Pearl (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lostanddefective) wrote2015-05-02 11:15 pm
lostanddefective) wrote2015-05-02 11:15 pm
RYSLIG APP
OOC INFORMATION
Name: Possum
Contact: awkwardpossum (Plurk)
Other Characters: Beast Boy
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Pearl
Age: At least 6000 years (likely far more)
Canon: Steven Universe
Canon Point: Post ep: "Jail Break"
Character Information:
Wiki's got me covered
Personality:
As one of the senior members of the Crystal Gems, and (allegedly) Rose Quartz’s sole confidant, at a glance Pearl gives off a vibe of being the most stable, caring, and responsible member of Steven’s odd little alien family. While some of these adjectives are apt and true of Pearl’s character, observing her for longer than a glance will reveal that she’s also a hotbed of nerves, insecurities, and odd quirks.
Other characters tend to define Pearl by her habitual neatness, for example. She’s precise, fastidious, and strives to be perfectly organized at all times. Steven mentions in “Steven the Sword Fighter” that Pearl is the one that helps him clean around the house, and she voices her disgust for various messes and filth on a regular basis. She very vocally disapproves of the state of Amethyst’s room in the temple (which is admittedly, literally a cave full of various piles of junk), and certainly isn’t shy about organizing and moving other people’s things, as in “Onion Trade” when she actually cleans Amethyst’s room (much to the other gem’s dismay) – or indeed borrowing them without their permission, like the logo off Greg’s van in “Space Race”. She also shows impatience and a lack of sympathy for other people’s cleanliness based issues; again in “Onion Trade”, when Steven can’t locate an item in his room, she exclaims sarcastic surprise over him not being able to find anything in that “super junky room” of his. Her obsession with tidiness and eliminating filth a part of her brain that she’s unable to turn off, even if she’s deep in thought about another subject; In “Space Race”, she interrupts herself as she’s rambling mid thought to point out that a chair she’s walking by is ‘disgusting’ before continuing on with her thought.
She also demonstrates an aversion to various goopy substances, such as the gel that Peridot’s robonoids spew when they are broken, and things like mold spores and rot. Pearl is extremely opposed to the idea of eating (Gems do not require food, but they can eat if they want to); she explains in “Fusion Cuisine” that she finds the idea of chewing food up into mush and letting it pass through your body to be a totally repugnant, and that though she has partaken in food before, she found the process to be “very uncomfortable”.
Of course, her obsession with cleanliness is just a small piece of a bigger picture. By and large, Pearl is graceful in her movements both in and out of battle, and while in combat moves similarly to the way a ballerina might. This is true, at least, when she’s calm. She is not a gem that does well under pressure, and probably loses her head the most easily of anyone on the show. She always goes into missions with a carefully thought out strategy at the ready, but often does not account for any deviations from that strategy. If things don’t go according to plan, she either gets extremely frustrated or extremely distressed, depending on the severity of circumstances. Distress means instability, and Pearl, highly emotional and sensitive, is probably the character most easily driven to tears in the whole series (save for, arguably, Steven). She cries during heavy moments, she cries during moments of extreme happiness… It’s not always just a light cry either. Sometimes her emotional breaks are so severe that they grind any of her productivity to a halt. In “So Many Birthdays”, when the Gems are trying to reverse Steven’s accidental aging process, Pearl is so distressed by the danger he is in that she can’t get it together enough to help properly, and wails and throws herself sobbing onto a furious Amethyst for a comforting hug instead. (Given the circumstances, this was actually a particularly dangerous thing to do, since Steven’s sadness and uncertainty and his decision to act more “mature” was what caused the issue in the first place.) Physical affection is not a thing that Pearl is even remotely shy about, either. She’s very liberal with administering hugs to those she cares about, even against their protests on occasion. She’s also very fond of latching onto Garnet’s arm, especially when she feels a need for support or comfort, often reaching for her automatically in tense situations.
However, her highly nervous and neurotic tendencies do not mean that Pearl is in any way useless. Pearl may be emotional, but she still gets the job done and is a crucial member of the team. Her physical form is noticeably scrawnier than Amethyst’s or Garnet’s, but what she may lack in comparative strength (and I say ‘comparative’ because she is still physically stronger than the average human), she makes up for with speed, agility, and cunning. Her fighting technique centers on agility and dodging, and attacking enemies with precise, well thought out moves after waiting for the right opening, making her just as capable, if not more, than any other gem. In “On The Run,” she asserts that there’s no way Amethyst can beat her in a fight, and Amethyst doesn’t contest this, perhaps indicating that although Amethyst is the more physically powerful gem of the two of them, Pearl is clearly the more disciplined and capable combatant. She’s also very useful outside combat on missions, too, since she possesses a wide range of academic knowledge, has impressive reasoning and problem solving skills, and is amazingly gifted at mechanical engineering. Pearl single-handedly fixes Greg’s van after the events of “Ocean Gem”, and in “The Message” we also see her creating a home-made device designed specifically to deactivate Peridot’s robonoids (though it does wind up not working). In “Space Race” she draws detailed schematics for a high-tech space ship completely unprompted and without any reference or pausing for recollection, and then builds a functional and advanced looking craft using only scrap from an old shed and various parts she scavenged from around town.
Her intellectual and precise nature gives her a tendency to lecture, though, and she’s a bit of a stick in the mud. Pearl has a very strict way of doing things, and is set in those ways, meaning she sometimes has trouble acknowledging that just because something works for her doesn’t mean it works for everyone. This can often lead to trouble with other people, because what it usually results in is either her steamrolling over anyone who doesn't agree with her but is too timid or sensitive to say so (Steven), or, in the case of someone who ISN'T too timid to say something, clashes and massive arguments (Amethyst). Some of this may stem from a sense of intellectual superiority – a conviction that her methods are the most well informed and logical, therefore anyone not operating on the same level either made a mistake and doesn't realize they don't have all the facts, or they're too impulsive and need to slow down and do things her way. Pearl doesn't intend to be mean about these things, she just sees it as her duty to make sure that her teammates do everything the ‘right’ way, even if it means being bossy or overbearing.
In general, despite her kind-hearted and caring nature, Pearl has really abysmal people skills across the board. Sometimes this is a result of her just being very driven to the point of having tunnel vision towards her goals; when she gets an idea in her head she really sticks to it, which means she will often just kind of ignore input from others in conversation. This is a big problem in “Space Race” – what Steven starts as a fun project that was meant to cheer Pearl up becomes a full on effort to construct a working spaceship on her part. She becomes so enamored with the idea of seeing space again that she just kind of selectively blocks out any arguments against her plans, and even goes so far as to disobey Greg’s wishes against taking Steven into space by bringing him on the test flight with her. During the construction phase of the ship, both Steven AND Greg try to contribute ideas or talk her into slowing down, but she seems to just ignore what they’re saying completely, or cut them off and finish their thoughts for them. Of course, these finished thoughts always happen to be precisely what she wants to hear… Because of frequent incidents like this it’s perhaps arguable that Pearl is a-bit self centered, but really it seems mostly that her bossiness in this regard is due more to her being too overbearing about her friends and assuming that she knows what is best for them.
Because so much of her time seems to be devoted to intellectual pursuits, rather than hands-on encounters, the nuances of human interaction seem to be beyond her. In fact, most of her knowledge of humanity seems to come from academic sources, rather than first hand experience. For example, in “Warp Tour”, we see that she knows the precise scientific name for an elbow, and the fact that humans are supposed to sneeze into it to prevent the spread of germs, but when she tries to explain this to Steven, she straight up doesn’t know the name for the body part that humans actually use in everyday conversation, and is instead forced to gesture visually to explain what she’s talking about. It’s not much of a stretch to assume that she likely she knows the scientific name for just about every bone in the human body, but she couldn’t schmooze or make small talk with anyone to save her life. Sarcasm and many other kinds of humor are beyond her as well. In “So Many Birthdays”, Steven attempts to throw a traditional human style birthday party for Pearl that involves a clown act. She winds up taking all of his spoken jokes painfully literally: Steven asks the lead-in question, “why did Pearl throw butter out the window?” The punch line, of course, is “to see a butter fly”, but Pearl barely gets far enough to hear it, because she’s too distressed and offended by the possibility that Steven may be telling lies about her supposedly defenestrating spreadable dairy products.
When Steven tries a different method and turns to slapstick, it turns out Pearl is actually terrified of the portions of the act that involve physical humor. Steven’s joke of pieing himself in the face drives her to hide behind Garnet, where she makes her tell Steven for her that she’s “all partied out” and wants to go home. Pearl is that person who you can never watch movies with, because she’ll be picking apart all the logic and scientific flaws throughout the whole thing. Literally so. In “Steven the Sword Fighter” she’s unable to suspend her disbelief about the sword techniques used by the characters long enough to enjoy watching a cheesy anime film with everyone else.
Pearl is highly prone to jealousy and envy both, which seems to stem from a severe lack of self-confidence – without approval or confirmation of her actions, most of the time she’s at a loss for what to do. Amethyst lampshades this in “Reformed” when she takes on a form that is cruelly reminiscent of Pearl and rather viciously mocks her in front of Garnet and Steven... so it’s not exactly a well hidden weakness. In the episode “Coach Steven” she sings a song about her jealousy over Steven idolizing Sugilite, someone who she is at direct odds with and whose personality clashes with her own on just about every level. She’s especially jealous where Rose is involved, due to the intensely intimate nature of their relationship. In the flashback episode “Story For Steven”, Rose explains to the other gems how she met Greg while he was playing a concert out on the beach; after Greg departs, Pearl huffily glances up at Rose and exclaims “I can sing!”
Undoubtedly, Pearl’s relationship with Rose Quartz is the biggest influential factor in making her who she is. Pearl’s precise status and position within gem society before she fought in the rebellion on Earth alongside Rose has not yet been made clear, but dialogue from both Rose and Jasper hints that “a Pearl” is a specific kind of Gem, and that perhaps the Pearl present in the series is just one of a numerous many. What we do know for sure that she was (and still is) aggressively loyal to Rose, and strives to uphold her values. Each of the gems has their own fond memories of Steven’s mom, but Pearl takes things above and beyond by speaking very romantically of her, a take on things that likely stems from the incredibly close relationship that the two of them shared. If Pearl’s own words are to be believed, Rose shared many of her secrets only with her and no one else, which makes it clear that the two of them shared a significant bond of trust. Pearl certainly harbored romantic feelings for Rose, though to what degree Rose was aware of them (though lets be real she almost definitely was; Pearl isn’t exactly subtle), or whether those feelings were ever reciprocated or not, we have yet to see for certain. Because of the degree to which she idolized her, and her needy and codependent nature, Pearl feels a very prominent need to uphold and defend all of Rose’s ideals, and meticulously maintain the legacy of the very romanticized memories that she has of her. For example, both Garnet and Greg speak of the war against Homeworld as something which was necessary but ultimately regrettable, but when Pearl talks about the war, she has a tendency to get starry-eyed about the glory days of her time serving alongside Rose and engaging in epic battle. She has a highly idealized and romantic view on the whole thing, going so far as to interrupt Garnet’s account of a particularly messy gem battle by cutting her off and loudly proclaiming “but we won!!!” in a sing-song voice. Arguably, this enthusiastic interruption was at least partially meant to dampen the blow of Garnet’s blunt take on things, in order to protect Steven from being upset by the truth, but the fact still remains that she has a far less down-to-earth view of the war compared to everyone else. At the very least, similar to an easily offended MRA talking about feminism, she’s incapable of acknowledging the horrors of the war without feeling the need to defend the necessity of it, for the sake of protecting Rose’s memory. Some later, dialogue-less scenes in “Rose’s Scabbard” seem to attest to her ability to spin an epic yarn out of the events, at any rate.
Rose’s death/disappearance left an indelible mark upon Pearl, and seems to still affect her of all the gems the most visibly. “Rose’s Scabbard” shed a lot of light on Pearl’s feelings towards the mysterious former leader of the Crystal Gems, and also showed a very ugly side to her jealous tendencies. In this episode, Pearl learns that there were secrets that Rose didn’t share even with her, and she subsequently becomes extremely distressed to the point of depression and irrational behavior. To her, this information compromised the memory that she had of the nature of her relationship with Rose, an aspect of her life that up to that point had served as an unshakable pillar of stability for her, and helped her to cope with her grief. The revelation that the truth might not match up to this image utterly devastated Pearl, causing her to lash out, snapping at Steven and yelling at him where in the past she’d only really ever been gentle and caring towards him. Most disturbing of all, she refused to assist Steven in a potentially life threatening situation; though she did react with alarm when he appeared to be in danger, she pulled back and withdrew into herself once more once she had confirmed that the danger was not totally imminent. Rose’s departure left all of the original Crystal Gems reeling and filled with uncertainty, and while Pearl does try her best to move on and act responsibly in her absence, acknowledging the loss throws her into doubt. We see this in “An Indirect Kiss”, when the Gems travel to a healing fountain that Pearl explains was once Rose’s most precious sanctuary. When they arrive, Pearl becomes extremely distressed upon the discovery that some of the sanctuary’s plants have grown out of control and engulfed the entire area. She contemplates the brambles in question and criticizes them outloud, seeming to echo her true feelings about the state of their team without Rose present to lead them: “Look at them. Filthy, clinging things... They’re hopeless without her guidance!” She promptly plays this introspection off by grabbing onto Garnet and insisting to her that “it’s going to be OK,” an action that seems to be meant more for reassuring herself while maintaining the image of being collected and responsible, than it is for actually helping to calm Garnet.
While Pearl is firmly set in camp Good Guy, her reasons for staying there and attitude towards those whom she is sworn to protect is questionable at times. It’s made abundantly clear in “Rose’s Scabbard” that the only reason she made the decision to stay on Earth and fight against Homeworld was because of her devotion to Rose. As she explains to Steven, “Everything (she) did, (she) did for (Rose).” With Rose now gone, it seems that Pearl mostly keeps up the fight to keep the Earth safe out of respect for her memory, and humanity itself only happens to conveniently fall under that umbrella. Given the choice, she almost certainly wouldn’t still be on Earth at all, but unfortunately for her she’s stuck there; choosing to fight against Homeworld meant that none of the gems could ever go back to their own planet. This becomes an even more significant choice on Pearl’s part when you consider the pride and adoration with which she talks about Gem culture, and the wistful way in which she reflects on how much she misses it. With each mission the gems take to a culturally significant location, Pearl enthusiastically teaches Steven about its function. In “Cheeseburger Backpack”, we see her express dismay about the shabby condition of the Sea Spire temple, fretting over each damaged artifact and room as they traverse through the interior. Considering this, it speaks volumes to how devoted she must have been to Rose, to be willing to give up something that she cherished so much in order to stay and fight at her side. Unsurprisingly, Pearl seems to have the hardest time of all the gems adjusting to life on Earth. She’s shown on numerous occasions to have a very weak grasp on how to interact with humans in a normal, relaxed manner, nor does she seem to have any interest in learning how to correct this problem. In “Full Disclosure”, she seems perfectly ready and willing to set up another fence around the temple for keeping wandering humans out, citing the one they used to have one as seen in the episode “Story for Steven”. Her attitude towards humanity on the whole is actually pretty bleak, if what she says in the episode “Keep Beach City Weird” is anything to go by:
“Humans just live short, boring, insignificant lives, so they make up stories to feel like they're a part of something bigger. They want to blame all the world's problems on some single enemy they can fight, instead of a complex network of interrelated forces beyond anyone's control.”
Of course, this attitude does NOT mean that she’ll be okay with the idea of killing and eating humans, which is ultimately what I think will make her a fascinating addition to the cast of Ryslig. Apart from her central personality and various quirks, Pearl has a kind of condescending, superior attitude towards humans; it’s not as though she lords it over them, or is mean or oppressive about it, but it’s pretty obvious from her behavior that she doesn’t have much of an interest in most individual human’s lives, and sees herself as very much separate and perhaps even above their society. Being forced to exist without her gem powers and essentially go through life as a human (and then a monster) should be a pretty rude awakening for her.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
-Sentimental
-Sensitive
-Overbearing
-Intellectual
-Anxious
-Scrupulous
-Perfectionist
-Clingy
-Loyal
-Neurotic
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER? Fits~
Opt-Outs: Arachne, Vampire, Werebear, Wendigo, Merperson
Roleplay Sample:
Have a heaping helping of post-Rota sadness on the Test Drive
Name: Possum
Contact: awkwardpossum (Plurk)
Other Characters: Beast Boy
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Pearl
Age: At least 6000 years (likely far more)
Canon: Steven Universe
Canon Point: Post ep: "Jail Break"
Character Information:
Wiki's got me covered
Personality:
As one of the senior members of the Crystal Gems, and (allegedly) Rose Quartz’s sole confidant, at a glance Pearl gives off a vibe of being the most stable, caring, and responsible member of Steven’s odd little alien family. While some of these adjectives are apt and true of Pearl’s character, observing her for longer than a glance will reveal that she’s also a hotbed of nerves, insecurities, and odd quirks.
Other characters tend to define Pearl by her habitual neatness, for example. She’s precise, fastidious, and strives to be perfectly organized at all times. Steven mentions in “Steven the Sword Fighter” that Pearl is the one that helps him clean around the house, and she voices her disgust for various messes and filth on a regular basis. She very vocally disapproves of the state of Amethyst’s room in the temple (which is admittedly, literally a cave full of various piles of junk), and certainly isn’t shy about organizing and moving other people’s things, as in “Onion Trade” when she actually cleans Amethyst’s room (much to the other gem’s dismay) – or indeed borrowing them without their permission, like the logo off Greg’s van in “Space Race”. She also shows impatience and a lack of sympathy for other people’s cleanliness based issues; again in “Onion Trade”, when Steven can’t locate an item in his room, she exclaims sarcastic surprise over him not being able to find anything in that “super junky room” of his. Her obsession with tidiness and eliminating filth a part of her brain that she’s unable to turn off, even if she’s deep in thought about another subject; In “Space Race”, she interrupts herself as she’s rambling mid thought to point out that a chair she’s walking by is ‘disgusting’ before continuing on with her thought.
She also demonstrates an aversion to various goopy substances, such as the gel that Peridot’s robonoids spew when they are broken, and things like mold spores and rot. Pearl is extremely opposed to the idea of eating (Gems do not require food, but they can eat if they want to); she explains in “Fusion Cuisine” that she finds the idea of chewing food up into mush and letting it pass through your body to be a totally repugnant, and that though she has partaken in food before, she found the process to be “very uncomfortable”.
Of course, her obsession with cleanliness is just a small piece of a bigger picture. By and large, Pearl is graceful in her movements both in and out of battle, and while in combat moves similarly to the way a ballerina might. This is true, at least, when she’s calm. She is not a gem that does well under pressure, and probably loses her head the most easily of anyone on the show. She always goes into missions with a carefully thought out strategy at the ready, but often does not account for any deviations from that strategy. If things don’t go according to plan, she either gets extremely frustrated or extremely distressed, depending on the severity of circumstances. Distress means instability, and Pearl, highly emotional and sensitive, is probably the character most easily driven to tears in the whole series (save for, arguably, Steven). She cries during heavy moments, she cries during moments of extreme happiness… It’s not always just a light cry either. Sometimes her emotional breaks are so severe that they grind any of her productivity to a halt. In “So Many Birthdays”, when the Gems are trying to reverse Steven’s accidental aging process, Pearl is so distressed by the danger he is in that she can’t get it together enough to help properly, and wails and throws herself sobbing onto a furious Amethyst for a comforting hug instead. (Given the circumstances, this was actually a particularly dangerous thing to do, since Steven’s sadness and uncertainty and his decision to act more “mature” was what caused the issue in the first place.) Physical affection is not a thing that Pearl is even remotely shy about, either. She’s very liberal with administering hugs to those she cares about, even against their protests on occasion. She’s also very fond of latching onto Garnet’s arm, especially when she feels a need for support or comfort, often reaching for her automatically in tense situations.
However, her highly nervous and neurotic tendencies do not mean that Pearl is in any way useless. Pearl may be emotional, but she still gets the job done and is a crucial member of the team. Her physical form is noticeably scrawnier than Amethyst’s or Garnet’s, but what she may lack in comparative strength (and I say ‘comparative’ because she is still physically stronger than the average human), she makes up for with speed, agility, and cunning. Her fighting technique centers on agility and dodging, and attacking enemies with precise, well thought out moves after waiting for the right opening, making her just as capable, if not more, than any other gem. In “On The Run,” she asserts that there’s no way Amethyst can beat her in a fight, and Amethyst doesn’t contest this, perhaps indicating that although Amethyst is the more physically powerful gem of the two of them, Pearl is clearly the more disciplined and capable combatant. She’s also very useful outside combat on missions, too, since she possesses a wide range of academic knowledge, has impressive reasoning and problem solving skills, and is amazingly gifted at mechanical engineering. Pearl single-handedly fixes Greg’s van after the events of “Ocean Gem”, and in “The Message” we also see her creating a home-made device designed specifically to deactivate Peridot’s robonoids (though it does wind up not working). In “Space Race” she draws detailed schematics for a high-tech space ship completely unprompted and without any reference or pausing for recollection, and then builds a functional and advanced looking craft using only scrap from an old shed and various parts she scavenged from around town.
Her intellectual and precise nature gives her a tendency to lecture, though, and she’s a bit of a stick in the mud. Pearl has a very strict way of doing things, and is set in those ways, meaning she sometimes has trouble acknowledging that just because something works for her doesn’t mean it works for everyone. This can often lead to trouble with other people, because what it usually results in is either her steamrolling over anyone who doesn't agree with her but is too timid or sensitive to say so (Steven), or, in the case of someone who ISN'T too timid to say something, clashes and massive arguments (Amethyst). Some of this may stem from a sense of intellectual superiority – a conviction that her methods are the most well informed and logical, therefore anyone not operating on the same level either made a mistake and doesn't realize they don't have all the facts, or they're too impulsive and need to slow down and do things her way. Pearl doesn't intend to be mean about these things, she just sees it as her duty to make sure that her teammates do everything the ‘right’ way, even if it means being bossy or overbearing.
In general, despite her kind-hearted and caring nature, Pearl has really abysmal people skills across the board. Sometimes this is a result of her just being very driven to the point of having tunnel vision towards her goals; when she gets an idea in her head she really sticks to it, which means she will often just kind of ignore input from others in conversation. This is a big problem in “Space Race” – what Steven starts as a fun project that was meant to cheer Pearl up becomes a full on effort to construct a working spaceship on her part. She becomes so enamored with the idea of seeing space again that she just kind of selectively blocks out any arguments against her plans, and even goes so far as to disobey Greg’s wishes against taking Steven into space by bringing him on the test flight with her. During the construction phase of the ship, both Steven AND Greg try to contribute ideas or talk her into slowing down, but she seems to just ignore what they’re saying completely, or cut them off and finish their thoughts for them. Of course, these finished thoughts always happen to be precisely what she wants to hear… Because of frequent incidents like this it’s perhaps arguable that Pearl is a-bit self centered, but really it seems mostly that her bossiness in this regard is due more to her being too overbearing about her friends and assuming that she knows what is best for them.
Because so much of her time seems to be devoted to intellectual pursuits, rather than hands-on encounters, the nuances of human interaction seem to be beyond her. In fact, most of her knowledge of humanity seems to come from academic sources, rather than first hand experience. For example, in “Warp Tour”, we see that she knows the precise scientific name for an elbow, and the fact that humans are supposed to sneeze into it to prevent the spread of germs, but when she tries to explain this to Steven, she straight up doesn’t know the name for the body part that humans actually use in everyday conversation, and is instead forced to gesture visually to explain what she’s talking about. It’s not much of a stretch to assume that she likely she knows the scientific name for just about every bone in the human body, but she couldn’t schmooze or make small talk with anyone to save her life. Sarcasm and many other kinds of humor are beyond her as well. In “So Many Birthdays”, Steven attempts to throw a traditional human style birthday party for Pearl that involves a clown act. She winds up taking all of his spoken jokes painfully literally: Steven asks the lead-in question, “why did Pearl throw butter out the window?” The punch line, of course, is “to see a butter fly”, but Pearl barely gets far enough to hear it, because she’s too distressed and offended by the possibility that Steven may be telling lies about her supposedly defenestrating spreadable dairy products.
When Steven tries a different method and turns to slapstick, it turns out Pearl is actually terrified of the portions of the act that involve physical humor. Steven’s joke of pieing himself in the face drives her to hide behind Garnet, where she makes her tell Steven for her that she’s “all partied out” and wants to go home. Pearl is that person who you can never watch movies with, because she’ll be picking apart all the logic and scientific flaws throughout the whole thing. Literally so. In “Steven the Sword Fighter” she’s unable to suspend her disbelief about the sword techniques used by the characters long enough to enjoy watching a cheesy anime film with everyone else.
Pearl is highly prone to jealousy and envy both, which seems to stem from a severe lack of self-confidence – without approval or confirmation of her actions, most of the time she’s at a loss for what to do. Amethyst lampshades this in “Reformed” when she takes on a form that is cruelly reminiscent of Pearl and rather viciously mocks her in front of Garnet and Steven... so it’s not exactly a well hidden weakness. In the episode “Coach Steven” she sings a song about her jealousy over Steven idolizing Sugilite, someone who she is at direct odds with and whose personality clashes with her own on just about every level. She’s especially jealous where Rose is involved, due to the intensely intimate nature of their relationship. In the flashback episode “Story For Steven”, Rose explains to the other gems how she met Greg while he was playing a concert out on the beach; after Greg departs, Pearl huffily glances up at Rose and exclaims “I can sing!”
Undoubtedly, Pearl’s relationship with Rose Quartz is the biggest influential factor in making her who she is. Pearl’s precise status and position within gem society before she fought in the rebellion on Earth alongside Rose has not yet been made clear, but dialogue from both Rose and Jasper hints that “a Pearl” is a specific kind of Gem, and that perhaps the Pearl present in the series is just one of a numerous many. What we do know for sure that she was (and still is) aggressively loyal to Rose, and strives to uphold her values. Each of the gems has their own fond memories of Steven’s mom, but Pearl takes things above and beyond by speaking very romantically of her, a take on things that likely stems from the incredibly close relationship that the two of them shared. If Pearl’s own words are to be believed, Rose shared many of her secrets only with her and no one else, which makes it clear that the two of them shared a significant bond of trust. Pearl certainly harbored romantic feelings for Rose, though to what degree Rose was aware of them (though lets be real she almost definitely was; Pearl isn’t exactly subtle), or whether those feelings were ever reciprocated or not, we have yet to see for certain. Because of the degree to which she idolized her, and her needy and codependent nature, Pearl feels a very prominent need to uphold and defend all of Rose’s ideals, and meticulously maintain the legacy of the very romanticized memories that she has of her. For example, both Garnet and Greg speak of the war against Homeworld as something which was necessary but ultimately regrettable, but when Pearl talks about the war, she has a tendency to get starry-eyed about the glory days of her time serving alongside Rose and engaging in epic battle. She has a highly idealized and romantic view on the whole thing, going so far as to interrupt Garnet’s account of a particularly messy gem battle by cutting her off and loudly proclaiming “but we won!!!” in a sing-song voice. Arguably, this enthusiastic interruption was at least partially meant to dampen the blow of Garnet’s blunt take on things, in order to protect Steven from being upset by the truth, but the fact still remains that she has a far less down-to-earth view of the war compared to everyone else. At the very least, similar to an easily offended MRA talking about feminism, she’s incapable of acknowledging the horrors of the war without feeling the need to defend the necessity of it, for the sake of protecting Rose’s memory. Some later, dialogue-less scenes in “Rose’s Scabbard” seem to attest to her ability to spin an epic yarn out of the events, at any rate.
Rose’s death/disappearance left an indelible mark upon Pearl, and seems to still affect her of all the gems the most visibly. “Rose’s Scabbard” shed a lot of light on Pearl’s feelings towards the mysterious former leader of the Crystal Gems, and also showed a very ugly side to her jealous tendencies. In this episode, Pearl learns that there were secrets that Rose didn’t share even with her, and she subsequently becomes extremely distressed to the point of depression and irrational behavior. To her, this information compromised the memory that she had of the nature of her relationship with Rose, an aspect of her life that up to that point had served as an unshakable pillar of stability for her, and helped her to cope with her grief. The revelation that the truth might not match up to this image utterly devastated Pearl, causing her to lash out, snapping at Steven and yelling at him where in the past she’d only really ever been gentle and caring towards him. Most disturbing of all, she refused to assist Steven in a potentially life threatening situation; though she did react with alarm when he appeared to be in danger, she pulled back and withdrew into herself once more once she had confirmed that the danger was not totally imminent. Rose’s departure left all of the original Crystal Gems reeling and filled with uncertainty, and while Pearl does try her best to move on and act responsibly in her absence, acknowledging the loss throws her into doubt. We see this in “An Indirect Kiss”, when the Gems travel to a healing fountain that Pearl explains was once Rose’s most precious sanctuary. When they arrive, Pearl becomes extremely distressed upon the discovery that some of the sanctuary’s plants have grown out of control and engulfed the entire area. She contemplates the brambles in question and criticizes them outloud, seeming to echo her true feelings about the state of their team without Rose present to lead them: “Look at them. Filthy, clinging things... They’re hopeless without her guidance!” She promptly plays this introspection off by grabbing onto Garnet and insisting to her that “it’s going to be OK,” an action that seems to be meant more for reassuring herself while maintaining the image of being collected and responsible, than it is for actually helping to calm Garnet.
While Pearl is firmly set in camp Good Guy, her reasons for staying there and attitude towards those whom she is sworn to protect is questionable at times. It’s made abundantly clear in “Rose’s Scabbard” that the only reason she made the decision to stay on Earth and fight against Homeworld was because of her devotion to Rose. As she explains to Steven, “Everything (she) did, (she) did for (Rose).” With Rose now gone, it seems that Pearl mostly keeps up the fight to keep the Earth safe out of respect for her memory, and humanity itself only happens to conveniently fall under that umbrella. Given the choice, she almost certainly wouldn’t still be on Earth at all, but unfortunately for her she’s stuck there; choosing to fight against Homeworld meant that none of the gems could ever go back to their own planet. This becomes an even more significant choice on Pearl’s part when you consider the pride and adoration with which she talks about Gem culture, and the wistful way in which she reflects on how much she misses it. With each mission the gems take to a culturally significant location, Pearl enthusiastically teaches Steven about its function. In “Cheeseburger Backpack”, we see her express dismay about the shabby condition of the Sea Spire temple, fretting over each damaged artifact and room as they traverse through the interior. Considering this, it speaks volumes to how devoted she must have been to Rose, to be willing to give up something that she cherished so much in order to stay and fight at her side. Unsurprisingly, Pearl seems to have the hardest time of all the gems adjusting to life on Earth. She’s shown on numerous occasions to have a very weak grasp on how to interact with humans in a normal, relaxed manner, nor does she seem to have any interest in learning how to correct this problem. In “Full Disclosure”, she seems perfectly ready and willing to set up another fence around the temple for keeping wandering humans out, citing the one they used to have one as seen in the episode “Story for Steven”. Her attitude towards humanity on the whole is actually pretty bleak, if what she says in the episode “Keep Beach City Weird” is anything to go by:
“Humans just live short, boring, insignificant lives, so they make up stories to feel like they're a part of something bigger. They want to blame all the world's problems on some single enemy they can fight, instead of a complex network of interrelated forces beyond anyone's control.”
Of course, this attitude does NOT mean that she’ll be okay with the idea of killing and eating humans, which is ultimately what I think will make her a fascinating addition to the cast of Ryslig. Apart from her central personality and various quirks, Pearl has a kind of condescending, superior attitude towards humans; it’s not as though she lords it over them, or is mean or oppressive about it, but it’s pretty obvious from her behavior that she doesn’t have much of an interest in most individual human’s lives, and sees herself as very much separate and perhaps even above their society. Being forced to exist without her gem powers and essentially go through life as a human (and then a monster) should be a pretty rude awakening for her.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
-Sentimental
-Sensitive
-Overbearing
-Intellectual
-Anxious
-Scrupulous
-Perfectionist
-Clingy
-Loyal
-Neurotic
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER? Fits~
Opt-Outs: Arachne, Vampire, Werebear, Wendigo, Merperson
Roleplay Sample:
Have a heaping helping of post-Rota sadness on the Test Drive