After the raw, hollowing exhaustion left by channeling cursed energy on the hill, the cheerful explosion of color scraped against my nerves. My limbs were lead pipes filled with sand, my head throbbed a dull, insistent thump, and the phantom chill of that blue-black flame still clung to my bones like frost. I could feel the negative emotions.
All I craved right now was a cool refreshing bath, and hoping sleep could bury the unsettling sensation of decay that had emanated from my own power. The cheerful chirping of birds felt jarring, the impossibly green grass now garish.
Stumbling towards the Beach House felt like wading through syrup. As I neared the porch, the sounds shifted, cutting through my fog: the shrill, off-key bleat of kazoos, the frantic rustle of crepe paper, and Steven's voice, pitched high with manic enthusiasm.
"Okay, Amethyst! Get ready for the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! Even though we don't know when it is! Surprise!"
Birthday?
I paused, leaning heavily against the doorframe, the wood cool against my forehead. Inside was choas. Streamers hung limply, clusters of balloons bobbed near the ceiling, and Steven, wearing a lopsided paper crown askew on his curls, was wrestling a truly monstrous, lopsided cake slathered in thick purple frosting towards a wide eyed Amethyst. The sheer, energy radiating from Steven pressed against my depleted senses. It felt… nevermind I'm to tired to think.
"Whoa, little dude! Is that all for me?" Amethyst's eyes gleamed, not with understanding of the occasion, but with pure, unadulterated glee at the prospect of sugary destruction. She didn't wait for ceremony. She lunged, aiming to dive face-first into the cake's center.
"Amethyst, wait! You have to make a wish first!" Steven yelped, grabbing futilely at her sleeve.
A wave of tired disapproval washed over me
He's trying too hard. Doesn't he see they don't even know what it is?* Speaking felt like lifting weights. "Steven," I managed, my voice rough and grating in my own ears. I didn't move from the doorway. "Maybe... ease into the cake dive? Just a suggestion." It was the bare minimum, born more of self-preservation of my own mind.
How in the world was I so tired right now no way it's just from a single attack. Maybe I should build up my mind and body a bit.
My words were swallowed by the spectacle. Amethyst surfaced from the cake like a purple whale breaching a frosted sea, her face and hair plastered with icing. "Wish? Pfft! I wish for MORE CAKE!" She roared with laughter, grabbing great handfuls of cake and flinging them wildly. One sticky purple glob sailed across the room and smacked Pearl square in the forehead like a cartoon. Oh yeah.
Another hit Lion, who merely blinked sleepily, a dollop of frosting on his nose. A third splattered on the floorboards near my feet. I lacked the energy, or perhaps the will, to dodge.
Pearl recoiled as if struck by acid, utterly scandalized. "Steven! Is this... de rigueur for human 'birthday bashes'?" she sputtered, meticulously scraping frosting off her gem with a pristine white handkerchief that appeared from nowhere. "This violent projectile confectionery? In Gem society, celebratory food is consumed with a little more class!" She straightened, attempting a haughty composure, though a large smear of purple remained in her hair. "Clearly, the ritual involves more, aggressive styles Noted." Her attempt to sound authoritative while fundamentally misunderstanding the situation was almost amusing.
Her gaze flickered to me, lingering on my obvious exhaustion, the dark smudges under my eyes, the way I slumped against the frame. Her expression shifted from outrage to a flicker of something softer, almost concerned. "Ethan, you look... fatigued. Have you been engaging in night human' birthday' rituals?" she inquired, her tone earnest. "I've read they involve strenuous movement and flashing lights, quite draining to the organic form."
The sheer, bizarre innocence of her misinterpretation was a strange kind of comfort. "Just... a long walk, Pearl," I mumbled, finally pushing off the doorframe to avoid the trajectory of Amethyst's next cake missile. My legs protested. "Trying to clear my head."
She nodded, accepting the flimsy explanation with Gem-like literalness. "Ah. Understood. Though the hours seem excessive for a mental reset." She turned her attention back to the frosting in her hair, frowning.
Steven, however, was undeterred by Amethyst's sugary rampage. He wheeled away from the carnage, clutching a bright yellow rubber chicken and a tiny red clown nose. "Okay, Pearl! Your turn! Time for jokes and fun!" he announced.
Pearl instantly straightened, eager to demonstrate her newly acquired grasp of human customs. "Yes Steven I am prepared." She perched ramrod straight on the edge of the sofa, hands folded primly in her lap, her face set in a smooth smile.
Steven honked the rubber chicken vigorously, then launched into a knock-knock joke.
"Knock knock!"
"Who is there?" Pearl responded, her tone clipped and precise.
"Orange!"
"Orange who?"
"Orange you glad I didn't say banana again?" Steven finished, beaming.
Pearl stared at him, utterly blank. "Hmm I don't think I got the humor from an orange's non-presence, Steven," she stated after a moment of intense thoughtfulness. "Is the punchline intended as a commentary on citrus scarcity within the current agricultural cycle?" Without waiting for an answer, clearly deciding this was the ritual, she launched into a complex, explanation of Gem orbital mechanics around a Class F star, complete with diagrams she projected from her gem. "You see, the perihelion shift combined with the gravitational lensing effect creates a truly fascinating, albeit predictable, pattern of..."
Steven's smile wilted like a flower in a furnace. The manic light in his eyes dimmed, replaced by confusion and a dawning disappointment.
I sank onto a stool near the kitchen counter, resting my throbbing head in my hands.
Steven's palpable, mounting desperation – it all grated on my raw nerves like sandpaper. The cursed energy, dormant but heavy, felt like a cold stone lodged deep in my gut, subtly resonating with the rising tension in the room.. It would take energy I didn't have, attention I couldn't spare. The risk of the cold darkness inside me reacting to the emotional turmoil felt too great. So I just watched, a silent, weary spectator, feeling useless. Garnet, observing silently from her usual spot near the window, seemed to note my profound fatigue, her visor lingering on me for a moment longer than usual, but she said nothing.
Undeterred, or perhaps driven by the growing panic that he was failing, Steven turned his frantic energy on Garnet. He presented her with a handful of brightly colored kazoos and a racetrack clumsily drawn on the floor with blue chalk. "Okay, Garnet! Kazoo racers! Vroom vroom! It'll be awesome! We just blow into these and make noise while we push them!" He demonstrated, producing a off-key squeak.
Garnet didn't move. She remained an island of stillness in the chaotic room. Pearl, seeing Steven's distress, placed a gentle, hesitant hand on his shoulder. "Steven, dear... while your enthusiasm is... commendable... these festivities..." She searched for the right words, her brow furrowed, inevitably defaulting to Gem logic. "They are designed for smaller lifespans experiencing linear progression of time. Garnet and I... we're simply too "big" for them. Conceptually. "
Steven froze. The kazoo dropped from his hand, clattering softly on the wooden floor. The energy drained from him as if a plug had been pulled, replaced by a profound, devastating sadness that seemed to shrink him. "Too... big?" His voice was small, lost. He looked around – at the ruined cake, Pearl's stiff, confused form, Amethyst now attempting to juggle three deflated balloons, Garnet's impassive presence. The wreckage of his well intentioned celebration. "Oh." The single syllable hung in the suddenly heavy air, thick with his crushed hope.
I saw it happen the light in his eyes dimming, extinguished. A sharp pang cut through my own exhaustion: guilt, sharp and cold, mixed with a crushing sense of helplessness.
I saw it coming. I felt the wrongness of it. Should I have said more? Done more? But the cursed energy coiled inside me, a serpent of cold dread hit me hard.
A heavy, awkward silence descended on the Beach House, broken only by the faint pop of a balloon Amethyst accidentally crushed. She stopped juggling, looking unusually subdued. Pearl wrung her hands, her earlier confidence vanished. "Did we... misstep?.." Garnet, ever enigmatic, reached up and adjusted the tiny, ridiculous paper party hat Steven had placed on her head earlier. It sat perfectly centered above her visor. "It makes me feel important," she stated simply,
Her visor then shifted towards me. The weight of her gaze was immense, feeling less like being looked at and more like being gently scanned down to the marrow. "You need some sleep, Ethan," she stated, her voice low and resonant. It felt like she sensed the volatile energy simmering just beneath my surface, the sheer exhaustion of holding it back.
"Rest."
Pushing myself up from the stool felt like a monumental effort. The image of Steven wandering Beach City alone, crushed and confused, twisted in my gut. But the cursed energy pulsed, a dark, insistent counterpoint to my concern. *He needs help. Someone stable and gets what he's going through."
"Yeah," I rasped, avoiding the eyes of all three Gems. My voice sounded alien to me. "Rest. Good idea." I turned towards the stairs, leaving them amidst the ruins of cake, streamers, and Steven's shattered celebration.
As my foot hit the first step, a sound cut through the quiet morning from the direction of the boardwalk a sharp, shocked gasp, laced with confusion and the beginnings of fear. Steven's voice, but… different. Older. Strained.
I froze on the stairs, I forgot.
Too late.
The guilt solidified, from being unable to do anything to calm the situation.
I knew I shouldn't or more couldn't head back to help out I guess I'd just have to try harder tomorrow to make up for this day.
Slamming onto the bed I heard pearl raise her voice in suprise and then absolutely nothing.