They talked a little at the bar, about the venue - a typical one for Sadie Killer and the Suspects- and the fact that Steven had a surprise for Connie. Connie pushed at him for details, but he sipped his soda and smiled innocently. After Connie gave up on it, Steven asked if she ever heard a Sadie Killer song. Connie shrugged.
"I have no idea. I've listened to a bunch of New Homeworld music. I haven't really been paying attention to it. I just play it in the background while I train. And back home, I listened to music a lot, but mostly local artists."
"I see," Steven nudged her. "Well, maybe you'll like them. They sing my favorite song. I hope they open with it." Gulping down the last of his soda, Steven stepped away from the bar. "Let's push our way up front."
Connie turned her head towards the stage. There was already a crowd in front of it.
"I don't think we can," Connie muttered above the noise.
Steven simply took her arm and pulled her away from the bar and into the crowd. Connie would have preferred not to shove her way through the tangle of bodies, but Steven put his left arm up in front of them and walked forward, parting the crowd like walking through a field of grass. Connie kept her head down. She wasn't sure how the other gems were going to take Steven's pushing, but she decided not to find out.
Eventually, Steven stopped and put an arm around Connie, and Connie felt safe to look up. They were right up front, so close to the stage that when the band came out, they might be able to touch them.
"This is great," Connie said.
"Anything for you, Connie," Steven said, squeezing her.
Connie flushed. She knew they were supposed to be only themselves, but Steven was still her quartz and it made her so happy that he loved her. They stood together for several minutes until the dim lighting in the warehouse turned to pitch-blackness.
Steven squeezed Connie to his side as a curtain fell from the ceiling. Then light flooded the stage and there was a roar from the crowd. After a few seconds, a couple of stray, drawn-out notes floated out over the crowd. The curtain parted to reveal three organic gems on stage. They wore black bodysuits that looked strangely familiar to Connie but were dressed up with sparkling jackets, fingerless white gloves, white collared shirts, and black ties. They all had red sneakers on. Their harnesses were made of gold chains, but their gems were covered with patches of pink cloth. As the crowd roared again, Connie noticed a shadow above them and looked up.
Above the stage was a huge, gem sized box hanging in mid-air. As it lowered from the ceiling, Connie recognized it as an incinerator, the small box organic gem's bodies went into after they died and had given their last rites. After it was closed, it burned the body, and the ashes were sent to fertilize natural gem kindergartens. Squeezing Steven's arm, Connie felt a little faint.
The low haunting notes wove themselves together as the incinerator set down and then the melody picked up. The incinerator door swung up, and inside a young gem shrouded in white clothes and multi-colored sparkling dust. The dust coated her blonde hair, her make-up whitened face, and her clothes. It was unmistakable. It was supposed to be shattered gems, which were ground up to power-up the gems of organic gems and used to fertilize the food production grounds that made food for organic gem kindergartens with baby gems and new mothers. All the death imagery made Connie dizzy. Steven squeezed her to him.
"This is it!" he said. On stage, the blonde gem looked from side to side, as if confused. Her band-mates stared forward, oblivious to her.
The blonde - who Connie assumed had to be Sadie Killer herself - stepped up to the microphone. "I used to be sick. Sick and tired," she sang.
Steven suddenly let go of Connie but did take her arm. "Delirious, dizzy, terrified," Steven sang loudly. The crowd was singing along as well, but Connie could mostly hear Steven.
"But I'm suddenly up and out of bed," all the voices sang together. "You'd never believe I was almost…" The music picked up and Connie felt Steven jump and squeeze her arm so hard it was uncomfortable.
"Why can't you see me?!" Steven yelled in her ear. "Why can't you see me?! I think I might be a g-g-g-ghost!" Steven swung into Connie and hugged her arm.
On stage, Sadie gave a build shaking roar, similar to a quartz soldier on the battlefield.
"Ohh, ohhhh! Can't you see that I exist?!"
"And I don't need a black onyx to let me out!" Steven sang, jumping up and down. "Look at me and I'll appear. Why can't you see that I'm right here? That I'm right here?"
Two things hit Connie at once. First was Sadie Killer's band were dressed as fancy onyxes - more death imagery - and two that she'd heard Steven ask almost that exact question on their trip to Yellow Diamond's former base. With a sudden understanding of why he loved his song so much, Connie squeezed him back and watched him.
"Why can't you see me?" Steven sang with Sadie and the crowd. "Why can't you see me? I think I might be a g-g-g-ghost." Steven looked up as the music died down.
Connie followed his gaze to find Sade Killer rising from her incinerator in a plume of ash and smoke.
"I'm calling you from the other side…" she said as the music faded out.
The crowd erupted in roars and curtains closed on the Suspects, finally noticing Sadie and staring up at her floating body. Connie was almost too shocked to applaud. She'd never seen anything like that before. Steven nudged her.
"Wasn't that great?!" he asked.
"Yea," Connie said. "It was intense."
"I know. It makes you feel something. Like you know when you get that feeling like something is squirming around in your guts and you just want to do something about it?"
Connie did not.
"Or," Steven went on, excitedly, "that feeling when you're standing perfectly still and you're smiling but you're screaming your head off, but you're not showing it!"
Eyes widening, Connie's mouth opened. "I thought I was the only one who did that."
"No. Whenever I have to listen to… my aunts. They just drive me crazy. I wanted to scream at them, but I promised to be nice. Besides, I'm the baby so… I just want to them to see that I'm not–"
The music started up and again and the crowd roared. Steven glanced at the stage, then back at Connie. He squeezed her arm, which he'd never let go of, and smiled. They would finish this later.
The next song was less intense and was a self-titled song that introduced the band to the crowd. Connie found she was much more comfortable with this song. Then the lights went down again, and a low haunting melody began to play over the crowd screaming. Connie realized that she'd heard this song before.
"Steven!" Connie yelled. "I know this. It played on Centuri!"
"Really? Do you like it?" Steven asked excitedly.
"Tired from work!" Connie shout-sung with the band. "Hate my job. I really ought to be in mourning. But I've another shift this morning."
The entire crowd was chanting the song. Less singing and more saying, like a mantra. "Every day seems like it's never-ending. What's the point of this time I'm spending here at this dead-end job?!"
Connie grabbed Steven's neck with her free hand and pressed her mouth to his ear. "This was practically the anthem for my class!"
Steven laughed and moved his arm from around Connie's arm to around her waist. "Figures for a bunch of pearls-in-training," he said in her ear.
"Look at you. You seem so bright and healthy," Steven sang, pressing his forehead to Connie's.
"And your eyes are full of joy and wonder," Connie sang back.
"Stay a thousand miles from the condition that I've got from all the stress I'm under!" They sang together. Steven's arm around Connie's waist and Connie's arm around Steven's shoulders. "Don't come near me or you might encourage all these terrifying sudden urges!"
They stayed like that for the rest of the song, at the end of which Steven lifted Connie onto his shoulder for her to clap and wave at the band. When Connie was back on the ground they stayed linked together for the rest of the show, Steven singing to her most of the time, and Connie joining when she knew the words. After the band did a tribute song to a singer called Mr. Universe, they announced they would be doing a special song that would take a few minutes to set up and curtain closed.
"Connie," Steven said. "Stay right here. I've got a surprise for you."
"Now?" Connie said in disbelief. "But the show!"
Steven kissed her hand and smiled. "Don't worry. I've been planning this for weeks. Promise me you won't go anywhere."
Connie frowned, but Steven was still her quartz. "I promise."
"Great! I'll just…" Steven paused, looked at her, seemed to be about to say something, but ultimately turned and rushed away.
For a few minutes, Connie waited in the crowd. It felt small and vulnerable without Steven. If she was anywhere else, she'd be a pearl of the Pink Stars. Who was she here? A random organic gem with no friends and no standing. There was something dangerous about being outside the system. Connie had never accomplished anything outside her gem type and rank. What did she have to offer as just herself?
Luckily, she didn't have long to dwell on such awful thoughts. The lights went down again and the sound of a guitar ripped through the air. Connie looked for Steven as the curtains rolled back, but he was nowhere to be seen. Sadie Killer appeared on stage, smiling.
"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you," she said. "Thank you for gracing me with your presence."
Connie looked up. That was a funny thing to say. Something you'd say to a high-ranking quartz or even a Diamond. She scanned the stage and along with Sadie and her usual band, there was a drummer, obscured by poor lighting but still close enough to the front of the stage to be visible. An organic gem with a microphone. They sang along with Sadie.
"Good afternoon, Ma'am. What can I do, Ma'am? Just say the word, Ma'am. Anything for you, Ma'am."
Connie smiled and made an effort to dance a little. The song seemed to be from the perspective of a pearl.
"Your friends all say, Ma'am. You don't deserve me. I disagree, Ma'am. I live to serve, Ma'am!"
Connie laughed out loud and danced. Every pearl knew that line. That pearl-like line of pretending to be simpler, more loyal, more naïve than you were.
"I think about all the wasted time I've spent! I wanna be disobedient! I stood awake wondering where my summers went. I wanna be disobedient. Disobedient. Disobedient."
Wondering where Steven was and wishing he was there to hear this, Connie continued to dance. The song went on that she'd been good, so very, very good, but for what? Connie wondered, what was she being so good for? What was the point of a rose quartz having a pearl? Had Steven's mother had a pearl? Couldn't he just use her, then? Why a new one? What was so special about the former rose quartz that she'd been allowed - or forced - to have a half-organic child, anyway?
She'd given Steven everything single thing she'd had, the song reminded her. And it was strange (man), this whole arrangement. Connie felt as if she'd been cutting Steven too much slack because she liked him. But the truth was, had said in the beginning that he was a liar. Maybe she just let herself forget that. And she was going to end up totally deranged.
"When I think about all the wasted time I've spent! I wanna be disobedient! I stood awake wondering where my summers went. I wanna be disobedient. Disobedient. Disobedient." Sadie sang with the hidden drummer before they broke into a bridge.
Then suddenly the drums stopped, and the drummer stood up and took the mic into the light. Connie gasped.
He had his hair down now so that his curls covered his shoulders, and someone had done something with his bangs, but it was Steven. Connie could see him moving his head from side to side, searching the crowd for something as he brought the microphone up to his lips.
"I want to be disobedient," Steven sang in his clear, cool voice. "I want to be–"
He jumped off the stage. The crowd gasped and cheered. The few people in front of Connie moved, but Connie was frozen in place. Steven found her, and as he and his spotlight closed the distance between them, she wasn't sure if it was him, or the light, or herself that was making her warm.
"Disobedient," Steven sang deliberately, as if trying to tell her something important. "Disobedient. Disobedient. Disobedient."
The last notes of the song strummed through the air and faded into nothing.
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