fandomhigh | Finding (More) New Hobbies, Thursday 8/14 Period 2

Finding (More) New Hobbies, Thursday 8/14 Period 2

Stark still, after years of associating with Summer, had no social media. He hadn’t been flooded with notifications about a new album coming. Today’s activity was completely coincidental! Really.

Sure, maybe ‘friendship bracelets’ had been higher in the search results than they might have been otherwise when Stark looked up ‘fun easy hobbies’ but he wasn’t doing this on purpose.

“Today,” Stark said, “jewelry. But nothing fancy. Beaded friendship bracelets. Sometimes these are given away or traded. Easy to do, but fun, I hope. And then you have something at the end to show for your efforts and maybe something you could give to someone. If you like.”

He smiled a little uncertainly. “I have elastic cord. You’ll want to make sure there’s enough of it so you can tie it and have it still fit on a wrist. Yours or someone else’s. I’ve plenty of beads and plenty of cord and there are scissors. Not much else you need for this.”

“I have beads with letters and numbers, if you’d like to put messages. Or something meaningful to you, or whoever you might be giving one of these too. I have star beads and ones with glitter and ones that glow in the dark and metallic ones and ones that are just plain colors. And there are some other shapes as well. I’m not sure why these,” he pointed, “look like gummi bears but they’re amusing.”

“So…let’s make some things. And if you like this you can take more supplies with you to make more another time.”

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That was all right. Steven knew all about being physically present but not entirely mentally so. And struggling to socialize. So he simply smiled back in return, unbothered by the slowness of her reaction.

"Llewellyn for one," Steven said, pointing to the pile with the sun shaped beads and letters that spelled 'husband' in it. He then pointed to a more eclectic seeming pile of flowers and assorted green and purple beads and letters, "Those are for some friends? Still brainstorming them."

Steven then pointed to the pile with the moons. "And that's for Marc. Er - do you know him? Of him?"

Luma winced, just slightly, at how obvious at least one of those answers would have been if she'd just thought about it for two more seconds or actually paid attention to what Steven was making. A little flash of that frustration over how bad she could be at this, but at least she didn't feel too bad about her answer to his question, with a small shake of her head.

"No," she said. "I don't think so. Should I?"

The moons, at least, caught her attention. Sure, for her, werewolves being linked to the moon was pure nonsense, but she knew enough about the popular folklore to be intrigued.

"He's a bit shy," Steven said to reassure her it was fine she didn't know him. And perhaps, as a sibling herself, she might recognize the bemused energy that came with Steven purposefully using a description for Marc he knew Marc would eyeroll at. "He and I - er - share a body?"

Steven realized it'd been a while since he'd had to explain this to anyone. He pointed to his chest in case he hadn't been clear enough. "This one."

Luma was half a second away from asking what other body he could have meant,but realized that there could be a multitude of answers to that. Her head tilted as she pulled it over further, the thoughts of bodies and minds in them, how she was one person with two bodies, how Rhys was barely a person in his own body anymore, about what happened to the bodies Eleanor ate but never spit back out again.

"Oh," she said, and then had to wonder: "Where does he go, then, when you're using it?"

It was Fandom, Steven was not going to rule out the idea that there might be people with spare bodies in their closets they could pop into whenever they liked.

"Sort of - " Steven made a vague gesture in the air beside his head, like pushing something backwards " - in the back? Bit like sleeping. Same for me when it's him taking over."

"Oh," Luma said again, but this time, with visible disappointment in her expression and her shoulders slumping slightly.

She was sort of hoping there was some artifact or something like a painting...oh! A book, maybe!...that would have been a vessel for the other person in the meantime. It could make for a terribly dramatic story, were something to then happen to the vessel....broken beyond repair or gone missing...

But she supposed that made sense, as well.

"Can you just switch whenever you want?" she then asked, wondering if it was anything like transforming into her wolf form, second nature, easy as breathing...or more...volitile, like Eleanor's thing. "Or do you have to...wake him up? Something like that? Do bad things happen if you're both awake at the same time?"

Edited 2025-08-14 19:38 (UTC)

Steven was curious about her disappointment but wasn't sure if he should pry by asking.

"People get confused, mainly," Steven said. He pointed to his mouth. "Two different voices coming out here - er, he's American, so the accent's not the same. We've tried it and it's not easy for anyone. But we can change when we like. Didn't use to be that way but we've both got better control now. Take turns, wake the other up as needed. Even pop in right away if it's an emergency and one of us needs to protect the other."

Luma nodded in understanding. So definitely more like her transforming, right down to the idea that it could probably be done part way, a middle ground straddling between the two of them, much like she could pull off any amalgamation between woman and wolf.

Well, except for her teeth. Those would always remain unchanging canine.

The thought made her slightly more conscious again, of being careful as she spoke to not show them too much.

"Well, that should make it easier to know who I might be talking to, then," she noted, "if he sounds different. Is he taking classes, too?"

"Not at the moment," Steven said. He then grinned and leaned in like he was sharing a secret. "I did sign him up for one once without telling him. Relationships. He's rubbish with people. Figured he could use all the help he could get."

Luma frowned slightly, thinking of how she would feel about Eleanor signing her up for a class like that, especially under that reasoning, and it would...

Not go over well at all.

It didn't matter if the reasoning was true, either. And she was a little bit sensitive, to Eleanor in particular, telling anyone what to do.

So she made a soft huffing sound and shook her head a little, and asked what sje figured out be a key factor in the whole scheme:

"Did it work?"

"Sadly no," Steven admitted. "I've also learned to stop pushing him into things. Goes poorly. Doesn't stop the wanting to though."

Luma gave another small huff, straightening her posture and giving her hair a lofty toss over her shoulders.

"You really are like my sister," she said. "But, yes, nothing good ever comes from trying to push someone who doesn't want to be pushed."

Steven nodded, because it was a fair cop. "Marc is like a brother to me. I wouldn't say that to him directly. He's - he's not comfortable with such terms. Eleanor is the same, I take it? About wanting to push?"

Luma sighed, wondering if she could explain this without revealing to just some guy in class exactly all the Eleanor could do, and making it seem like the answer was quite the chore, regardless.

"She wants to help," she offered, with a tired and withering tone on that last word, like a sour taste on her tongue. "No matter how many times you tell her that helping will only make it worse, no matter how many times you tell her not to. Well, I suppose she's better at it now, but she'll stick her nose into a problem wanting to fix it without realizing that all she's doing is poking at something she doesn't usually understand."

Steven felt all of that resonating within him. He had to remind himself that Luma was talking about her sister.

"I can understand that," he said. "It's something I've been trying to work on. It's hard to want to help but realize sometimes the best help is staying away. Makes me feel like I'm giving up on them."

The soft huff from earlier became a little more bitter.

"Is it really giving up, though," Luma ventured, "if they never wanted it to begin with?"

"It feels that way," Steven said, raising his hands a bit to show he wasn't disagreeing with her. "Not that it is that way. That's what I'm trying to be better about. Learning the difference."

But Luma's quick and volatile anger had been sparked at this brutal reminder that everything she'd lost had been all because of Eleanor's stupid, foolish insistence at trying to help, no matter how much Luma had told her what a bad idea it was, how horrible she was making everything, every step along the way. And when Steven lifted his hands in defense, her brain just screamed at her at this display of weakness, and her first impulse was to attack. She could even feel the corner of her lip curling back, suddenly no longer caring if she showed her teeth.

Suddenly hoping he did see.

But she knew where she was and that giving into it wouldn't be worth it, even if she would be a certain catharsis and just tearing him to (verbal) shreds.

Her grandfather had taught her to seize weakness when she saw it, but her grandmother had taught her about consequences.

So she just stared at Steven for a moment, while sucking in a calming breath. "Good," she growled oit, and then turned so she was facing her bracelets again, shoving the orange and blue one for Eleanor off the table and fiercely reaching for a handful of coral colored beads in the decision to make one for her mother now, instead. "Just listen to people, and get over yourself, don't make it all about you, and you'll be fine. I'm sure."

"I - er - yes," Steven said, flinching when he saw her reaction. Not at any display of teeth, of her anger. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

"Oh, don't worry," Luma said, that withering tone now dripping with the roll of her eyes. "I'm not upset at you."

She barely even knew you, Steven. Preposterous notion, that she would waste energy being upset at him. She huffed out.

"I'm upset with Eleanor. And of course you didn't mean it. She never does, either. And yet....people can still get upset. Or hurt."

Or dead, Steven. Or worse.

"I see," Steven said. He relaxed a little bit, glad at least he hadn't been directly responsible. Her words still weighed on him though. He hadn't been planning on using them anyway but he pushed a few red and black beads away from his pile, unaware of how much this would be foreshadowing a conversation he had later that afternoon. "It is true though. Marc's done things to hurt and upset me with the best of intentions. Sometimes intentions don't matter as much as results."

"Marc's done things to hurt and upset you?" Luma asked, eyebrows lifting as she looked at Steven to stare at him again, and try to figure out if it was just her inability to relate to people that made it sound like he'd completely missed her point.

Or was it really a type, that just were so convinced by their own good intentions that they couldn't see it as anything but.

Edited 2025-08-15 00:45 (UTC)

"We've both done things that hurt each other," Steven clarified. "Not meaning to. Trying to help or protect one another. But hurt all the same."

"Interesting..." said Luma, her eyes lingering sharply on Steven for a moment before they turned back to her beaded work, "that you didn't say that, then."

Or himself. Just himself. But no, couldn't be him. Not with his good intentions.

Steven looked at her in confusion. "Say what then?"

Finding (More) New Hobbies, Thursday 8/14 Period 2

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