[App] synodiporia

[strategyandasword]

P L A Y E R;
NAME: Birdie
AGE: 27
PLAYER JOURNAL: N/A
TIMEZONE: EST
CONTACT: magpietellme
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Stephanie Brown, Lucifer

C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Pearl
CANON: Steven Universe
POINT IN CANON: End of S1
AGE: She's... she's thousands of years old. She's been on Earth over five thousand years, she's probably a millennium or two older than that... It doesn't really matter, though, because gems don't age.
APPEARANCE:

Reference
Pearl's form is humanoid, but it's not exactly hard to figure out that she's not human just from looking at her. She's average height for a human (...right? This is how tall humans are, right?), very slender (in a way that would... probably be alarming if she needed to eat to survive) and very pale with a faint blue undertone to her skin. She has peach-colored hair in a pixie cut, blue eyes, and very sharp, angular features with a prominent nose... plus a large, oval-shaped gemstone like a giant pearl embedded in her forehead. She can change her clothing to anything she likes on a whim, but most of the time she just wears the outfit in the image linked above.

CANON HISTORY:

World Info: Gems, Gem Homeworld, Crystal Gems, The Rebellion (I'M SORRY)

Pearl was created on the Gem Homeworld probably somewhere around seven or eight thousand years ago, and at some point came into Rose Quartz's possession. She and Rose seem to have been present on Earth shortly after the Gems' colony there was established - possibly Rose herself was in charge of overseeing colonization of the new world before she had a change of heart. In any case, at some point, Rose decided protecting this planet and the native life on it was more important than what the Homeworld wanted from her, gathered an army and started a rebellion against the Homeworld... and Pearl was by her side the entire time.

If Pearl was ever anything like what a Pearl was meant to be, she probably didn't stay that way for long around Rose. Rose allowed her to be more than a pretty trinket, encouraged her to grow and learn and make her own choices... and when given the choice to walk away, Pearl didn't even hesitate before deciding to stay with Rose and fight as her right hand, her knight, her shield. She learned and perfected many different forms of armed combat, and used them to defend Rose - before herself, before reason or self-preservation or any other consideration.

The war lasted a thousand years, leaving a trail of destruction across most of the planet and killing thousands of gems and humans, but eventually the Crystal Gems won and the Homeworld gems retreated. Only a handful of gems were left behind, and in the wake of the war, they had a world full of humans to defend, and the results of the war to clean up - fragments of gems and corrupted gems became monsters that had to be tracked down, defeated, and contained. They made a new life on the planet Rose loved. Rose would occasionally become fond of particular humans, which made Pearl desperately jealous every time, but they're gems - for them, a human lifetime is nothing, and she knew that before long that human would be gone and she'd have Rose to herself again.

And then, maybe twenty years ago, Greg Universe happened. Rose loved him. Pearl was jealous and resentful, as usual. But this time, it didn't pass - it changed everything. Rose had a child with Greg, giving up her physical form so she could pass her gem on to Steven. Pearl lost the center of her world with very little warning or explanation, became responsible for taking care of Steven (with the other Crystal Gems) shortly after, and still hasn't really recovered from it over a decade later. For a gem, that's no time at all.

Recently, the Homeworld started poking around Earth again, sending scouts to investigate the state of the planet and possibly prepare it for colonization again. The Crystal Gems were recently captured by Homeworld gems, and only just managed to defeat them and escape. It could be enough to scare the Homeworld away again... or it could be the start of a new war, without Rose Quartz to lead them. WHO KNOWS? Certainly not Pearl, who was kidnapped to be a Traveler shortly after they got back to Earth.

CANON PERSONALITY:

Pearls are created to be status symbols, subservient and aesthetically pleasing toys who'll do what you ask or fade into the background when you're not using them. They're not supposed to be warriors or engineers, they're not even built to be particularly useful beyond maybe holding things or delivering messages, and they're certainly not meant to be independent beings that want things and make choices. Pearl is a conscious rejection of almost everything she was created to be - she can be more than that, she can be better. Everything she does is driven by two things: her love and devotion to Rose (and, by extension, Steven), and her desire to prove that she's worthy (of respect, affection, personhood).

The first things anyone's likely to notice about Pearl are that she is a perfectionist, she's very dramatic, she's very intelligent, and she likes people to know that last part especially as quickly as possible. Her physical movements are graceful and precise and balletic most of the time, and when she talks, she's articulate and loquacious and just as dramatic verbally as she is physically - she'll spin off on explanations or historical anecdotes at the slightest provocation, and it's rare for her to use a few short words when about a hundred longer ones are possible. She's neurotic and obsessive about things around her being orderly and organized, the kind of person who'll happily spend hours making a pile of random things perfectly symmetrical just because, and she's vaguely horrified by the messiness of organic things, from the idea of food to humans themselves.

Rules and patterns are important to her: grammar, traffic laws, chemical formulas or mathematical constants, it doesn't matter as long as it's reliable and predictable. Humans are anything but predictable in any way, and she fundamentally does not understand them after thousands of years of being around them... not that she's particularly interested in trying. Human customs, turns of phrase, and even sarcasm often baffle her, never mind human relationships and emotions. She has a tendency to be condescending toward humans, uninterested in their "short, boring, insignificant lives", but at the same time, they were important to Rose, so Pearl has dedicated herself to defending them.

Even with those she's close to, Pearl struggles sometimes with interpersonal matters. She's the most openly caring and protective of the gems, deeply invested in the people she cares about and obviously worries and frets over them when they're in danger. But she seems to struggle with understanding or predicting other people's emotional responses to the things she does, or grasping that other people process things differently than she does. She watches Steven sleep and doesn't seem to understand why he finds that disturbing; she'll explain things in elaborate and overcomplicated fashion and get frustrated when other people don't grasp it the first time; when she's teaching Connie, she pushes her to the same recklessness and self-sacrifice Pearl goes into battle with, not realizing she's being harmful and even the other gems are a little disturbed by her attitude when it comes to battle. She cares about people, she's just not good with them, at all.

She tries very hard to project an air of competence and stability at all times, to make sure people think she's strong and reliable, but it's a thin mask over a mess of insecurity and neediness and vulnerability. Pearl needs to be right, all the time. She overthinks and second-guesses everything she does, but when anyone else questions her she'll dig her heels in and act superior, refusing to change her plans even when it becomes abundantly clear they're not working or simply not listening to anyone who tries to tell her she's wrong. When things go really wrong, when she realizes she's actually made a mistake or she runs into something she doesn't know how to deal with, she gets overwhelmed very quickly and tends to have an emotional meltdown, collapsing in tears or disengaging from the situation and bolting (where she will probably also collapse in tears). She's not just a superior know-it-all: she has a real terror of being wrong, because it's one step closer to everyone she knows realizing she's not strong enough, not good enough, just a Pearl.

She has very low (or maybe non-existent) self-esteem. The way Pearl sees it, her value is in demonstrable abilities, in how useful she is to her friends and allies, so she goes out of her way to demonstrate that constantly. Even if no one else is counting, Pearl feels compelled to prove she's worthwhile... and by her count, nothing she does is ever quite enough. She externalizes her self worth - the majority of it, she's placed in her dedication to Rose Quartz and the things she believes in, but it's also partially tied to everyone she cares about. She feels like she needs other people's approval at all times to be worthy of anything, and while she's perfectly capable of making and executing her own plans, most of the time she will look to someone else to actually lead her.

Alone, she feels lost and directionless and useless, so she props herself up with her relationships to others. When she feels her relationships to the people she cares about are threatened, she'll get jealous and clingy, or defensive and petty, lashing out at the people she perceives are intruding on her friendships while trying to monopolize the attention of the friend she feels like she's losing. A part of Pearl definitely feels like she needs to be the most important to everyone she loves... because if she's not the most important, then they can discard her like a toy they've gotten tired of. It's not rational, but it's a fear that never really leaves her.

Pearl is built to devote herself to one person or one thing, almost to the exclusion of everything else - including herself. In the past, that was Rose - she'd throw herself into the line of fire again and again, risk her own destruction just to keep Rose safe. Later, that purpose became the defense of Rose's son Steven, and the Earth and humans Rose had loved. Here without any of those things, that purpose might become the defense of the Travelers and ensuring Jaunts succeed. Whatever her purpose is, Pearl is selfless in defense of it, and puts that before herself without a second thought. It's not that she thinks of herself as not mattering, exactly - it's that by throwing herself into protecting or serving a certain person or a purpose, by becoming invaluable to those around her, she gives herself meaning and a way to matter.

POINT OF DEPARTURE:

Pearl is coming in as a veteran, having been here since just before Purgatory. She's probably kept to herself during Liminal Spaces except for a few initial freakouts about needing to be back home and being alone and not being around to protect Steven or the Earth. She's... still unsure about what to do with all these humans. So many humans.

During Purgatory, Pearl was a demon who never would have fallen if she hadn't been following her angelic commander... but she could never walk away from her. She could be summoned to teach sorcery or any form of combat, always for a price.

During Questing Country, Pearl was the Hecatite Oracle of Devotion. Having recently bounced back from going Pillar after losing her closest bondmate, she would have been willing to teach and guide new dreamers, and may have come to the rescue of anyone in danger, but would have avoided getting too involved in the valence quest itself.

Pearl was on walkabout for Lightning Age. She doesn't remember what she was doing, but now that she's back, she is Very Disappointed in you all.

ABILITIES:

Like all gems, Pearl's actual being and consciousness exists in her gem. Her physical form is a projection from her gem - which is not to say it's not real or solid or a part of her, it's just not the core of who she is. She can be hurt, she feels pain and bleeds if you cut her, but she is far stronger, faster and more durable than any human, and she doesn't need to eat, sleep, or breathe. (She can do all of those things, but Pearl in particular really doesn't like eating or sleeping. It's very unpleasant.)

All gems can shapeshift, altering their physical form in any way they please, though it will always revert back to a default state. Their clothes are simply an extension of their physical forms, and can be altered at will, and most have a unique weapon they can summon, which is also a part of them - in Pearl's case, a spear.

If her body is damaged enough, Pearl will lose her physical form and retreat to her gem to recover. The amount of time she remains in the gem will vary - it can be anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks, but for game purposes will probably be a few days. The only way to permanently kill a gem is to shatter her gemstone... though simply damaging it will have serious effects on Pearl's physical form and her access to her gem abilities.

Two or more gems can fuse their physical forms to create a being larger and stronger than the component gems - fusions share all component gems' abilities, and their personalities come from the combination of the original gems' temperaments. They're both their unique own individuals, as well as the embodiment of the relationship between the gems in the fusion. Gems can't fuse with humans (human hybrids like Steven aside...) so it's unlikely to come up in-game unless we get another gem in or someone acquires a gem form somehow.

Different gems have different magical abilities and skillsets. Pearl's gem can hold physical objects, as well as project holographic images - either images and memories, or programs with very limited artificial intelligence (as seen with Holo-Pearl, a combat program). Most of these projections are intangible, but they can interact with solid matter if Pearl chooses. She has perfect recall of everything she's ever experienced, and can project it using her gem. She can manipulate water (though in small amounts, certainly not to the extent Lapis Lazuli can), and walk on water.

In mundane skills, she is an exceptional warrior with all forms of bladed weapons, and an extremely talented engineer capable of deconstructing and repurposing technology advanced far beyond anything she'd ever experienced, and of building a mech or a near-functional spaceship out of random scrap parts (and then it was her equipment that failed, not her ability). She dances ballet, plays piano and violin, and is not a terrible baker despite her visceral horror at the idea of food.

INVENTORY;

Pearl's clothing and spear are (respectively) an extension of her physical form and an expression of her magic, so they don't exactly count. However, her gem is also capable of holding physical objects in it; she probably has a spare sword and scabbard, various components of a first aid kid (because humans are fragile), a personal memento of Rose... Not much.