during his trip...
imagine steven at some random isolated highway diner, fairly busy for how far into nowhere it is but quiet, he’s just enjoying a peaceful late-night breakfast- when all the sudden a portal opens in between the tables, the light blinding all the patrons for a moment and causing shouts of surprise, but steven just watches calmly and stands, hands in his pockets now (not his signature pink varsity, something warmer as winter is just around the corner)
lion jumps through, narrowly avoiding the surrounding chairs, stopping just in front of steven as if they both knew they’d meet right there; the surrounding people back up, too shocked to say anything, just holding their breaths as they fully expect this giant pink animal to maul this kid (is he alone? where is his family)
but his quiet chuckle fills the silence as he brings a hand up to pet the lion (thats a lion. theres a lion in this diner); he murmurs a “hey, buddy”, but his smile falters once he notices lion is carefully holding something in his mouth; the object matched lion’s pink hues, but the metallic texture was eye-catching. it’s a blade. connie’s blade.
his face fell; the bystanders couldn’t see what he was looking at, til he slowly took it from his animal companion, careful to not turn the edge in lion’s mouth. he stared at the sword, concern and mild panic starting to cross his face; the lion turned around, pushing against the diner tables, as the kid looked up; his bubbly expression had turned alarmingly serious, almost angry. a shield suddenly appeared next to him, magically floating in the air but seeming to stay next to his forearm.
he hastily pulled out a wallet from his jeans, scrambling to throw some money on the table; he hoped it was enough, but that’s all the thought he could spare on anything other than what may lie beyond the open portal. he barely remembered to shove the wallet back into his pocket.
the astonished onlookers watched as steven (a kid, who’s kid is this) confidently hopped on the back of his (his?) giant lion. it was surreal; this soft-looking teen, pink sword held out intimidatingly, a shield magically attached to his arm, that was in turn holding onto the mane of a (giant, pink, magic? definitely magic) lion. they barely had time to process this sight before hearing steven growl determinedly “take me to ‘em, lion.”
some couldve sworn they saw his face start to glow, literally glow pink, but they couldn’t be sure; everyone flinched at the roar that came from the animal, the windows shaking from the power, only looking back in time to see the pair jumping back into the bright portal, disappearing from sight.
everyone in the diner was silent, looking dazedly around at each other, making sure they hadn’t been hallucinating. mass hysteria is a thing, right?