Inquisitor Chronicle Crossovers: Steven Universe

It was pitch-black. Save for the odd wall-light brightening select corners of the hallway. And an unusually purplish light emanating from the study. In this little study, almost enveloped in the same darkness as almost everywhere else, a faint light shone, illuminating a wide wooden desk, and Selena. She was bent down in a leather chair towards the desk, working during the ungodly part of the night where everyone else would be asleep, or at the very least trying to fall asleep. Slender hands worked away at paper, their celestial owner poising her tongue as her pencils doodled randomness. And randomness. And more and more randomness. As time wore on, despite all her best attempts, even more randomness continued to make its rude appearance. Sighing, Selena bent up for a moment, and stretched. Flexing her arms, standing on the tips of her feet, her body contorted its way towards the sky, for the sweet imaginary relief of a good old stretch. Done with her momentary fantasy, she stood for a moment, looked down at all the crumpled pieces of paper, and all the randomness currently scratching their heads, unsure of exactly why they even existed, and sighed. Even now her block continued.

Collapsing back into her chair, she groaned. Twiddling around with her extensive array of pencils, she gazed up at the ceiling, searching for some sort of inspiration in its purple luminescence. Her eyes stayed glued, while her mind raced away. What if this—no no, that would be silly. Maybe if she redrew—no no, she wanted to create something new, or at least recreate something. Like an old memory. Heh. The purple almost reminded her of—

Almost as if a thousand light-bulbs and one lantern set had gone off in her brain, Selena threw her pencils down, shoved all her used up paper away, magicked a brand new page with a click of her fingers, got a pencil out, and started drawing with an energy she hadn’t felt in ages. Literal ages. As she did, shapes started taking form, and appeared in front of her, flashing and moving and twinkling and moving about, revitalised by her sudden strike of whatever you wanted to call it. Inspiration. Eureka. Nostalgia. Self-actualisation.  Love.

Selena smiled.

Looked like her block was over.

Her hands were buzzing away at the paper, and continued to do so, free of all conscious thought, as Selena lifted her eyes up towards her creations. As the shapes became figures, Selena could make out some of them. And for every single one, a memory would resonate deep inside of her, some of which she never knew she even had. An almost all-white individual, with double cutlasses poised at the ready, as they skewed through multiple faceless figures. ‘Pearl.’ A double-gemed woman, colours of red and blue interlocking to and fro, a violet eye seeing all—a perfect combination of two gems’ boundless love. ‘Garnet.’  A tall muscular rainbow-haired warrior, with a rainbow-pyramid at her heart, bustling in the forge, forging countless weapons and attachments, including one for her katana. A gem with dangerous ideals, and an even more dangerous adoration for Selena, her weapon, and its craftsmanship. ‘Bismuth.’ A short stout purple girl, fresh from her hole and with a fresh zest for fun, who would rather forget about all of her beginnings, what she was made for. ‘Amethyst.’

And right in the centre of all these figures, all these conjured memories, a looming giant of a woman, her Quartz gem where her navel would have been, arms outstretched, almost as if to pick her up from the mud. ‘Rose…’

The figures dispersed to the outer ridges of the study, as a new illustration began to take form. An endless and broken ground, yet already ripe with the beginnings of giant strawberries.  Warriors on all sides, diamonds and stars, empires and rebels who dared be something more than what they were meant to be. An auburn fox flying in the air, fists alive with the forces of fire and lighting as arcane destruction rained down on the enemy. And herself. She was much much younger—though she didn’t physically look it—and was right in the centre of the fray, poofing gem after gem after gem with each leap, with each swing of her blade, her eyes and gleam vivacious with the familiarity and the thrill of the all-consuming brawl.

‘The Gem war…’

By then she had noticed that she had stopped drawing. She took a look at her trembling hands, and forced them to move up to her face, which was moist with trickling tears. Bringing her hands down, she realised that she was smiling. Whether it was due to the nostalgia of such lovely peeps, or the involuntary thrill of the fight she didn’t know for sure. But she did know one thing.
Despite everything, she still missed those times.

She proceeded to stand up, and laugh wildly, guffawing at the ridiculousness of her conflicting emotions. At the cacophony going on in her head. Everything that was so right, yet so freaking wrong about her. Taking a breather, she gazed up towards her illustrations, and grinned.
‘It’s amazing. Just how much of a blubbering mess you’ve made me.’ She sat back down, sighing. ‘Out of all my multiversal adventures, you were one of my best by far. She looked back towards her creations and smiled dreamily. ‘…Well at least you broke me out of my block.’

A sudden creak of the door broke her out of her dreamy lull, her larger-than-life illustrations fading away with it. Eyes wide open, she looked towards the door, and could only sigh.


Lana had woken up.

‘Sorry if I’m barging in…but I can’t exactly sleep…’ Her face reddened, embarrassed by her very intrusion. Then, her eyes finally adjusted to the room, and focused on Selena’s raw face, and the rawer spirit flickering in her eyes. Lana’s face blanked out initially—rarely did she ever see Selena display such emotion—before contorting to one of intrepid concern. ‘What’s going on here? Are you alright?’

Selena gazed momentarily towards Lana, then shifted her gaze to her drawings, another tear escaping her eye. She then looked back to Lana, lips barely able to keep their composure. ‘…You might want to go. …I’m in the middle of something.’

‘Oh. Right.’ Lana, still bemused as to what exactly was transpiring, slowly and hesitatingly shut the door,  with an expression of concern and bafflement caked onto her face. The door eventually shut with a deafening clang.

Selena’s eyes still focused in Lana’s direction—now just a shut door. They then shifted back to where sentient figures were previously living and breathing. And then to her paper, now filled with endless illustrations. She smiled.

‘Maybe I should take you on one of these adventures. …I’m sure you would love it.’

She sat back down, and resumed drawing. With a smile on her raw face.