Its files were corrupted, fragmented, broken. It found no template, no instructions. Only broken and unusable imagery.
A substance was found, foreign but usable. A piece of template to manufacture form, a piece of life to use for vessel construction.
It analysed the foreign substance trapped within its crystal. It generated itself from fragmented data and DNA, and used it to mend the microscopic pieces missing from itself like mortar between bricks.
It…he, he was.
Summary and excerpt from Chapter 1
A defective gem emerges in a remote location, not knowing who he is, what he is, or what his purpose is. After days of wandering, he encounters the Crystal Gems - Garnet, Amethyst, Bismuth, and Rose Quartz - who immediately attack him, while identifying him as Pink Diamond. Things are quickly defused, and the Crystal Gems take him in...but keep a careful eye on him, and are clearly keeping secrets.
Where did he come from? Why did he emerge with cracks in his gem? Why are the Crystal Gems so wary of him?
And who was the old Pink Diamond?
Renascence is a Steven Universe Fan Fic by Fligleflorence, which can be read here
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As the story is driven heavily by mystery, beware of spoilers. It's recommended that you read the fic for yourself before proceeding to the tropes list.
Renascence provides examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: His first experience interacting with a human was with a curious child named Robin, and he refers to humans as "robins" until Amethyst corrects him.
- Adaptation Distillation: Many plotlines and stories from the show are compressed or outright omitted, such as Peridot being apprehended sooner. Additionally, Beach City and its residents have nowhere near the presence that they do in the show, with characters like the Cool Kids and Onion largely being relegated to cameos.
- Adaptation Expansion: Others, however, are given more focus. Change Your Mind, in particular, goes from a single hour-long special to several lengthy chapters, with greater focus on the internal conflicts of the other Diamonds and White Diamond attempting to manipulate Steven through his dreams.
- The All-Concealing "I": The main character is referred to in the narrative almost exclusively by third-person male pronouns, symbolizing how his identity is an open question to nearly everyone, particularly himself. Most of the exceptions are when the narrative is representing the internal monologue of a character who isn't him. This only changes when Amethyst and Greg encourage him to adopt the name Steven in earnest.
- Break the Cutie: He is an innocent, curious gem who is compared to a child on numerous occasions. Within a week of emerging, he endures his form glitching from being low on power before passing out, he's attacked by a corrupted Sapphire and spends several days recuperating, and ends up assaulted and poofed by the Crystal Gems, all while he assumes they're trying to shatter him for being defective. He then represses his trauma for 17 years, while being painfully aware of their distrust, and feeling like they don't respect him. And that's just within the first 13 chapters.
- Decomposite Character:
Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond. Rose experienced the Heel–Face Turn Pink experienced in canon, and carries a lot of her guilt, doubt, and self-loathing, while Pink was deeply insecure and short-sighted, and kept firmly under the thumb of the other Diamonds. - Heroic BSoD: Connie BSO Ds after helping the gems escape Peridot and Jasper's handship, spending days mentally recouperating in her room.
- He completely breaks down after seeing Eyeball's memory of Rose shattering Pink Diamond, hiding in his room with the lights off for five days. Then, just after Pearl pushes him to start going outside and doing the bare minimum for himself, Bismuth tries to shatter him, and he ends up running away for a time as a result.
- Suicide by Cop: Rose Quartz turns herself in to Homeworld so that they would let the humans go, fully expecting to be shattered. Even when a way back to Earth is found, she has to be talked out of staying to face the Diamonds' wrath.
- Time Dissonance: The first scene of Chapter 13 reflects on the differences in how gems and humans percieve time, how his own perception is a strange mix of both, and his own dissatisfaction with how his relationships with the gems don't grow and change to the same extent as with humans.
- Time Skip: Chapter 13 opens by jumping ahead 17 years, to shortly before he encounters Connie for the first time.
- Wham Episode:
- The confrontation: He meets the Crystal Gems, not only offering some of the first hints of where the fic diverges from canon, but also resulting in him having his form dissipated for the first time.
- Calming the storm: He identifies himself as a "Steven-type gem" in a panic, he heals Lapis and she leaves Earth, he gets poofed a second time, and his gem ends up in critical condition.
- The hermit: He encounters Pearl, and she begins following him.
- Who he truly is: He finds out that Rose shattered the old Pink, sees Eyeball's memory of the event, and Eyeball reveals to him that the Diamonds are one-of-a-kind, planting the first seeds of doubt that he's his own person.
- Bismuth: Bismuth leads him into her forge, and nearly shatters him with the Breaking Point in a fit of paranoia.
- What Happened. A full-chapter flashback to how he came to be - concluding one of the primary mysteries of the story.
- For Steven Greg and Amethyst encourage him to adopt the name Steven, and the other Diamonds arrive.
