Hermitcraft/Empires oneshots/drabbles

Pearl's story (Newlife)

You're going to have to forgive me if I get some lore wrong. I don't watch Owen's pov of Newlife. I only know (think?) he is a copper golem from Scott's video

And no, this is not shippy. In any way.

Tws: None

Has she always been like this?

Most of her recent memories certainly were. Being made of a strange mix of copper plating and flesh. Rusting in water. Being unable to eat anything but copper ingots. Having to scrape off oxidation from her body, or risk freezing up.

So as far as she could tell, she might have always been a Copper Golem Hybrid.

But there were other things; Flashes of memory. She had been human once. But somehow, something had happened to her. She was half human, half machine.

Pearl sat on one of the modded, premade bridges. Her feet dangled over the water, a slow, lazy river that flowed underneath her. Sulking, she lobbed a rock into the stream, and it hit the water with a splash.

'Come on!' She said out loud, smacking her metal hand against the sun-warmed wood of the bridge. 'I can't have forgotten everything. I was human once! I need to remember!'

But no matter how hard she tried, no solid memories floated to the surface. All she got were smears and smudges; A laughing voice, a pair of unsteady feet, the sun warming her back.

Pulling her feet back up onto the bridge, she crossed them to her chest and rested her chin on her knees with a huff. She was tiny, the size of a normal copper golem. Because that's what I am now, I guess.

'Hey, Pearl!' Tiny pattering footsteps. A new voice. Pearl turned to look down the bridge and watched as Owen, her fellow Copper Golem Hybrid, came up the slatted planks. 'What are you doing?' He plonked down beside her.

'Thinking.' Pearl said, tossing another rock. It splashed into the water with a plink. Owen placed down a button and pressed it lazily as he spoke.

'You do have this frowny thinking face on.' Owen said, mimicking her. Redstone gathered in piles as he clicked the button beside him.

Pearl burst out laughing at his impression of her face. 'Did I really look like that?' She asked. Owen nodded solemnly. Pearl took out a copper ingot and took a bite. 'So what are you doing here? You're an awfully long way from your home, Sparrow.'

Owen looked impressed that she had actually used the right name. 'Well, I was just out looking for other hybrids. I have some questions I wanted to ask them! I was wondering how some of them became hybrids. Were they like that naturally? Or was there a reason behind it?'

Pearl tilted her head at him. 'How were you made? Were you always a Copper Golem?'

'No, actually! I was a human before, my transition was recent!' He had a slight lisp that caught on Rs, making him sound like he was saying 'twansition' and 'rwecent.' He sounded cute, in a five-year-old kind of way.

'What do you mean?'

'When I crashed onto the server, I was full human. Then, I built this machine that infused copper into my DNA and made me a Golem Hybrid. So now it's easier to study hybrids, because I'm one of them!' Only problem is, I can't touch water and I live on a peninsula...'

'Hmm.' Pearl wondered if she was made the same way.

'It's pretty interesting, actually. I was talking to Jimmy earlier; He went from a Bad Guy to a Good Guy, right? So I was wondering how he changed so drastically. He said that when he died, the urge to be bad just faded, and he decided to become Good Guy!'

Pearl snorted a chuckle. 'You sure the bad faded? Because he put lava in Martyn's base and crops and sheep in Scott's. Not sure thats very 'good' of him.'

Owen shrugged. 'Good is a matter of perspective, I guess.' He leaned back on one hand, the other one still tapping the wooden button. By now, redstone dust stood in massive heaps around it.

'Why do you need so much redstone, by the way?' Pearl asked curiously.

'fWhip wanted a bunch.' Owen looked down at the growing stacks of red. 'Ahem. A lot.'

'Ah, fWhip. He came to me for redstone earlier as well. I wonder what he uses it for.'

'Could be for fake blood.' Owen suggested.

Both Golem Hybrids started laughing hysterically. 'Who knows what that maniac gets up to in his spare time?' Pearl waved her metallic hands theatrically.

'Maybe he's making statue corpses with real looking blood to scare us all.' Owen scooped up the mounds of dust and piled them into a pouch. 'That should be good for now.'

Pearl placed a lever and flicked it idly. 'Hey, Sparrow... from all of your research, did you figure out... If its possible to be born a hybrid? How do we have these powers?'

'Thats another question I'm working on answering! But as far as I can tell, its all just magic. Some kind of magical energy is infused in all of us, giving us powers. Then, when we die, those powers get changed. Like how Scar went from a witch to a human. The magic just decided to leave him for whatever reason. Maybe when he dies again, he'll get powers again. Who knows!'

'Wow.' Pearl's mind was racing. A magical energy? So that did mean she was human once... But then, she could be human again if she ever died.

But did she want to be?

A blipping sound came from Owen's communicator. He tilted his arm to look at the inbuilt screen in his wrist. 'Ah. fWhip wants his redstone.' He got up, swinging the leather redstone pouch from his fingers. He offered his free hand to Pearl, and she shook it. 'Well, see you later, Pearl.'

'See you, Sparrow.' Pearl smiled, watched as the Golem Hybrid went down the bridge and into the distance, growing smaller with each passing step until he disappeared over a hill, and she couldn't see him any more.

Pearl sat on the bridge for a little while longer, mulling over what Owen had told her. It didn't exactly solve her mystery of who she had been before...

But oh well, it was a good start.