hfm_logs | [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?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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?"

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

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