Steven Universe (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tigermillionaire) wrote2015-12-18 02:53 pm
tigermillionaire) wrote2015-12-18 02:53 pm
SAVROU APPLICATION: CRAU FROM RYSLIG
OUT OF CHARACTER
Player Name: Quix
Are you 16 or older: Yes
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
quixocalypse
Current Characters: No
Tag: steven universe (crau)
IN CHARACTER
Name: Steven Universe
Canon: Steven Universe
Canon Point: Chille Tid
Age: 11 years old
History:
In terms of canon history, this wiki article covers it pretty extensively. He has experienced the events up to the end of Chille Tid, where he has some weird dream visions of Lapis after a long night spent hunting for Malachite. Originally he was from just after Full Disclosure, but he received a canon update during his stay at Ryslig.
THEN RYSLIG HAPPENED
Steven washed up in Ryslig in the spring, approximately 9 months ago. Newbies to this setting are given quite a lot of deal with straight off the bat – they are informed right away that within a month’s time they are going to start painfully transforming into some kind of monster and will have to eat people to live, and also that there is no way to get home. An intimidating prospect, to be sure. Steven was fortunate enough to arrive alongside his quasi-sister Amethyst, and the two of them were homeless for a few days until they were taken in by a magical queen named Elsa, that was already partly transformed into a kelpie.
The two relevant gods of the setting, the Fog God and the Fourth God, made an early display of being terrifying by aggressively trying to recruit the local monster population into their personal armies. Horrified by both god’s treatment of the local humans, Steven abstained from joining either of them and remained pointedly neutral for his entire stay in Ryslig. While Steven spent his early days preoccupied with trying to make some money by busking on the street, it wasn’t long until the time of his transformation rolled around – one painful night it started with a pair of vines bursting out of his back, along with most of his internal workings shifting into something far more plant like. He was sick from it for a few days, but was optimistic about the transition. He learned to speak to plants early on, and under the coaching of an older nymph named Henry Townshend, he came to appreciate his newfound abilities and form in record time.
Not long after he started shifting, however, a local town called Rota had decided they were sick of being eaten by monsters (which, fair enough) and starting a large scale hunt for every monster they could find. Steven was captured while attempting to reason with them, and spent most of a few days chained up in the back of one of their trucks, being used as bait to lure in other monsters that would be sympathetic to the child’s cries. Eventually he was freed by Amethyst and Ginko (a man turned troll that would, over time, become a close friend and father figure) and was separated from them in the escape. He fled far into the woods to hide and did not emerge for several days, creating a special bond with the tree that he hid in the branches of.
Rota burned to the ground as a result of its residents’ actions, and all the monsters were released or came back to life (as is the way of things, in the setting). For a long time after those events, though, Steven found himself terrified of the local humans and their spite, beginning to think of himself more as a monster than a human. Pearl, one of the gems who acted as a guardian to him at home, arrived in the setting soon after. Pearl, Amethyst, and him started living together in a house in the city and learned to cope with the frequent tragedies that arose. Eventually Lapis, Garnet, and Connie (all cast members) arrived as well, though Garnet and Connie disappeared again soon after. Steven didn’t let it get to him.
Feeling increasingly impotent, it wasn’t until later in the summer that Steven had a chance to really prove his mettle. A group of random monsters became stranded in some kind of weird pocket dimension for a weak, that was filled with frightening magical hounds capable of killing prey with a single touch. Steven proved himself useful on several levels – first, by providing food to those still human enough to need it, and then by discovering the secret of how to destroy the hounds by trapping them in his plants. He was responsible for dispelling over a dozen of the hounds before eventually getting chased off, and was a major contributor to eradicating the threat before everyone was eventually spat back out into Ryslig.
Intent on continuing to be useful, Steven started taking his herbal medicine and first aid skills even more seriously. Unfortunately, in the early fall he almost lethally wounded by other monsters while trying to prevent them from hurting humans during a magically-induced rampage. He was just barely saved by Ginko, Pearl, and a new friend named Edward Elric, and was left shaken by the experience after the fact. He spent most the following month wilted and bald, his body refusing to grow plants as normal and weakened by the coming winter. Deciding that combat was not something he wanted to do, he refocused his attention on his healing abilities, eventually gaining enough favour with the local tree god Tikbalang to regain his healing properties from home. He was reborn out of an enormous flower blossom with a new winter coat of plant life, and a refreshed will.
With the gods’ war becoming increasingly petty and hopeless, Steven, Pearl, and a group of other monsters made an expedition out into the mountains, in the hope of finding a way off of the peninsula. Unfortunately, after days of hard travelling, everyone that made it deep into the mountains were abruptly dragged back to the beginning. Steven tended to the wounds of those hurt by the mission, and while he was discouraged by the lack of success, he did his best to be optimistic. There had to be something they could do to get home, but it seemed like no matter what they did, the gods wouldn’t listen or change. As it was, the Fog God could just keep on dragging in new victims indefinitely.
Which is approximately where Steven will be going through the Ingress. Though sad to be separated from his family (both new and old), he’ll see it as an opportunity – a chance to perhaps rescue the others trapped in Ryslig once and for all.
Personality:
CANON PERSONALITY
Steven is eleven years old and acts like it. Maybe that should seem obvious, but where a lot of series may have their young protagonist act more adult for the sake of the story, Steven Universe does not. The series is very much Steven’s coming of age story, meaning that from the beginning, the inexperience and innocence of Steven’s youth is pivotal to his character. The setting in the show is very much seen through his point of view, and the darker and more complicated aspects only become apparent as Steven becomes equipped to understand them.
He has many traits you’d expect from a child, including a powerful imagination and a keen desire to impress his multiple guardians. He’s only occasionally been pointedly upset with still being young (though he did become so insecure he almost accidentally aged himself to death out of a desire to be more “mature”), and ultimately he is mostly preoccupied with being useful to his family and his team. He has high expectations of himself when it comes to being brave and strong, primarily because he’s been a member of the Crystal Gems, a band of interstellar heroes, for his entire life, and is only just recently began to come into his own as a member. He was extremely excited to be allowed to come on missions with the other Gems, much the same way a more normal kid might be excited when their parents let them pay for groceries at the store.
“I’m magic! Well, half magic. On my mother’s side.”
In terms of normal versus not normal, Steven’s life is pretty strange. Along with feeling a weight of responsibility towards the other Gems that’s unusual for a child, he’s also never participated in a lot of the mundane parts of growing up. He’s never been to school, for instance, or even officially home schooled. His family and the rest of his home town consider him to be more a gem than a human that way – no one seems concerned that he is separated from those parts of human society, because with gem guardians come different priorities and culture. Steven’s priorities are learning how to use his magic gem powers so that he can aid the others in defending the Earth from near constant monster attacks. Needless to say, people seem to be content with just leaving that particular situation be.
He seems fairly well educated, regardless, and can read and write without problems and can also presumably do math. It's likely that he is educated at home to some degree. Generally speaking he has a way of being sort of oblivious to the big picture of what's going on around him (he had no idea what "school" was until Connie explained it to him), though he can be a quick thinker in the moment.
Despite his alien upbringing, Steven values the human facets of his life a great deal. He loves a lot of the things that the average child does, like reading, TV, comic books, and video games. One of his favourite places to be is the donut shop near his house and the local arcade. The balance between Steven’s human and gem halves are an important aspect of his character. He is a natural medium between the two cultures as much as he is a natural medium between people. He also has absolutely zero regard for societal boundaries brought on by bigotry - he cares not for gender roles, and probably wouldn't understand why someone might be homophobic or racist. He openly displays numerous traditionally feminine traits without being at all concerned about how that interacts with his identity as male, and he would see no reason for any one else to doubt themselves for those reasons either.
“Aww, you like her!” “I like everyone!”
Steven is very much a people person (or a “people human” as Pearl would put it) and experiences little in the way of social embarrassment or shame. He’ll talk to anyone like they are his friend, or someone who could be, and it is almost impossible to permanently get on his bad side. He’s very expressive and sometimes a bit over-dramatic when interacting with people, and has a tendency to ham it up for fun. He sees the good in everyone and everything, and naturally craves harmony - Steven does not handle conflict between others well, and will do everything he can to smooth out interpersonal problems. He is excited to see people be kind to each other and to simply be happy. He will be kind to people who might not deserve it, and not because he is oblivious to their flaws, but because he believes that everyone has an inner beauty that can be coaxed out with patience and care.
He feels compassion and hope for everyone he meets, up to and including the gem monsters that he and the other have to fight on a regular basis. Ever since learning that gem monsters could learn to be friendly, he's made it his personal mission to find a way to cure them of their broken condition, and return them to their original humanoid forms. At points he has manifested the ability to heal, and along with his ability to create shields, his primary focuses as a character seems to be the healing and protection of others.
Other people do tend to react well to him, even if he can be a bit much at times. He befriends almost everyone he meets, and is a well known figure around his home town, as the kind of kid that will come up and talk to pretty much everyone. He's creatively talented and intensely musical. He can play several instruments and writes his own songs - sometimes going as far to improvise new material on the spot. He's got a natural flair for showmanship and storytelling, though with a rawness that reflects his youth. He's even has a history as an amateur wrestler, playing the part of his villainous Tiger Millionaire persona, and totally winning over the crowd with his antics. (And winning the Tag Team championship belt, to boot.)
"What would you know about my mom? I didn't even get to know my mom!
But I do know that she saw beauty in everything - even in stuff like this, and even in jerks like you!"
Though Steven is a very bright personality, he does have plenty of points of sadness in his life. The major one is his relationship with his mother, Rose Quartz, the gem that gave up her own life to make him. Steven struggles with the fact that he never got the chance to know her, and often worries that he won't even be able to live up to her well loved example. Steven has to function under the knowledge that someone his guardians all loved very much died so he could be born. In general, the point in which he falters most is his worries about his own abilities and worth to the Crystal Gems and his family. He loves his family very much, and wants desperately to do right by them - and as time passes, he is learning more and more the ways that he can do so.
A recent invasion by the homeworld gems has shaken Steven considerably - he was wounded and abducted onto an alien vessel, with the intent of taking him away from the Earth to be studied. He managed to aid the other Crystal Gems in their escape, but the intensity of the danger in the situation has brought his previous optimism regarding their enemies into question. For the first time, he truly feared for his life at the hands of another sapient creature, and found himself too frightened to even try reasoning with his captors. This event proved to shatter a portion of his youthful innocence - he is now well aware that there are powerful beings out there that want to kill him and his entire family, and no idea how to bring the struggle to an end.
The weight of his responsibilities has begun to wear on him, and though he's been bravely soldiering on, the stress has started to effect him. He almost broke off his close friendship with Connie out of fear that knowing him would get her hurt, and appeared to nearly have a panic attack at the idea of having to worry her by explaining what actually happened. His growing feelings of fear are only worsened by the sense of social isolation that comes from feeling increasingly like the other Crystal Gems blame him for his mother not being around anymore, regardless of whether or not this is actually the case.
Steven is growing up, and as he does the darker aspects of his world are becoming more and more clear to him. He has the misfortune of having a lot more to bear than most kids his age, as admirably as he tries to hold his own.
POST RYSLIG DEVELOPMENT
Steven hasn’t changed as much as one might expect from an experience as harrowing as living in Ryslig. While certainly exposed to a fair amount of horror, and despite being forced to feed on human flesh for several months, he hasn’t actually become hardened or resentful due to his experiences. It’s a testament to the strength of his will and the strength of his hope, more than anything. Even after seeing the worst, he still believes that people are capable of the best. He still believes in his ability to do good to the world around him, and is possibly even more driven to do so after having lived in such a dire environment.
While bad experiences have undoubtedly made him more wary of what evil others are capable of, he’s not cynical about it. He wrestles with that fear of others like it’s an enemy instead of something to be embraced – he wants to trust, even if it’s hard sometimes. Even though he’s been forced to deal with monstrous urges for most of his stay in Ryslig, he has managed to avoid ever seriously hurting anyone – his food has come entirely from scavenging, and even in his most feral states he has managed to hold himself back from violence. He’s aware that he was luckier than some monsters – nymphs could survive without ever making a kill, but some others couldn’t feed without taking a life. Given their situation this was functionally impossible to avoid, and thought it troubles him greatly, Steven has become wizened enough to realize that sometimes there are unavoidable evils, and would not hold his own pacifism over other’s heads.
“I'm always gunna be okay eventually. It's how it works.”
Alongside the wisdom and caution that defines most of his personality development through Ryslig, simply being a nymph has caused a major change in focus for him. Given that nymphs are naturally capable of communicating with all plant life, this has essentially become another axis for Steven to be kind and empathetic. Killing a tree hurts him on a similar level to killing a human, and though he accepts human’s need to harvest plant life to some degree, he will urgently discourage anyone he can from causing them unnecessary harm. Balancing his loyalty towards humans and his loyalty towards flora is the source of a constant struggle for him – especially because, in some way, he is capable of having a deeper connection with plants given the nature of their direct empathetic connection.
Much of his life in Ryslig had become based around caring for and utilizing the healing properties of plant life, and he values that connection so much that he has come to fear the possibility of returning to his human/gem body and losing that ability to communicate. Though he continues to hate the need to feed on humans, he loves just about every other facet of being a nymph and would decidedly be completely happy being one forever provided he could discard that need to feed and hurt others.
Also, he does a lot of weird animalistic things he never did before, like growling and making weird chirping sounds when he’s distressed. He’s chill with it.
Abilities/Skills: I’m intending on rolling with Steven’s Ryslig power set instead of going back to his canon one, which means that instead of gem powers he’ll have nymph powers.
CONNECTION TO NATURE: Being a nymph, Steven has an essentially telepathic connection to all forms of plant life, and is capable of communicating with them to whatever degree they are capable of (which tends to vary depending on the life form: grass could be considered on the level of insects, while trees are more or less comparable to humans) and is also capable of completely taking control of them if necessary. He can lend his energy to plants to allow them to grow at an extremely fast pace, as well as to heal them of injuries and sickness.
A nymph is capable of joining their life force with one tree in particular, which becomes their companion tree. When nearby it, they are much stronger and more filled with energy, but if it is hurt or cut down they are at risk of dying as well due to the connection. Steven had one in Ryslig but will have to find a new one on the Moira.
NATURAL HEALER: His literal body has healing properties – consuming his fruit, flesh, or bodily fluids can heal any living creature of injuries to varying degrees depending on the vitality of the part of him being consumed. (Drinking his blood would be more potent than eating his fruit, but that’s weird.) Applying these things externally has a similar effect, too, and Steven can push more of his energy through the substance if need be. His favoured method of doing this is by giving people the fruit that grows on his back, but he’s also inclined to use his healing saliva on people. When possible, he uses the faint healing properties of his leaves to make things like tea and healing balms.
MONSTER STRENGTH: All monsters have approximately 5 times the strength of an average, sturdy human. Steven doesn’t weigh a lot, though, so he isn’t as good at throwing it around as some, and usually needs to ground himself to be able to use it fully.
PERFORMER: He can sing! He can dance! He can play a ton of musical instruments! This is one thing unrelated to being a nymph.
STICKY SAP: The flower bud at the end of his tail sometimes opens up and becomes capable of ejecting this extremely sticky sap/nectar substance that can be used to trap and entangle prey. He’s accidentally stuck himself to the ground with it before, though, so he prefers to be cautious in its usage.
NIMBLE PHYSIQUE: Steven’s leg shape and claws make him pretty good at running around and climbing on stuff (especially trees.) When trying to get somewhere in a hurry he ends up scampering on all fours more often than not, and just considers that normal at this point.
CLAW AND FANG: He’s got sharp teeth and claws. The teeth release a poison that can put people into a deep sleep, and his hands and feet are actually roots that can be used to pierce a creature’s body and consume it from the inside out. He doesn’t do that to stuff unless it’s dead though, because wow, could you even imagine.
PLANT BODY: Steven’s body is more plant than mammal at this point, and has a number of related qualities and defenses. The smaller plants that grow on him change by the season, and he carries the same traits that the plants he grows does – a poisonous plant will make him poisonous, a plant with spores will have the usual effects, etc. Much of his body is covered with a particular moss that his mothered raised, which is magically and capable of moving of its own volition. It is capable of smothering a person into a kind of stasis-coma until they are released from its hold. Steven can turn into this kind of moss while sleeping, as well as a few other types of plants, as a kind of natural camoflague. He also has four long rose vines that grow out of his back and are strong enough to grapple with and use as extra limbs.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
Items:
SAMPLES
Network Sample: A Ryslig Network Post
Prose/Action Sample:
Steven could feel the trees long before he made it to the gardens, like a beacon of light within the darkness of the Moira’s metal hull. It’s weird for him, being here. Usually plant life is always lingering somewhere nearby – on the ground near the wall, in the forest outside of town, in the fields. Here, though, there are large areas that don’t feel like anything at all.
He was so incredibly relieved to hear about this place. He didn’t know how he’d survive in a ship with no greenery at all – his mind lingered on the images of the gem space vessels, all energy and something like stone or metal. He wonders what the trees here will be like. Will they still be the same? He’s never been sure how much of nymph life was Ryslig specific, and now he’s finally going to know once and for all.
When he enters the garden, he is immediately surrounded with the vibrancy of the life within – voices soft and melodic like the humming of crickets at night. His leafy ears rise in enthusiasm and relief, and he scampers over to some strange flowers that he knows by instinct but has never seen before.
“Hi there, I’m Steven!”
He brushes a pair of green root claws against the edges of their blossoms, like someone petting a kitten. The plants don’t recognize what he is immediately. He guesses they’ve never communicated with something both plant and animal before. It’s okay, though! They’ll have some time to get to know each other, it sounds like. He keeps talking out loud, even though all of their interactions are happening on a level beyond that.
“I’m a nymph! I’m like you...but different, I guess. It’s kind of a long story, but you’ll get used to it. This whole place is probably weird for you, huh?” The garden is strange in how different plants are sectioned away by the technology meant to sustain them. Definitely not much like the winding forests he’s accustomed to. “...Me too.” He hunkers down a little, sighing. “I didn’t expect to be here either...but I think it’s going to be okay, eventually. I hope so.”
He’s silent for a moment, and then his tail swishes with renewed interest.
“I’m from Earth. Where are you from?”
Are you 16 or older: Yes
Contact:
Current Characters: No
Tag: steven universe (crau)
IN CHARACTER
Name: Steven Universe
Canon: Steven Universe
Canon Point: Chille Tid
Age: 11 years old
History:
In terms of canon history, this wiki article covers it pretty extensively. He has experienced the events up to the end of Chille Tid, where he has some weird dream visions of Lapis after a long night spent hunting for Malachite. Originally he was from just after Full Disclosure, but he received a canon update during his stay at Ryslig.
THEN RYSLIG HAPPENED
Steven washed up in Ryslig in the spring, approximately 9 months ago. Newbies to this setting are given quite a lot of deal with straight off the bat – they are informed right away that within a month’s time they are going to start painfully transforming into some kind of monster and will have to eat people to live, and also that there is no way to get home. An intimidating prospect, to be sure. Steven was fortunate enough to arrive alongside his quasi-sister Amethyst, and the two of them were homeless for a few days until they were taken in by a magical queen named Elsa, that was already partly transformed into a kelpie.
The two relevant gods of the setting, the Fog God and the Fourth God, made an early display of being terrifying by aggressively trying to recruit the local monster population into their personal armies. Horrified by both god’s treatment of the local humans, Steven abstained from joining either of them and remained pointedly neutral for his entire stay in Ryslig. While Steven spent his early days preoccupied with trying to make some money by busking on the street, it wasn’t long until the time of his transformation rolled around – one painful night it started with a pair of vines bursting out of his back, along with most of his internal workings shifting into something far more plant like. He was sick from it for a few days, but was optimistic about the transition. He learned to speak to plants early on, and under the coaching of an older nymph named Henry Townshend, he came to appreciate his newfound abilities and form in record time.
Not long after he started shifting, however, a local town called Rota had decided they were sick of being eaten by monsters (which, fair enough) and starting a large scale hunt for every monster they could find. Steven was captured while attempting to reason with them, and spent most of a few days chained up in the back of one of their trucks, being used as bait to lure in other monsters that would be sympathetic to the child’s cries. Eventually he was freed by Amethyst and Ginko (a man turned troll that would, over time, become a close friend and father figure) and was separated from them in the escape. He fled far into the woods to hide and did not emerge for several days, creating a special bond with the tree that he hid in the branches of.
Rota burned to the ground as a result of its residents’ actions, and all the monsters were released or came back to life (as is the way of things, in the setting). For a long time after those events, though, Steven found himself terrified of the local humans and their spite, beginning to think of himself more as a monster than a human. Pearl, one of the gems who acted as a guardian to him at home, arrived in the setting soon after. Pearl, Amethyst, and him started living together in a house in the city and learned to cope with the frequent tragedies that arose. Eventually Lapis, Garnet, and Connie (all cast members) arrived as well, though Garnet and Connie disappeared again soon after. Steven didn’t let it get to him.
Feeling increasingly impotent, it wasn’t until later in the summer that Steven had a chance to really prove his mettle. A group of random monsters became stranded in some kind of weird pocket dimension for a weak, that was filled with frightening magical hounds capable of killing prey with a single touch. Steven proved himself useful on several levels – first, by providing food to those still human enough to need it, and then by discovering the secret of how to destroy the hounds by trapping them in his plants. He was responsible for dispelling over a dozen of the hounds before eventually getting chased off, and was a major contributor to eradicating the threat before everyone was eventually spat back out into Ryslig.
Intent on continuing to be useful, Steven started taking his herbal medicine and first aid skills even more seriously. Unfortunately, in the early fall he almost lethally wounded by other monsters while trying to prevent them from hurting humans during a magically-induced rampage. He was just barely saved by Ginko, Pearl, and a new friend named Edward Elric, and was left shaken by the experience after the fact. He spent most the following month wilted and bald, his body refusing to grow plants as normal and weakened by the coming winter. Deciding that combat was not something he wanted to do, he refocused his attention on his healing abilities, eventually gaining enough favour with the local tree god Tikbalang to regain his healing properties from home. He was reborn out of an enormous flower blossom with a new winter coat of plant life, and a refreshed will.
With the gods’ war becoming increasingly petty and hopeless, Steven, Pearl, and a group of other monsters made an expedition out into the mountains, in the hope of finding a way off of the peninsula. Unfortunately, after days of hard travelling, everyone that made it deep into the mountains were abruptly dragged back to the beginning. Steven tended to the wounds of those hurt by the mission, and while he was discouraged by the lack of success, he did his best to be optimistic. There had to be something they could do to get home, but it seemed like no matter what they did, the gods wouldn’t listen or change. As it was, the Fog God could just keep on dragging in new victims indefinitely.
Which is approximately where Steven will be going through the Ingress. Though sad to be separated from his family (both new and old), he’ll see it as an opportunity – a chance to perhaps rescue the others trapped in Ryslig once and for all.
Personality:
CANON PERSONALITY
Steven is eleven years old and acts like it. Maybe that should seem obvious, but where a lot of series may have their young protagonist act more adult for the sake of the story, Steven Universe does not. The series is very much Steven’s coming of age story, meaning that from the beginning, the inexperience and innocence of Steven’s youth is pivotal to his character. The setting in the show is very much seen through his point of view, and the darker and more complicated aspects only become apparent as Steven becomes equipped to understand them.
He has many traits you’d expect from a child, including a powerful imagination and a keen desire to impress his multiple guardians. He’s only occasionally been pointedly upset with still being young (though he did become so insecure he almost accidentally aged himself to death out of a desire to be more “mature”), and ultimately he is mostly preoccupied with being useful to his family and his team. He has high expectations of himself when it comes to being brave and strong, primarily because he’s been a member of the Crystal Gems, a band of interstellar heroes, for his entire life, and is only just recently began to come into his own as a member. He was extremely excited to be allowed to come on missions with the other Gems, much the same way a more normal kid might be excited when their parents let them pay for groceries at the store.
In terms of normal versus not normal, Steven’s life is pretty strange. Along with feeling a weight of responsibility towards the other Gems that’s unusual for a child, he’s also never participated in a lot of the mundane parts of growing up. He’s never been to school, for instance, or even officially home schooled. His family and the rest of his home town consider him to be more a gem than a human that way – no one seems concerned that he is separated from those parts of human society, because with gem guardians come different priorities and culture. Steven’s priorities are learning how to use his magic gem powers so that he can aid the others in defending the Earth from near constant monster attacks. Needless to say, people seem to be content with just leaving that particular situation be.
He seems fairly well educated, regardless, and can read and write without problems and can also presumably do math. It's likely that he is educated at home to some degree. Generally speaking he has a way of being sort of oblivious to the big picture of what's going on around him (he had no idea what "school" was until Connie explained it to him), though he can be a quick thinker in the moment.
Despite his alien upbringing, Steven values the human facets of his life a great deal. He loves a lot of the things that the average child does, like reading, TV, comic books, and video games. One of his favourite places to be is the donut shop near his house and the local arcade. The balance between Steven’s human and gem halves are an important aspect of his character. He is a natural medium between the two cultures as much as he is a natural medium between people. He also has absolutely zero regard for societal boundaries brought on by bigotry - he cares not for gender roles, and probably wouldn't understand why someone might be homophobic or racist. He openly displays numerous traditionally feminine traits without being at all concerned about how that interacts with his identity as male, and he would see no reason for any one else to doubt themselves for those reasons either.
Steven is very much a people person (or a “people human” as Pearl would put it) and experiences little in the way of social embarrassment or shame. He’ll talk to anyone like they are his friend, or someone who could be, and it is almost impossible to permanently get on his bad side. He’s very expressive and sometimes a bit over-dramatic when interacting with people, and has a tendency to ham it up for fun. He sees the good in everyone and everything, and naturally craves harmony - Steven does not handle conflict between others well, and will do everything he can to smooth out interpersonal problems. He is excited to see people be kind to each other and to simply be happy. He will be kind to people who might not deserve it, and not because he is oblivious to their flaws, but because he believes that everyone has an inner beauty that can be coaxed out with patience and care.
He feels compassion and hope for everyone he meets, up to and including the gem monsters that he and the other have to fight on a regular basis. Ever since learning that gem monsters could learn to be friendly, he's made it his personal mission to find a way to cure them of their broken condition, and return them to their original humanoid forms. At points he has manifested the ability to heal, and along with his ability to create shields, his primary focuses as a character seems to be the healing and protection of others.
Other people do tend to react well to him, even if he can be a bit much at times. He befriends almost everyone he meets, and is a well known figure around his home town, as the kind of kid that will come up and talk to pretty much everyone. He's creatively talented and intensely musical. He can play several instruments and writes his own songs - sometimes going as far to improvise new material on the spot. He's got a natural flair for showmanship and storytelling, though with a rawness that reflects his youth. He's even has a history as an amateur wrestler, playing the part of his villainous Tiger Millionaire persona, and totally winning over the crowd with his antics. (And winning the Tag Team championship belt, to boot.)
But I do know that she saw beauty in everything - even in stuff like this, and even in jerks like you!"
Though Steven is a very bright personality, he does have plenty of points of sadness in his life. The major one is his relationship with his mother, Rose Quartz, the gem that gave up her own life to make him. Steven struggles with the fact that he never got the chance to know her, and often worries that he won't even be able to live up to her well loved example. Steven has to function under the knowledge that someone his guardians all loved very much died so he could be born. In general, the point in which he falters most is his worries about his own abilities and worth to the Crystal Gems and his family. He loves his family very much, and wants desperately to do right by them - and as time passes, he is learning more and more the ways that he can do so.
A recent invasion by the homeworld gems has shaken Steven considerably - he was wounded and abducted onto an alien vessel, with the intent of taking him away from the Earth to be studied. He managed to aid the other Crystal Gems in their escape, but the intensity of the danger in the situation has brought his previous optimism regarding their enemies into question. For the first time, he truly feared for his life at the hands of another sapient creature, and found himself too frightened to even try reasoning with his captors. This event proved to shatter a portion of his youthful innocence - he is now well aware that there are powerful beings out there that want to kill him and his entire family, and no idea how to bring the struggle to an end.
The weight of his responsibilities has begun to wear on him, and though he's been bravely soldiering on, the stress has started to effect him. He almost broke off his close friendship with Connie out of fear that knowing him would get her hurt, and appeared to nearly have a panic attack at the idea of having to worry her by explaining what actually happened. His growing feelings of fear are only worsened by the sense of social isolation that comes from feeling increasingly like the other Crystal Gems blame him for his mother not being around anymore, regardless of whether or not this is actually the case.
Steven is growing up, and as he does the darker aspects of his world are becoming more and more clear to him. He has the misfortune of having a lot more to bear than most kids his age, as admirably as he tries to hold his own.
POST RYSLIG DEVELOPMENT
Steven hasn’t changed as much as one might expect from an experience as harrowing as living in Ryslig. While certainly exposed to a fair amount of horror, and despite being forced to feed on human flesh for several months, he hasn’t actually become hardened or resentful due to his experiences. It’s a testament to the strength of his will and the strength of his hope, more than anything. Even after seeing the worst, he still believes that people are capable of the best. He still believes in his ability to do good to the world around him, and is possibly even more driven to do so after having lived in such a dire environment.
While bad experiences have undoubtedly made him more wary of what evil others are capable of, he’s not cynical about it. He wrestles with that fear of others like it’s an enemy instead of something to be embraced – he wants to trust, even if it’s hard sometimes. Even though he’s been forced to deal with monstrous urges for most of his stay in Ryslig, he has managed to avoid ever seriously hurting anyone – his food has come entirely from scavenging, and even in his most feral states he has managed to hold himself back from violence. He’s aware that he was luckier than some monsters – nymphs could survive without ever making a kill, but some others couldn’t feed without taking a life. Given their situation this was functionally impossible to avoid, and thought it troubles him greatly, Steven has become wizened enough to realize that sometimes there are unavoidable evils, and would not hold his own pacifism over other’s heads.
Alongside the wisdom and caution that defines most of his personality development through Ryslig, simply being a nymph has caused a major change in focus for him. Given that nymphs are naturally capable of communicating with all plant life, this has essentially become another axis for Steven to be kind and empathetic. Killing a tree hurts him on a similar level to killing a human, and though he accepts human’s need to harvest plant life to some degree, he will urgently discourage anyone he can from causing them unnecessary harm. Balancing his loyalty towards humans and his loyalty towards flora is the source of a constant struggle for him – especially because, in some way, he is capable of having a deeper connection with plants given the nature of their direct empathetic connection.
Much of his life in Ryslig had become based around caring for and utilizing the healing properties of plant life, and he values that connection so much that he has come to fear the possibility of returning to his human/gem body and losing that ability to communicate. Though he continues to hate the need to feed on humans, he loves just about every other facet of being a nymph and would decidedly be completely happy being one forever provided he could discard that need to feed and hurt others.
Also, he does a lot of weird animalistic things he never did before, like growling and making weird chirping sounds when he’s distressed. He’s chill with it.
Abilities/Skills: I’m intending on rolling with Steven’s Ryslig power set instead of going back to his canon one, which means that instead of gem powers he’ll have nymph powers.
CONNECTION TO NATURE: Being a nymph, Steven has an essentially telepathic connection to all forms of plant life, and is capable of communicating with them to whatever degree they are capable of (which tends to vary depending on the life form: grass could be considered on the level of insects, while trees are more or less comparable to humans) and is also capable of completely taking control of them if necessary. He can lend his energy to plants to allow them to grow at an extremely fast pace, as well as to heal them of injuries and sickness.
A nymph is capable of joining their life force with one tree in particular, which becomes their companion tree. When nearby it, they are much stronger and more filled with energy, but if it is hurt or cut down they are at risk of dying as well due to the connection. Steven had one in Ryslig but will have to find a new one on the Moira.
NATURAL HEALER: His literal body has healing properties – consuming his fruit, flesh, or bodily fluids can heal any living creature of injuries to varying degrees depending on the vitality of the part of him being consumed. (Drinking his blood would be more potent than eating his fruit, but that’s weird.) Applying these things externally has a similar effect, too, and Steven can push more of his energy through the substance if need be. His favoured method of doing this is by giving people the fruit that grows on his back, but he’s also inclined to use his healing saliva on people. When possible, he uses the faint healing properties of his leaves to make things like tea and healing balms.
MONSTER STRENGTH: All monsters have approximately 5 times the strength of an average, sturdy human. Steven doesn’t weigh a lot, though, so he isn’t as good at throwing it around as some, and usually needs to ground himself to be able to use it fully.
PERFORMER: He can sing! He can dance! He can play a ton of musical instruments! This is one thing unrelated to being a nymph.
STICKY SAP: The flower bud at the end of his tail sometimes opens up and becomes capable of ejecting this extremely sticky sap/nectar substance that can be used to trap and entangle prey. He’s accidentally stuck himself to the ground with it before, though, so he prefers to be cautious in its usage.
NIMBLE PHYSIQUE: Steven’s leg shape and claws make him pretty good at running around and climbing on stuff (especially trees.) When trying to get somewhere in a hurry he ends up scampering on all fours more often than not, and just considers that normal at this point.
CLAW AND FANG: He’s got sharp teeth and claws. The teeth release a poison that can put people into a deep sleep, and his hands and feet are actually roots that can be used to pierce a creature’s body and consume it from the inside out. He doesn’t do that to stuff unless it’s dead though, because wow, could you even imagine.
PLANT BODY: Steven’s body is more plant than mammal at this point, and has a number of related qualities and defenses. The smaller plants that grow on him change by the season, and he carries the same traits that the plants he grows does – a poisonous plant will make him poisonous, a plant with spores will have the usual effects, etc. Much of his body is covered with a particular moss that his mothered raised, which is magically and capable of moving of its own volition. It is capable of smothering a person into a kind of stasis-coma until they are released from its hold. Steven can turn into this kind of moss while sleeping, as well as a few other types of plants, as a kind of natural camoflague. He also has four long rose vines that grow out of his back and are strong enough to grapple with and use as extra limbs.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
STRENGTHS
- friend to all: Steven is very empathetic and genuinely charming.
- talented: naturally inclined to most performance art.
- healer in training: has learned first aid and herbal medicine.
- green thumb: as a nymph, he is amazing at growing and caring for all plants.
WEAKNESSES
- highly flammable: fire can easily kill him to death and he’s afraid of it.
- cold sensitive: he gets lethargic and sick in climates any colder than “temperate”.
- photosynthesis: requires sunlight to live.
- he's like eleven.
Items:
- bag of seeds (various)
- bag of gold, silver, bronze, and copper coins
- first aid satchel with herbal remedies
- a notable absence of clothing
SAMPLES
Network Sample: A Ryslig Network Post
Prose/Action Sample:
Steven could feel the trees long before he made it to the gardens, like a beacon of light within the darkness of the Moira’s metal hull. It’s weird for him, being here. Usually plant life is always lingering somewhere nearby – on the ground near the wall, in the forest outside of town, in the fields. Here, though, there are large areas that don’t feel like anything at all.
He was so incredibly relieved to hear about this place. He didn’t know how he’d survive in a ship with no greenery at all – his mind lingered on the images of the gem space vessels, all energy and something like stone or metal. He wonders what the trees here will be like. Will they still be the same? He’s never been sure how much of nymph life was Ryslig specific, and now he’s finally going to know once and for all.
When he enters the garden, he is immediately surrounded with the vibrancy of the life within – voices soft and melodic like the humming of crickets at night. His leafy ears rise in enthusiasm and relief, and he scampers over to some strange flowers that he knows by instinct but has never seen before.
“Hi there, I’m Steven!”
He brushes a pair of green root claws against the edges of their blossoms, like someone petting a kitten. The plants don’t recognize what he is immediately. He guesses they’ve never communicated with something both plant and animal before. It’s okay, though! They’ll have some time to get to know each other, it sounds like. He keeps talking out loud, even though all of their interactions are happening on a level beyond that.
“I’m a nymph! I’m like you...but different, I guess. It’s kind of a long story, but you’ll get used to it. This whole place is probably weird for you, huh?” The garden is strange in how different plants are sectioned away by the technology meant to sustain them. Definitely not much like the winding forests he’s accustomed to. “...Me too.” He hunkers down a little, sighing. “I didn’t expect to be here either...but I think it’s going to be okay, eventually. I hope so.”
He’s silent for a moment, and then his tail swishes with renewed interest.
“I’m from Earth. Where are you from?”