- “I feel like we’re isolating ourselves from humanity. Why do we do that?”— Steven, asking the hard questions.
The World is Your Oyster, The Universe is Your Namesake is a cancelled Steven Universe fanfic by MHD, of web-serial like proportions. It diverges from canon after the events of Reformed (S. 2 Ep. 05,) when Steven asks the Gems why they live segregated from humanity. The fic was deleted, but can be partially read on the Internet Archive here
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When the answer proves to be unsatisfactory, he and Connie Maheswaran take it upon themselves to use Gem magic to help make the world a better place.
Along the way, in no particular order, the following happens:
- Steven threatens to leave the Crystal Gems
- Connie kills herself sixty times
- Garnet splits up willingly
- Amethyst acts as a voice of reason
- Pearl comes to find humans interesting
Needless to say, the world is a complicated place, and there are several outstanding issues to be dealt with first, like the looming threat of alien invasion; and also a lot of questions that need answers, which Steven is more than happy to ask.
The World is Your Oyster, The Universe is Your Namesake provides examples of:
- Aliens Speaking English: Discussed. Understandably, the Crystal Gems do, but Steven wonders why Peridot and Jasper do.
- Alternate History: Henry Clay was president, and the Crystal Gems have done several notable things through history.
- Alternate Universe: Just like in the show
- From our Earth: The United States are different. Florida, for one, does not exist, the Delmarva peninsula is one state, and the capital of the USA is ‘Washington City’.
- From Steven Universe canon: Obviously, since it did diverge from canon at Reformed.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Steven asks these regularly. See the page quote for one of the early examples.
- Berserk Button: Garnet reacts as well as you'd expect when the Maheswarans forbid Connie from Fusing ever again.
- Capital Letters Are Magic: Gems (the magical space aliens) as opposed to gems (the precious stones.)
- Chekhov's Gun: Frequent. The duplication wand makes an appearance early on, but gets utilized to full effect only many chapters later.
- Clarke's Third Law: Implied heavily when it comes the Gem "magic". It follows scientific principles and things like magic wands require the equivalent of microchips and programming to function.
- The medical scanning device showcased when proving to the Maheswarans that Connie hasn't been negatively affected by magic. It's initially buggy until it gets a software update.
- Combat Clairvoyance: It is revealed that all Gems have this to some degree.
- Continuity Nod: Constantly. Even to pieces that are never mentioned in the show again.
- Creation Myth: A few versions of these show up in supplemental materials. effectively The Gems precursors formed in the inner layers of a gas giant. Which really do have the pressures the create gems. These sapient crystal eventually gained the intelligence to know they needed to expand and fought up to the surface, through several layers of native fauna, and sent a colony spore to a rocky planet. These created the Wild gems that would eventually refine themselves into the caste based gems we know.
- Doppelgänger Attack: Chapter 38, Army of Me, is a fight scene to this effect. Chapter 74, Nightmare, has this Gone Horribly Right.
- Deuteragonist: Connie, many of the plans and ideas for how to deal with gem kind come from her as does the strategy for engaging with humanity. She even stands up to the gems when they step out of line. Stevonnie starts taking steps, which interestingly involve throwing a few parties to influence the city.
- Driven to Suicide: Rose couldn't live with what she had done during the wars for Earth. Borders on Suicide Is Painless, making it even more tragic.
- Expendable Clone: Taken to the logical extreme; Connie is able to make fully sophont copies that she throws away in various tactical maneuvers. They still get hurt, evening they poof after a certain point, and react in pain to said damage. She still uses them.
- Fantastic Radiation Shielding: Turns out tin foil hats are excellent shielding against the somebody else’s problem field that leftover gem technology creates.
- Foreshadowing: Hardly any subplot is abandoned from the original, including the idea that Steven would be a king something her firmly rejects in this fic as well as the original.
- Human Aliens: Discussed. All Gems look human, save for the odd color schemes. Steven wonders why.
- Supplemental materials make clear that the Gem's creator foresaw Humanities descendants exploring space and effectively stole the form its own people.
- I Invented X: Pearl, about fencing. Literally.
- Pearl: Well, I don't like to brag, but I had a hand or two in the formulation of fencing as an athletic discipline.
- Expanded later to include all of 17th century france.
- Invisible to Normals: Turns out the Gems have a giant world-spanning Somebody Else's Problem field in place, keeping humanity at large ignorant of magical things.
- The Klutz: Invoked and Subverted. Steven has all the innate grace of a Gem, but acts clumsily because he mistakenly thinks all clumsiness is intentional comedy. Needless to say, the realization that he's wrong hits hard.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Defying this trope is the entire point of the story.
- Steven: I think it's high time Steven gets in the know. I'm twelve years old already.
- Mundane Utility: Numerous cases.
- Lion's teleportation power is used to travel back and forth between the beach house and Connie's home.
- Using duplicator wand-clones for housework.
- Duplicating furniture to host a party.
- Magic ice cubes that are always −40 °F (which is also −40 °C) used to keep regular ice cubes cool.
- Rose's Room, a veritable Star Trek-style holodeck, used as a spare shower.
- Gem clairvoyance means they don't have to memorize phone numbers; they can just see the numbers needed to call someone and put those in.
- New Year Has Come: The last chapters is set on a new years eve party the highlight of which is Steven giving out some of Rose’s tear water to heal some friends and family.
- Original Flavour: Considerable care is taken to emulate the canon voices of the characters.
- Parents as People: The Maheswarans in particular are not happy about learning their daughter is fusing with Steven. But after the Gems prove that it's safe and even beneficial they give their consent.
- Prescience Is Predictable: Much of Gen tactics cover messing with the other sides tactics as well. This was a major factor in the success of the rebellion.
- Pseudo-Canonical Fic: Besides the above points on continuity it accurately characterizes the Maheswarans' reaction to Connie's activities several months before Nightmare Hospital.
- Relationship Upgrade: Many, such as Steven and Connie, Lars and Sadie, and Pearl and Amethyst.
- Shoutout: The diamonds nicknames for each other recall the Pac-Man ghosts.
- a shout out to the show itself comes from steven watching a program which is essential an inverted concept from what he useually watches.
- Sword Fight: Chapter 16, This is the Chapter with a Sword Fight, Guys.
- The Talk: Amethyst if all people gives this to steven and it's surprising comprehensive and all encompassing.
- Time Abyss: Gems. Rose especially.
- Priyanka: That's— how old are you supposed to be?Pearl: Two hundred and eighty seven.Doug: Years?Pearl: Centuries.
- Undead Tax Exemption: Subverted; the Crystal Gems face bureaucratic hurdles in their quest to integrate with humanity.
- Double Subverted when it turns out the Gems have accidentally committed a Compound-Interest Time Travel Gambit (minus the Time Travel, of course).
- Upgrade Artifact: Circlets that give the wearer a weaker version of the Combat Clairvoyance native to Gems, and through that, Le Parkour.
- Weapon of Mass Destruction: Rose built one during the first war. It is the reason why corrupted Gems exist not the Diamonds retaliatiom.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Ronaldo Fryman thinks he lives in a Horror/Mystery world. Stevonnie manages to convince him he lives in a Sci-Fi world.
