hfm_logs | [Open] A Land of Magical Different Magic...

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[Open] A Land of Magical Different Magic...

Warnings: Steven being adorable. Also possibly teleporting.
Location: The south side of Lux Spire/the park (please keep him around here unless we've discussed things)
Characters: Steven and ~~the Stevens~~ anyone who wants to meet him before he meets you.
When: September 10
Summary: Friendly kid is brand new. Help maybe?

Just to the south of the spire, a small boy in a pink t-shirt stamped with a bright yellow star is standing on the street with his neck craned back as far as it can go. "Whoooooaaaaa..." he murmurs to no one in particular. "It's even taller than the temple! They might wanna put some railings up, though..."

He puts a hand to his chin in thought. Clearly he's quite focused on taking in this monument.

Or, if he's moved on from that, he's completely distracted by by everything else around him. New things clearly require his full attention!

This probably means that he's not paying much attention to people passing by or other traffic, however. If you're not prone to just reaching out to a new resident, at least you can keep him out of impending danger?

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"It's not nearly as much fun starting at the top and having to come all the way down, though." Wash can't help but follow up on the kid's comment on the spire. It's pretty obvious he's new here; the locals don't stare at the architecture, and Wash is pretty familiar with just about all the offworld arrivals at this point. "Lot of stairs."

He looks down at the kid and smiles just a little. "Did you just get here?"

Steven gives a thoughtful frown to that. "Oh yeah. Maybe they should add an elevator, too!"

He finally lowers his head a bit to look back at Wash. After having his head so far back for so long, though, it's a bit disorienting and it takes a moment before he can reply to his question. "I guess so. I dunno where the cat guy in glasses went..."

Wash snorts. "Don't bother waiting on him. He's- not helpful." There's a brief pause in there where he edits his language, because he's talking to a small child who really doesn't need to know his full and accurate opinion of Lux right now. "What's your name?"

"Awwww..." He'd actually been hoping he could ask him some questions. Mostly where he got those stickers, but that was still worth a disappointed reaction to finding out he probably wasn't showing up any time soon, right?

But he bounces back from that quickly enough to happily state his name. "I'm Steven!"

Wash bites back a response to that disappointment. Yeah, that's about how they all feel about the situation, but there's no need to disillusion the kid quite yet.

He takes a better look at Steven when the kid introduces himself, does a little bit of mental rearranging, and...yeah, between genetics and enthusiasm, this could well be Greg's kid. "Your last name wouldn't happen to be Universe, would it?"

Wow, everyone must think those stickers are pretty great...

The surprised blink and ensuing expression are probably answer enough for Wash, but Steven speaks after a second, anyway. "How'd you know that?" He doesn't seem suspicious at all, if anything he's impressed that he figured that out somehow.

Something like that, sure.

An explanation is probably a good idea, as 'creeper' is not a good first impression, especially for young kids. "I'm friends with your dad. He talks about you a lot." He delivers it with a smile and the realization that Greg is definitely going to want to know about this. "I should probably call him and tell him you're here, huh."

"You know my dad?!" It was his gut reaction, so despite already having it answered he asked anyway. "So...wait, is Beach City near here?"

"For a little while now, yeah." Oh. He was not ready to field the "we're in a different dimension now" question just yet. "Not...really. Look, just- hang on for a minute okay?"

He flicked his communicator down over his eye and opens a video feed to Greg. "Hey, Greg? You should probably come down to the spire." Wave for the camera, Steven.

Yelling can be heard out of Wash's audio feed, even from a distance.

"Wh--STEVEN?! Stev--oh my gosh--stay th--Wash, uh keep an eye on--I'll be right there! I--I'm gonna--oh my gosh."

Ow. Ow. Wash winces as Greg yells in his ear. You could definitely hear that from the moon. "See you soon."

He looks at Steven and adds, probably unnecessarily: "Your dad's on his way."

Is that kid gonna wander straight into traffic?

Maybe. Maybe not. But he doesn't look like he's paying enough attention NOT to, staring up into the clouds like he's seeing something totally amazing up there instead of the same old spire like always. Either he's new here, or he also thinks that grinding down the railing of the spire's stairs would be the sickest thing in the universe.

Either way, it's time for a patented crazy Casey Jones entrance. He hops on his bike and pedals his heart out, reaching out to snag his shirt and toss him onto the back of the bike with a "Whoa, little dude!"

"GAAAHH!" Apparently Steven's head was in those clouds he was staring at, because he's completely taken aback when he's lifted into the air by his shirt. Just as suddenly, he lands, except it's obvious he's still moving.

"What just...?" The words slip out as a gut reaction as he looks around and takes in the scene. It appears he's on a bicycle that someone else is riding. "Oh, uh, h-hey. Did I...get run over?"

And he got caught on the pedals, flew into the air, and landed on the seat, THAT WOULD BE RAD.

Would it be more rad if it HAD been an accident instead of a move Casey's practiced before? A lot of layers to that question, very philosophical. Too bad Casey doesn't do well in the class.

"Nah," Casey turns back towards Steven, grinning. "You sure were anglin' to get pancaked though. You were lucky Casey Jones was here to catch ya!"

Regardless of how that would weigh in the grand scheme of things, Steven would find the two of them equally rad, let's be real.

"I was?" Steven looked beyond the bicycle to the variety of traffic on the street. It was a bit hard to judge how it was in the spot he was now moving away from, but there definitely were vehicles that would not have good Future Vision outcomes if they'd struck him. "Whoa... Thanks, Casey!"

Because they would be, totally.

"Totally! They would've had to scrape you off the pavement with a spatula!" If Casey's bothered by the thought, it doesn't show on his face. In fact, you'd almost think he found nothing disturbing about it at all.

"Anyway, no prob..." he brakes, bringing the bike to a stop so the kid can hop down, "Who're you, little dude?"

The cringe it causes Steven to have shows the idea definitely bothered him, however.

And hop down he does, because he's not wearing his helmet and the lack of safety made him slightly uneasy. "Oh right. My name's Steven! Steven Universe." He adds that final statement as he recalls Casey giving his first and last name moments ago, so it was only fair.

...Oh, right, safety. Casey sometimes has to be reminded that exists, so he can ignore it in an informed way - wait!

"Hold up, 'Universe?' Ya mean yer Greg's kid?"

Steven always remembers safety! There's nothing lame about it!

"Yeah." It's kind of a confused and impressed mixed into one response. He's well aware that his father knows people, but having a relative stranger bring him up is still pretty surprising. "How do you know my dad?"

Edited (I forgot to pick an icon) 2015-11-10 04:00 (UTC)

Helmets and kneepads just mean you don't collect wicked battle scars!

"He's a buddy of mine," Casey's grin is pretty wide. "He's helped me take on the monsters that roam the city. Like we once got jumped by this crazy shadow horse thing at the carnival! It was crazy awesome!"

When Casey tells it, one might almost think it wasn't the near-disaster that nearly got them both killed. Or that it wasn't more-or-less entirely Casey's fault.

When Rose sees that young boy, staring up at the spire, she suddenly feels... something familiar. Something she's already seen before, and should know like the back of her hand...

...Oh, right! His shirt! Greg has a bunch just like that one in the back of his van. Other than that, Rose has absolutely no idea who this is.

"Excuse me, are you lost?" She approaches him from behind- he does look like he's new here, after all, with the way he's looking at everything. Of course, even if he's not, a boy this young should probably be with his parents, right? Either way, she should probably try to help him out.

It's pretty hard to leave Steven speechless for a noticeable amount of time. But you, Rose Quartz, have succeeded.

Steven can only gaze at her with wide eyes and a slightly agape mouth for a few moments. Maybe he typically saw her only as a portrait above his door, but this giant woman looked exactly like his mother. She even sounded like her, although he'd only been aware of hearing her voice on two videos.

But that wasn't possible, was it? One of the few things he'd heard her say was that they both can't exist. That Gem on her belly looked exactly like the one on his, though.

Then again, sometimes when Amethyst shapeshifted into other Gems she'd included those shapes. Maybe this was just some kind of weird magic in this new place? Or his mom had an identical twin in a completely different dimension?

Before his thoughts can get TOO outlandish, he finally realizes he hasn't said anything. Still being no closer to having a clue about what's going on and also not wanting to creep her out just in case she isn't Rose, he goes for answering her question. Only thanks to his shock, the response comes out sounding extremely tentative. "M-May...be?"

This isn't the first time Rose has caused that kind of reaction. Humans are often stunned by her for one reason or another, so she just takes it in stride, waiting patiently for the young boy to respond to her.

Of course, Rose isn't having any kind of particularly deep thoughts right now. She has no clue who she's looking at, after all. To her, there's nothing really seperating this human from the myriad of other's that she has seen and met.

She leans down, and takes a knee, holding out her hand- getting a bit lower to the ground might relax him a bit, and it's sometimes difficult to hold a conversation with someone when you're towering over them like that. For humans at least, anyway. Best not to intimidate the child. "Do you know where your parents are? Have you ever been to this city before...?"

As irony would have it, her comforting gestures only serve to raise his emotions all the more. Being Steven, he can't hide this with his body language. He tenses but otherwise remains frozen, unsure if he should move toward her or run away from this possible Mommy impersonator. Whatever's going on, she is being pretty nice though. That at least comforts him enough to keep him there.

"I thought I did, but...I'm not sure anymore..." His tone is uncomfortable and almost apologetic. It didn't seem like she recognized him if this really was his mother, but if so, how would she? This was already way too confusing and he wasn't even sure who she was yet. "I just got here."

There's a short, yet anxiety-filled pause before he adds, "C-Can I ask you something...?"

This is... a little unusual. Rose isn't entirely sure why this young boy is reacting the way he is. Is this just some other human thing Rose doesn't understand? She's pretty sure there's still quite a few of those.

His response is... unfortunate. If he doesn't know where his parents are, and if he just got here, then that means he probably got pulled here, just like her and Greg and all the others. Only, this is a bit different. In Rose's experience, child soldiers are kind of frowned upon in human culture... For good reason, really. Humans already have such short lives- throwing them away in a fight so early seems awful.

"Of course... I'd be happy to help you in any way I can."

What's the right way to approach this? It would be so much easier if his dad or the Gems were here... But they probably would have known right away and saved him from having this awkward situation. At the same time, she didn't seem to be having the reaction he was, so nothing he could say would probably hurt anything.

"Are you...Rose Quartz?"

"Yes, that's my name. Have we met before?"

Judging by how confused and curious he sounds, Rose would guess that they haven't met. Maybe he heard about her somewhere...?

"Who are you, exactly? And how do you know who I am?"

Okay, NOW he was officially allowed to be completely confused. It was weird; as much as he'd always wanted to meet his mother, now that she was finally in front of him he was mostly feeling confused and worried. Of course she wouldn't know him by sight, but would she have any idea who he was in the first place?

From everything he knew about her, he doubted she'd have a bad reaction, but the last way he wanted their first meeting to end was with her feeling bad. It definitely wouldn't be right to lie to her or try to hide things, though. Maybe if he takes it in little steps? If she doesn't understand, that was usually a good method to correct that for the other Gems.

He puts on the best grin he can given his continued concerns. "No, not really... I know everybody else! My name's Steven."

"Steven?" Huh... What a strange coincidence! Greg's son- or, well, her son too, really, is named Steven! And from what Greg's said, he's about as old as this young boy! This young boy who seems to be wearing one of Greg's shirts.

...Oh. Oh, wow, this is her son, isn't it?

Her son who, before now, surely never would've been able to meet her in person.

Rose suddenly realizes that she hasn't said anything in a while, too caught up in having no idea how to feel right now. "Your... father wouldn't happen to be Greg Universe, would it?"

Barbara's wearing her costume. Munching on a doughnut. Doing important super hero business, like sitting on a rooftop watching the crowds. You never know when something evil is going to pop up! Which it pays for every batgirl to have a full stomach.

She spotted Steven, looking around lost, and moved to the end of the roof. She jumped off one building to a lower one, using a grappling-bat to catch at another rooftop as she swung to the ground in front of the boy.

"You new here?"

Do you really expect him to be capable of answering a simple question right now? The start of the roof jump had caught his attention, and he'd kept his eyes on his approach with an ever-lowering jaw.

"That. Was. Sooooo. COOL!" As he finally gets to the last word, Steven throws his arms straight up and continues to make huge gestures with them. "What was that thingy you just used?! I really like your costume!"

Not that he knows whether or not those are her normal clothes, but where he's from something like that would be some sort of non-copyright infringing super hero outfit.

Edited (oh hey I noticed a typo in time for once) 2015-11-09 03:12 (UTC)

"The batarang?" she asked, glancing at it. Pretty much everyone in Gotham knew what they were. ...Then again, she never had any Gotham fans like this. Maybe if she had, she could have gotten them to call her batwoman instead of batgirl.

"Don't you have super heroes where you come from?"

Tried to answer this on my phone, but it wouldn't flow right.

"It is impressive, isn't it?"

Who said that? Why it's the talking winged unicorn, of course, who strolled up to his side while he was busy admiring the massive tower.

"Yeah!" he exclaimed, turning his head toward the voice immediately afterwards. "It's-"

Whatever Steven was going to say is lost to the ages. Even the fact that her compliment seemed misplaced compared to her escapes him. Instantly, his fixation has shifted.

"Magic horse..." his voice comes out as almost a whisper.

"Pony," she corrected, as gentle as could be. Smiling, she lowered her head in a regal bow. "I am Princess Celestia. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The clarification just makes him more excited and the pitch of his whisper goes up a tone. "Magic pony princess!"

He remembers his manners though, and gives her a bow in return. "I'm Steven Universe. Are you the awesome animal BFF here?!"

Luckily Celestia knew a bit of the hip foal lingo, and that was easy enough to interpret. It was like 'PFF', but the 'B' probably stood for 'best', right?

"Well, I certainly could be if you want me to, although if you want 'awesome' you may be better off with my sister instead."

Escape from Rose's Apartment was becoming a game that Peridot needed to get very, very good at in a big hurry. Rose couldn't be everywhere. She couldn't watch her all day. She couldn't clone herself or...

Oh.

Oh, maybe she CAN clone herself.

He can't be here. It's not...well, alright, fine, there are a lot of things that Peridot thought were impossible that are apparently completely possible in this city of madness but still! Is Rose still around or has she become the Steven? Can they exist separately? Does he know what Peridot has done to the Greg human?

...Can she turn around very very quietly and leave before she's spotted?

Steven could only hold his head back for so long. As much as he'd like to keep thinking about what sort of magical awesomeness this place must hold, he has to get his face back to its normal level sometime. And doing that right now makes it just perfect for him to spot a familiar triangle at his eye-level.

He smiles and starts jogging toward her, already waving even if she's not looking in his direction yet. "Hey, Peridot!" He says this like he just saw her on the sidewalk back home.

She's been spotted.

If she were thinking clearly, she might have thought that Rose has already captured her, in a sense...She isn't thinking clearly, so she legs it with a scream.

"Oh, not you too, you...Steven!"

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[Open] A Land of Magical Different Magic...

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Sorry! Started a new job - the schedule's been taking some adjustment.

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