Golden Sea (CG:AS)

"Golden Sea" is the 1st episode of the first season in Crystal Gems: Alto Soprano, and the 1st overall episode of the series.
==Synopsis==
Autumn and Winter celebrate their 13th birthday.
==Plot==
Blue Diopside: Ái tình.
Yellow Diopside: That's Vietnamese for "love", right?
Blue: From what Trai told us, it is.
Yellow: Pretty cool.
Two entities in a green, grassy field. No flowers, no trees. Simply the cerulean skies and the cool grass, and the beams of the sun froom above. These entities.. Have no form. Spirits, in very simple terms. The speak from one end of the field to the other, and this is strange because there is no end. The field is endless, and yet they still communicate. The sounds of the wind blowing through the grass, and the slow movement of the clouds. No entropy. Strange for there not to be entropy when these two are around. But they are merely spirits, so they have no control over what happens in the physical realm, so naturally it'd be impossible for them to do anything of the sort.
Blue: Ever feel.. Strange?
Yellow Diopside sounds a bit confused from this.
Yellow: From uh.. What exactly?
Blue: Well, not having a physical form anymore. It's strange, is it not?
Yellow sounds a bit displeased.
Yellow: Oh, right. That.
They share a sigh. The air's not still. The wind continues to venture through its course through the neverending fields.
Blue: We should be guiding them. Not complaining.
The yellow one sounds a bit more.. Irritated.
Yellow: I don't think we should be talking at all, actually! Let them have normal dreams for once, not weird freaky dream grass dreams about their moms-
The blue one interjects. Her tone's condescending.
Blue: Partial moms.
Sarcasm.
Yellow: Thanks, teach.
They both stay quiet for a bit. But there's suddenly and uproar of loud noises. Not from the winds. But from the skies. They turn black for them, and the grass white. Monochrome. And slowly, the grass burns furiosly, yet slowly. The flames are the color of unbelievably hot distant stars. This doesn't seem good.
Yellow: Should we..?
Blue: Mhm.
And with that, it ends. She wakes up with a gasp, abruptly sitting up straight. Her phone's alarm went off. Her hair's a mess and she looks like she walked a mile and swam in mud. It's not an attractive sight. Winter, half-asleep, turns her head to the left, only to see her sister on the floor, moaning, eyes slightly open. Her blankets and pillows are in disarray. She's awake as well. Well, probably. Winter turns to her phone on the nightstand and shuts off the alarm. She opens the star-patterned curtains by twisting the tilt wand, letting in the light of the outside. Autumn, her sister, complains and sits up straight. Her hair's a mess too. She turns to her sister, Winter looking back. For about 4 seconds, they continue to stare, but Autumn's expression slowly goes from half-asleep to "I just won the lottery". She squeals and runs to her sister, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. Winter smiles, nonchalantly. Winter's blanket slides off of her as Autumn continues to shake her.
Autumn: IT'S OUR BIRTHDAAAAY!
She jumps up and down, shaking the floor. After the 2nd shake, she stops for a second. The both look at each other, poker-faced. Autumn laughs abruptly while Winter simply giggles. Autumn rushes to the bathroom door, next to the staircase that leads to the downstairs floor. From her bed, Winter hears falling cans and metal clashing, and the water faucet turning on abruptly. She shakes her head, chuckling. She calmly walks into the bathroom to make herself presentable. She's rather slow/normal-paced while her sister's going at the speed of sound. Her sister turns off the faucet, fixes her hair for a moment, and runs out the door, but tripping. She gets back up and pretends as it didn't happen at all. The bathroom seems to be kept clean. Winter appreciates the nice surroundings, and the fact that they have a bathroom so big as they do. The ceramic floor was cold, but it didn't affect Winter because she was wearing socks. Once she got washed up, she headed out the bathroom door, only to see that her sister already dressed, wearing some sort of autumnal vest, a black long-sleeved shirt under it, a dusty-red skirt, and some leggings and boots. She looks pretty excited. She reaches for her skirt pockets, and realizes that her phone isn't there. Her expression changes to a more horrified look. She quickly dolts to her bed and searches the sheets, heart pounding.
Autumn: Oh my god, WHERE IS IT.
Winter says jokingly, smiling.
Winter: Maybe check under the pillows?
Autumn: I'M LOOKING!!
Winter laughs at this as she changes into her casual clothing. She puts on a black and blue sweater and some grim-blue pants. She faces the closet door, which happens to be a mirror, and smiles, content with her appearance. Autumn finally finds her phone and walks over to Winter. They both look at each other, smile, nod, and hold hands. They walk down the mahogany stairs to see their father asleep on the comfy wooden couch. His snoring was pretty clamorous. The girls giggled at this. The slowly crept up to him and shouted. He woke up with a gasp, arms flailing and glasses disorienting. He turns to the girls and sighs. He fixes his glasses and leans back onto the couch in a more comfortable position. He smiles at his daughters and nonchalantly speaks.
Trai: Happy birthday, kiddos.
He grunts as he wraps his arms around both of em, surprising them, but they eventually return the hug. Releasing the girls have a quick chat with their father. Winter mockingly says:
Winter: Have a nice nap, dad?
Trai chuckles at this. He sits up and scratches the back of his neck.
Trai: Hey, give me some slack! I'm.. Well, I'm old!
The girls laugh at this for a bit. Autumn takes her father's hand and tries to pull him up, jumping up and down.
Autumn: Come on, let's get outside! You're so.. Well, old!
Trai playfully frowns and stands up, revealing his towering figure. He's almost 7 feet tall.
Autumn: I still can't believe that you're this damn tall!
Trai: Well milk helps, sorta.
Winter raises an eyebrow.
Winter: But I read in an article that milk's actually pretty bad for you.
Trai: Ehh, you're thinking of cow milk.
Winter: Ah.
Trai stretches his arms in the air, grunting for a few seconds, then stopping. He walks over to the glass panel door and opens it. He and his childen walk outside onto the wooden foundation, built ontop of the huge circular stone foundation built by the gems. In the center is a huge statue depicting a large fusion. Built on the side of the statue is the house of the twins. They stand in front of the house to see the sparkling river, flowing through the valley of red flora (or as the townsfolk like to call "Firebrick Valley"). They can even see a variety of fish, not native to Earth, but native to them as they've lived on the planet for their whole lives.
Trai: Y'know, I can never get over how nice of a view you guys have.
Winter turns to her father.
Winter: Dad, our windows face to the valley, not to the river.
Trai, a bit embarrased, scratches the back of his neck again.
Trai: O-oh..
Autumn smirks and runs down the small staircase that leads to the mainland. Trai and Winter follow along with her. Trai smiles.
Trai: She's pretty energetic today.
Winter shrugs.
Winter: As per usual.
When Winter and Trai get onto the grass, they see fold-up tables set up for them, covered with tablecloths and presents. Autumn puts on a orange leaf-patterned party hat. The gems stood before them, in front of the decorations; the balloons, the colorful banner saying "Happy Birthday!", the presents on the tables, etc. Black Amber, or Blamber, was smiling with a party hat on her head. Smoky Quartz, the tallest one (and the most muscular), was smiling slightly while holding strings in her left hand that were attached to a variety of balloons giving off positive messages. London Blue Topaz, the shortest one, held a big cake in her hands made to look like a bunny. She has a big smile on her face.
London: Happy 13th Birthday, you two!
Blamber gets out a party horn from her backpocket and blows into it to make an obnoxious noise. Smoky Quartz walks over to twins and bends down on one knee. She hands half of the balloons to each of them. They smile and thank her. Something pops into Autumn's mind, so she turns around to her father to ask something.
Autumn: Dad, where's Aunt Vanna?
Trai is surprised by this.
Trai: Oh, she couldn't come, I'm afraid. It's a busy day at work for her, i guess. Sorry.
Autumn's voice kinda weakens a bit.
Autumn: Oh..
Trai notices this. He tries to reassure her a bit.
Trai: Oh, but she sent presents! And you can visit her tomorrow at work.
Trai looks at Blamber for a second.
Trai: And uh.. Blamber can take you!
She shrugs, party horn still in her mouth. She takes it out and puts it back in her backpocket.
Blamber: Alllllright-y then.
Autumn lightens up a bit. She smiles. Winter turns to look at all of the gifts nicely placed on the fold-up table. London presumably organized them.
Winter: Should we open the presents now?
Smoky smirks. London interjects, still elated, but a bit flustered-sounding.
London: I think we should save the best for last.
Smoky hovers her right hand over her gemstone. Glowing, she takes out a glowing spherical ball. She snaps, causing it to turn into a volleyball. Winter and Autumn seem to like the direction their party was going in. London smiles.
London: For now, we play volleyball!
----
A few yards away from the fold-up tables is a volleyball field, set up presumably by the gems and Trai. About more than an hour has passed, and the current game seems to be ending soon. The red-leaved trees around the field seem to sway in the subtle wind. The edges of the valley, or where the hills start turning into mountains, were far from temple and the volleyball field. The crimson grass was somewhat still. But the players obviously weren't. London Blue Topaz does a subjectively unnecessary twirl and hits the volleyball over the net. It didn't go far. It went higher than farther, most definitely. However, Black Amber was determined to spike it down. She slightly squatted, then lifted herself high into the air and raised her right arm. She forcefully smacked the ball, but not in the desired direction. The ball flew to the left of Black Amber, flying towards the temple statue. The impact was powerful. The volleyball hit one of the hands of the temple's fusion statue, breaking it off of the rest of it. The crumbling sounds got louder and louder, then eventually, the hand falls into the river. It creates a huge splash that thankfully doesn't come into contact with anyone, and not even Trai, who's sitting by the river shoreline on a fold-up chair facing the river. He looks up from the fiction novel he's reading and gives a strange stare at the river. He slowly turns to look behind him, raising an eyebrow at the volleyball players. Black Amber's poker-faced.
Blamber: .. Whoops.
London starts getting a bit flustered, She clenches her fists.
London: Blamber!
Blamber's passive about this. She doesn't sound too enthused.
Blamber: What?
London "grrr"s at this. She turns away and crosses her arms. Winter, who's on London's team, shrugs, smiling a bit. Autumn, who's on Black Amber's team, bursts out laughing. Smoky's standing on the sidelines, the side facing the river. She seems to have a whistle in her mouth. She blows loudly into it, making a bit of a cacophony. She lets it out of her mouth and lets it dangle onto her chest.
Smoky: Moving on.
----
Winter sits beside her father, who's still in the same position since the volleyball game. He looks about three quarters through the book. It looks like it's from the 20th century. Winter sits on a smaller fold-up chair. Both her and her father face the river, which flows calmly. The red star that is their sun seems to be setting. The skies are a beautiful warm color near the horizon, and the dark blues and purples and blacks of the places beyond it are worth the time too. Autumn seems to be talking with Black Amber and London near the volleyball field (which was taken down and now a small campfire), far from the river, which almost looked golden at dusk. Winter, sitting to the left of Trai, peaks over at the book he seems to be deeply indulged in.
Winter: Is that one of uncle's works?
Trai notices this and makes a slight sound. He doesn't turn away from the book.
Trai: Hm?
Winter: You know, Uncle Vinh? Your brother-in-law? That's his book.
Trai smiles and turns over to Winter, book still open.
Trai: Well yes it is.
Winter smiles warmly.
Winter: Uncle Vinh was a great creative writer. I've read some of his works and they ARE truly amazing.
Trai: Yeah, well my favorite book is probably the one I'm holding right now, actually.
Winter: The Porcelain Queen?
Trai: Mhm. It's the story of a girl living in a kingdom of porcelain, but her friends start disappearing, and it's up to her to find out where they went and why.
Winter seems intrigued.
Winter: That's.. Pretty cool!
Trai looks a bit more cheery.
Trai: I'm sure he'd love to hear that from you.
But then Trai turns to river, his smile breaking a bit.
Trai: He works at the Planetary Space Station in Morocovo now, though. I'm sure he's happy doing what he does, but he's thousands of miles away.
Winter shrugs.
Winter: At least he's making more than he did living here. He said he'd come home in time for Aunt Vanna to give birth.
Trai shrugs as well. He seems slightly happier.
Winter: Hopefully he does. My sister's always on schedule, I don't really think she'd be too happy about her husband missing the birth of their first child.
Winter giggles at this. A few seconds pass, and Winter's smile seems to decay. Trai continues to read his book, flipping a page, indulged in it again. Then, almost out of nowhere, Winter turns to her father and asks as slightly more personal question.
Winter: What was mom like?
Trai doesn't frown, but he definitely isn't cheery about that question. He turns to Winter and puts a bookmark inside his novel. He closes the novel and sighs.
Trai: Well, your mother was a pretty.. Interesting woman, being from space and all. I don't know what she found in me, but I'm lucky she found whatever she did.
Winter: Did her being a fusion concern you?
Trai: Ah, not really, actually. I'm pretty open to polyamory, so that isn't much of a problem. It definitely made me see things in a new, more open-minded perspective.
Winter takes a bit of time thinking up the next question, but she does so eventually.
Winter: Can you tell me more about her?
Trai: Well, she was uh.. Very bold. She also had a certain way of looking at the world as a whole that I don't really believe in, but that never got in the way of our relationship.
Winter: I see..
Winter and Trai look into the river. The sun seems to be completely setting. The skies are getting dark. It's evening now. Winter turns to her father and smiles.
Winter: Thanks for telling me this, dad.
Trai looks at his daughter, giving her a warm smile.
Trai: Anytime.
Suddenly, loud yelling is heard from behind them, the both stand up and turn around. It's Autumn.
Autumn: Come on, you two, it's time to open presents!
The father and daughter gladly walk to the campfire. They trod through the red grass and to the campfire. It's set up in a bit of a cute way, with four logs for seating being surrounded by the burning logs in the center. Blamber and London sit on one log while Smoky sits alone. Autumn sits on the log closest to the direction of the river. She's elated when Winter sits next to her. Trai awkwardly sits next to Smoky. They make eye contact for about two seconds, then back at the fire. Smoky stands up. Her voice is like stones.
Smoky: I'll go get the gifts.
Everyone watches her get up, get the gifts from the fold-up tables, then place them in a stack in front of Winter and Autumn. It's almost robotically, strangely. However, everyone brushes this off as Winter and Autumns scramble through their gifts. Most of the presents are nothing too major; lava-lamps, books, etc. But there are two presents that strike the girls with importance. Autumn rapidly rips open one of her gifts as Winter calmly opens one of hers. For Winter, a cone-shaped glass container filled with bluish-white sands attached to a sturdy string to make a necklace. For Autumn, a sparkling black scarf with yellow-stars pattened onto it. The twins are in awe.
Autumn: Woah, this is REALLY pretty!
Winter: Who got these gifts for us?
Trai is happy to answer.
Trai: Those are from your grandparents. The desert sand's from your grandmom when she went to Klivkii.
Winter's amazed.
Winter: Klivkii's such an interesting country.. I see it in the pictures and it always looks so, well, magical. Like a fantasy, almost! I love this necklace!
Trai: And the scarf's from the Planetary Space Station. Your grandfather got it at one of the gift shops. He said it's apparently made out of real stardust.
Autumn: That's literally the COOLEST thing ever. I freakin' LOVE space!
Autumn joyously puts on her scarf, looking down at herself, smiling. She's happy with it. Winter puts on the necklace and grabs the chilly cone-shaped glass container by the bottom with her left hand. she turns it in different directions to get a better look. The sands looked like they came out of a book. She's very gracious with the gift.
Winter: Can you give them a call later to say thank you, dad?
Autumn smiles.
Autumn: Yeah, give them a call soon! These presents are the best!
Trai nods cheerfully. And with that, the party ends. The tables, chairs, and decorations are put away, the fire's put out, and the other presents remain in the twins' room. The lights are out, but the town's mostly asleep, but the girls are awake. Winter faces the wall in her bed, trying to find a comfy spot to sleep in. Autumn has her hands behind her head, in bed, resting her hands and head on her pillow. The two talk to one another. Autumn sounds more soft-spoken than usual, but this just might be because she's tired.
Autumn: Winter, you talked to dad about mom today, right?
Winter's a bit startled by the question, but she replies anyway.
Winter: Yeah, why?
Autumn: Well, I wanted to learn more about how fusions work.. I was sorta wondering if dad told you anything?
Winter: Eh, not really, actually. Though I'd love to learn more about fusion. I mean, we can asks one of the gems tomorrow!
Autumn: But the thing is.. I kinda wanna ask mom.
Winter frowns.
Winter: Autumn, you know that-
Autumn: She's dead? Of course I know that, Winter.
She gets a bit defensive, then more determined.
Autumn: But I know there HAS to be a way we can communicate with her. Somehow. I know it.
Winter is a bit skeptical, but she appreciates the idea.
Winter: Yeah, I hope so.
A few seconds pass, then Winter asks an even bigger question. The timidness is a bit subtle in her voice, but Autumn's able to notice it.
Winter: Autumn, do you ever think we'll ever fuse?
Autumn is a bit astonished by the statement.
Autumn: Us fusing? I.. Never thought about that.
Winter: Well, would you be open to the idea of it?
Autumn sounds elated.
Autumn: 'Course I would! You're my sister, afterall. We're basically best friends.
Winter is relieved by this.
Winter: That's good. I'll go sleep now.
Autumn: Oh, okay. Night!
Winter closes her eyes.
Winter: Night.
==Features==
===Characters===
*Winter Minh
*Autumn Minh
*Trai Minh
*Blamber
*Smoky Quartz
*London Blue Topaz
*Vanna Minh (Mentioned)
*Vinh Minh (Mentioned)
*Trai's Parents (Mentioned)
*Blue Diopside (Voice)
*Yellow Diopside (Voice)
===Objects===
*Winter's Desert Glass Necklace
*Autumn's Star Scarf
===Locations===
*Firebrick Valley
**Autumn and Winter's House
*Grassfield Dreamscape
==Trivia==
*Autumn and Winter turn 13 in this episode.
**Hence the synopsis.
*Firebrick Valley has red flora, meaning the trees and grass appear as red.
==Gallery==
Autumn Minh (CG Alto Soprano).png|Autumn Diopside Minh
Winter Minh (CG Alto Soprano).png|Winter Diopside Minh
Trai Minh (CG Alto Soprano).png|Trai Minh
London Blue Topaz (CG Alto Soprano).png|London Blue Topaz
Black Amber (CG Alto Soprano).png|Black Amber
Smoky Quartz (CG Alto Soprano).png|Smoky Quartz
Category:Crystal Gems: Alto Soprano Page
Category:Crystal Gems: Alto Soprano Episodes