I can make a difference.

Connie Maheswaran Cartoon Network's Steven Universe indie & slow activity ----------------------------- est. october 2019

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I'm at work and the episode is dropping ajdbdnsnakznsn

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@empatheticxangel​​ Connie’s no stranger to moving, which is why when she noticed a printed travel itinerary on the dining room table there was an element of fear involved. Thankfully, her parents were quick to announce it was something a little less permanent--a health conference her mom would be attending. It being all the way in London makes the travel a little more complicated, so the family planned to treat the trip as a sort of impromptu vacation. 

Which is great! Except, Connie didn’t plan on being holed up in the convention center while her parents did boring things like talk security and experimental medicines, audit in meetings, and sip caffeine-free coffee in the recreational areas. Fun.

Away from all the doctors and specialized professionals, she heads to the complimentary snack table and squeezes in besides Liam to grab a granola bar and a bottle of water.

“I guess it makes sense all the food’s healthy here,” she comments under her breath, giggling despite it all. “Everyone’s a doctor!” 

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i’m falling asleep so...will have to be here tomorrow morning. off work, woo hoo!

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two-sides-halved‌:

“Yea, he’s always been his own person as long as I can remember… I mean except when we fuse… but then technically neither of us exist?” Human Steven replied.

He made a small noise as Connie put her hand out to stop him from being run over by a person on their bike.

“This Beach City?” Human Steven thought about it silently, before speaking, “Everything’s similar but noticably different… like the food at the boardwalk. The Frys from my old home made exclusively mozzarella sticks, the pizzas had a mashed potato buffet with all sorts of different flavors… the big donut wasnt too different until Lars died out in space when my brother was on trial…” he let a sad sigh.

“I was left behind on Earth for my protection… then he came back home with Lars in a bubble… dead… then everyone started acting like my brother was a monster … cause of course the gem had to have done something to him..he didnt… Lars died a hero… and my brother didnt want to leave his body out in space.” he sighed, “people are much nicer here. so thats a positive change….”

Human Steven blinked, “Am I sharing too much? I feel like I’m sharing too much. I’m sorry if I’m making you feel uncomfortable.”

“Fusion’s weird.” Connie agrees knowingly, before dropping her arm. Instead, she lifts a finger to keep count of the differences. The first finger, for the Frymans...not too big of a change, since mozzarella sticks were still a fried treat. Another for the Pizzas, which she gives him a strange look at--mashed potatoes? She liked smooshed up tubers just as much as the next person, but that’s just bizarre. And at the introduction of the doughnut shop, her third finger rises...only for her to give up the count entirely.

Lars didn’t make it. 

Which technically, the Lars in her dimension hadn’t made it either, what with his pink skin and zombie-like bodily functions. If it wasn’t so morbid, it would be cool.

At least he seemed to be adjusting to a new place, and in a positive light, although his past was certain to leave a big mark. She can’t even imagine.

“Sorry,” she apologizes, shaking her head and then nodding very quickly. “Garnet said it’s important to think about stuff, even if it hurts. But...maybe we should call Lion and get back, I’m sure everyone’s worried about you. Then we can figure this all out.”

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empathetic-not-pitiful‌:

As she bows, Steven applauds and cheers, giving her a standing ovation. Connie definitely deserved it after a performance like that, it might not have been the most beautiful sound in the world, but she sure looked like she had fun playing it.

“Yes! It’s not every day you hear DragonForce music played on a violin.”

He gives her the validation of a performance well done, it must have taken her a long time to learn something so complex! Seeing Connie smile like that, and knowing he caused it, it always brightens his day.

Steven ponders her question a moment, strumming a few random chords on his ukulele, as he tries to remember a “hardcore” song as she puts it.

“Mm… I think, maybe something…”

“I don’t think I could play it every day,” she muses, eyeing the frayed hairs on her bow with a squint. “I’d run out of strings.” But when he turns to his uke, her eyes go wide.  Was he really gonna do it?

Connie waits with a lot of uncertainty, wondering if sweet little Steven (well, maybe not so little anymore) could be capable of such a thing. The ukulele was a warm and comforting instrument, much like himself, and for a moment she wonders if the process of corrupting it went against nature itself. 

Or at the very least, it might be a little silly.

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@lxndfall​

What were these things?

”AAAARRGGHH!” Slicing through them initially felt like running her sword through murky water--mostly ineffective, the same sort of way it felt to run in a dream. After several hits, eventually one of the creatures succumbed to her attacks and vanished in a puff of black smoke...only to reappear a moment later. And again, and again.

Her sword was effective at destroying the form of beings made of light, but what of Darkness? 

[fuckingvictus]

another thing. STOP APOLOGIZING FOR NOT BEING ACTIVE / IN CHARACTER! this is a message also to myself, mind you. i find myself apologizing for a hobby. no! this is something we do in our free time for fun! a lot of us are adults ( or teens in school but i don't think any follow me but not excluding ) jobs, social lives, other random adult shit... sometimes we don't have time to write! hell, when we have time to write sometimes we aren't in the mood or don't have the energy to! we should not be looked down upon for this. it could be days, weeks or even months before we get out a reply but you can tell it's with love. why? because it wasn't forced and it was something we wanted to do! regardless, write when you want to write, shitpost when your stuck on mobile and roleplaying isn't part of your job until you somehow get paid for it! have fun! this is a hobby and not a job. enjoy it.

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ReMind? Haven’t heard of her.

[kcgirl578]

Steven hates Kevin

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the-retrocade‌:

“Gems? Like the ones I collect?”

“No, I don’t think so...or at least, I hope not.”

She leans down a little, putting herself eye level with the young dragon. He didn’t seem like someone who would capture an entire species...he was just a kid, like her! It was more likely his gems were more like the kind growing naturally in caves--if they weren’t, this world would have been sucked dry of life by now. But she has to ask.

“Have any of them ever turned into people?”

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“Should I tell my teachers these physics books are outdated? It’s entirely possible to travel faster than the speed of light. The Gems do it all the time!”

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two-sides-halved‌:

“Haha. Well, Im sure, he’ll be respectful and if not, I’ll handle it…. Our Connie kinda got accidentally abandoned by her parents because there was an accident that ended in the death of someone… and her parents thought it was too painful to confirm if the child who ended up dead was really her or not… she… she kinda just ended up living in beach city, not going to school but she was still super smart…” He continued crossing the sidewalk with Connie.

“Blob of cats, yes. That happened, luckily my brother stayed home with me to sort that whole mess out… He did nearly drown me in the ocean though cause he wanted to make absolutely sure the cats where all gone… Our dad was super freaked out since it didnt look all that helpful when you dont know the series of events.” human Steven replied with a cough, “I, myself, never tried to look older after the whole cat fiasco, but my brother did because he could hold it for longer. He took Sadie and Ronaldo to a horror movie. I was just out in the arcade part cause im not not a bit fan of horror movies… anyway he held that adult form through 2 and a half hours. It was fine for the movie but then he started going on the rides at Funland that I couldn’t follow him on cause I was too short.”

He continued, “Then it turned bad went he was with my teacher and they mistook him for my older brother, and they ended up swooning for him and he figured if he could make this a nice date i could just leave school when ever he wanted to pick me yo from her class…. Before i could object to that ludacris idea, they went on to the slow moving ferris wheel and he turned into a baby right at the top of the ferris wheel right when they were about to kiss.” Human Steven sighed.

“He was a baby for like a full week. Garnet told us that this lesson would be learned the hard way no matter what we did. Amethyst said she wasnt gonna deal with any dirty diapers from him. Pearl… well Pearl kinda locked herself in her room and Connie and I kinda worked on taking care of my brother.” He continued.

“Just imagine taking care of this almost hand sized child. He got powerful screams, powerful control over plants, starts making things sentient left and right due to his healing tears and spit. even his puke just got up and walked itself to the garbage… it was horrifying to watch. He nearly broke the porcelain of the tub with one little kick of his foot cause he didnt want to take a bath cause he knew after we were gonna put his baby booties on and he always hated putting anything on his feet because…. i dont know maybe it had something to do with mom? maybe it had something to do with being closer to earth? maybe he just liked to look at his little baby feet and he thought theyd disappear if he wore something??”

Human Steven took a deep breath, “Then to mess with out heads he shape shifted into out mom and pretended to not know either of us and it drove me to crying cause i thought i lost my brother forever because of some stupid trip to the movies and fun at funland and then he told me to chill and that he was just messing around and then obviously i was relieved and a little upset but more relieved he was ok and i ended hugging him so hard he poofed and it took him a 4 whole days to reform. The whole experience was emotionally exhausting for me and physically exhausting for him.”

“So your gem really is a separate person. That stuff it did doesn’t sound like you at all.”

That’s something to mull over. When her Steven had been torn apart by White Diamond, it was the body on the floor she had rushed to, not the Gem. It could speak, yes, and seemingly operate independently of the other but...it was devote of emotion. Spookily so. Maybe it would have shown more personality had it been given the opportunity to grow and change, such as this alternate’s brother...but the Gem half she had seen was so cold and indifferent. She isn’t sure what to feel.

“Sorry....he. The stuff he did.”

On another note, Connie especially doesn’t like hearing about her other half, just trying to wrap her head around it puts a bunch of heavy rocks in her gut, nearly sinking her down to the floor. Her parents would never abandon her. They loved her. To think otherwise, different universe or not, makes her wonder if the capacity still existed even here. If they did it somewhere, who’s not to say it couldn’t happen here too? She could ask Garnet, but...maybe not.

“Do you...like this Beach City?” she holds out a hand to stop him from crossing the street as a cyclist zooms past. “I’ve been thinking about how this makes me feel, but it has to be way worse for you guys. You lost your real home.”

The walk suddenly seems too long to stomach.

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empathetic-not-pitiful‌:

Steven watches Connie with a quizzical expression, as she becomes very serious looking, readying her violin.

“Okay…?”

He’s not expecting it when Connie suddenly starts absolutely tearing it up, with an insanely fast song! Is that what he thinks it is? It is! It’s ‘Through the Fire and Flames’ ! Steven’s pretty sure his Dad played this for him on guitar before. But it sounds completely different coming from a violin!

Steven watches her with a wide-eyed, excited energy, even though the sound is kind of… overly cacophonous, he can’t believe she’s playing that of all things!

“Whoa! That was insane Connie! I didn’t think you’d come out with that!”

Her posture goes rigid, arms dropping down to her sides as she takes a low bow at the waist, contrasting starkly with the style of music just played. Maybe it wasn’t a classical tune, but the mannerisms were like muscle memory, and it comes all too naturally.

“You really like it?” when she rises back up again, she seems a little out of breath...it seems to have taken a lot out of her. “It’s not really pretty, but it’s fun to play--a real challenge!”

Connie doesn’t want to gloat, but seeing him all excited like that, well, it’s easy to bask in the attention a little bit. A cheesy smile parts her lips.

“What about you? Ever thought about playing something a little more hardcore?”

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@empathetic-not-pitiful​

“Hey, Steven! Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, okay?”

Connie’s face suddenly goes very somber, then she starts playing the intro to an upbeat song, until she’s absolutely shredding it on her classical violin. Somewhere, on the outskirts of town, her parents feel a strange disturbance. She opens one eye, trying to read his reaction, then smiles sweetly despite the horrific shrieking coming out of her instrument.

“I left my TubeTube on autoplay awhile ago, and I found something new I thought I could try to learn. I practiced it at one-fourth the speed so Mom and Dad wouldn’t notice. What do you think?”

[centurymade]

“YES, to both questions. I’ll be waiting by the warp pad for you, Connie. I’m in no rush, so take however much time you need, alright?” Pearl sat down in front of the warp pad, holding her hands together and letting her mind wander for a few moments. It was nice to find a second or two to relax sometimes.

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Once Connie begins the process of switching her attire, something in her changes. After she slips on her traditional garb, tying the red sash and adjusting the way it hugs her midsection, she’s no longer a simple human child, someone invisible and not all that extraordinary. Instead, she’s a warrior. Or at least...training to be one.

With deft fingers, she braids her hair back and glances at herself in the mirror before walking out with a prideful stride. She would make herself useful today.

“Ready, Pearl.” she says, placing a single bare foot upon the cold stone of the warp. “And eager to learn.”

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Once a year on the anniversary of the day she beat him up, Connie gives Jeff a Bruce Lee movie. This year is Way of the Dragon.

[kketcchuupp-deactivated20240318]

Just a little time

song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-RCiBWmBBc