silph_co | if we can call them friends then we can call them on their telephones

By the time the footage had gone up, Connie had already been unaccounted for for days. No videos, no texts, nothing. Suddenly realizing the depths of your own capacity for violence can be a harrowing thing, as Steven is well aware.

Thankfully, by the time Connie's crime uncle calls, she's in a much better place mentally. And physically. And emotionally. Just better all-around, really. (Having somebody who is cool with their own, possibly deeper capacity for violence as a close companion may have helped with that.)

Connie answers the call with a smile plain on her face. She still looks like a mess, but that's more because she's been roughing it without the luxury of a fully-equipped caravan for a few days now rather than any (severe) emotional distress. "Tío Steven? It's good to..." And then he continues, and her face falls, and she shrinks away from the screen, and looks to the side, and rubs her arm. "Oh. So that's what this is about. Um. What did the Infiltration Team do?"

"Mostly promised on your behalf to teach me how to fight with swords," Steven says, apologetically. "Sword Pokemon. And, ah, maybe breed me a Honedge, in return for some future Pokemon eggs of mine. Not the current Gastlies from the last clutch—though since one of them turned out to be a Shuppet... well. It doesn't matter, those were your Pokemon pretending to be you, after all."

He shakes his head.

"So, you're doing better now? I'm sorry we can't do anything about that guy in security, but maybe after Jack takes over the, ah, board of directors... Well. Things will be different then. " He peers forward at the screen. "Where are you, anyway? I know you were traveling with Carly and her hippie friends before—are you still with them?"

Connie gives Steven an appraising look, as if she were doing some complex mental math. "Yeah, no. You do not have the build for the kind of things I do with the Excaliburs. I only get away with it because I've been training to be a very acrobatic fighter since I was twelve. Sorry." Fighting like a character out of a Studio Trigger anime isn't as easy as it looks.

As soon as Steven asks where she is, Connie immediately brightens. Thank goodness that he wasn't going to grill her about Dirk. That was the last thing she needed. "Oh! I'm on Route 30 with a friend. I had to leave the caravan for... reasons, and ended up meeting this really nice girl in town. You should see her, she's amazing! She's an even better fighter than me, believe it or not, but she's so sweet as... long as you aren't a guy. Uh. So maybe you should stay away. No offense." Connie chuckles, rubbing the back of her neck. "Anyways, Akane's great, and such a blast to hang out with. It's a lot more fun than being with Carly, if I'm being honest, it's nice to actually hang out with another girl my age..."

She's going to keep on going like this for some time, Steven. You may want to stop her.

"No, when I think about that, I do get it," Steven says. "Let's not lie. I'm a walking brick. It's a Durante thing--I've got the build from my father's side, even if I've got the pretty face from my mother's." Seriously, the Espinozas are all fairly attractive people. Steven's mother is handsome at sixty and change; when he was little she'd been downright gorgeous. "I'm a little disappointed, but I'll live. I'll still take a sword-ghost pokemon, though."

He'll always take ghost pokemon.

He doesn't stop Connie from going on and on about Akane. Instead, he'll just listen to Connie go on and on about her new... crush? Friend? Both? It's-- hard to tell just yet. He thinks he'd have to see them together to be sure.

God, he's so relieved that Connie's doing better now.

"She sounds like she's a pretty cool person," Steven says, once Connie winds down a little. "I think I've heard her commenting on the 'gear a little? That thing Emporio did, asking about naming schemes. She named her starter T-chan, right?"

There was something about the name and naming scheme that was very familiar, actually. Like somethng he ought to recognize.

"That's the one! It's simple, but it's kinda cute, you know?"

oh connie,

"Yeah," Steven says. "So's she, really, especially... when she smiles..."

Cute when she smiles.

T-chan.

Akane. Who doesn't like guys. Who's sweet otherwise. Who's a good fighter.

It's different when it's a flesh-and-blood person and not a samefaced manga drawing which is why it took him this goddamn long, but--

Fuck.

He. Knows exactly who Connie's friendcrush is now. He was an anime fan in the 90s. How could he not?

God-fucking-damnit.

Luckily, he's able to mostly hide the moment of realization, except for a sudden flaring of his pupils, but still.

He's going to have to tell Dirk about this.

And he can never, ever tell Connie. ~~Thanks a lot, Robert Heinlein.~~

Edited 2020-04-04 04:04 (UTC)

"Yeah, you got it!"

Connie cocks her head to the side as she watches Steven have a ([S]) mental breakdown. "Uh. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sorry," Steven says. "I just. Shit. I just got distracted by a thought. It's nothing important. So are you two going to do the gym challenge? Which reminds me, Armin's lending me some of his extras HMs to help cut down on the number I have to do for Surf and Fly, so if I've still got them when you make it to Goldenrod for Whitney, you can stop at Jack's and I'll let you two use them for yours. Hell," he adds. "You can stay with us instead of the intern dorms, if that'll make it easier to not run into Dirk until you're ready to talk to him."

"Oh." Oh. Uh. Hm.

"I'd think I'd rather stay in a hotel, I think? Not because of you or anything, but I want to hang with Akane more. Show her the city and stuff."

Steven mentioning Dirk clearly throws her off guard, and Connie tries to immediately rush past that topic of conversation onto something else. Anything else.

Yeah. He's going to note her reaction to mentioning Dirk, even if he doesn't address it.

"Of course, mija," Steven says, soothingly. "Of course. But you'll at least have supper with us, right? So we can meet your friend and see you again."

Edited 2020-04-05 04:27 (UTC)

"Yeah, of course! I'll-" Connie pauses, then thinks for a moment. Oh. Right. Akane's whole... thing. "I'm down, but I have to warn you that she's from the eighties and kinda really oblivious. I'm not sure if she even knows that people can be gay?

"...whatever we do, we cannot let Jack explain."

"I grew up in the eighties and nineties," Steven says, trying to wrack his memory as to if Ranma 1/2 ever engaged with actual queer issues at all... but he's pretty sure it didn't. For something with such an inherently queer premises, it had been remarkably heterocentric. "And she's, what, your age? So... she might have some idea that two men having sex or two women having sex could be a thing--but she'd probably think it was even more dirty and perverse than regular sex. And you know, never mind the idea of us having loving relationships or anything like that.

"So. Uh. Yeah. God, I hate to put this burden on you, mija, but-- you might want to ease her into the idea before you two reach Goldenrod. Or, fuck, have me talk to her first. Because of the two of us, I'm the one of us that's good at presenting shit reasonably to people? I lo--" He catches himself. Rephrases. "I care the world for him, but he's-- well, he can be a little much for people who don't know him?"

He knows he ought to offer to pretend they're just friends. But he can't. It would be too damn easy to and he's not going to closet himself again, even for Connie.

"I suppose at worst you could wrench yourself away from her company for an hour or two to have supper with us alone. Or we could take you both out in turn, for something smaller like ice cream."

Edited 2020-04-06 06:05 (UTC)

"No, no." Connie sighs, dragging her hands down her face. Was she going to need to do a presentation? She totally was, wasn't she. Hoboy. "A solid half, probably more, of the outworlders are queer—including me—and my other best friend is still in the super sweet lovey-dovey phase of dating her girlfriend, so. This is a conversation that needs to happen at some point in the near future. Might as well be from someone she already trusts, so... I'll do it."

Beat.

"I will take you up on that offer of ice cream after we have dinner together, though."

"Wait, what," Steven says. "Half of us? Holy shit." He had really not expected that. Not in the slightest. What was the space llama god even up to? Then the second part kicks in. "Bi or lesbian?" he asks, then adds, "Bisexuality is real, by the way. I know some people think it's just being confused, but it's not. I mean, I'm strictly monosexual, but Jack very much isn't."

He shakes his head. "I'm definitely going to get you that ice cream. And I'd offer to get you something on the house at the place Jack and I are gonna open up, but it probably won't be ready by then."

And also, she's underage.

Edited 2020-04-07 12:14 (UTC)

"Bi as hell, baby." Connie gives Steven a smile and a peace sign, then sighs. "Although I admit, being attracted to men is way more of a burden than anything else- no offense, Steven." Somebody's still feeling bitter over Universe leaving, it seems.

She laughs as Steven clumsily tries to assure her that her sexuality is totally 100% valid. "Don't worry about all that, oh my stars. I don't know how things are on the East Coast of your world, but Delmarva is probably the most accepting and open-minded of all the states. I think it's a side effect of the Gems being there for so long; they radiate gayness or something? Garnet does, at least. Probably Pearl, too, since she's the archetypal lesbian. Literally. I did some research and a solid third of Sappho's poems are about her."

The greatest meeting of the minds in the history of Kanto and Johto: Gen-Z social media gayposting meets an elder gay survivor.

He laughs. "Really? I'm sad I never got a chance to really talk to her, then. But I definitely see what you mean about here--the short time she was here among us, I never mistook her for a straight woman. And-- in my world, the coasts are definitely more liberal than the states inland, especially in New York and New England when it comes to the East Coast, but... well. We don't have Delmarva, so I'm not sure what it would correspond to in my world. I'm from the West Coast myself. The, ah, best coast. Does your world have California? I never did ask.

"But, I mean, even in more liberal places--even with more liberal people--there's still a lot of confusion about that shit, mija. Even within the community. I've argued with other gay men about bisexuals before. And don't even get me started on some of the stupid and assholish things I've heard about trans people." He shrugs. "I just-- God, I want you to be... secure in yourself, you know? Because it sucks when you're not. I know that for a fact."

"California exists, yeah. There's not a lot there, though; somebody tried to kickstart a movie industry there, but Kansas had already cornered the market and they failed miserably." Welcome to the butterfly effect of having immortal lesbian space rocks accidentally influence most of world history, Steven. It's a wild ride.

(Thankfully for Steven, Connie is above such petty things as coast rivalries.)

(But East Coast is the best, so he can-)

Connie nods along, growing more serious. "Yeah. Things are... different outside of the East Coast. My family used to travel around a lot before we settled down near Crossroads, and... I don't know. It's like a whole other world compared to what I'm used to, in terms of attitudes and stuff.

"Stars, yeah. I don't- didn't- go on social media much, since, you know. College, school. But I saw some of the arguments there. They got nasty. I guess I have kind of a unique perspective on things—have I ever told you about Stevonnie—but... people can be really nasty. It made me kinda scared to look into college anywhere but the East Coast, honestly." She snorts. "Even if I could totally destroy anybody who treated me badly."

"You could," Steven agrees. "Unfortunately, there's a little thing called rule of law that we have to work around that keeps us from destroying bigots and assholes willy-nilly. And-- no, you haven't told me about Stevonnie. Who are they?"

"Well..." Connie sighs, running a hand through her hair. This was going to be very difficult to explain to someone who had almost no context about how things worked on her world. "Back home, these aliens called the Gems were sorta like a second family to me. The had a bunch of weird stuff going on—sentient polymorphic space rocks and all that—but one of the coolest things they could do was fuse with one another. Like, uh... have you ever watched Wyrmsphere X?"

Probably not because the media of Connie's Earth is ever-so-slightly to the left (with the odd exception of Revolutionary Girl Utena), but it still stands.

"It's like that, except they do it for reasons other than beating the absolute shit out of their enemies. Although they do that too. For example, Garnet, one of the coolest people I know, is a permanent fusion between these two Gems named Ruby and Sapphire because they loved each other so much that they couldn't stand to be apart.

"I'm guessing off track. My point is, my best friend and..." Connie takes a deep breath. This is the first time that she's admitted it out loud to anyone. "...former boyfriend, Steven Universe, is half-gem. So he could fuse with humans too. I was actually the very first person he fused with, haha! And we were Stevonnie together.

"Stevonnie was... an amazing experience. Completely seeing and understanding Steven for the first time was part of the reason why we got together in the first place, really, and being someone else, someone outside everybody's expectations and the binary and... everything, it was. Amazing. I'm not kidding when I say that it changed my life."

"Noooooo... but it does sound like something from Dragonball Z," Steven says. "And that's-- wow. That's amazing. I mean, it sounds as crazy as all hell... but amazing too. And-- there's nothing wrong with falling for your best friend. I mean, honestly, I've never actually been in a relationship with someone who wasn't some kind of friend first." He's barely been in any relationships, much preferring to hook up with strangers he'll probably never see again, but sssshhhh. "I think I might have talked to your Steven once? On the network. And I, uh, ran into his dad at the curry cook-out when we were both looking at Mudbrays."

He shakes his head a little. "And-- god, I can see that, Connie. Seeing and understanding someone that deeply and having that same person see and understand you--it's hard not to fall in love in love with them. I'm sure that's when I..." His face heats up and he has to look away from the camera for a moment to get his composure back.

That was the second time he'd almost-- and it wasn't that he didn't think he knew his feelings. It's just-- it was so early. He shouldn't be feeling this way about someone this fast.

God, though, fusion as Connie describes it... it sounds like both the most terrifying and most wonderful thing in the world to him. That kind of deep understanding... the level of acceptance possible from it... what might it be like with Jack? What could it have been like with Charley?

He glances back at the screen. "Well. I'm not surprised it changed your life."

if we can call them friends then we can call them on their telephones

finally here orz

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and there was only one bed

ahahaha GOD

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