Hidden Gems: Bards of the Nerdverse

Welcome to Hidden Gems, home to the Bards of the Nerdverse. We're a burgeoning community for fandom discussion and sharing stories, mostly focused on Steven Universe and the Spuffy relationship in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, though we welcome all fandoms. Come and join us for discussion, community and laughter at http://spuffygems.boards.net/ Also? We have pie.

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Buffyverse: Liam and William’s Siblings

So, Myrabeth and I were in the chat room discussing siblings in the Buffyverse and then ended up talking about William's possible social standing. Here are some snippets from that conversation. 

myrabeth:  there are too many only children in the Buffyverse over all, but Liam having only one sibling and William having none are by far the worst offenses 

Zab:  It'll likely never come up in any of my stories, but I think it's possible Liam had other siblings. Ones that died or who had actually gone off to make something of themselves.

He was nearly 30, and I think his sister was an older teen. So room for siblings between them.

myrabeth:  Liam reads like a second or third son, if you look at his relationship with his dad

Zab:  That's what I thought at first, but then was thinking maybe he'd be allowed to do all that shit because he's the heir. Could go either way.

Come and read the rest of the conversation at Hidden Gems and let us know what you think! 

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So, the new episodes have been pretty interesting. Everyone on Homeworld, even the Pebbles, see Pink in Steven. It makes me wonder, how much of Steven is a unique being, and how much is Pink Diamond? Is he really a unique being, or basically a memory-wiped Pink Diamond? And just how wiped are those memories? Some have leaked through. Any thoughts on this?

We’d love to hear your thoughts!  Come and share them at Hidden Gems!

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In seasons four, five, and six of Buffy, it's a situation where we have a group of "white" hats with a couple of gray thrown in. The gray hats in question are Spike and Anya. You'll notice that I used quotation marks around white in white hats, but didn't do the same with gray. That's because the Scoobies aren't white hats at all, no matter what they think. The Scoobies have engaged in a lot of pretty murky activities (especially Willow), but since they think of themselves as white hats, they just sort of shrug it aside. They do the same with Spike. Despite him becoming a gray hat, they continue to think of him as a black hat, and any good deed he does is ignored. Triangle is a good example of both of these things. Because of Willow (I personally do not blame Anya. She was trying to stop Willow from stealing supplies and messing with stuff she doesn't really understand) the troll was released. He caused massive amounts of property damage along with maiming many people and likely killing others. Willow is indirectly responsible for the maiming and/or death of several people, but she's never really called to task for it. Spike is seen saving lives and is considered vile for wanting a little bit of recognition for it.

Come and read the rest at Hidden Gems and let us know what you think!

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The Cluster

Steven has now gone to Homeworld to try to convince the diamonds to help him heal the corrupted gems. But even if the corrupted gems are healed, a big consequence of gem war remains - the Cluster. So the question is, what should be done with it? It's currently buried inside Earth's mantle, and removing it would probably destroy the planet, or at the very least result in some extreme tectonic activity. But leaving it as is feels wrong - the gems forming the Cluster were broken and forced together and while Steven has helped them find some measure of peace, it's hardly a permanent solution. We've seen how painful and horrible the forced artificial fusion of gem shards are. So what can Steven and the Crystal Gems do for the Cluster? Could it be extracted little by little? Can gem shards be healed and reassembled? Would they even want to be?

Have an opinion?  Come and share it at Hidden Gems!

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Writing Party

Are you a Spuffy or SU writer?

Having trouble with your latest chapter?  Do you need someone to bounce ideas around with?  Some encouragement?  Feedback on a scene you’re struggling with?  Suffering a bit of writer’s block?

Or are you just so excited about your latest work that you want to share it with like-minded people?

Then it might just be time for you to join a writing party!

What’s a writing party you ask?

What is a writing party? A writing party is something that Ree and I would often do if we wanted to get some writing done and were having trouble with it. They involve snacks, music, encouragement, and specific goals. Our fellow admin Myra loved the idea of them and asked to be involved through chat when we had one. We decided from there that they would make a great writing resource for anyone who wanted to participate. How do I request one? If you'd like to request a writing party to get your muse going, you can ask about it here in this thread or PM an admin. There are two kinds of writing parties: formal and casual. A formal writing party has it's own channel in our discord chat and gets announced various places. A specific day or set of days would need to be planned out. A casual writing party would just involve our already existing fandom workshop channel and would likely just include our chat regulars, along with the person wanting the writing party and anyone they ask to join for it. Because it doesn't need to be announced, a casual writing party can be set up more quickly. How do I participate? There are two ways to participate in the writing party. The main way is to join the chat room and interact with everyone there in the writing party channel. We use Discord for our chat room, which allows you to have different channels that are all part of one chat room (kind of like rooms in a house). The other way to participate is through the forum. You do not have to become a member to create or post to a thread, though we would love to have you as an official member. If you don't want to participate through the chat room, but would like to set a goal for yourself and keep track of your progress where others can see it and offer encouragement, you can do that right here in the Writers' Workshop.   I'm not a writer. Can I participate anyway? Yes, you can. Even if you don't write stories, you're welcome as a part of the writing party. You can encourage others, get sneak peeks at upcoming chapters/stories, and get encouragement for things like leaving reviews or writing challenges.

We love writing parties and it just so happens that we’re having one this weekend!  

Click on the link for all the details and come and join us at Hidden Gems!

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A thought came to me while reading the discussion of Anya's soul in another thread: When Wishverse Giles broke Anya's amulet, wouldn't that have undone every wish Anya had granted, and not just the latest one? And doesn't that mean the world we come back to at the end of the episode is not the world we knew at the beginning of it? Anya has been changing peoples' lives for 1100 years. We don't know who she impacted, or how undoing her impacts would change history (thus snowballing into the present).

Come and read the rest at Hidden Gems and let us know what you think!

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OK so as we all know my beloved Anya started out as a human and was elevated to a Vengeance Demon by D'Hoffryn.  D'Hoffryn claimed that to reverse a wish was possible but only at the cost of a Vengeance Demon's soul.  Right?  Those are the facts, as presented in canon. So here are my questions: Did Anya lose her human soul when she became a demon?

Want to read the rest?

Come and join us at Hidden Gems and let us know your thoughts! 

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Book Club!

Starting February 1st, we'll be having a monthly book club here at Hidden Gems. Two stories from each of our focus fandoms will be chosen, one long fic and a oneshot. Recommendations start around the second week of the month with a poll lasting for the last week. So, the last week of January, we'll be having our first poll for everyone to vote in. The chosen stories will be announced on the 1st of the month with discussion happening in the last week. First Rule of Book Club: No one talks abo-- No, wait, yes, talk about Book Club. Talk about it a lot, though not in a way that spoils the selected stories.

How fun is this?  

One of my favourite things about fanfic is talking about it with other people.  And usually by talking I actually mean flailing.  

Read a story lately that made you cry?  Laugh?  Squee?  I bet you have!  I know I have!  

Come visit us at Hidden Gems and let us know your favourite Spuffy or Steven stories!  And who knows!  Maybe you’ll find a new favourite!

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What is the Essence of Steven?

So, the new episodes have been pretty interesting. Everyone on Homeworld, even the Pebbles, see Pink in Steven. It makes me wonder, how much of Steven is a unique being, and how much is Pink Diamond? Is he really a unique being, or basically a memory-wiped Pink Diamond? And just how wiped are those memories? Some have leaked through. Any thoughts on this?

Come and join the discussion!

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Have you ever wondered about Xander’s family life?  We have!

The character of Xander Harris was designed to be both ‘everyman’ and Joss Whedon’s personal stand-in. He was also supposed to be a stock ‘Class Clown because Home Life Sucks’ high school character. The bits and pieces of his home life and personal history we learn over the years come from that stock character’s base combined with the varied senses of humor of the entire BtVS writing team. They clearly never meant to paint a specific dramatic backstory for Xander and his family, but the implications of their combined efforts over the course of seven seasons did so, anyway. Let’s see what they accidentally built, shall we? Ok, so what do we know about Xander?

Want to read the rest of the post?  Come and join the discussion over at Hidden Gems!

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Intro Post

Do you love Spuffy?  BtVS in general?  Steven Universe?

Of course you do!  Why on earth wouldn’t you!?!

We’re a growing community of nerds who love nothing more than to talk about BtVs, Spuffy and SU...and pie.  We love pie.

We’ll be linking our discussion posts here!  We hope that you’ll come and join us!

Thanks for reading!

Have some SU!

And some Spuffy!