Bits and Pieces
Author's note: a commenter on ASOP said she'd like to see more of the Orthoclase and pearl characters from the most recent chapter, and I felt like expanding a little on their story too, so Lyprelia here you go!
Also, because I'm a somewhat shameless self-promoter, please support my novel if you like my work:
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…..
"That last one had some shimmer left over. They really do go overboard with the new line...you want some?"
"No thank you."
"Why not? You'd look like new, I've got nowhere else to put it..."
"I'd just prefer to stay like this, thank you."
"Fine, be boring. I'll keep it in the back in case you change your mind."
…..
Orthoclase hadn't set out to be one of Homeworld's most sought-after underground remodelers. She'd fallen into it quite by accident, during the waning cycles of the zoatox war. She had come out of the ground much smaller than the average Orthoclase and therefore unsuited for direct combat, but a knack with machinery had put her in the hangar squad.
The Jaspers had a set of three pearls at the start of the war (illegal, of course) and had broken one. When a second one seemed on the verge of breaking, one of the Jaspers brought it to Orthoclase.
"What do you want me to do with it?" she had asked, only getting a shrug in response.
"At least get it to stop making that weird noise," the Jasper begged sullenly, already walking away.
The 'weird noise' was a high-pitched whine coming from the back of the pearl's throat. Orthoclase only took the job because she had nothing better to do; she took out an old half-scrambled manual on pearl maintenance and deduced that the only way to stop the noise was to sever the pearl's manifested vocal chords.
"That can't be right," she muttered to herself, searching the databases for other solutions.
In the end, she found that applying the right amount of pressure to the edge of the pearl's gem setting would get it to stop making involuntary noises. She fashioned a somewhat crude splint out of a polymer base and soldered it on, and sure enough the pearl stopped making the noise. She sent it back to the Jasper.
Word soon spread that Orthoclase was some sort of genius when it came to pearls. The fact that the pearl was broken two cycles later didn't seem to matter.
…..
"That last customer paid us a bit extra. Fancy some new apparel?"
"No, I'm all right, thank you."
"Come on, you've been wearing that old thing since you left whats-her-face...pick something comfortable."
"I am comfortable as I am."
"Okay, guess I'll spend it all on compound then."
…..
Everything she learned about pearls, she learned on her own. She tracked down all the manuals, even for the old, outdated and the limited editions. She picked up tips and tricks on the underground information banks. She experimented on broken pearls during her brief time as an impound worker, before they were due to be processed.
It fascinated her; they were so alien and yet also more like real gems than appliances. She'd heard the comparisons to zoatoxes and scoffed. There were superficial similarities, but they resembled gems more closely. Even their creation was gemlike, though it was the slow water-based buildup rather than growing in the earth.
The potential they had made Orthoclase a little sad that they were just used as a luxury item. From what she had learned, pearls had a versatility that was rare in gems. They adapted perfectly to just about any task. Perhaps if they had been used more effectively in the zoatox war, Diamond Core wouldn't have had to make the sacrifice she did.
…..
"How about a recolour? All the fashionable pearls are in pastels right now."
"I'm happy with my colour, thank you."
"Really? Not even your hair?"
"Really. I am fine."
"You know it won't cost me anything...I have all the stuff here, I can do it no problem, just say the word."
"I will keep that in mind. Still, no thank you."
…..
Given how fascinated Orthoclase had become with all things pearl, it took quite a while for her to get a pearl of her own. She couldn't afford a brand new one, and the black market pearls came with heavy damage (that she could probably fix, but it made her uncomfortable for reasons she didn't quite understand.)
In the end, it was a pearl that came through the impound that caught her eye. It looked to be in near-perfect condition, if plainly dressed in a short indigo tunic with its dark red hair pinned back in a thick tail. It had unusually large eyes, typical of the 5VO series, and something in its expression captured Orthoclase's attention.
She pretended to crush it, but instead she slipped it into her pocket. The impound had sensors to prevent this kind of thing, but she knew well how to get past them.
She remodeled it, not extensively but just enough tweaking to satisfy herself. She removed its spike, and when it had finally stopped crying and flinching at everything she gave its functions an upgrade. She set it to work on simple tasks at first, handling her stocks and orders, filtering her requests and organizing her tools. After a while, she started trusting it with more important things.
"I should've done this a long time ago," she said one cycle, midway through a mass tweaking on a pearl that her pearl was assisting with. "You're better than Jade ever was."
Her old partner Jade had been good, but suffered from bouts of squeamishness. The pearl, on the other hand, was holding both sides of the worked-on pearl's ribcage open without even blinking when she got a splash of liquid nacre on her face. Her stoicism when it came to the really messy parts of pearl remodeling was nothing short of astounding.
…..
"That was a strange one, right? It's not just me?"
"No, that was very strange."
"Maybe she had some sort of thing for fused gems or something...she got lucky we had a scrap pearl on hand. Speaking of, since we only used the arms, the legs..."
"No, thank you."
"Figured you'd say that. Think of what you could do with four legs. Doesn't appeal?"
"Not really, no."
…..
The pearl turned her more-like-a-hobby-job into a fully fledged operation. She efficiently sorted through Orthoclase's requests as they came, memorized at least as much of the manuals and notes on pearls as Orthoclase had in the early cycles, and handled the risks Orthoclase took with as much indifference as she handled everything else.
The few remodelers Orthoclase had worked with before had balked at the idea of picking up pearls in public areas, or gathering scrap pearls directly from the impound, but thanks to Pearl's subspace transporting whatever she was working on was easy.
It allowed her to take on riskier jobs, jobs that other remodelers would never risk. Jobs disguising stolen pearls, fixing what was left of the barracks pearls, even disguising pearls as other gems. That one was particularly tricky, because it involved opening up the pearl's manifested form and warping its skeletal base to allow for extra mass. If done incorrectly, or if the gem doing the operation made a wrong move, it could potentially corrupt the mass and turn toxic.
Pearl, however, was perfectly fine with holding another pearl's innards while Orthoclase worked on them. At least, she thought she was fine with it. If Pearl wasn't, she gave no outward sign.
…..
"That's the third one this cycle. We're not doing it."
"Can we afford to turn it down?"
"Yes, if we wait to order those spray matts next tripcycle. We just have to lay low for a while. They can find someone else."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...you can act relieved, you know."
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. I know you hate those jobs. You don't have to pretend you don't."
"I will do as I'm told."
"I know you will, that's not the point...look, be honest with me, okay?"
"All right."
"You hate those jobs."
"Yes."
"And you're relieved we're not doing this one."
"..."
"Well?"
"...no, I'm not relieved."
"Okay...tell me why."
"At least if we did the job we could block her pain receptors. If another remodeler takes the job, they won't do that."
"Oh."
"..."
"..."
"...fine, we'll take the job."
…..
It was getting harder and harder to do the remodelling work, as she got to know Pearl better.
She had always known there was something more to pearls than Homeworld imagined, but she hadn't seen it properly until the first time she caught Pearl modifying a work-in-progress. And now...how could she not see it?
Orthoclase found herself watching Pearl out of the corner of her eye as she shaved down another pearl's gem, cracked open a chest or sawed off a limb, watching for a telltale flinch or even a blink.
Nothing.
It was frustrating. Beyond those first two cycles after her spike had been removed, Pearl had never really shown any emotion. Orthoclase knew they were there, they had to be. If they weren't, where had her sense of mercy come from?
Ultimately, the more she probed and refashioned and rebuilt pearl after pearl, her own Pearl stayed distant, unknowable.
…..
"Have you got a glitch or something?"
"I don't think so. I feel fine."
"Your fingers...they look a bit twitchy lately."
"It is nothing to be concerned about."
"Did you pick it up from one of the new jobs? I see them do it too, is it some sort of virus?"
"No."
"Right. Whatever."
"..."
"...if there was something wrong, you'd tell me. Right?"
"Of course."
"So this finger thing...it's not something to worry about?"
"Not at all."
"Well then...get back to work."