[ Steven is taken aback in the sort of quiet way people sometimes are when they encounter an emotional sledgehammer.
He's good at empathy. It's his thing. Someone has something going on, and he stops and he thinks about what he can unpack for them. 'I'm not the same as you, exactly, but I understand enough of this to have a foot in the door, to know what you mean when you tell me about it and why it hurts.' Or sometimes he doesn't really understand it at all, and all he can do is listen, bear what comes his way until they're tired enough, until they've vented enough of it out to go forward.
So this is weird. As many times as he's dug out pieces of himself to offer, it's kind of like being a one-way mirror from one of those cheesy TV shows. Showing people pieces of themselves they can recognize. They're looking at them. He's also looking at them.
It's really rare that Steven looks at another person and thinks there's enough big pieces to reflect that they both might... be looking at each other through a window, with themselves sort of also laid over in the reflection?
Rare because he doesn't look for it. Rare because people don't tend to do what he does back at him. Which is fine, obviously, it's not like that's why he tries to help them.
Usually this kind of thing only happens when he's, uh. Literally looking at himself. (He looked at Amethyst once and felt it. And it was a good thing back when he did, because it meant they weren't totally alone feeling like they were. But it changed.)
Steven hears nothing changes for me and everybody moves on but me and having no choice but to do something sort of feels better, and he thinks you're like me-- oh no, you're like me-- turns to Kevin with a heavy, helpless laugh that strains on the way out. ]
Yeah, it sucks, right? [ Relief like this has never meshed well with guilt for feeling relief, but he can multi-task. ] But hey, if you ever wanna... not wish it on anyone else together, at least we know where the other one lives?
[ Local teen offers to form "well it's too late for me probably" support group with fellow emotional workhorse for home universe adults. ]
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He's good at empathy. It's his thing. Someone has something going on, and he stops and he thinks about what he can unpack for them. 'I'm not the same as you, exactly, but I understand enough of this to have a foot in the door, to know what you mean when you tell me about it and why it hurts.' Or sometimes he doesn't really understand it at all, and all he can do is listen, bear what comes his way until they're tired enough, until they've vented enough of it out to go forward.
So this is weird. As many times as he's dug out pieces of himself to offer, it's kind of like being a one-way mirror from one of those cheesy TV shows. Showing people pieces of themselves they can recognize. They're looking at them. He's also looking at them.
It's really rare that Steven looks at another person and thinks there's enough big pieces to reflect that they both might... be looking at each other through a window, with themselves sort of also laid over in the reflection?
Rare because he doesn't look for it. Rare because people don't tend to do what he does back at him. Which is fine, obviously, it's not like that's why he tries to help them.
Usually this kind of thing only happens when he's, uh. Literally looking at himself. (He looked at Amethyst once and felt it. And it was a good thing back when he did, because it meant they weren't totally alone feeling like they were. But it changed.)
Steven hears nothing changes for me and everybody moves on but me and having no choice but to do something sort of feels better, and he thinks you're like me-- oh no, you're like me-- turns to Kevin with a heavy, helpless laugh that strains on the way out. ]
Yeah, it sucks, right? [ Relief like this has never meshed well with guilt for feeling relief, but he can multi-task. ] But hey, if you ever wanna... not wish it on anyone else together, at least we know where the other one lives?
[ Local teen offers to form "well it's too late for me probably" support group with fellow emotional workhorse for home universe adults. ]