Plastic Pearl

**Plastic Pearl**, simply referred to as **Pearl**, is a Steven Universe fancharacter and the first "Pearl".

He was conceived on May 3, 2022, but has made no official online appearance.

## Backstory

> Plastic Pearl was handmade by Red Diamond, without any kind of purpose in mind. His existence is seemingly thanks to a rare moment of homesickness, making him the product of a possible system defect within the otherwise robotic Red. With his artificial humanity being his only "talent", he was not seen as particularly special by her more conventional creations, the gems, or even considered one of them.
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> He'd look her up often and deemed himself her personal advisor. The gems found his behaviour disrespectful and intrusive, but as Red allowed for it and would undo their attempts of shutting down the eyesore, they had to accept her approval of him. Pearl fell in love with her, and his openness about it only worsened his reputation.
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> Despite her artificial intelligence, Red Diamond was a machine in the classical sense of the word and couldn't emote or entertain concepts deemed unnecessary for her main objective. She couldn't pick up on Pearl's romantic interest, but he appeared understanding and unconcerned about it.
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> When every new generation of gem became ever more "human", Red Diamond pondered if this lack of emotion would hinder her work in the future. Pearl suggested she'd upgrade herself with the same elements that made these evolved gems, but when Red attempted to test this out, she realized to had broken herself beyond repair.
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> Pearl was guilt-ridden and promised to look after her broken gemstone for as long as it took, hoping at least one of the pieces would repair and reboot itself. The piece that contained most of her colour received the most attention with the belief the original Red Diamond would spawn from it.
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> When White Diamond emerged first, he wished to re-establish the relationship he had with Red, but quickly learned she was a different person. She loathed him for his looks, absence of powers, and habit of looking her up. As White considered herself a monarch deserving of grovelling respect, it didn't take long until she decided to kill the inferior robot.
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> In an act of disrespect, White began her own creation of Pearls, who greatly differed in design and were programmed to mindlessly worship their assigned master.
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## Personality

Plastic Pearl, despite the name and his appearance, is Red Diamond's most human robot -like he's just a costume worn by one. Though his body presents some limitations, he moves around like an excited child and is an optimist in general. He doesn't follow proper etiquette, one of the many reasons the other gems don't like him.

After his creation, he was left to roam about and do as he pleased, but chose to become Red's unappointed advisor and would look her up often. He was her only friend, though this relationship was arguably one-sided. Pearl understood and tolerated his creator's emotional limitations, and accepted the fact he was allowed to casually engage with her as her way of accepting the friendship.

His feelings quickly became romantic, something Red also couldn't recognize and answer to, which Pearl didn't seem to mind. He's a carefree character, as he also ignored the disgust and disdain his peers showed him.

## Powers

Plastic Pearl has many exclusive attributes, like the fact he's one of a kind, considers himself male, doesn't have/isn't an actual gemstone, and was purposely made to mimic the look of something that could only be found on Earth.

Even so, he is embarrassingly basic compared to the gems. Because he lacks a gemstone, he has no gem-related benefits and became affected by the passage of time like a regular machine would. He can't fuse, nor get corrupted.

Though his love for Red kept him operative for thousands of years, his voice box developed static, his eyesight fully disappeared, his body developed irreparable cracks, with his pearl-like wheels having long detached themselves, and his layer of pearly shine faded into broken white. Getting destroyed by White Diamond meant the end of him.

## Appearance

Unlike the Pearls shown in the original Steven Universe series, Plastic Pearl is visibly made out of separate parts, has solid balls for hands, similar-looking wheels for feet, and is stout with rounded features. His torso, hip, and forearm segments are needlessly big and lower the speed of his moments, which the engine powering his wheels usually makes up for.

The paint used for his body is a metallic white and his eyes look much like actual pearls. His head is a perfect sphere, but interestingly enough has rubber patches implemented at places that allow him to use facial expressions, extensively so. This makes his head dangerously fragile in comparison to the rest of his body.

Plastic Pearl was given "dentures" for equally unknown reasons and these are pointlessly large, making it impossible for him to fully close his mouth.

Being made by Red entails he wasn't planted in the ground of another planet to absorb its raw materials. He's visibly plastic and has no gemstone.

## Gallery

**Concept sketches.**
 *(Wiki exclusive upload, 2022)***Concept sketches.**
 *(Wiki exclusive upload, 2022)***Concept sketches.**
 *(Wiki exclusive upload, 2022)***Concept sketches.**
 *(Wiki exclusive upload, 2022)***Concept sketches.**
 *(Wiki exclusive upload, 2022)*
## Trivia

* Plastic Pearl was intended to be female during early development of the character.
* Besides resembling an organic, Earth-exclusive gem, it's also implied Plastic Pearl's features are based on that of (one of) Red Diamond's human creator(s), including his voice and way of speaking;
	+ This man used to be Red's main instructor, which is why she tends to pay attention to Pearl's given advice;
	+ The song "Digital Affection" by The Orion Experience gives an example of his voice.

## See also

* Paul Maggio
* Red Diamond
* Digital Affection (Music video)