They should be fine.note
It's 1912. A diverse cast of characters— A wealthy boy and his caretaker moving to America after the death of the former's mother, an unlucky drifter finally heading home after an extended stay in Europe, a young engineer getting her first big assignment, an Indian family traveling to America, two lovers from wildly different classes, a stoker just doing her job, an architect with a humble past, and a scarred young woman finally getting the confidence to go to sea again —are all sailing aboard the maiden voyage of the largest, grandest ship ever built: The RMS Titanic.
— Fic Description
Everything In The World Was Standing Still
is a Steven Universe Historical AU written by CaptainJZH and set about the Titanic on its ill-fated maiden voyage. It focuses on a variety of characters and ships from every section of the ship, rather than specifically focusing on one perspective.
The Steven Universe characters included are:
- Steven: Heir to his deceased mother's fortune, emigrating to America for a normal life.
- Pearl: Caretaker of Steven and former lover of Rose Quartz, Steven's mother.
- Connie: Traveling Third Class with her parents, bunkmates with Amethyst.
- Amethyst: A scrappy young third class passenger, heading home after several years in Europe.
- Peridot: The Junior Assistant Sixth Engineer, on her first major assignment: The Titanic.
- Lapis: A First Class passenger deathly afraid of the sea, but finally gaining the courage to leave England.
- Bismuth: A New York architect traveling Second Class.
- Ruby: A coal trimmer down in the sweaty underbelly of the ship.
- Sapphire: A wealthy socialite who frequently travels to Europe, secretly in love with Ruby.
- Jasper: No-nonsense stoker in Boiler Room 6, coworker of Ruby.
The main story contains examples of:
- Abandon Ship: Smith gives the order for the lifeboats to be loaded at the end of Chapter 30.
- Acceptable Breaks from Reality: Allowing Peridot, Ruby and Jasper to be crew on the Titanic.
- Adaptation Species Change: As is standard of a human AU.
- Adapted Out: Due to Ruby and Sapphire now being ordinary humans, and thus incapable of fusing, Garnet is naturally nowhere to be found.
- Anyone Can Die: Nobody yet, as the ship hasn't hit the iceberg yet, but it's only a matter of time...
- Bad Liar: Steven briefly pretends to be a Third Class passenger. His impression isn't terribly convincing.
- Been There, Shaped History: Amethyst was at the Siege of Sidney Street. She punched Winston Churchill while there.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Both Amethyst and Peridot and Pearl and Bismuth get one.
- The Cameo:
- After hooking up with Peridot and unable to sit with the Maheswarans, it's implied Amethyst eats breakfast with Sadie Miller.
- This is confirmed to be the case in the Unauthorized Titanic spin-off series.
- Stevonnie appears in Chapter 26.
- Cliffhanger: Chapter 27 ends with the iceberg being sighted.
- Cool Ship:
- Titanic, of course. RMS Oceanic and SS New York also make brief cameos, with the latter's near-miss with Titanic a major part of Chapter 6.
- RMS Baltic plays a big part in Chapter 24.
- The battleship HMS Conqueror is briefly mentioned in Chapter 27.
- Cozy Catastrophe: Sapphire and Lapis both take the initial collision quite calmly, albeit because neither knows the seriousness of the situation.
- Crossover: Along with the Off Colors, the Carpathia’s passengers consist of characters from other cartoons.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Lapis was involved in a shipwreck off the Channel Islands, and as a result cannot stand the sea.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Like in canon, Rose has died, although much more recently. As a result, Steven and Pearl are travelling to America to live with Greg.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Lapis' affections for Pearl remain unrequited, but they still become friends.
- Disappeared Dad: Greg, through no fault of his own - the Atlantic Ocean being between him and his son, after all.
- Everyone Can See It: Steven and Connie's affection for each other does not go unnoticed by Pearl, Bismuth or indeed, pretty much everyone.
- Free-Range Children: To an extent. Pearl and the Maheswarans do allow Steven and Connie to explore the ship, but the Maheswarans are understandably upset when Amethyst gets drunk and leaves them unsupervised, and Pearl panics when Steven walks off without her knowing.
- Historical AU: The characters are transplanted onto the Titanic, which sailed and sank a century prior to the show.
- Historical Domain Character: Plenty of them, including but not limited to Captain Smith, Margaret Brown and J. Bruce Ismay. Winston Churchill is also briefly mentioned but doesn't appear. Thomas Andrews and Second Officer Charles Lightoller appear on the poster. Andrews and Chief Engineer Bell later appear in Chapter 27.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Pointedly averted with J. Bruce Ismay, who is portrayed as enthusiastic rather than interfering.
- Irony: Lapis, canonically a water gem, hates water.
- The Lost Lenore: Like in canon, Rose has died, and like in canon, Pearl was in love with her.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Steven convinces Lapis not to disembark at Cherbourg, ensuring that she will be on the ship when it hits the iceberg.
- Official Couple: Amethyst and Peridot, and Pearl and Bismuth. Steven and Connie are also very heavily hinted at.
- Second-Act Breakup: Amethyst and Peridot in Chapter 27, after the former accidentally ruins the latter's inspection from Andrews and Bell.
- Ship Tease: A lot for Steven and Connie, Amethyst and Peridot and Bismuth and Pearl. For the latter two pairs, it eventually becomes much more than teasing.
- Shout-Out: Several to Titanic: Adventure Out of Time, along with a variety of other Titanic media.
- The name on Amethyst's ticket is 'Svenja', a reference to Sven, who Jack won his ticket from.
- Connie and Amethyst's friendship is inspired by Faded Blue.
- White Diamond briefly appears as the Countess of Southby, named for a town that appeared in Raise the Titanic!. The name of John Bigelow, Peridot's cabin mate, is also taken from the film.
- Chapter 22 is called "A Grand Day Out."
- Shown Their Work: The author is a Titanic expert, and it shows.
- Sinking Ship Scenario: A given. The sinking itself begins in Chapter 28.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Ruby, a coal trimmer, and Sapphire, a first-class passenger. It's stated that they've been together for quite a while.
- Take That!: A few are aimed at the 'coal fire sank the Titanic' theory.
- Uptown Girl: Steven (First Class) is a gender-inversion to Connie (Third Class), and Sapphire (First Class) is a gender-inversion to Ruby (coal trimmer).
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Sapphire says that Steven is this, after he tells her she couldn't have to hide her relationship with Ruby. Then he gets excited about 'Tabby Tarts.'
The Spin-Off, Unauthorised Tales From The Titanic, contains examples of:
- Author Appeal: Nearly half of the stories mention railway trivia in some way. Doc, Eyeball and Lars all work for railways at at least point.
- Been There, Shaped History: Lars has made his way from the Philippines to Britain over about a decade.
- The Great Offscreen War: The Boer War, which Mr. Fryman fought in.
- Historical Domain Character: Col. Gracie appears, and 'Monster' Smith, Captain Herbert Haddock of the Olympic and Nigel Gresley are mentioned.
- Lower-Deck Episode
- Oop North: Sadie comes from County Durham.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Jamie's story has him fail in his quest to get to the Boat Train. That said, it may be for the best.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Fryman is one of the Boer War. It's hinted he's an ex-member of the notorious Bushveldt Carabiners.
- Ship Tease: Lars and Sadie, Doc and Eyeball and Stevonnie and Lapis.
- Shout-Out: Sadie comes from Beamish - in real life, that's the name of a living museum near Durham.
- Trans Tribulations: Stevonnie is forced to present as a woman, only revealing their nonbinary identity to Lapis.
- Trauma Conga Line: Lars' backstory has him escape American colonial rule in the Philippines, only to be mistreated in Peking, brutalised on the Trans-Siberian Railway, blown up in Bosnia and forced to beg across Europe.
