While Steven had always been happy before his life had changed so dramatically, it was a selfish happiness. It was a happiness born from either getting what he wanted or lying to himself until he believed he got what he wanted. Now that Steven was broken on a fundamental level, he didn’t feel that same happiness, his old lies just didn’t fit. Suddenly without that warm feeling he could always lean back into and feel better, life was terrifying. He knew that something had changed since woke up naked under a bush and that change had only gotten worse each time he had been stabbed. being stabbed. Steven worried, accurately, that his mentality had be irreparably fractured and that he’d be a broken man incapable of feeling whole ever again. The human mind and body are resilient though, even with all of these drastic changes, there was a long and difficult path to mental health laid out before Steven that could see him, while not whole, a mostly functional human again. It was a long and difficult path and Steven would have to dig deep into the very fiber of who he was. It required total honesty in what he was trying to accomplish in life, and how that effected the outside world.

Instead of doing any of that, Steven decided to live vicariously though his little group of greens by watching them do all the hard work of growing. Weeks had passed and the camp was now a village. There was a group of hunters, builders, crafters, and everything else Steven could picture a group of early humans having in a small community. He’d planned out all the buildings, except for the fighting pit, that was all the greens idea. Every day Steven would wander around the camp and give examples on what the greens could do to do things better. The first basket he’d stumped a green though making had blown their minds.

The whole building process was smoother once he stopped trying to force making a camp like he knew from home (mostly the TV show Lost) and leaned into what they could do. He noted that humanity probably would have evolved a lot faster if it could freely mold metal like magic. He’d seen one green running after a rabbit with a small knife and decided to show it how to make a spear. He’d gotten carried away and tried to see if they could make a bow, which worked out well enough. Now he saw they had an entire room full of spears and bows, and he was doing his best to ignore how it made him feel like this was the fire incident all over again.

But overall, it felt comfortable, it felt good. All of the greens had a job, and they didn’t bicker about working, except in the fighting pit, and that was mostly used to see who would be in charge. Mr.Roberts and Lil Green had retaken their spots as lieutenants, while Lil Green Jr was back on the bottom. Steven didn’t fully support a way of life where the best fighters were in charge, but it seemed to be working fine so far.

For the first time in a while, Steven felt Good again. He’d never been a very proud person before, but seeing this camp, these greens come together and build something so much bigger than themselves, change so much from unhinged murderious individuals to the beginnings of a slightly worrying but functioning socieity, he welled up with pride. He could only imagine what these greens would go to do, how they would change the world.

“I think we’ve done a good job,” Steven said to the Beast. He’d been doing that more and more often. The Beast was the only one who would listen to what Steven said without trying to run off and do something they thought Steven wanted from them half way through.

“Just beginnings.” The Beast responded and Steven’s world dropped out from under him for roughly the 4th time since he’d woken up under a bush. The Beast’s voice had been rough and metallic, missing all the inflections, but they were words. They were human words. Words that made terrifying sense when you compared them to what Steven had said.

Every green stopped at the sound. Steven would be more than a little jealous that didn’t work for him if he wasn’t too busy being terrified out of his mind.

“Come.” The beast motioned for Lil Green to walk up. The poor little guy was terrified out of it’s mind, nearly shaking. Steven saw a war go on in Lil Green’s mind, where it was trying to figure out if it was more scared of not doing or doing what the Beast told it to do before it accepted it’s fate. Steven flinched back as the Beast grabbed Lil Green by the throat. It always hurt Steven’s brain a bit when he watched the greens make something out of nothing. Every time they conjured up metal, it felt wrong, like a boulder floating in midair, or if the sun looped in the sky in lazy circles. Watching the Beast mold metal in Lil Green’s throat made those feelings comfortable.

Lil Green hit the ground, choking, coughing, and clawing at its throat. Terrified, the little guy called out, “help,” the words surprised almost everyone involved, especially Lil Green themselves.