001: Group Introductions - TEXT

[tarnishedavenger]

[During a lull in the party, Armstrong taps out a quick message to the network. Not that private one, he doesn't trust it. They can answer whenever they like, so long as he gets an answer. The trick would be wording it.]

So, we're all in this for now. You've had your welcome cake, but you can't meet everyone in a party, no matter how hard you try. But, since we've all been encouraged to sign up with Jorgmund, I figured now would be a good time to get some introductions done. Talk about any specialties we might have.

Share information that we feel comfortable sharing. This isn't to pressure anyone or to force out any dark secrets.

[Not where watchful eyes can see, at least.]

Besides, I prefer doing this to making a cute information sharing game.

So, please, make your own threads within this post to keep everything organized.

Comments

[stickypete]

[It looks like Steven is indeed falling back on a Hail Mary, trying to get the ball in the end zone of trying to fix everyone else's problems -]

I'm not going to pretend it didn't get rough at times but I got through it, and it's the kind of thing that gives you perspective.

If you're already able to do all this stuff, you must've started young.

[OOOOH! That's an interception by Peter Parker, as he quickly deflects, because he has adult coping mechanisms and doesn't want to put 20+-year-old already-resolved emotional damage on a child! Rough luck for Steven. Usually he's able to make this kind of long shot saving throw, but Parker is just not having it.]

If you started younger than I did, that's what's hard, and this situation isn't the kind of thing that'd make it any easier. To have all this on top of it...

You holding up okay, bud?

[Well, folks, we've seen something we've rarely seen before in Steven Universe's illustrious career of doing the emotional labor for adults. A rough upset, a surprise display from Parker, and new day for Steven's emotional football.]

[gempathizing]

[ ... what?

That almost always works. The redirect. The new focus, on helping someone who needs it for something, or something really important, that's supposed to work. He gets asked if he's okay often enough, but it's rare that his friends don't switch tracks when he does.

He's been finessed? Does Ben mean it when he says he got through it (and is apparently okay)? Like, what, he moved on to the future? Or does he have a potent black belt in his own deflection as a fellow person who mainlines helping other people?

The mental math on what happened is going nowhere. He may or may not be flummoxed. ]

What? I'M fine! This is the kind of stuff I'm used to. Yeah, the shock collar is new, and the whole... employment angle. But that's weird for most of us here.

I mean, if anything it was weirder being retired.

[ wait ]

Which I was also fine with!

In fact, you can pretty much just assume I'm always fine if you get to thinking about it. You don't even need to think about it. If there's a list of things you're worried about, move Steven Universe to the bottom! Write down "Steven is fine and thinking about me ⭐"!

[stickypete]

[Oh this kid is...maybe in trouble. Thinking it's weirder to be retired in peace than trapped somewhere as the slave of an evil megacorp with an internal shock collar? Insisting that he's fine over and over, that people should never worry about him?]

["Steven is fine and thinking about me" like he feels obligated to offer care to other people.]

[And he's watching the thread with Bunny. He never went to school and dealt with weird colonizing regimes??]

You just said "fine" four times.

[He's got you pegged, buddy.]

[It takes Peter a while to think of what he wants to say, time he spends chilling upside down on the ceiling of his room. (It feels weird not occasionally being upside down and sometimes it helps him think).]

You know when I was your age I spent a long time going from one crazy situation to the next. And some situations were good. Sometimes what I was doing felt amazing. I was doing good and helping people.

But sometimes it got real bad. And the way I got through it was accepting it was bad and having some time to stew on that and be angry or sad or scared or whatever I needed to feel about it . And letting that happen made it so I could process it and move on.

I guess what I'm trying to say is if you were feeling maybe tiny bit not fine right now because you're getting shoved in to a new big thing, or if it happens some time later while you're here in this place, that's a pretty normal feeling. And admitting it sometimes is the first step to coping with it.

That's what helped me. I've got my problems but they're recent. You asked me about the tough times when I was younger and the thing is, I'm not stuck dealing with the old problems because I dealt with them each time they happened and moved on.

[gempathizing]

[ This is not where this was supposed to go. It slipped through his fingers like so much sand. And if he tries to dig into those elusive recent problems right here and now, he runs the risk of looking like he doesn't care about them outside of avoiding a bad conversation.

(So he has to bide his time there. Some nuts are tough to crack. First breakthrough is always the hardest.)

The rest reads straightforward. It reads relatably. The fact that someone feels like they have to put in the work to say it for him of all people is mortifying.

He's not the one who has problems. Real problems. His problems didn't even start until he ran out of problems. There weren't any problems to have. Everything was great. Everyone was doing great. Anything bad that happened was over with. He was so excited to spend some time not fixing everything at first. Thinking about filling that plate back up still makes him tired. Now he's just...

He doesn't know what.

Being a baby. Spinning his wheels even though he could do anything he wanted before he got here. Giving people anything heavy to think about in the middle of being kidnapped, again.

(Maybe Jasper was right to call him pitiful.

What if he just doesn't think about that.) ]

Well, I'm not! I'm not feeling like that. If I was, I already handled it. It doesn't need handling. I put a button on it. So that's that.

But I still think it's a really good thing for you to put out there for people who need to hear that. And I appreciate how you put that much thought into it to help me, even though I'm

good.

Thanks, Ben. You're seriously thoughtful.

[ "hey could you use this life preserver?" "no no keep that in case you need it, i'm gonna just swim to land." ]

[stickypete]

[He's probably going to have to bide his time here. Some nuts are tough to crack.]

[Kids need patience. Miles hadn't needed constant, intense advice. He just needed to be nudged into listening to his own instincts, the ones that were under the fear. He'd also needed Peter and the others gently reaching out to him when his uncle was killed by Kingpin, making him realize he at least wasn't alone.]

I just wanted you to know that if you ever need someone to talk to, too, from someone who's also been through some crazy stuff, it's there.

And that sometimes, in our kind of lives, it's normal to need to.

If you ever want to talk to someone with some experience with this stuff, feel free to hit me up.

[gempathizing]

[ Maybe he should not heave a sigh of relief that this didn't turn into a big push. The shoulds and shouldn'ts of it don't have much bearing on whether or not he does. Because he definitely does.

That's all still going in the weirdest yet nicest things said to him by, presumably, a human-human. Call him too used to Beach City, but usually when he talks about the things he does, people go "yep that's Steven alright" at most. That's his brand. Is this what it's like to be on the other end?

Maybe he overreacted. Saying he's an intergalactic diplomat doesn't mean much if he looks like he lost it on the internet. He needs to keep this stuff in check if he wants to make progress. ]

Yeah.

Thanks.

You can... talk to me, too. If you want. I'm all about team New Hires taking care of each other.

[stickypete]

Good instincts on that one, bud. We definitely have to try our best to take care of each other.

[He'll have to keep an eye on this one. There's definitely something wrong here, some defensiveness, some kind of hurt.]

[He'll just have to be patient and hopes the kid lets someone in.]

[gempathizing]

Good. I mean, thanks for the compliment, and good that you agree.

[ As long as he gets it. Where there's a will to help someone out and a shoulder to lean on, there's eventually usually a way. ]

I know it's not worth much with how we got here, but you guys are like, miles ahead of where most Gem colonies were on day 1. Lots of good vibes going around.

If we're getting through this together, I like our odds.

[ "steven prepares to adopt another entire community," 2020, colorized. ]