100 days of Mother/Earthbound

037: Carbon

Carbon; a versatile substance, responsible for being part of almost every organic compound known to man, also part of the infamous compound that warms the globe... being both valuable and worthless depending entirely on molecular structure...

And Jeff knew this better than anyone else... but still couldn't help but long for the huge diamond ring in the jewellery shop window... you see, his girlfriend had been giving slight hints that she wanted to be proposed to, by mentioning having kids without any previous conversation prompting it, or by quoting various marriage superstitions and rhymes.

Unfortunately, even though the ring was perfect, there was one catch... the price-tag. The price tag read a figure so large that if it was a scientific value, it'd be written in standard form... 5 X 107 dollars... aka 50 million bucks. Jeff understood... the ring WAS made of platinum, and there was not only a massive diamond on the ring, but several semi-precious gems studding the entire circumference of it. Jeff was in awe...

But Jeff knew he couldn't afford it... it was more than 300 times his annual salary, and Jeff earned a ton anyway. Jeff wondered how the shop would ever sell it.

Then an idea struck Jeff... one that would save him money, but definitely not time.

He'd make his own engagement ring. Operation Diamond Synthesis had begun.

The ring was easy... simply melt the platinum catalyst from the old banger he still had after years of having an Aston Martin, mould it, and cool it... as if Carmen would notice a rogue speck of Palladium...

However, his main problem was forming Diamond cheaply... he had attempted to form it by subliming regular, Joe-Bloggs graphite, and cooling it to form a crystal... but no... it was always impure, some solidifying as graphite still, leaving a slightly blackened, skew-if shaped crystal. Jeff tried again... and again... but to no avail.

So he concluded that there wasn't enough carbon. After donating a bit of his own skin, extracting every last atom of carbon, and adding it to the quasi-diamond, subliming, cooling, and reforming, it still was imperfect... but better than before. It looked... different. A bit cooler, more... stylish, with a marbled pattern of black and colourless on the surface. He cut the diamond to a brilliant-cut shape, and inserted it into the ring with precision.

Jeff was ready to propose... so, the next day (11:30 on a working day is hardly a good time to propose) he went to his girlfriend's house in Toto, and fixed his tie and straightened his jacket. The ring was hidden in his right sleeve, and he planned to propose at Summers' famous restaurant.

Carmen was upstairs when Jeff had entered, and was putting on her clothes. When decent, she went downstairs to greet Jeff.

"Hi, hon." she said, kissed him on the cheek, and continued "So, why are we going out?"

"Um... just felt like treating us... so, ready to go?"

"You never were good with women, were you?" Carmen jokingly said, "What are you hiding?"

"Um... nothing, let's go..." Jeff said, quickly walking out the door, signalling Carmen to follow.

"Jeff, be careful at the..." Carmen said before hearing Jeff trip up, "...step."

She walked outside to find the once suave-looking Jeff a mess on the front garden. Next to his right hand was a glittering object.

"Jeff... are you alright... wait, what's that next to your hand?"

"What's what next to my hand?"

"That... that... oh my god... that's an... an... en... engage... OH JEFF!"

"...Eh... ain't no fooling you, eh?" Jeff said, while picking up the slightly dirty ring.

"Oh... it's beautiful... I've never seen black diamonds before... and is that Palladium? My, my, what have you done here exactly?"

"Well, let's just say there's a little piece of me in that diamond..."

"Um... maybe I'd like to stay blissfully unaware of what you did to MAKE this ring, but the answer is yes, Jeff. It's yes. Now lets see you synthesize your way out of wedding costs..."

Author's note: Two chapters in a row with a hell of a lot of scientific jargon. Hope you can cope with it. Please say so if not. So, what do you think of Jeff's fiancée? Definitely a nice complementary character to Jeff... quick witted, socially aware, but still intelligent. Oh yeah. I'm getting arrogant, I fear.