Uh hey. It looks like I'm gonna be here for a while, so does anyone know where I can get my hands on a van? I'm gonna need somewhere to live once the weather gets better. I can't just crash on people's couches forever.
[There he is, still here, against all odds. It's almost overwhelming, a bubbling mix of joy and guilt. The guilt is pushed down though - whatever she does or doesn't deserve, it's not up to her. And Greg is here, with her and with Steven and deserved or not she's not about to waste this opportunity.]
[Rose bends down to make it easier for him, abandoning her search for the other slipper as her focus shifts entirely to Greg. Despite the weather, the tent is warm and comfortable, designed to keep out the cold and the damp.]
[And of course the Pokemon inside - Rose's Wooloo and Bidoof specifically - lend their body heat to the small space.]
Good morning. I'm making coffee! It's Starmiebucks - the best coffee to start the best day!
[It's a good thing the tent is warm and comfortable, really. It's pretty cold outside. And Rose's animal friends are nice to have around too. He's not really surprised she's made so many--she was always good with living things like that.]
Starmiebucks, huh?
[He guesses she's had time to figure out things like food preferences if she's been human for most of the last two years.]
[And therefor must be good. Besides, the commercials said it - the best coffee!]
[Rose arranges herself on the pile of blankets and sleeping bags that make up the 'bed', taking a few minutes to get all of herself sat down and settled. There's a lot of her, and all of it now completely solid human flesh.]
[And then she shifts and pulls her missing slipper out from under herself.]
I'll have to ask Carly how close the next city is... We've been traveling together. And it's been an adventure! We hit a tunnel we couldn't fit through and almost got stuck, but then we visited a power plant and they gave us a tour. I sent Steven a postcard.
[... is he going to have to explain to Rose at some point that just because a commercial says something doesn't mean it's necessarily true? He is, isn't he.]
I met Carly just now! She seems nice.
[Let's just... lean against Rose. She's so nice and big and warm. Which he needs, honestly. Not-Mom didn't send him out with a jacket.]
[Rose snuggles herself into the blankets deeper and leans into Greg. It's just so nice to have him physically here, solid beside her. It's...reassuring.]
No. Not right now. Steven's lived his whole life without me, and I know his feelings are...complicated. I don't want to make things more difficult for him. We talk all the time, though, he sends me pictures and videos of what he's doing and I send them right back. Oh, we should take a picture for him!
[Rose pats around for her gear, flipping it on and scrolling through to the camera function. She's not sure she can even put into words how proud she is of their son, how truly amazing she thinks Steven is.]
Here!
[She scrunches down to press her face against Greg's, trying to cram as much of herself into the small screen as possible.]
I used to think about it sometimes, you know? When he was a baby. How it could have been if you'd been able to be there with us. I know... I know that having a baby doesn't always solve everything... but I keep thinking we could have been happy for a little while. As a little family. Like Yellowtail and Vidalia and their kids.
[Because that's the thing, isn't it? As much as Rose had loved the idea of Steven, having him had been, on a very real level, a kind of suicide for her. And Greg... he'd made his peace about that. Rose was so very old, for all that she was as young as he'd been in some ways, so very old and tired and sad underneath it all, and if she'd wanted to die in order to make someone like Steven... she had the right to decide the way she wanted to die.
But as much as he loved his son, as much as he adored Steven and wouldn't give him up for all the world... there was a part of him that did wish he'd been enough for Rose to want to stay. That any of them had been.
He shakes his head, looking up at Rose.]
He reminds me of you, sometimes. His love, his enthusiasm, the way he's always trying to encourage people and help them be better. He's worked wonders with the Diamonds.
[Rose has no doubt of that. She's wondered about it so often over these last two years, living fully among humans as one of them, watching them even more closely than before. Understanding more than she ever did.]
[She still has no regrets. What ifs and (mostly) impossible fantasies aside, she stands by her decision. Maybe even more, knowing for certain that the people she loved and left behind have lived and thrived.]
[But a part of her still wishes she could have been a part of Steven's life from the beginning, been a true mother to him, helped him and watched him grow up...]
And he reminds me so much of you sometimes! He's so easy going and accepting, so full of life, he loves music so much... what was he like, when he was little?
[It was hard, now, to keep the tears out of her eyes or the tremble from her voice.]
Really sweet. Just... a good, nice kid. He thought the world of the Gems, you know. Moving in with them used to be all he talked about. We built him a little house, you know? Right in front of the temple entrance. He used to live with me before that in the van and I'd dress him in my unsold tee shirts.
And once his room was built--that's what we called the little house, Steven's room--I'd come over before bed and tuck him in and read him something about space and then I'd walk back to my van.
You know, he wrote a theme song for the Crystal Gems? And he played it for them on his little ukelele. I don't have my guitar anymore for some reason, so I can't play you the chords, but it went something like this:
If you're evil and you're on the rise You can count on the four of us taking you down 'Cause we're good and evil never beats us! We'll win the fight and then go out for pizzas!
[Somewhere in the course of the song, Greg's started to snap his fingers to the beat.]
We-- Are the Crystal Gems And we'll always save the day And if you think we can't We'll-- Always find a way That's why the people of this world Believe in Garnet, Amethyst, And Pearl-- And Steven!
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no subject
[There he is, still here, against all odds. It's almost overwhelming, a bubbling mix of joy and guilt. The guilt is pushed down though - whatever she does or doesn't deserve, it's not up to her. And Greg is here, with her and with Steven and deserved or not she's not about to waste this opportunity.]
[Rose bends down to make it easier for him, abandoning her search for the other slipper as her focus shifts entirely to Greg. Despite the weather, the tent is warm and comfortable, designed to keep out the cold and the damp.]
[And of course the Pokemon inside - Rose's Wooloo and Bidoof specifically - lend their body heat to the small space.]
Good morning. I'm making coffee! It's Starmiebucks - the best coffee to start the best day!
no subject
Starmiebucks, huh?
[He guesses she's had time to figure out things like food preferences if she's been human for most of the last two years.]
no subject
[And therefor must be good. Besides, the commercials said it - the best coffee!]
[Rose arranges herself on the pile of blankets and sleeping bags that make up the 'bed', taking a few minutes to get all of herself sat down and settled. There's a lot of her, and all of it now completely solid human flesh.]
[And then she shifts and pulls her missing slipper out from under herself.]
I'll have to ask Carly how close the next city is... We've been traveling together. And it's been an adventure! We hit a tunnel we couldn't fit through and almost got stuck, but then we visited a power plant and they gave us a tour. I sent Steven a postcard.
no subject
[... is he going to have to explain to Rose at some point that just because a commercial says something doesn't mean it's necessarily true? He is, isn't he.]
I met Carly just now! She seems nice.
[Let's just... lean against Rose. She's so nice and big and warm. Which he needs, honestly. Not-Mom didn't send him out with a jacket.]
So you aren't traveling with Steven?
no subject
[Rose snuggles herself into the blankets deeper and leans into Greg. It's just so nice to have him physically here, solid beside her.
It's...reassuring.]
No. Not right now. Steven's lived his whole life without me, and I know his feelings are...complicated. I don't want to make things more difficult for him. We talk all the time, though, he sends me pictures and videos of what he's doing and I send them right back. Oh, we should take a picture for him!
no subject
I think... maybe... I saw Steven in that whole long blur that was the last couple days? He was having a jam session with this big old bug.
no subject
[Rose pats around for her gear, flipping it on and scrolling through to the camera function. She's not sure she can even put into words how proud she is of their son, how truly amazing she thinks Steven is.]
Here!
[She scrunches down to press her face against Greg's, trying to cram as much of herself into the small screen as possible.]
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He's really great, yeah. And I'm so, so proud of him.
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I'm so grateful I get to know him.
[It's still overwhelming, in a way. That they can exist together, that whenever she wants she can just call Steven up and see him and talk to him.]
I thought about him so much before he ever came here. What he might be like, what sort of life he may have had, what kind of things he might like...
I'm only sorry so much of his life has been so difficult.
no subject
I used to think about it sometimes, you know? When he was a baby. How it could have been if you'd been able to be there with us. I know... I know that having a baby doesn't always solve everything... but I keep thinking we could have been happy for a little while. As a little family. Like Yellowtail and Vidalia and their kids.
[Because that's the thing, isn't it? As much as Rose had loved the idea of Steven, having him had been, on a very real level, a kind of suicide for her. And Greg... he'd made his peace about that. Rose was so very old, for all that she was as young as he'd been in some ways, so very old and tired and sad underneath it all, and if she'd wanted to die in order to make someone like Steven... she had the right to decide the way she wanted to die.
But as much as he loved his son, as much as he adored Steven and wouldn't give him up for all the world... there was a part of him that did wish he'd been enough for Rose to want to stay. That any of them had been.
He shakes his head, looking up at Rose.]
He reminds me of you, sometimes. His love, his enthusiasm, the way he's always trying to encourage people and help them be better. He's worked wonders with the Diamonds.
no subject
[Rose has no doubt of that. She's wondered about it so often over these last two years, living fully among humans as one of them, watching them even more closely than before. Understanding more than she ever did.]
[She still has no regrets. What ifs and (mostly) impossible fantasies aside, she stands by her decision. Maybe even more, knowing for certain that the people she loved and left behind have lived and thrived.]
[But a part of her still wishes she could have been a part of Steven's life from the beginning, been a true mother to him, helped him and watched him grow up...]
And he reminds me so much of you sometimes! He's so easy going and accepting, so full of life, he loves music so much... what was he like, when he was little?
[It was hard, now, to keep the tears out of her eyes or the tremble from her voice.]
no subject
And once his room was built--that's what we called the little house, Steven's room--I'd come over before bed and tuck him in and read him something about space and then I'd walk back to my van.
You know, he wrote a theme song for the Crystal Gems? And he played it for them on his little ukelele. I don't have my guitar anymore for some reason, so I can't play you the chords, but it went something like this:
If you're evil and you're on the rise
You can count on the four of us taking you down
'Cause we're good and evil never beats us!
We'll win the fight and then go out for pizzas!
[Somewhere in the course of the song, Greg's started to snap his fingers to the beat.]
We--
Are the Crystal Gems
And we'll always save the day
And if you think we can't
We'll--
Always find a way
That's why the people of this world
Believe in
Garnet, Amethyst,
And Pearl--
And Steven!
[He laughs.]
It sounds better when he sings it, though.