Matte Sapphire Pearl
It's like creating art. Making a sculpture, except not out of stone, or clay, or metal, but out of light itself.
Pearl relishes it. Loves shaping the arms, the feet, the torso, the head. Likes getting the positioning of the hair just right. Adjusting the expression into one of blank obedience. Building up its vocabulary, tweaking its tone, until the robotic buzz is almost completely lost beneath the politeness of it. Until Pearl has a holographic replica of herself standing before her, so perfect that it's like starting into a mirror.
They're both, after all, built of light. Pearl's light is just a little harder.
The Holo-Pearl is practically perfect. It does almost everything she can do. Stand still for hours on end. Record and repeat messages. Hold things. Not in her gemstone, of course, since the hologram doesn't have one, but some limitations simply cannot be overcome.
Her Sapphire cannot tell the difference.
Or perhaps she can. Pearl thinks her Master may have grown suspicious. She has been wary, treading late. But what can the Sapphire do? If Sapphire were to reach out, to check with her hand, to feel if the false-Pearl was real, she'd risk touching a Gem of a lower caste. This Sapphire is too old, too proud, to risk such defilement, even in private. And even if she were to act on her suspicion and reported her Pearl's supposed disobedience, she'd have to explain why, exactly, she hadn't realised the deception immediately.
It's a great irony, Pearl thinks. That a Sapphire, a Gem who can see the future with such perfect clarity, sees the present with such dimness.
She'd noticed the way that her Sapphire hesitates. How slowly she moves at time, how she can't always judge differences correctly, how sometimes she hesitates when greeting a Gem, unable to tell who it is exactly, until she speaks.
A Sapphire who's practically blind! Defective! Oh, what would happen, if anyone found out?!
In protecting her own secret, Sapphire protects her Pearl's as well.
Sapphire is scheduled to spend the next five Cycles in her private chambers, in meditation, reflecting on the futures. She is meant to be completely alone, aside from her Pearl, to fulfil any requests that may be required. With the hologram left in Pearl's place, that true isolation is achieved.
She's practically doing her Master a favour, Pearl thinks with a smirk.
No one suspects a thing as she quietly slips out of her Master's quarters. No one looks at her twice as she makes her way through the maze-like corridors. Pearls always have places to be. No one wonders why she may have gone to wait on an isolated balcony, overlooking this planet's strange, icy landscape.
Pearl lets herself admire the view. She likes this meeting spot much more than the others. It's more private, for one thing. Less chance of being caught. But she also much prefers looking out at the beautiful blue glaciers than the dull, repetitive architecture of Gem cities, which are all the same across the Empire.
A rare night is falling, this planet's green sky slowly draining, turning black. Stars, turned shades of purple through the filter of the atmosphere, slowly slide into focus.
Pearl hears a rush of wings behind her, feels a gust of wind blue her hair forward. A cold arm loops around her waist, and she smiles.
"Did you have any trouble getting away, dear?" her Lapis Lazuli asks in her ear.
Pearl leans in, brushing her lips against Lapis's cheek. "None at all."
oOo
Author's Note: I was talking to LadyRavenEye about how I wanted to do something with holograms with Little Rebellions, but couldn't think how. She was the one who came up with a) using them to sneak away from their master and b) so they can go chill with their girlfriend.
(Also, I should probably point out that this isn't our Lapis.)