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Steven laughed, pulling on Connie’s hand as the two of them walked through the forest. “Come on, you’ve fought gems and Diamonds, but you can’t hike for a couple miles?”
“But hiking is boring, ” Connie groaned, letting herself be dragged along. “There’s trees, and rocks, and grass, and that’s about it.”
“Here, just- Just stop for a second.” Connie seemed to do so with a sigh of relief, and Steven held a finger to his lips, crouching down. There was birdsong overhead, and he tilted his head towards a bush where leaves were rustling. Connie seemed to stay stark still, way too cautious and wary as Steven only watched an adorable rabbit come bouncing out gently.
There was a stifled snort of laughter from Connie, her shoulders shaking as she whispered a soft, “You’re like one of those movie princes who all the animals love.”
Steven snorted. “What’s that supposed to mean?” The rabbit seemed to watch him before slowly hopping over. Holding his arms out, he beamed as the rabbit hopped into his lap. He rose to stand as carefully as he could, looking to Connie.
Connie was just laughing. “That means that you’re straight out of a fairy tale! Does this always happen? Friendly little woodland creatures come up and just let you pet them and carry them?”
“Not normally, no.” He snickered. “Maybe it’s cause you’re with me- Woah! ” Hearing the whistling more than seeing the projectile, Steven ducked, grabbing Connie with him. When he looked, an arrow was stuck in the tree behind him, where his head would have been.
“You gotta be kidding me,” Connie groaned, looking at the arrow and then reaching for her sword. “How is this your life! You’re supposed to be relaxing! ”
Steven flicked the arrow, watching it vibrate in place. “Huh. Arrows. That’s a new one.”
“Hey!” Connie was now shouting at the direction it had come from. “You’re supposed to practice firearm safety even with arrows!”
A couple people looked down at them from the top of the hill, and one of them turned their head away. “ New campers! ”
“Campers?” Connie looked to Steven, raising an eyebrow. “What campers shoot arrows at people walking through the woods?”
“Maybe they thought we were… a bear, or something?” He looked back at the people again, and a girl with light blonde hair was sliding down the hill towards them.
“We don’t exactly look like a bear,” Connie rolled her eyes, slowly lowering her sword as the girl came to stand in front of them.
Steven grinned, waving as best he could from where he was still holding the bunny. “Uh… Hi there. Sorry for… coming into your archery or whatever.”
“Yeah, there’s usually not people in these woods like you two,” the girl laughed, shaking her head and crossing her arms. “Well, come on. Knowing the Apollo kids they’ve already spread the rumors of you two.”
Connie glanced to Steven with a frown, looking back at this girl. “Apollo? Wait- Why should we go with you?”
“Why else would you be here except to come to Camp Half-Blood,” the girl rolled her eyes, starting to head back up the hill. “Come on. It’s not far from here.”
Steven followed her, not really sure he wanted to tick her off. “We were just on a hike. Camp Half-Blood…?”
“You mean you found your way here on accident?” The girl paused, turning around to stare at them before shaking her head. “Now you really need to come with me.” He glanced back at Connie, giving her a shrug. Well, this wasn’t new for them. Weird place that was trying to take them in.
“Might as well,” Connie sighed, sheathing her sword and starting to follow. “Are you taking your cute new friend with you?”
Steven looked down at the rabbit with a grin. “What do you think, little guy? Should we go with them?” The little rabbit twitched his nose up at Steven, causing him to laugh. “Alright, go with the crazy kids it is.”
“Honestly, you make all types of friends everywhere, don’t you,” Connie sighed, shaking her head as they started heading up the hill. “What do you think this whole camp thing is about? Some private land?”
“No idea,” he said with a shrug, pulling out his… “Hey, my phone’s all messed up!”
“Your phone? What’s wrong with your phone?” Connie fell back, looking at it with a frown. “Did all that realm travel finally do it in?”
He shook his head. “I dunno. No signal, and check out the Boogle Maps app.” It was like it was trying to decide where they were!
“Huh. Hang on.” Connie dug through her own pocket, pulling out her phone and opening it with an incredulous look. “Well… it’s not just you.”
The only time Steven’s phone decided not to play nice was… He looked around, and looked back at Connie. “...Magic?”
Connie opened her mouth, closed it, frowned, and then huffed. “I’m not sure whether I should be excited or annoyed if that’s the case.”
“Go with excited. It saves us trouble later.”
It wasn’t long until they were in what must have been the camp, Steven seeing kids and teens of all ages running around and doing a million different things, it looked like. Their guide was looking serious and heading towards a large wooden house. "Chiron!" She called, looking around. "He's normally around here playing pinochle- Chiron!"
“I don’t mean to be rude,” Connie said, catching up with her. “But why exactly did you bring us all the way here?”
"Cause you were able to follow me." What did that have to do with anything? “Chiron! We have some possible new campers who might not know they’re campers!”
There was a sound like a horse coming from around the corner of the house, where it looked like a nice deck was, and… And… Oh stars above… Beside him, Connie seemed just as speechless and awe as they stared at the centaur in front of them. He at least… seemed nice. “Chiron, we found them out behind the archery posts. One of the Apollos nearly impaled them.”
“I’m sure Apollo will be thrilled when he finds out what happened once again,” the centaur - Chiron? - sighed before giving them a smile. “You two must have come a long way.”
“Uh… Yeah,” Steven said quietly, hugging the rabbit in his arms a little closer. “Sorry, uh, sir. We were just hiking in the woods back there, then this arrow came whizzing in and-”
“You were hiking in the woods and just happened to find us?” Oh. That didn’t sound good. “Yet you’re not panicking… Tell me, do you know what half-bloods are?”
Steven frowned, holding a hand over his gem. “You mean like… half-human?”
“Yes…” Chiron seemed to study them, looking between them both. “If I were to hazard a guess, neither of you are demigods, are you?”
Connie frowned beside him. “Demigods? As in those that were sired by the… The gods? ” Her eyes went wide. “N- No.”
“In this camp we deal with those who were sired by the Greek Gods, particularly, but yes,” Chiron chuckled. “If I may be so bold as to ask, you said half-human? What would the other half be?”
“Uh… Gem? Like… Crystal Gem?” Demigods. That… Why not, right? Demigods. Half-human, half-god kids. A whole camp full of ‘em. Full of… half-humans…
“Crystal Gem… I can’t say I’ve heard of them precisely, but the name sounds familiar,” Chiron said after a long moment “And you, miss?”
Connie’s eyes widened. “I- I’m human. Completely and fully.”
“Really?” Chiron laughed, and this- This was crazy. “My apologies, let me explain why we’re so surprised by you two. This is a camp for demigods and is, generally, protected by something we call Mist. It makes humans tend to not see the magical, especially in the case of our world. Our camp is surrounded by it, and the fact a pure human can get through is very rare.”
“Oh,” Connie said quietly. “Of course. ” Like that made any kind of sense. “No, I’ve just seen enough to not be fooled by some ‘mist’ or anything.”
“So it seems. Well! You two are welcome to stay a while, if you wish. It’s not often we get visitors all the way out here.” Looking to Connie, he grinned. They may as well stay a little. Connie looked back at him, rolling her eyes before sighing and nodding in consent.
“Okay. That’d be really great,” he said with a grin.
The girl that had guided them rolled her eyes, “I shouldn’t even be surprised after all the trouble Percy manages to bring us.” Connie seemed to sigh in sympathy.
“Crazy boyfriend that brings trouble everywhere?”
Before Steven could complain, the girl was looking at Connie with complete understanding. “And always seems to be at the center of everything that goes wrong?”
“And then somehow ends up fixing everything after it all goes terribly wrong?”
“We have a lot to talk about. Annabeth, by the way.”
“Connie. Demigods. I’ve read about them, of course. I shouldn't even be surprised at this point. He’s been roadtripping around the country and you wouldn’t believe what we’ve run into.”
“At this point in my life? I’m willing to believe anything,” Annabeth sighed, waving for them to follow. “Come on, I’ll give you a tour of the camp. So, what kind of gem are you, then?”
Steven opened his mouth to respond-
“Oh, he’s half Crystal Gem. They’re aliens.” He deflated. So glad Connie was answering for him.
“Crystal Gem… Beach City? I’ve heard a little bit about you guys.”
Connie rolled her eyes. “Yeah. We’ve kinda been getting that.”
“With the way your city is it’s not like you can be surprised,” Annabeth laughed. “Besides, I saw the ghost fight video from Amity Park.”
Steven huffed, “Has everyone seen that stupid video?!”
“Everyone who knows what’s out there,” Annabeth said, grinning back at him.
“Hey, Annabeth,” a guy with black hair and teal eyes that seemed to almost glow ran over to them, glancing at Steven and Connie. “New campers?”
“Visitors,” Annabeth chuckled. “Connie here is human, but Steven is half Crystal Gem. Those aliens I told you about a couple weeks back?”
“Seriously?” He looked Steven over again. “Those things are real?”
Steven snorted, rolling his eyes. "Oh yeah. Real annoying."
“Right, okay, cool, aliens,” the new kid nodded, looking amused. “Why not, I guess, after everything else that’s happened. Nice to meet you.”
Steven looked him over, nodding. "Steven."
The kid nodded back, giving a bit of a grin. “Percy. So, okay, half-alien can see through the mist, got it.” Percy looked to Connie. “You half-alien too?”
Connie looked slightly offended. "I'm human. "
“And you got through the mist?” Percy blinked, turning to look at Annabeth. “And she got through the mist?”
Annabeth rose an eyebrow at her. “So did Rachel Elizabeth.”
“Okay, that doesn’t count and you know it,” Percy frowned at her, finally just shaking his head. “We really need to find somewhere else to go for our summer vacations.”
“Normally I’d say Beach City, but it can get about as crazy as it sounds like your regular life is.”
“Great,” Percy sighed, somehow looking amused by it. “Alright. You guys staying for the bonfire tonight, then?”
“Bonfire? Yeah, sure, we can do something like that. What’s it about, exactly?”
“Gather around, sing camp songs, try not to kill each other,” Annabeth waved off. “The usual camp activities, really.”
Steven nodded. “Cool. Yeah, we can do that.” He glanced to Connie to make sure, who caught his look and gave a laugh before looking back to the other two.
“Honestly? Sounds pretty tame compared to what some of the last trips have been like.”
The two of them looked at each other again. “So… Are you sure you’re human?”
“Absolutely certain,” Connie said firmly. Then again, knowing their kind of luck and the kind of trouble that found them, Steven wouldn’t be surprised if there was something not-quite-typical human about Connie. Then again, she was still amazing even if she was just human. Still… Maybe he was staring at Connie, considering for a moment too long. “ Steven. I am one hundred percent human. ”
“Have you gotten a DNA test done, though?” The glare he was sent reminded him way too much of Connie’s mom.
“ No, because I would need my mom’s help with that and just what could I tell her to explain why I was getting a DNA test done? ”
“I dunno, see if any of my powers or fusion has done anything?”
Connie opened her mouth, closed it, and then crossed her arms as she stared at the ground for a long time. She then looked back up at Steven with a frown, “I hate that you have a point.”
“But… You love me when I use my big knuckle-head brain?” Steven watched Connie give a snort of laughter.
“Dork.”
“Aw, your dork, though!”
Connie grinned, falling back to lean against Steven as they walked, tilting her head at him in question. “Doing alright?”
“Yeah,” he said, nodding his head in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. “I mean, it could’ve been a lot worse.”
“It couldn’t have been so much worse,” Connie groaned, ‘collapsing’ against him. “You almost had your hair ruined, after all.” Steven laughed, and as the little bunny started to kick in his arms, he crouched down to the ground, letting go of him.
The bunny nudged up against his ankle and gave a little bop of his nose to Connie before running off into the woods, Percy snorting. “Are you a magical singing prince, then?” Steven opened his mouth to argue- Well… Magical… He was practically always singing, so that didn’t really count… Okay, the prince thing was still totally debatable! “Holy shit seriously?”
“Close enough,” Connie laughed. “Actually, when you think about it, that’s exactly right.”
“Wha- Connie! Not exactly! ”
“So you deny that you’re a prince who’s always singing and has what some people could call magic?”
“It is inorganic light-based physics! ”
“Dude,” Percy said quietly. “Was what you just said even English? ” Beside him Annabeth gave a snort of laughter while Connie only smiled at Steven ‘innocently.’
Steven frowned, looking at them. “What, was I speaking in Gem, or something?”
“Alright, cool, I’m just gonna pretend this didn’t happen and go make sure no one is trying to kill anyone — and by that I mean I’m gonna go stop the Ares kids from being dicks.”
Annabeth seemed to look at Steven another minute. “You know? I bet you’d get along great with the Aphrodite kids.”
“What’s an Aphrodite?” Oh, wow, those were some incredulous looks.
“He was homeschooled,” Connie broke in, leaning against Steven for a moment. “His knowledge can be a bit patchwork in some areas.”
“Oh that makes sense,” Percy said. “I only knew about some of it at the beginning cause I went to this private snooty school.”
“And now look at him,” Annabeth said fondly. “All the intelligence of a high school dropout with none of the grace of anyone remotely athletic.”
“Yeah, I relate to the first half of that,” Steven said with a nod.
“So you’re claiming the grace part of that? Please,” Percy snorted. “Half-alien or not, I’m willing to bet you can barely even pick up a sword, let alone use one.”
Steven shrugged, not really all that fussed. Why should he be? Guy obviously didn’t know who he was talking to. “Eh, one of the gems taught me how to fight with a sword. I’m not the best at it, but it’s not like I need one, anyway. I’m way better without one.”
“You can actually fight?” Percy gave a small hum, crossing his arms. “Wouldn’t have guessed that. What do you fight with?”
"Shields, typically. I can do hand-to-hand, though. Apparently I'm supposed to be able to make a sword, but I don't have that figured out yet."
“Wait.” Percy frowned, looking between him and Annabeth. “What do you mean you can make a sword. Like… craft one?”
"Uh… I dunno, I've never done it before. Same way I make a shield, I guess." Summoning a shield, he handed it to Percy to inspect as Steven frowned down at his feet. Was it just as easy as… focusing on a sword?
“Dude, this is awesome,” Percy laughed, trying to bend the shield. “No give at all. Does that make it harder to break or easier to break?”
"I think harder? It depends on how much power I'm-" And Annabeth took the shield. "Giving it. Like I can-" As she held it, he held a hand out, making the shield grow slightly in diameter, and a good amount in thickness.
“Whoa.” Annabeth blinked, grin slowly growing. “And you said something about… inorganic light matter physics or something like that, right?”
"Yeah, something like that. I'm not into the science of it all, or anything. My mom said I'm supposed to be able to summon a sword, too, and, like, she would kinda know, since I have her gem."
“And the gem is where all your abilities and powers come from, I’m guessing?” Annabeth asked, Connie giving a little jolt beside him before blinking and then grinning.
"Yep." Steven looked at Connie, taking her hand in his and smiling. He had a good idea what she was thinking about.
“Huh. This is really interesting,” Annabeth said, lifting the shield up and staring at it through the sun. “Think we could get him to spar and knock a couple kids out?”
“Almost definitely. The Ares kids would get so pissed, ” he snorted, and it seemed like Connie was laughing a little, too.
“How about it then, Steven?” Annabeth was beaming, holding his shield back out to him. “Want to give some of the kids a wake-up call?”
Steven only waved his hand, letting the shield fade. “Yeah, I can do that. Actually…” Steven grinned at Connie. “Stevonnie?”
Connie was grinning back, looking to Annabeth, “So, Annabeth. How much of a wake-up call do you want them to have?”
Annabeth smirked. “Don’t go easy on ‘em.”
“You have your sword, right honey?”
“Always.” Connie grabbed his hand, tugging him closer and kissing his cheek. “I think I’m up for scaring some demigods.”
Steven spun her around into his arms, laughing and holding her closer. It was a moment of the two of them becoming one, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Stevonnie gave a loud, confident laugh, hands on their hips. Now it was time for some fun! They looked over to Annabeth and Percy, the latter of whom gave a snort of laughter, “I think Ares cabin is about to get their asses kicked.”
☆
It felt like only seconds before night had fallen and they were at a big hall with long picnic tables. Kids and teens alike were running around like crazy or laughing wildly. Percy had invited them to sit beside him, Annabeth and a satyr — Grover, Percy had said earlier — sat beside him. The five of them were the only ones at the table.
“So you have a firepit like this every night?” Connie asked curiously, looking around at everything that was going on.
“At dinnertime, yeah. Everyone throws the best bits of their plates into the fire to honor their godly parent.” Huh. That both… made sense, and didn’t make any sense at all. “Trust me, it’s a magic thing that works.”
Annabeth gave a soft snort, looking towards the two of them. “You two don’t have to do it, but you can make an offering if you want to.” As the food came around, and Steven made himself a plate, he watched Percy and Annabeth get up plates in hand. Steven glanced to Connie, then down at his own plate before he stood.
Connie looked up at him, something like understanding in her smile, “Have someone you plan to make an offering to?”
He smiled back at her, nodding. “Yeah.”
Walking over to the firepit, Steven waited behind the others, picking a couple things from his plate. He glanced up to see some were saying the name of their ‘parent’ out loud, some said ‘Mom’ or ‘Dad,’ and some others were merely silent as they dropped food into the fire. When it was Steven’s turn, he stood in front of the fire before finally holding out a really good looking burger and dropping it into the fire. “For you, mom.”
There was a burst of happiness that felt like it came from deep inside him, Steven smiling at the feeling as the smoke wafted over to him for a few seconds, the smell overtaking him. It smelled like salt on the wind, fresh donuts in the early morning hours, and baking waffles. It smelled like home. He smiled, standing there for a minute before he walked back to sit beside Connie.
Connie was silent, merely leaning against his shoulder and giving a quiet sigh. Just when it seemed like she was about to say something, Percy slammed his hands down on the table, dodging a smack from Annabeth as he shouted, “And now! We feast!” Heh. He liked this guy. Steven dug into his food with earnest after that. It was really good.
Glancing to Connie, she seemed to be thinking the same thing, having tied her hair back to eat properly. There was a bit of commotion from the front, Steven looking over to see an adult stumbling in, Annabeth snorting, “And here comes Mr. D at last.”
Steven glanced to her, looking up at the man in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, can in hand as his sandals slapped against the ground. "Who's he?"
“Technically a god, but not a great one,” Percy laughed. “That’s Mr. D, he was like the god of partying or something, but now he’s stuck watching us.”
They watched him stagger his grumbling way up next to Chiron before he paused and turned to look at Steven. "And… does he normally look like that?" Steven watched him say something to Chiron, who said something back, and oh jeez he was coming straight towards them.
"Rarely ever to that extreme," Annabeth mused. Ah. Great. He was special.
As he got closer, they could hear him muttering, “No, no, no, no, no- You two. Outta my camp!”
Steven drew back a bit. "Uh… Sorry?" Wait, what? Why were they getting kicked out?
“Intergalactic wars, alien communication, Crystal Gems, realm travel- No, no, no. I already have Peter Johnson screwing things up, I don’t need you two - especially you - hurting this camp any further!”
"Wow," Percy said, shoveling another forkful of food into his mouth. "He hates you more than he hates me."
"Wait- You know about the realm travel?"
Mr. D groaned, rolling his eyes, “I can see it on you. Coated in the damn stuff I’m surprised I’m not already sneezing.” Steven frowned, looking down at himself. Coated in the… Okay, he was used to weird, but that made no damn sense. He was kinda sick of being known. “Look, there’s a hundred names for it, but gods can see it and so can some other things, and those other things can be dangerous especially in the middle of a camp full of demigods. So get. ”
"Mr. D, it's kinda in the middle of dinner?" Percy drew his attention over to him. "And they're eating. Wouldn't it be rude to kick them out and send them packing?" It looked like the man was gonna bark at him- "Now, normally, I'd be all for it, but with the stories he's been telling about his aunts…"
The man made some kind of facial expression that was between flinching and paling. “The Diamonds .” Mr. D rubbed at his eyes, saying something in… Greek? “Fine. Finish eating and then get out of my camp.”
As he huffed and mumbled and stomped off, Connie giggled beside him. "Well, look at that. The Diamonds were actually good for something for once."
“Yeah, wow, he really doesn’t like you,” Percy laughed. “Man, that’s great. ”
"I'm really getting sick of people 'knowing me' before I get to introduce myself," he huffed.
“Steven,” Connie said, looking like she was holding back a laugh. “You saved the planet, the galaxy, and were technically prince to an Empire.”
"Yeah, most humans are still trying to decide if aliens even exist, Connie," he pointed out to her.
“You have a point, but the people we’ve been running into aren’t exactly ‘normal humans’ most of the time.”
"Well that's not my fault!"
After a nice dinner, with back and forth bickering and banter, Percy and Annabeth were leading them back to civilization. "Hey, thanks for today."
“Of course,” Percy gave him a friendly bump, Connie and Annabeth exchanging phone numbers and laughing behind them. “Nice to have someone that kind of gets it, right?”
" Totally. Before my roadtrip, I didn't think there was anyone that could get it, y'know? Feels nice to know-" Steven was interrupted by his phone… beeping. He knew that ringtone. He looked at Connie, eyes wide. “ The Diamonds. ”
“Shit,” Connie muttered and whoa hang on a second. “Are you going to answer and tell them about… you know.”
“I- I don’t know. Should I?”
“I don’t know! It’s your family! I don’t want to overstep!”
“You’re my family!” Wait. Shit. “I mean- Not technically, but- Well, I mean, kinda technically, cause, like, I consider you-” You know what? Diamond call was a great idea. “Hey, whole Authority is here! What’s up?”
“ Steven! ” White, Blue, Yellow, and even Spinel all greeted him. Spinel was sitting on Yellow’s shoulder, speaking up first, “ Sorry if we’re interruptin’, just wanted ta check up on ya! ”
“Interrupting? Nah, no, you know what? This is a great time. What do you guys wanna talk about? How you’re not colonizing stuff? How great the galaxy is?”
All of them were quiet, Yellow narrowing her eyes and oh no. “ Steven… Are you alright? You seem particularly bothered by something. ”
“Bothered? Nah. Not me! I’m great!”
“ No, something is definitely bothering you, ” White said firmly. “ What is it, Steven? You know we’ll help you however we can. ”
Steven waved a hand. “No, no, guys, seriously, it’s nothing- Well, not nothing, but nothing for you guys-”
Spinel interrupted, “ There it is. ” There… What was? “ You’re freaking out about something not important, but when you said ‘nothing for you guys’ you looked away. You were lyin’. ”
Shit. Who had taught Spinel psychology?! Steven glanced to Connie, who looked just as panicked and mouthed, ‘ Hang up! ’ Staring at her another minute, his thumb pressed the end call button.
“Whoops, looks like they disconnected! Pesky inter-galactic communications!” Steven laughed nervously as he looked to Percy and Annabeth, who looked… understanding.
“You may not have a godly parent,” Percy said. “But you’re definitely one of us.”
Steven sighed. “ Family. ” He yelped as his phone rang again, and he tossed it at Connie. Connie, fumbling to catch it, denied the call and shoved it into her bag.
“Oh, look, your… phone died. How unfortunate.”
“I can’t tell them. I can’t tell them before Dad. Or Pearl! ”
“Okay, okay, we just- We just need to take some time to think about this,” Connie said calmly. Her bag was ringing. “We just, uh… need to stay calm.”
“Listen, uh, this has been great and all,” Steven told Percy and Annabeth. “Seriously. I should get your numbers.”
“Definitely,” Percy grinned. “Something tells me we really get each other. Besides, it’s always nice to have someone on the outside to tell us what new movies we’re missing.”
Steven laughed. “What a great coincidence. I love watching new movies!”
“Just a match made in heaven, you two are,” Annabeth snorted, writing something down on a scrap piece of paper she must have had shoved away before she was handing it to Connie. “Here. For when you need someone with more than one brain cell to talk to.”
Connie laid a hand against her chest. “A woman after my own heart.”
“I’d feel insulted if I didn’t know for a fact you were talking about everyone but me,” Percy grinned.
“Oh, yeah. Seaweed Brain here’s gonna be the next Einstein,” Annabeth said, rolling her eyes and bumping her hip against Percy’s. Steven grinned, hugging the both of them at once. “Uh, okay, guess you’re a hugger.”
“Fine with me,” Percy laughed, giving Steven a hug back. “Stay safe out there. There are some things that aren’t as friendly as me, but then again, there’s also things that aren’t as mean as Annabeth.”
“Yeah. And I mean, hey. We don’t get your kind of monster out in Beach City, if you do decide to visit. And even if we did, everyone there can handle themselves pretty well. You’d probably be right at home.”
“Nice! Summer vacation that’s not this place next year!” Percy laughed and Steven could hear Annabeth trying to bite back a laugh herself. It was nice to know, if nothing else, there were other half-humans in the world who really got it.