While searching for Peridot after the destruction of the Gem Warship, Steven encounters a mysterious samurai warrior, wielding a magic sword. To his surprise, Garnet and Pearl know the samurai as an old friend, despite never mentioning him before. Nevertheless, Steven welcomes Jack into the group with open arms, and the samurai joins them in their quests. As time passes, however, Steven learns that their pasts are more closely intertwined than previously thought.
Roses and Ladybugs is a crossover between Steven Universe and Samurai Jack, written by Thuktun Flishithy. It is set shortly before "Friend Ship" for the former, and is post-canon for the latter. It can be found on SpaceBattles
, Sufficient Velocity, Archive of Our Own, AlternateHistory.com, and FanFiction.Net.
Roses and Ladybugs contains examples of:
- The Ageless: Jack doesn't age thanks to the effects of traveling through the time portal. He's old enough to be long-time allies with Pearl, Garnet, and Rose. He's so old that Amethyst, whose well over 5000 years old, is young by comparison.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: You'd think that a sentient space rock that has been around for countless millennia and acknowledges the existence of a several thousand year old samurai would believe his adventures through the future, but Pearl dismisses them as tall tales.
- Call-Back:The mission that led to Steven first meeting Jack was the last Time Portal from Season 5 XCVIII.
- The Dreaded: If Peridot's reaction to Jack and his legendary sword is any indication, he is quite feared throughout Homeworld.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Well before the events this fic takes place in, Jack has helped the Crystal Gems fight against Homeworld and has "poofed" countless corrupt gems while guarding the time portal.
