#suau-reshuffled

[artistmans]

[twobladedswordsandmauls]

Check it out

This was made by Sal over at @su-momswap as a reward for their DTYS contest. It was supposed to only be a line art, but they were awesome enough to do a full color for it.

This is, for the uninformed, Reshuffled Steven from @suau-reshuffled, which is one of my own AUs. It happened to be the character I had the most of a reference material for, so it was who I elected to do.

Anyway, go check out @su-momswap, they are clearly just awesome!

[suau-reshuffled]

"Yes, Ma'am"

Pearl looked excited, and gave her a thumbs up with a smile.

"Good, here Mrs. Maheswaran, my card. I actually AM a monster hunter, strange as that may sound, and the hours can be pretty inconsistent. Usually also small, so I do actually have the time, but we may have to reschedule a bit to get it working. I'll pick Connie up the first time so she knows where to walk, we'll try for tomorrow after school?"

Connie's mom nodded.

"That should work, see you then"

Pearl left their house.

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The next day after school, Connie went home. Just as promised, when she opened the door she found Pearl in the living room talking with her mother, she couldn't tell what it was about because the second they saw her the conversation changed.

"Connie! It seems we'll have to cut this off Priyanka, though it was nice talking to you!"

Pearl got up and headed for the door.

"Bye mom, see you soon!"

"Bye Connie!"

Connie followed Pearl, who helpfully pointed out several land marks on the way over to help Connie find the place when she needed to on her own.

When they reached the beach she saw the place, a giant statue with a small, gray building nestled at it's base.

They went inside.

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"Afternoon Pearl. You're Connie?"

The speaker had violet skin, like a flower rather than the darker color that some people had. A Gemstone of a similar shade was placed on her chest.

"Yes Ma'am"

The short purple Lady, who might have been a child but may just be short, waved at them.

"I'm Amethyst, nice to meet you"

Pearl looked over at her, a slight amount of embarrassment in her eyes.

"Amethyst, could you watch Connie for a second while I grab the training swords I was going to use? I handed them to Garnet last night, who didn't give me the reason she needed them, and she hasn't given them back to me"

"Sure thing P'"

"Thanks!"

Pearl went through a door near the back that was in that shape of a five pointed star. Connie had noticed the same symbol on the front of Pearl's Shirt before, and it was on Amethyst's sleeve.

"How are you doing Connie?"

She'd normally take Amethyst's question as her politely making conversation, but there was a tone of seriousness to her voice, as well as sincere compassion.

"I- I'm a bit weirded out to be honest? Everything since I saved that boy yesterday has felt a bit surreal"

"I can see that, I have known people to just decide they must be crazy after meeting us. I never got why, we've been here for over 6,000 years"

Connie was quite happy with herself for not having her jaw break up with her to go on a date with the floor.

"You're 6,000 years old?"

Amethyst laughed.

"5500 myself. Garnet's 5,750, Pearl's somewhere around 8,000 to 9,000, and Rubicelle-" Amethyst cut of there, a look of sadness spread across her face. "Sorry, you'd think after over 4,000 years I'd be over that one"

Connie got what she meant, whoever this Rubicelle was, had died. They were clearly close to Amethyst, so she didn't press.

The door Pearl went into opened once again, the Pale woman coming out holding a pair of sabers.

"Sorry about that, would you step onto the warp pad with me Connie? Let's go start your training"

Connie stepped onto the blue pad that Pearl seemed to be refering to. Once she secured herself like Pearl asked the world became a pillar of blue light.

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End of page three.

[artistmans]

Fan art

- Shark

[suau-reshuffled]

As Connie swung the stick at the creatures head it occurred to her that she WASN'T supposed to be there. Fighting Monsters isn't the job of an eleven year old, not one without any special training at least.

Peedee thankfully wasn't in danger anymore, having smartly ran away when the insane, bludgeon wielding, nerd girl charged in screaming. She made a pretty good destraction, even if she'd prefer the ability to actually do any damage.

Apparently no one wanted her tree branch, not her, not the monster, not even the tree.

Dodging the monsters strike she pivoted to hit it, it was light tap really, she didn't want to break her weapon and a full blown strike didn't see like it would hurt the thing.

As she spun out of the move to avoid the monsters retaliation, she noticed a Gemstone the size of her fist on the monsters outer thigh. She didn't know what it really was, but to her it was just something to hit that might do a bit more damage.

She missed, hitting just above the thing, but it actually did SOMETHING. The Monster whirled around and put her on the defensive. She delfected and dodged, staying close to the monster so it couldn't use those big claws easily. She made a roll under monster, trying to use her much smaller size to her advantage, and got to it's side, near that weak point.

Before she could make a proper strike, Connie heard a someone make one of those yells from ninja movies. Connie always thought those were weird, but according to her dad they were one of the few things those movies got right.

The Monster rocked away from her, screaming in pain. It interrupted her strike, but it falling over gave her a clear shot to it's belly. She remembered from her biology class that most quadropeds had rather soft bellies sense it was unlikely that something could attack them there.

Deciding to act on that, Connie charged, screaming her head off as she did. Slamming the stick into the monster's stomach as hard as she could, she forgot the possibility that her little eleven year girl arms aren't actually that strong, as well as the possibility that her stick wasn't as sturdy as she thought. Her weapon snapped in half, and she didn't think the monster even felt it.

Connie was about to run away, leave this kind of thing to whoever's job it actually was, Connie actually didn't know, her first guess was animal control. Suddenly...

BANG!

The explosion was loud, and so forcefully that if she still wasn't using her tennis stance from her attack, she would have been knocked down.

After the dust settled a bit, Connie could see someone looking at her.

The person was a tall and Pale woman, her outfit being mostly blue, with a hint of yellow and peach mixed in. Her hair was pink, and pulled strait back into a cone, this combined with her long and pointy nose made her look a bit like a bird, though she looked elegant nonetheless. A glittering white stone seemed a part of her forehead.

"Um... Hello Ma'am?"

The pale woman smiled.

"That was some decent fighting skill on your part, I don't think I've seen such skill from one so young in.." the woman was clearly trying to calculate something "...nearly two hundred years now"

The lady stuck out her hand, having to bend down to do it.

"I'm Pearl"

Connie shook the lady's, Pearl's, hand.

"Um, Connie Ma'am. Connie Maheshwarran"

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End of part one.

[suau-reshuffled]

"Oh Connie! What happened? You're all scuffed up!"

Connie's mother looked her over carefully, panic in her eyes, she HATED it when Connie got hurt. She tried not to be too overbearing about it, children got hurt, it was even healthy. Sometimes it seems bad and she seriously considers wrapping her in bubble wrap. Connie decided to tell her the truth, if in a way that how mother could understand.

"I- I really don't think you'll believe me, mom"

It came out sounding a little pathetic, she was trying to make it seem like it effected her more than it did. It didn't effect her all that much, someone was in danger and she had a handy stick, as well as clear lack of grip on her own sanity because who charges at a monster half the size of a BUS with only a stick.

Her mother was looking at her, clear worry in her eye, and her check over finally done.

"Tell me what you can"

Connie went over the event, trying not to seem insane about it, it was clear that her mother didn't believe her.

Just after her story finished, the door bell rang. Connie and her mother went to answer it and didn't quite believe what they were seeing.

"Hello Connie! I take it you're her mother? My name is Pearl"

Her mother's jaw was on the floor, thankfully figuratively.

"Uh... Hello, miss? Connie just finished up telling me about you, I honestly didn't believe her until you showed up. I guess... jokes on me?"

"Oh yes, that. She actually did well, very much so, it's actually what I came here to talk about. So Connie, have you ever thought about taking up sword fighting?"

Connie had been carefully holding her Jaw shut, now it was wide open in shock. Thankfully her mother continued before she had to answer, even if it was less than coherent.

"Um, I... I- I don't think... I don't think I want her doing anything like that again"

Pearl looked confused for a second and then seemed to be holding in a laugh.

"Oh, you thought I meant for monster hunting? No, an eleven year old, no matter how much talent she has, shouldn't really be doing things like that. Maybe later, with your permission. I meant it as EXERCISE, I felt it would be wasteful to meet someone with that much natural skill and not help them develop it at least as a hobby. It is a good work out, and helps build observation skills and reaction time. It's quite rewarding even, as well as being useful for self defense. It IS a bit heavy on the minor injury portion of things, but..."

Pearl reached to the stone on her forehead, it glowed a bit, and a first-aid kit appeared in her hand.

"... I come prepared" she then seemed to put it back into the stone.

Connie's mom shook herself out of her disbelief.

"That-, Connie, does this seem like something you'd want to do? I don't want to force you into it"

Connie didn't even have to think.

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End of Part 2.