Off Colors

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Off Colors
GENERAL
Steven Universe
Character	Fluorite
Character	Rhodonite
Character	Rutile Twins
Character	Padparadscha
Character	Lars Barriga
Canonical?	Canon
Status of Relationship	Close Friends/Crewmates
IN FANDOM
Type (?)	Friend

1

Off Colors is the friendship between Lars Barriga, Fluorite, Rhodonite, the Rutile Twins and Padparadscha from the Steven Universe fandom.

Canon

The Off Colors are a group of Gems who were all cast out of Homeworld's hierarchy for reasons they couldn't control, existing in a state of constant fear of being found and shattered drove them into hiding in the corners of Homeworld where only robonoids who were made specifically to shatter outcasts like them dare venture to.

Steven Universe

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Season 5 has Steven willingly turn himself in under his mother's name to a pair of Homeworld Gems to save a few of his friends who were abducted. However, Lars was among the abductees and was taken with him to Homeworld despite Steven's protests that no human shall be abducted after he turned himself in. When Lars is brought in as an exhibit in Steven's trial, Steven uses the opportunity of a fight breaking out between Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond to free Lars and escape them with nowhere to go. As they fall into Homeworld's cracks but manage to escape mostly unharmed, Steven is targeted by one of the Robonoids locking onto his mother's gem, but the Robonoid doesn't register Lars at all. As the two of them run from the killer machines, a voice calls out to them to hide in a nearby cave, they go after the voice and the hand and manage to evade the Robonoids. As the two wonder who was the one calling out for them, they reveal themselves to be single Gem, but with two heads, their gemstone joining them at the hip. Though their deformity startles Lars, Steven thanks them for saving them, and the twins inspect the two noting that they don't look like Gems. As they hear more Robonoids closing in on them, the twins tell them to follow deeper into the cave. Though Lars is concerned about trusting these strangers, he seems to warm up to them when they answer Steven's question of where they are leading them as "where those who don't belong... belong".

As the twins call out to their fellow outcasts to come out, an anxious permafusion approaches the twins, but suddenly freaks out when she sees that the twins have been "followed". The twins address the fusion as "Rhodonite" and explain that they brought the two to them. Another outcast, a Sapphire, emerges "predicting" that the Rutile twins will be joined by two strangers, Rhodonite reveals the Sapphire's name as "Padparadscha" when telling her that her prediction had happened. As the Rutile twins tell Rhodonite that Lars and Steven were threatened by those Robonoids, the last outcast, a giant Gem fusion shaped like a caterpillar wishes to see the two newcomers. Lars is initially terrified of her, but the fusion just regards them smiling and comments that they don't look like Gems. Steven introduces himself as a half-Gem and Lars as a full human, the giant fusion figures that this must be the reason why they look so unusual. Lars notes the irony of the four of them considering the two of them unusual, but Rhodonite scolds them for walking on the surface when they are just as "off-colored" as they are. Steven has never heard the term and denies seeing anything wrong with them when they explain what it means, but the giant fusion, whose name is revealed to be Fluorite, explains that Homeworld doesn't need Gems like them. As Fluorite explains that Padparadscha's future vision is severely delayed, Rhodonite tells them that cross-Gem permafusions like her and Fluorite are loathed on Homeworld, something that Steven had already heard from Garnet. But as the Rutile twins tell them that they came into this world deformed and treated as a monster by the other Rutiles, Lars fully empathizes with all of them and that sentiment only grows after finding out what happens when Homeworld finds them.

As a group of Robonoids had found the Off Colors hideout, Steven blames him and Lars for getting them into trouble, but the Rutile twins argue that they had to save them. As the group scatters and hides, Lars starts to panic while hiding with Steven in one of the exit holes, but Steven telling him that he doesn't have to hide his fear, Lars starts to gather some confidence. Lars remembering that the Robonoids can't see him has him rush towards the Rutile twins nearly being cornered between two Robonoids. He throws a rock at one of the Robonoids to distract it, allowing the twins an opening to escape unnoticed. As Lars realizes that he has no reason to fear these things, Padparadscha walks up to him to tell him about her "prediction", not noticing that she's putting herself in danger. As Lars realizes that Padparadscha's gemstone was targeted by one of them, he manages to divert the Robonoid's beam towards a nearby wall, burying it under rubble and pulling Padparadscha to safety all at once. As three Robonoids close in on Steven and Padparadscha after scanning their gemstones, Lars and Steven work together with Lars using a large rock shard to know two Robonoids into each other and Steven deflecting the beam fired at him and managing to direct it towards two other Robonoids. However, just as Rhodonite is calling out to Padparadscha to get out of danger, a Robonoid notices her and starts to scan the area around her. As Lars notices this, he runs up to her and puts himself between the Robonoid and Rhodonite's gemstones, causing the Robonoid to miss her completely. Fueled by confidence, Lars grabs his shard weapon and jumps from Rhodonite's hiding place towards the Robonoid, grabbing onto it. When he manages to climb on top of it, he thrusts his weapon into the Robonoid's scanner, causing it to explode. However, the explosion takes him by surprise and he gets knocked into a nearby pillar before he could even realize what was about to happen. His head hits the pillar lethally and Steven immediately realizes that Lars couldn't have survived that, but the Off Colors take a moment to congratulate him for saving them before they too realize that him being human means that he won't just retreat into his gemstone while fatally injured like them. As Steven carasses Lars' corpse and cries for him, one of his tears lands on Lars' cheek, causing a pink glow to spread all over his body. Steven doesn't even realize it at first, but everyone pauses in awe as Steven's healing powers restore Lars back to life at the cost of turning his skin and hair pink.

Steven Universe: The Movie

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Steven Universe Future

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Fanon

The Off Colors were well-received by fans as soon as images of their debut episode were first leaked. Since they fully accept Lars among their ranks by the end of it and later elect them as their captain, both boosting Lars' self-confidence in-story and his popularity in the fandom, their popularity had always been closely intertwined with Lars' character development and many love how Lars managed to find a close friend group where neither him nor viewers expected it. Since a large chunk of their story was kept off-screen with even supplementary material only focusing on their adventures by the time they became a notorious crew of rebels, it opened the gates for speculation about their adventures with Lars and their individual backstories. Many fans were more than excited to learn that a spin-off all about them was actually planned and eventually picked up.

Fandom

FAN FICTION

Off Colors tag on AO3

Lars & Off Colors tag on AO3

Padparadscha & Off Colors tag on AO3

TUMBLR

Off Colors tag on Tumblr