Steven Universe: Time Split

Chapter 85: The Ball

Y/n opened his eyes very slowly, feeling that someone was poking at him again. "Indigo? Why are you poking me again?" He asked as he looked at her.

Y/n still didn't have his helmet on, so his features were on full display. He wasn't angry or upset as he was used to this back on Earth with Peridot and Lapis. "Sorry ... I feared that you had expired ..." The blue gem shrunk away from Y/n, starting to feel guilty.

"What? No, no," Y/n shook his head as he sat up and rubbed at his tense neck, "I just went to sleep is all, humans do it all the time,"

"Sleep?" Her interest peaked at another interesting piece of human behaviour. She had learnt quite a bit about humans. "What's it like?"

Y/n hummed as he continue to rub at his neck. "Well ... Humans do it to restore their energy after using it throughout the day ... So, it's kinda like turning off? Sometimes you dream while you sleep,"

"Dream?" Indigo asked, having plenty of questions about human behaviour. It was all so fascinating for the blue gem.

"Hmm ... A dream is like a random sequence of events that aren't real ..." Y/n explained, "They can be about anything, sometimes they're scary and sometimes they're nice, but they aren't real,"

"That sounds ... Odd," She hummed at the idea of just turning off to experience random events in your head, "But it sounds interesting ..."

"How long till the ball?" Y/n asked, "You can always try sleeping now, it passes the time,"

The sapphire thought for a moment, "It'll be another few hours before my Ruby guards return," She paused, "And another few hours after that until the ball begins,"

"I've met a few Rubies ..." Y/n mumbled to himself, wondering how Doc and Lucy were doing ... But also at the idea of meeting even more Rubies, "Anyway, do you wanna try sleeping? Or would you rather meditate?"

As much as she was interested in 'sleeping', she had more questions about humans and humanity in general. "I'm more interested in learning about humans than sleeping ..." She told, looking away.

Y/n chuckled, he expected to be bombarded with questions, it was just amazing that she let him fall asleep in the first place. "Of course, ask away, I'll try and answer what I can,"

Indigo looked at him, hundreds of questions floating about in her head, "How advanced are humans?"

Y/n pondered for a moment, would he answer with this timelines humanity or his own? Why not both. "On Earth humanity has achieved the ability to travel into space, but not efficiently, that probably won't be for another hundred or so years at least ..."

"But, I'm not from this humanity, I don't believe I've ever explained myself, but I come from a different timeline," Y/n explained, earning a hum from Indi.

"I suppose that explains my inability to see into your future," Indigo said, "What was the humanity like in your timeline?"

"More advanced than the one in this timeline, that's for sure," Y/n said before continuing, "We basically mastered spaceflight, began colonising an array of planets, developed artificial intelligence, but we can't seem to stop fighting each other ..."

Indigo noticed his face, but decided that she would not press the issue, "Amazing ... I never expected that organic beings could be so interesting and smart!"

Y/n nodded, "I guess that makes sense, gems don't really interact with much intelligent organic life other than the animals do you?"

The Sapphire shook her head. "No, it's a shame really," She hummed, "Even during the rebellion, not many stories would be shared about humans,"