the annoying thing with a storm of ice cream perfection, sadly getting wasted putting out this jerkward until the fiery orb was nothing but a tiny black marble. "See that everyone?! I got tons more where that came from, and I'm not going to hold back on anyone that says otherwise! Now leave before I give you all a one way trip to the UNDERWORLD!"

Soon it was just her, her awkwardly wasted looking father, and a soaking Marco. "There was a sun here, a talking sun, how did my socks still get wet?"

"Because the universe loves to pull sick jokes like that." Star ignored the rising headache starting to form. "So dad….anything you have to say for yourself?"

"… I may have gotten carried away."

"May have!?" She angrily pointed at Mrs Diaz's close shave … literally, a sword shaved a part of her hair. "Dad, is this what you do in the castle all day?"

"Not all the time…sometimes I throw a party within Mewni's peasant town, sometimes I go monster hunting, sometimes I have the guards bring in pits of lava to finely roast some dragon meat...it's different everyday."

"The fun is fine, the problem is that you don't clean it up and people suffer for it." She argued. "Life threatening adventure is only healthy if it's your own life, not everyone else's!" Star couldn't believe she was actually feeling sorry for her mom if this was what she dealt with all the time. "If you can find people who agree to it, even better, but some people need time to rest, to just lay down without getting gnome barf on their face!"

"Or wet socks! Seriously people, it's torture!!" She would poof Marco new socks later, there were more pressing things at the moment.

"..You're right. I suppose I did go too far and acted a little…very inconsiderate. I guess that's why your mother kicked me out." He said sorrowly. "So many things have been changing as of late. Your stay on earth, Quartz getting interested in girls, the whole issue with the Crystal gems, it's all happening so fast, and I just wanted to spend a little more time with my daughter before she grew up too quickly."

"Dad." She sighed. "I wear unicorn shirts, and love them. I'm not gonna grow up too quickly. I just don't want the Diaz house destroyed, they're nice people."

"Yes, I suppose they are, for putting up with my antics for this long." Her dad chuckled. "Well, I suppose I'll go and do what I should've done in the first place. Clean up my mess and apologize to Moon-Pie."

"I can handle the mess here, you just focus on the last part." After today, she didn't want to think about either of her parents for a long, long, LOOOONG time. 

"Very well. Sorry once again." Her dad opened a portal and left. "Tally-ho!"

"He's gone…he's finally gone!" Star shouted to the heavens, letting herself fall to the floor even if it was wet. "Nothing could make this day better." The door opened, revealing Quartz covered in blood. "I said better, not worse!"

"Relax, I didn't get hurt, I'm just covered in strawberry juice. The temple I raided with the gems today exploded, and it was in the middle of a fruit field/graveyard. You wouldn't believe how many weapons are over there." Looking just as tired as her, he fell on the wet floor next to her. "So dad had one of those parties again?"

"Lasted a full five days." She answered simply. "Are you tired?"

"Yeah, but I'm fine … just hungry and need new shoes, those have jam in them." Quartz grumbled. "Wet socks are the worst."

"Finally, validation!!!" Marco fell next to the two of them. "Do you two ever feel like you just got to have a day where you do nothing?"

"Let's do that." Quartz smiled. "Just grab all our friends for a lazy day. Kelly, Janna …" He stopped. "Do you have any friends Marco?"

"Alfonso and Furguson, we mainly play roleplay games together, though nothing beyond that really." Marco responded. "Star's the first one I could call a best friend really." Aw, how sweet.

"Then let's head out on a city friend tour, who!" Star shouted, excited for something normal for a change.