Plum Pearl

There was a mirror in Hackmanite's quarters.

It was tall, and ornate, and beautiful, the frame carved with delicate depictions of stars and planets from galaxies far off. "The mirror's beautiful," Hackmanite would always say, "but not nearly as beautiful as what is reflected in it."

Pearl felt this was something of an overstatement.

Hackmanite loved to admire herself in the mirror. She was a graceful Gem, elegant and curvaceous. She was a scholar, well sought after for her insights and philosophies, always busy attending various functions and debates. She had to look her best, she always said. Much of her personal time spent not writing or researching was spent in front of the mirror, tweaking her physical form to best suit the most popular fashions of the Cycle.

It was silly, Pearl thought. And pointless. Inside Hackmanite was a beautiful purple-pink, but her physical form turned dull grey the moment she stepped into sunlight. Why did she waste her time so? Didn't she realise the futility of it all?

Pearl never spoke these thoughts aloud, of course. She always said her Master looked lovely.

Pearl knew that she was supposed to care about such things. Knew that this was a domain of a pearl, the only think she was meant to have any skill or insight in. But she really, really didn't care.

No. No. This wasn't just a lack of caring. This went beyond indifference. Past apathy, past even just dislike. This was hate.

When Hackamite retreated into the restricted libraries where the oldest tomes of Gem kind were kept, she left Pearl behind in her quarters, because no one as low-ranking as her could ever be allowed in such hallowed and sacred halls. And when she was left alone, Pearl too looked into that mirror. She too reshaped her body. She too admired herself.

But not for her beauty.

She wanted nothing to do with that shallow, superficiality. She wanted something else.

The shapes Pearl twisted her physical form into were not pretty. Not in any traditional sense of the word. First, she had experimented with muscles— making herself tall and huge, giving herself the proportions of a quartz. Pearl had stared into the mirror, and seen a warrior staring back, and she'd loved it, even if the effort had left her wilting with exhaustion after only a short time. She had tried on the shapes of other fighters— onyx, calcite, chalcedony. She relished their strength and their power, but none of them quite seemed to fit.

Then she had gone beyond simply mimicking a different Gem class. She had mixed and matched forms and features. Given herself a short, stubby body, but also slender arms, and a neck long enough to rival Yellow Diamond's. She'd stretched her nose as long as is could go, then made it droop, like melting wax. Made hair grow and grow and grow, until it covered not just her head, but her entire body. Let her back droop, her perfect posture hunch over and twist. Let her fingers grow gnarled, her face turn lumpy, her legs turn stumpy.

Behave, they had told her. Be quiet, they had told her. Be pretty, they had told her.

Pearl looked into the mirror, and she threw their orders away.

Eventually, Pearl found her favourite form. The one she slipped into, when she was all alone. It was still essentially pearl-shaped, just… distorted. Her nails clawed sharp, her nose more beaky, her ears pointed up, her eyes narrowed. Her teeth bared. Crouched low, ready to jump. A predator.

She longed for the day she could wear it outside, and everyone would see.

oOo

Author's Note: On my search for more and more varieties of purple gemstones (to match all the purple-pink pearls: seriously, they come in like ten different shades), I discovered hackmanite, which has a rare trait of 'reversible photochromism'. Inside it's a deep purple, but it turns clear when exposed to sunlight. Isn't science interesting?

Also, congratulations to everyone who guessed last Pearl's gem placement as 'navel'. You are correct! You win a cookie cat.