How much do you think would have changed if Steven had a proper mother figure
hmm. That depends on who the mother figure is. The most likely scenario would be if Greg’s mom takes him in ( because Greg is untrustworthy) and he grows up away from gem stuff, with some weird story about gorilla glue and bedazzling making him believe he was normal.
If that happened, I feel like he would be pretty isolated until maybe some big outburst happened and he realized he wasn’t normal. At that point, he probably finds the keys to his dad’s storage garage and finds the clips his mom made him, at which point he starts to look for his ‘sister,’ Nora. That would take him to beach city, where he would ask about his dad and Nora, and the townies would be super confused until he says the name Universe. One of the townies would take him to the gem base, which wouldn’t have the house around it because Steven doesn’t live there. When the crystal gems see him, they probably think he’s rose, come back to them after going missing for so long.
Steven would be much more educated and responsible, but probably also a lot more stressed, causing his newfound abilities to go haywire as he tries to figure out what is wrong with him.
also, Steven is totally queer in this situation. He’s grown up in such a normal family that his liking of dresses and makeup and pop stars stands out, and he isn’t beating the allegations. I think he wouldn’t discover/explore it until he moves to beach city, which adds way more stress to the situation.
I feel like this story line wouldn’t really start until like Su future in canon time, and his big outburst would be when the diamonds discover him . He doesn’t know what’s going on, they don’t know what’s going on, and he is freaking out for sure for sure.
I don’t know if this is what you meant, anon, but it sure was a fun idea to explore. I could probably flesh it out more if people like the idea.
