stevie universe (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} lovelikeyou) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} noexits,@ 2022-01-01 11:45:00 |
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Matt & Stevie
Morning, Before This | Green House | SFWMatt apologizes to Stevie. Stevie had no idea he sorta murdered her last week. Stevie goes from pink and glowing to pink and glowing and seven feet tall, so clearly that went well.
Guilt weighed on Matt heavily, a burden that grew the more he thought about what he’d done, and made worse by reading the comments of those who had clamored over how the unknown murderer should be punished. If it hadn’t been for Richie, Matt would’ve publicly confessed long before and submitted himself to the likes of Carver, who was bloodthirsty for revenge. Frankly, being torn apart by Carver was what he deserved, and he was mentally prepared to experience it over and over again because that’s what his tortured mind was doing to him already. It might’ve been better if Father Paul was still around to speak to, but Matt considered it part of God’s punishment that the only priest to ever show up in Derleth would disappear when he needed confession the most. As it now stood, Matt needed to beg for Stevie’s forgiveness.
Waking up without the ability to see was disappointing, but something he expected and had prepared himself for in the days and hours leading up to the reset. It felt unfair, that the one thing he’d wanted for so long was given to him, but completely spoiled so he couldn’t fully enjoy it. At least now he had mental images to hold on to as he walked through the campus, using his other senses to navigate toward the greenhouse.
Stevie was there already, alone… Matt could tell from far away as he honed in on the area. It was still early enough that nobody else was in the vicinity. Good. Matt wanted privacy, at least for this. If Stevie chose to tell anybody else what had happened, he would not stop her. He knocked on the greenhouse door and announced his arrival with a hesitant, “Stevie?” before going inside.
Oh right. Matt was blind. Finally! Someone who wasn’t going to comment on her appearance or question her about what happened last week. Stevie let out a sigh of relief, and the pink glow of her skin faded back to her normal, human passing complexion.
“Oh, hey! What do you need?”
Maybe he wanted her help? Maybe he wanted her to heal his eyes? So he could see like last week when he was a hunter? Her demeanor changed, her expression brightened. This was something she could do. Something within her control. The week was looking up already!
She had no memory of what this was really about.
Matt wasn’t able to see how Stevie’s color was different, but he could tell she was in an agitated state by, among other things, her high pulse rate. She must be nervous or afraid, and Matt automatically assumed it was about him. Was she afraid he was going to hurt her again? As much as he knew he needed to speak with her, he’d been also dreading it, and this made it all the more worse.
Swallowing back his anxiety, he stammered as he spoke. “It… it’s about last week. I, uh… I don’t… I mean….” He started to choke up with tears welling in his sightless eyes. “Stevie, I’m so sorry for what I did. I wasn’t… in my right mind, but that… that doesn’t excuse my behavior. I shot and killed you… and despite the reset, that’s something I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life.” He hung his head low. “I wouldn’t blame you for wanting me punished.”
He felt it necessary to be punished. Anything to atone.
It only took Matt to mention last week and the way he stammered for the glowing pink to return along with her anxiety. She almost had an entire minute of normalcy. Now she felt trapped in the Green House with Mathew’s guilt.
Of course, it was bad enough, everyone asking Stevie how she was and how she felt, when that was the last thing she wanted to think about. At least with Matthew’s blindness, she didn’t have to restrain herself from making gestures (or so she thought) pulling at her hair with both hands to feel some sense of control and grounding.
But then the conversation got worse, and she was faced with the person who did this to her. Or stopped her. She wasn’t sure. (She wasn’t a monster. She wasn’t a monster. She wasn’t a monster…)
“Punished?” Stevie managed. Her voice retained that same level of chipper she’d taken on all morning even as her face started to bulge grotesquely, fingers swelling to the size of sausages and then normal, her body hulking and small and hulking and small in different places to every other heartbeat as she tried to keep herself together. “Why would I want you to be punished? I’m okay! You’re okay! That’s all that matters now.”
Stevie ballooned to the size and stature of a gorilla then back to herself. Then back to a solidly built seven foot tall version of herself, towering over Matt before her shapeshifting stabilized. She looked so much like her mother then. Stevie caught her reflection in the greenhouse glass and quickly looked away.
Matt couldn’t see any of this, right? It was fine. Except the strange noise of muscle and skin stretching and retracting as her size had pulsed inhumanly. Or the fact that her voice now came from above him.
“I forgive you so it’s all good! Don’t beat yourself up about it! Let’s just forget it ever happened. Okay? Great!”
What the hell was going on? Matt turned his head slightly to one side to listen, but besides the strange stretching noises, he could also feel the displacement of her body by using his echo-location. Not being able to see made it all the more frightening, because he could only imagine what Stevie was going through, and from his perspective, it was horrific. All the while, Stevie’s voice struggled to remain falsely positive, which Matt assumed was a front to begin with.
Panic set in, not for his own safety, but hers. “S-Stevie? Wh-what’s happening?” He took a couple paces backward, but was determined not to leave until he knew she was alright. “Do you need help?” he asked, his worry clearly evident. “Should I get somebody?” His mind raced, wondering who he would even ask. A doctor, or maybe one of the magicians? He was ready to put out an open call over the network if he had to.
Stevie forced a small chuckle as if what Matt said was funny. “Oh! Right, you can’t see. I’m a shapeshifter so, I-- no, no. This is perfectly fine! It’s normal for me. Don’t worry about it!”
She interpreted the steps backward he took as fear of her. And maybe he should be afraid. Stevie certainly wasn’t going to allow herself to feel afraid of someone human. Besides, he apologized, he clearly felt bad. So many of her friends started out as enemies hell bent on killing her. So this was great, right? They’d be friends now and everyone could just go along their way.
“I mean, I can’t always control it. Sometimes I just look like I feel.” Like that time Stevie looked about 10 years old for nearly half her life. She was her feelings. Her age reflected her feelings. Her size. Her color. Her hair, which was fluffy now in a style not too unlike her mother’s. When Stevie said her super power was her feelings, she meant it literally.
“So, thanks for the apology! I hope you enjoy the rest of the week!”
Stevie eyed the exit.
Matt was already aware of Stevie’s miraculous healing abilities, and how she created those watermelon people to help fight the Loki aliens… shapeshifting was a part of her repertoire too? Now that he thought about it, he remembered a while back when Natasha asked people to detail their special talents for future reference, and while he couldn’t recall everything Stevie had listed he did remember being pretty amazed by the amount of things she could do. It was a lot for a young person to carry, so he could believe she wasn’t in full control of her shapeshifting, but that forced cheerfulness of hers was bullshit. Obviously she was stressed out, about what Matt could guess it had something to do with last week, but now he wondered whether or not it was specifically about the part he played. He still felt awful about what he’d done, but at the moment it was being overridden by his concern for Stevie’s well being.
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, considering what she said, and more importantly how he should respond. It would be heartless to turn away from her in this condition, but at the same time he wanted to respect her privacy.
“If you’re having trouble, it’s not going to do you any good to hide it,” he plainly told her. “It’s only going to make it worse, and there are people who really care about you who will worry. You don’t have to tell me, but at least talk to somebody you’re close to.”
Her tone changed, perhaps genuine for the first time during their exchange when she said, “Trust me, I know.” It sounded like a tired, verbal sigh. If Stevie could hide turning bright pink and being seven feet tall, she would have in a heartbeat.
But that wasn’t exactly what Matt meant, she realized, when he brought up talking to someone about it. Her mind flashed to earlier that morning with Carver and Stevie felt an uncomfortable lead weight of guilt in her stomach, remembering how that interaction went. Her body began to change again, bulging and shrinking as her thoughts started to race again, wondering if she’d really messed up that morning by the way she acted. Stevie was supposed to be a good person. She wasn’t a--
Stevie closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, willing herself to calm down, her body settling once more at a height closer to seven feet.
“I should go,” she said. But that forced chipperness came back to her voice. She just had to fake it for a little while until she actually felt that way, right? “I think I just need a little fresh air. I’ll just go on a walk. Glad we had this talk!”
It started happening again, that bizarre and frankly grotesque growing and shrinking of limbs, which made Matt take another step away. The image of the Hulk came to mind, a monster that Dr. Banner wasn’t able to control, but luckily Stevie could - Matt heard her breathing patterns change from frantic to being measured, and her heart rate slow down, so that was a relief.
Somebody ought to be told what Stevie was going through, and he didn’t trust her to seek that help on her own. Not by the way she kept pretending that nothing was the matter when he’d basically called her out.
“I’ll go,” Matt said, lifting his hand to gesture for her to stop. “It’s private here, and… you probably won’t be bothered by anybody else.” That was what Matt would want if he was in her place… and actually, it was what he would ultimately seek out for himself once he exited. He hadn’t been sure what to expect when he came into this conversation, but it sure wasn’t this. The whole exchange had made him feel hollow and numb, his own guilt left unresolved.
Head hanging, he stepped through the door, mumbling, “Take care of yourself, okay?”
“Yep! Will do!”
Stevie waved, only realizing afterward he wouldn’t see her waving as he left, trying to shrug off the feeling she’d been a disappointment somehow. Should she have offered to heal his eyes? Maybe that would have been better. Unless that would be insulting or rude?
Once he was gone, Stevie was surrounded by plants. She eyed them nervously, remembering the last time she was in this state and used her healing powers to try and revive a few wilting plants at Little Home School.
“...I gotta get out of here.”
Carefully, as not to touch anything, Stevie left and left campus in a jog. She saw the small town up ahead and thought about entering… then thought better of it and decided to explore the world they landed on instead.
Waking up without the ability to see was disappointing, but something he expected and had prepared himself for in the days and hours leading up to the reset. It felt unfair, that the one thing he’d wanted for so long was given to him, but completely spoiled so he couldn’t fully enjoy it. At least now he had mental images to hold on to as he walked through the campus, using his other senses to navigate toward the greenhouse.
Stevie was there already, alone… Matt could tell from far away as he honed in on the area. It was still early enough that nobody else was in the vicinity. Good. Matt wanted privacy, at least for this. If Stevie chose to tell anybody else what had happened, he would not stop her. He knocked on the greenhouse door and announced his arrival with a hesitant, “Stevie?” before going inside.
Oh right. Matt was blind. Finally! Someone who wasn’t going to comment on her appearance or question her about what happened last week. Stevie let out a sigh of relief, and the pink glow of her skin faded back to her normal, human passing complexion.
“Oh, hey! What do you need?”
Maybe he wanted her help? Maybe he wanted her to heal his eyes? So he could see like last week when he was a hunter? Her demeanor changed, her expression brightened. This was something she could do. Something within her control. The week was looking up already!
She had no memory of what this was really about.
Matt wasn’t able to see how Stevie’s color was different, but he could tell she was in an agitated state by, among other things, her high pulse rate. She must be nervous or afraid, and Matt automatically assumed it was about him. Was she afraid he was going to hurt her again? As much as he knew he needed to speak with her, he’d been also dreading it, and this made it all the more worse.
Swallowing back his anxiety, he stammered as he spoke. “It… it’s about last week. I, uh… I don’t… I mean….” He started to choke up with tears welling in his sightless eyes. “Stevie, I’m so sorry for what I did. I wasn’t… in my right mind, but that… that doesn’t excuse my behavior. I shot and killed you… and despite the reset, that’s something I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life.” He hung his head low. “I wouldn’t blame you for wanting me punished.”
He felt it necessary to be punished. Anything to atone.
It only took Matt to mention last week and the way he stammered for the glowing pink to return along with her anxiety. She almost had an entire minute of normalcy. Now she felt trapped in the Green House with Mathew’s guilt.
Of course, it was bad enough, everyone asking Stevie how she was and how she felt, when that was the last thing she wanted to think about. At least with Matthew’s blindness, she didn’t have to restrain herself from making gestures (or so she thought) pulling at her hair with both hands to feel some sense of control and grounding.
But then the conversation got worse, and she was faced with the person who did this to her. Or stopped her. She wasn’t sure. (She wasn’t a monster. She wasn’t a monster. She wasn’t a monster…)
“Punished?” Stevie managed. Her voice retained that same level of chipper she’d taken on all morning even as her face started to bulge grotesquely, fingers swelling to the size of sausages and then normal, her body hulking and small and hulking and small in different places to every other heartbeat as she tried to keep herself together. “Why would I want you to be punished? I’m okay! You’re okay! That’s all that matters now.”
Stevie ballooned to the size and stature of a gorilla then back to herself. Then back to a solidly built seven foot tall version of herself, towering over Matt before her shapeshifting stabilized. She looked so much like her mother then. Stevie caught her reflection in the greenhouse glass and quickly looked away.
Matt couldn’t see any of this, right? It was fine. Except the strange noise of muscle and skin stretching and retracting as her size had pulsed inhumanly. Or the fact that her voice now came from above him.
“I forgive you so it’s all good! Don’t beat yourself up about it! Let’s just forget it ever happened. Okay? Great!”
What the hell was going on? Matt turned his head slightly to one side to listen, but besides the strange stretching noises, he could also feel the displacement of her body by using his echo-location. Not being able to see made it all the more frightening, because he could only imagine what Stevie was going through, and from his perspective, it was horrific. All the while, Stevie’s voice struggled to remain falsely positive, which Matt assumed was a front to begin with.
Panic set in, not for his own safety, but hers. “S-Stevie? Wh-what’s happening?” He took a couple paces backward, but was determined not to leave until he knew she was alright. “Do you need help?” he asked, his worry clearly evident. “Should I get somebody?” His mind raced, wondering who he would even ask. A doctor, or maybe one of the magicians? He was ready to put out an open call over the network if he had to.
Stevie forced a small chuckle as if what Matt said was funny. “Oh! Right, you can’t see. I’m a shapeshifter so, I-- no, no. This is perfectly fine! It’s normal for me. Don’t worry about it!”
She interpreted the steps backward he took as fear of her. And maybe he should be afraid. Stevie certainly wasn’t going to allow herself to feel afraid of someone human. Besides, he apologized, he clearly felt bad. So many of her friends started out as enemies hell bent on killing her. So this was great, right? They’d be friends now and everyone could just go along their way.
“I mean, I can’t always control it. Sometimes I just look like I feel.” Like that time Stevie looked about 10 years old for nearly half her life. She was her feelings. Her age reflected her feelings. Her size. Her color. Her hair, which was fluffy now in a style not too unlike her mother’s. When Stevie said her super power was her feelings, she meant it literally.
“So, thanks for the apology! I hope you enjoy the rest of the week!”
Stevie eyed the exit.
Matt was already aware of Stevie’s miraculous healing abilities, and how she created those watermelon people to help fight the Loki aliens… shapeshifting was a part of her repertoire too? Now that he thought about it, he remembered a while back when Natasha asked people to detail their special talents for future reference, and while he couldn’t recall everything Stevie had listed he did remember being pretty amazed by the amount of things she could do. It was a lot for a young person to carry, so he could believe she wasn’t in full control of her shapeshifting, but that forced cheerfulness of hers was bullshit. Obviously she was stressed out, about what Matt could guess it had something to do with last week, but now he wondered whether or not it was specifically about the part he played. He still felt awful about what he’d done, but at the moment it was being overridden by his concern for Stevie’s well being.
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, considering what she said, and more importantly how he should respond. It would be heartless to turn away from her in this condition, but at the same time he wanted to respect her privacy.
“If you’re having trouble, it’s not going to do you any good to hide it,” he plainly told her. “It’s only going to make it worse, and there are people who really care about you who will worry. You don’t have to tell me, but at least talk to somebody you’re close to.”
Her tone changed, perhaps genuine for the first time during their exchange when she said, “Trust me, I know.” It sounded like a tired, verbal sigh. If Stevie could hide turning bright pink and being seven feet tall, she would have in a heartbeat.
But that wasn’t exactly what Matt meant, she realized, when he brought up talking to someone about it. Her mind flashed to earlier that morning with Carver and Stevie felt an uncomfortable lead weight of guilt in her stomach, remembering how that interaction went. Her body began to change again, bulging and shrinking as her thoughts started to race again, wondering if she’d really messed up that morning by the way she acted. Stevie was supposed to be a good person. She wasn’t a--
Stevie closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, willing herself to calm down, her body settling once more at a height closer to seven feet.
“I should go,” she said. But that forced chipperness came back to her voice. She just had to fake it for a little while until she actually felt that way, right? “I think I just need a little fresh air. I’ll just go on a walk. Glad we had this talk!”
It started happening again, that bizarre and frankly grotesque growing and shrinking of limbs, which made Matt take another step away. The image of the Hulk came to mind, a monster that Dr. Banner wasn’t able to control, but luckily Stevie could - Matt heard her breathing patterns change from frantic to being measured, and her heart rate slow down, so that was a relief.
Somebody ought to be told what Stevie was going through, and he didn’t trust her to seek that help on her own. Not by the way she kept pretending that nothing was the matter when he’d basically called her out.
“I’ll go,” Matt said, lifting his hand to gesture for her to stop. “It’s private here, and… you probably won’t be bothered by anybody else.” That was what Matt would want if he was in her place… and actually, it was what he would ultimately seek out for himself once he exited. He hadn’t been sure what to expect when he came into this conversation, but it sure wasn’t this. The whole exchange had made him feel hollow and numb, his own guilt left unresolved.
Head hanging, he stepped through the door, mumbling, “Take care of yourself, okay?”
“Yep! Will do!”
Stevie waved, only realizing afterward he wouldn’t see her waving as he left, trying to shrug off the feeling she’d been a disappointment somehow. Should she have offered to heal his eyes? Maybe that would have been better. Unless that would be insulting or rude?
Once he was gone, Stevie was surrounded by plants. She eyed them nervously, remembering the last time she was in this state and used her healing powers to try and revive a few wilting plants at Little Home School.
“...I gotta get out of here.”
Carefully, as not to touch anything, Stevie left and left campus in a jog. She saw the small town up ahead and thought about entering… then thought better of it and decided to explore the world they landed on instead.