“ i only want a chance to do something to help everyone ”
A gloom, deepening. Smells of salt, sand, ocean foam. Sounds of cicadas and other tymbal bugs. A bubble-glistening shore. The evening is soft and sea-grey, freshly wet from a warm rain. And all at once, it distills: an ample, somber evening shrunk to a boy growing too fast. There's a furrowed brow where that special, sugarlump smile had been only yesterday. Or, she supposes, what felt like yesterday.
“ Steven, ” she tries, offering a hand. Though every word she thinks to try next feels wooden, laden, unnatural.
She stays her hand, holding it still in the air for fear of losing the opportunity to talk to him. He's been retreating lately. She knows. Garnet and Amethyst know. He hides himself within himself, slipping through their fingers like so much water.
After a long moment, Pearl quietly folds her hands on the table in front of her. “ Steven, ” she tries again, gently, encouragingly, “ You saved the world. Who's left to help? ”
ETERNAL SONATA : accepting