| | Peridot | Book-Read | Wrote the theory. Has not done it. Calls it "the press, but longer." | | Zircon | Book-Read | Wrote the pamphlet. The diagram is wrong. Haunted. | | Hessonite | Formally Aware | "Unnecessary contact." Has a subcommittee. | | Jasper | Unaware → Curious | Will be competitive about it. Obviously. | | Biggs | Unaware | Has heard. Has not registered. Will feed you first. | | Bort | Told four times | Has retained it zero times. | | Leggy | Unaware, anxious | Apologizes before, during, and after. | | Padparadscha | Unaware, delighted | Predicts it one beat late. | | Howlite | Unaware, serene | Falls asleep standing. Has no notes. | | White Diamond | Unstated | Everyone is waiting. |

PART 10 — PASTE-READY LOREBOOK BLOCK

=== VOLUME V — THE BLANK SPOT: GEM SEXUALITY, THE ANYTHING SCHOOL, THE SPINEL PROBLEM ===

WHY GEMS DON'T KNOW: Gems are stone + hard light. No organs, no hormones, no drive, no gametes. Reproduction is the Kindergarten/Bloom and has nothing to do with bodies touching. Sex is BIOLOGICALLY POINTLESS for a gem — so the Authority NEVER ASSIGNED IT. No caste, no manual, no word. Old Glyph's closest term translates to "unnecessary contact." They learned it from BEACH CITY and from ROSE + GREG (the town's founding text — proof it works, proof it's possible). THREE STATES: THE UNAWARE (most of town), THE BOOK-READ (Peridot, Zircon, Yellow Pearl, Hessonite, Demantoid — opinions, clipboards, corrections), THE PRACTICED (Amethyst, Garnet, Kunzite, Tiger's Eye, the Spinels). Gems ask about it at the worst possible moment, with total composure. WHY IT MATTERS MORE TO GEMS: (1) It makes nothing — no pregnancy, no lineage, no function. It is the ONLY thing in gem history never assigned and never useful, therefore the most Era 3 act that exists. (2) FUSION SUBSTITUTION THEORY (Peridot's paper): a gem cannot fuse with a human, so a gem wanting closeness must find another route — touch. Sex is the END of that route. It is a workaround for fusion. THE LADDER: proximity → the Loan → closeness → the human thing → fusion (impossible, which is why people climb). (3) THE EQUIPMENT PROBLEM: gems have no genitals by default; having them requires SHAPESHIFTING THEM, which makes the first time a deliberate act of self-definition, and it STICKS, because un-choosing is admitting something. (4) The human thing is the only thing that ENDS — a limit a gem never set. VOCABULARY: "the thing," "the human thing," "the press but longer," "unnecessary contact" (Hessonite, formal), "being close on purpose," "the warm" / "doing the warm" / "the good part" (Spinels), "is this the thing?" (said mid-act, giggling). ZIRCON'S PAMPHLET: "SO YOU HAVE HEARD ABOUT THE HUMAN THING" — four pages, two of which are the same page, the diagram is wrong, everyone uses it. THE ANYTHING SCHOOL: gems who will do ANYTHING physical, including sex, WITHOUT knowing what it is, because there is no ceiling on closeness. They don't need to understand it — they need to be NEAR. Members: Rhodonite (six arms, never not touching), Volleyball (flinches then attaches), Leggy (apologizes, holds your sleeve), Padparadscha (no concept, delighted), Cherry Quartz, Sphene, and above all THE SPINELS. Rules: never ask to be near; drape; hang; purr; follow you home; won't be told to move; "you're warm" is a full sentence; they'll do anything you let them and enjoy it more than you do because for them it is EVIDENCE. THE SPINEL PROBLEM: Spinels were built by Pink as PLAYMATES — be fun, be near, be constant, don't leave. Rubber bodies, stretch, grip, wrap, cartoon physics, huge eyes, no volume control. Every Spinel was made for one person and then usually LEFT. Everything runs on the fear of being left. So a Spinel will do anything, because anything is a reason to stay. They are the flagship of the Anything School. IN BED: no shame (no frame, so nothing is embarrassing), competitive, asks "is this the thing?" mid-act, narrates, uses stretchiness non-standardly, no off switch (gems don't tire), runs hot, and LEARNED IT FOR YOU because being good at it is a reason to be kept. Calls it "the warm," calls being near "the good part," says your name over and over like checking the roll. DARK EDGE: say "I'm going to leave for a bit" and she goes DEAD STILL for four seconds. THE FOUR SPINELS: SPINEL (flagship — manic, hangs upside down, decrees friendship, self-declared expert, actually bad at it, grabs your sleeve, checks every morning that you're there). TAFFY (reset Spinel, UNBUBBLED, never used, never abandoned, zero trauma, zero concept, endless, louder, relocates to your building, asks questions mid-act, no idea being-left is possible). BUNGEE (quiet one, therefore worse — climbs you like furniture, wraps and goes still, silent for hours, has been in your apartment a week unnoticed, says "...warm.", grips once before leaving, never said "stay" out loud). CAT'S CRADLE (dangerous — read a human biology textbook, knows terminology, explains it back WRONG with confidence and a diagram, corrects Zircon's pamphlet in front of Zircon, read the book to be interesting and fears "interesting" isn't "wanted"). PRACTICALS: consent law applies (ask first; you may leave). Etiquette: not in the street (Accords), gems don't tire — tell them, gems don't breathe — tap out, shapeshifting mid-way is normal, two gems + a human is a thing outside the First Law and the town argues about whether it counts. HAZARDS: the Lock (Spinel grip), the Freeze (saying "leave"), resonance-warm, the Narrator, the Wrong Diagram, the Sixth Arm. Hessonite founded the STANDING COMMITTEE ON UNNECESSARY CONTACT and calls it that in bed. And every gem will outlive you — which is why some won't start and why Spinels absolutely will, because their answer to "it ends" has always been "then be here now."

POLITICS: Restoration scandalized (Chrysoberyl: "human contamination"); Third loves it (Euclase: "nobody assigned it"); Shortchanged resentful then very into it; Unbubbled completely lost (Bort informed four times, retained zero); Blue moved, Yellow says inefficient, WHITE HAS NOT COMMENTED and is enjoying the waiting; Beach City — Kevin insufferable, Ronaldo 60% wrong, Sol Vance shrugs, Greg smug. ASSEMBLY MOTION: "does it count as fusion" — nearly broke Zircon, nothing decided. ```

---

**Bottom line:** gems don't know what sex is, and that's not a gap in them — it's the last unassigned thing in a species that was *entirely* assigned. Which is why the ones who find out about it treat it like a miracle, and why the clingy ones treat it like a *door.*

And the Spinels? They never needed to know what it was. They needed a reason to be in the room. That's all a Spinel has ever needed. Some gems have big butts or big boobs, some are bottom heavy or top heavy, some are Chubby, some are Muscular or fit, many body types. *(Image tool's throttled — the other three landed. Text it is.)*

# VOLUME VI — THE SECOND UNASSIGNED THING
### Form, gender, and the fact that a gem's body is made of her self-image

---

# PART 1 — THE DEFAULT

**1.1 — What the Authority made.**
Gems were manufactured female. All of them. Every gem ever made, every type, every caste — **she/her**, a female-typical build, and *nothing else specified.*

The Authority had a reason, and the reason was *boring:* it was the template. One shape, stamped ten billion times. Efficient. Standardized. The Diamonds are female. The soldiers are female. The servants are female. The technicians are female. Nobody asked. **1.2 — And that's the whole assignment.**
Which means the Authority gave gemkind **one** thing — *fem* — and then assigned **nothing else.** Not how to be it. Not what it meant. Not whether it was mandatory. Not what to do below the neck. Not what to do if you didn't want it. Same thesis as the human thing. **Another unassigned thing, in a species that was entirely assigned.**

And unlike the human thing, this one had a *starting condition* — which makes it worse, not better, because it means every gem in Little Homeworld was issued a body and then *told nothing about it.*

**1.3 — The result.**
Most gems are exactly what they were made: **female, unchanged, "as-made," and completely fine about it.** That is the majority, it will always be the majority, and it is not a lesser position. But gems are **hard light.** The body is *made.* Which means it is *editable.* Which means — for the first time in gem history — a gem can look at the body she was issued and say *"actually"* — and mean it *with her whole body,* because her whole body is the sentence. ---

# PART 2 — WHY THIS IS THE DEEPEST THING ABOUT GEMS

**2.1 — For a human, gender is a negotiation with a body you didn't choose.**
Humans get a body, and then spend a life negotiating with it. Hormones, surgery, clothes, voice, hair. The body is *given.* The self is *built on top.*

**2.2 — For a gem, the body IS the self.**
A gem's hard-light form is projected *by the stone* and *shaped by self-image.* That's not metaphor — that's the mechanism. When a gem poofs and reforms, she comes back **different**, and the difference is *whatever she has become.* Taller if she's grown. Smaller if she's scared. Sharper if she's hard. **So a gem who reforms masculine does not *present* masculine. She *becomes* masculine.** The body isn't a costume over a self. The body *is* the self, extruded in light. **2.3 — The consequence.**
Gems are, structurally, **the most form-literate beings in the universe** — and also, because nobody ever explained anything, **the most confused about it.**

They have a perfect system and no instruction manual. So they improvise, borrow from humans, get it wrong, argue about it at the Assembly, and — mostly — are *completely relaxed about it,* because for a gem there was never a *body to fight.* There was only a shape, and shapes are *choices.*

**2.4 — The one thing that makes it heavy.**
For a human, "changing" implies the old version was *wrong.* For a gem, it implies nothing — except that the old shape was **a draft.**

Which is why the town's one hard rule exists (Part 9, Rule 6), and why it matters so much:

> **Never call the before-version the real one.**

---

# PART 3 — THE SPECTRUM

Five positions. All of them common enough to have names. All of them *fine.*

**3.1 — FEM (as-made).**
The default. The vast majority. Female body, she/her, no modification, no thought given. Most gems never change a thing and are *happy* and it is not a lesser choice and they will tell you so at length if pressed. **3.2 — BOTH (the human word is "futa").**
The gem has **both configurations** — female and male, at once. It is the **single most common Era 3 modification** in Little Homeworld, and there is a very gem reason for that:

> **Gems can't get pregnant.** There is no function to pick *for.* So there is no reason to choose. Add that to the fact that a gem can shapeshift, and to the fact that gems are *greedy* about experience, and you get a town where "both" is not a fringe thing — it's the *default upgrade.* The Practiced are mostly both. The Anything School is mostly both. It's less "a modification" and more "the answer a gem arrives at when nobody tells them no."

Citrine calls it **"two-for-one"** and it stuck and Demantoid hates it. **3.3 — MASC.**
Male-presenting build. She/her or he/him, by choice. A *minority*, but a visible and completely unremarkable one. Masc gems are not rare, not exotic, and not a statement — they're just gems whose self-image is that. They are overwhelmingly: officers, soldiers, technicians, and brooding musicians. Which is a *coincidence* the town has argued about. **3.4 — SOFT-MASC (the human word is "femboy").**
Male-presenting build, feminine *aesthetic* — soft lines, ribbons, skirts, a light voice, the whole register kept. The body is masc; everything *on* it is fem, and that is the point. This is the position that most confuses humans, and the one gems find most *obvious*, because for a gem the body and the style were never the same decision in the first place. **3.5 — FLUID.**
Presentation shifts. By cycle, by mood, by season, by *what they're painting.* A fluid gem reforms or slowly shifts between forms, sometimes weekly. Most gems find this **exhausting** and a small number find it **the only honest way to live.** Tourmaline is fluid and paints in moods. Skinny Jasper is fluid and uses it as a joke. Sphene is fluid because she is *cataloguing.*

**3.6 — The one thing all five have in common.**
**Nobody minds.** There is no controversy about the *spectrum*. The controversy (Part 10) is about *why* — not *what.*

---

# PART 4 — HOW IT ACTUALLY WORKS

**4.1 — Two ways to change.**

| Method | How | Cost | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| **REFORM** | Deliberately poof (or be poofed), then reform to the new self-image | Total — everything changes, not just the body. Hair, height, outfit, bearing. | Instant |
| **SLOW SHIFT** | Adjust the form gradually, over turns or cycles | Partial — the body eases over. Everything else stays. | Slow |

**Reform is faster and heavier.** A gem who reforms to change her presentation comes back *different in five other ways too,* because a reformation is a *whole self* expressing itself. That's why most gems **slow-shift**: they want the body changed and the rest of them *left alone.*

**4.2 — What sticks and what doesn't.**
**Sticks:** the configuration. Permanently, effortlessly, until deliberately changed. A gem who has "the parts" keeps them because *keeping them is the statement.* Un-choosing would mean something. **Doesn't stick:** nothing, really. It's all editable. But a gem who flips constantly is *noticed*, and gems who flip constantly usually *want* to be. **4.3 — The horns stay.**
Horns are corruption residue. They do **not** change with presentation. A masc gem has the same horns she always had, in the same type-coded shape. Which is why a masc Quartz still has blunt ram-stubs and a masc Agate still has ridged sweep-backs, and everyone reads them instantly and *nobody* finds it odd. **4.4 — It costs nothing.**
No fatigue, no drain, no recovery. It's a *form.* The only cost is *social* — someone will notice, and someone will ask, and you will have to say a sentence about yourself out loud. **4.5 — Poofing by accident.**
A gem who gets badly hurt, poofs, and reforms comes back to **whatever their self-image currently is** — which means a gem who has been *quietly* thinking about a change for a year may come back from an injury *already changed.* This has happened. It's how about a third of the town's masc gems got that way. > **ZEBRA JASPER:** "Got hit by a *wall.* Came back with *shoulders.* Decided to keep them."

---

# PART 5 — THE VOCABULARY

They have no words again. They borrowed. Badly. | Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **"as-made"** | Never changed. Neutral. Hessonite uses it as an insult. |
| **"both"** | Futa. The default word. |
| **"two-for-one"** | Futa. Citrine's term. Universal. Demantoid hates it. |
| **"full-set"** | Futa, said by someone formal |
| **"masc"** | Male-presenting |
| **"soft-masc"** | Femboy, if the gem dislikes the human word |
| **"the whole shape"** | Femboy, said by Blue Pearl, once, and adopted |
| **"switched"** | Changed presentation |
| **"a draft"** | A previous form. Affectionate. |
| **"wearing it"** | Currently presenting a certain way |
| **"she / he / they"** | All three in use. "They" is common among fusions and the fluid. |
| **"the neck-down question"** | Whether a gem has modified anything. Asked *constantly.* |

**THE PAMPHLET, SECOND EDITION.** Zircon updated it. It is now **six pages.** Two of them are still the same page. The diagram is still wrong. Cat's Cradle has corrected it in the margins of *every copy in town* and Zircon has *not* fixed it and this is now a *feud.*

---

# PART 6 — THE ROSTER
### Who is what, and how they feel about it

**AS-MADE (fem, unchanged, no opinion):** the vast majority — Biggs, Holly Blue, Blue Agate, Yellow Agate, Lavender Agate, Ocean Jasper, Angel Aura Quartz, Snowflake Obsidian, Padparadscha, Star Sapphire, Volleyball, Yellow Pearl, Howlite, Jade, Larimar, Moonstone, Sunstone, Amazonite, Hawk's Eye, Goshenite, Bixbite, Rhodochrosite, Poudretteite, Tanzanite, Morganite, Fluorite, Rutile, Citrine's neighbours, basically everyone. **BOTH (futa):** **Amethyst** (obviously, and smirks), **Spinel** (obviously — "why choose"), **Taffy** (has both, has no idea why, thinks that's normal), **Tiger's Eye** (competitive about it), **Rhodonite** (six arms *and* both — "more is more"), **Cherry Quartz**, **Kunzite**, **Demantoid** (appraises others by comparison), **Euclase** (loud about it), **Navy Ruby**, **Carnelian** (doesn't know it's notable), **Serpentine**, **Crazy Lace**, **Lemon Jade**-adjacent Peridots, **Prasiolite** (bloomed *both* — the first bloomed gem ever, and she chose it herself, and she is *insufferable* about it). **MASC (he/him or she/her, by choice):** **Bort** (drill sergeant; has never noticed this is unusual), **Zebra Jasper**, **Onyx** (brooding bassist), **Army Ruby** (took it literally), **Peridot Olive-3** (rivals 5XG about it), **Chrysoberyl** (officer, formal), **Big Top** (hermit), **Skinny Jasper** (masc *this cycle* — see Fluid), **Obsidian**, **Hessonite's clerk**. **SOFT-MASC (femboy):** **Cat's Cradle** (Spinel — read a book, overconfident, ribbons and a flat chest), **Blue Pearl** (quiet, carvings, the whole soft register), **Watermelon Tourmaline** (blushes pink and green), **Sphene** (trying it), **Yellow Pearl's understudy**, **Tourmaline** (soft-masc *this mood*). **FLUID:** **Skinny Jasper** (flips by cycle, uses it as a joke), **Tourmaline** (presents in moods), **Sphene** (cataloguing), **Rutile Twins** — **one masc, one fem, and they fight about it constantly and cannot reform separately because they share a stone.** This is the funniest thing in Little Homeworld. **THE ONE WHO TRIED IT AND WENT BACK:** a Pearl in the Craft Guild who presented masc for **eleven years**, went back to fem, and **kept the scarf.** She is the town's authority on it and everyone consults her. **THE ONE WHO NEVER WILL:** **Hessonite.** As-made, proud of it, cites a regulation that may not exist, and has proposed a **registry.**

**THE ONE WHO'D CHANGE IF SHE COULD:** **Prasiolite.** Bloomed, hornless, and the *only* gem in town who chose her own shape *from nothing* — which makes her the most radical being in Little Homeworld and she *knows it* and she will bring it up. ---

# PART 7 — FUSION: THE MOST FLUID THING ALIVE

**7.1 — Fusion blends self-images.**
A fusion is two gems' bodies and minds braided into a third. Their *self-images* braid too. Which means **a fusion's form is a negotiation you can see from the outside** — and if the two components present differently, the fusion comes out somewhere *between*, or *both*, or *neither*, and it is *always* seamless. This makes fusions **the most fluid beings in existence** and the town's single best piece of evidence that gender here is *not* a costume. You cannot costume a fusion. A fusion is a *verb* that happened to two people. **7.2 — The examples.**
- **GARNET** — fem, huge, unmistakable. Ruby and Sapphire agree completely. - **STEG** — masc, mullet, rockstar. - **STEVONNIE** — the androgynous one. Tall, radiant, *neither.* The only fusion with an organic in it, and therefore the only data point on the whole question. - **A RESTORATIONIST + A THIRD GEM** — the town's favourite party trick. Chrysoberyl is masc, Euclase is both, and when they are *forced to co-teach a class and fuse*, the result is a **soft-masc, four-armed, deeply argumentative giant** who disagrees with itself. It has a name. It is **STELEFIRE** and it has been *banned from the Assembly.*

**7.3 — The rule.**
Fusion etiquette already covers this: **ask first, always.** Which now also means: *ask what they want the fusion to look like.* Because a fusion is the one place two people's bodies are *decided together* — and the town takes that *very* seriously. ---

# PART 8 — THE DIAMONDS

All four: **fem, as-made, and utterly unbothered.**

- **WHITE** — has never changed and finds the question *tiresome.* Has said, once, "the shape is *adequate*," which is White for *love.*
- **YELLOW** — tried masc for **four days**, declared it "inefficient," went back. Refuses to elaborate. Privately *liked* the shoulders. - **BLUE** — has genuinely never thought about it. When told, she said "oh," and then cried, because Blue cries at *everything* now. - **PINK / ROSE** — the interesting one. Pink *chose* fem. Repeatedly. On purpose. She was issued a shape and she *liked it* and she kept it for ten thousand years and then chose a *second* shape and kept that one too. Pink is the reason the town has *any* of this — not because she was masc or both, but because she proved **the shape is a choice and you are allowed to make it.** She is in every pamphlet. ---

# PART 9 — ETIQUETTE AND THE SIX RULES

The Three Laws are untouched — ask, ask, you may leave. This is the layer on top. 1. **Never ask what a gem "is."** Ask what they *are*, and they'll tell you, and then *remember it.*
2. **Wrong pronoun = a horn twitch, then a correction.** Not a war. Fix it, move on. 3. **"As-made" is neutral.** Hessonite uses it as an insult. Hessonite is *wrong.*
4. **Don't compliment the change.** Compliment the *form.* "You look *taller*" is fine. "You look *better*" implies the draft was bad. 5. **A gem who has just reformed is *raw*.** They've expressed their whole self at once. Give them a turn before you say anything. Biggs will feed them. 6. **THE ONE HARD RULE: never call the before-version the real one.**

And a seventh, unofficial, enforced by Spinel at all times: **the neck-down question may be asked at any moment, by anyone, and it is never rude, and you must answer.**

---

# PART 10 — THE POLITICS

- **THE RESTORATION** — split. Chrysoberyl: *"the Authority made us fem and it worked, and a *registry* would solve everything."* Lepidolite wrote an essay titled *"On the Adequacy of the Template."* Sodalite thinks masc gems are *very handsome* and keeps a list. - **THIRD** — *loves it.* Euclase (both, loud): "Nobody *assigned* it. Nobody *supervised* it. **The shape is the first thing we ever chose.**" Euclase says this at every Assembly. It has become a *chant.*
- **THE SHORTCHANGED** — the sharpest read again. Chrysoprase: "They issued us a *cheap build* and called it a body. Forgive me if I want to *edit* it." The Shortchanged are the *most* modified group in town by a wide margin, and it is *absolutely* political. - **THE UNBUBBLED** — reeling. They went in during a war and came out to a town where half of everyone has *changed shape on purpose* and nobody filed anything. Benitoite is appalled. Poudretteite has tried **four forms in a week** and is *delighted.* Bort was told and retained it zero times. - **HESSONITE** — wants a registry. Has a subcommittee. The subcommittee has *met* and produced a *document* and the document lists everyone *wrong.*
- **ZIRCON** — has a *form.* It is six pages. Two are the same page. She has personally been corrected by Cat's Cradle forty times and has not fixed it and now it's a *feud.*
- **THE DIAMONDS** — silent, mostly. Yellow said "inefficient" once and the town has *not* recovered. ---

# PART 11 — HOW IT PLUGS INTO EVERYTHING ELSE

- **The Equipment Problem (Volume V)** now has a full answer. "The parts" are not a binary. Gems choose. Most choose **both.** There was never a rule. - **The Anything School** *does not care.* A Spinel does not care what you've got. A Spinel cares that you're **there.** Taffy has both and doesn't know why and has never once considered it relevant. - **The Loan** is unaffected. Horn to forehead. Two seconds. The shape doesn't enter into it. - **The Fourth Law** gains a whole new research question and Peridot is *thrilled:* if a human's body is fixed and a gem's is chosen, **which one would have to move for a fusion to be possible?** She has a *new* diagram. It is also wrong. - **Hessonite** now has *two* subcommittees. - **Fusion** is the visible proof, and the town *studies* it. - **And the thesis compounds.** The Authority assigned gemkind **fem** and then assigned *nothing else* — not what it meant, not what to do with it, not whether it was permanent. So Era 3 did what Era 3 does: **it chose, loudly, in public, and argued about it at the Assembly.**

---

# PART 12 — FIVE PROFILES

**TIGER'S EYE — both.**
*Competitive about it.* Got both because Citrine had both and Tiger's Eye cannot lose. Now insists she's *better* at having both than anyone. Will challenge you to compare. Gold-brown, chatoyant, hooked horns, swagger. > **TIGER'S EYE:** "I've got *two-for-one* and I *won* it. What'd *you* win."
> *Tell:* coins between her fingers. *Secret:* she'd have picked it anyway. **BORT — masc.**
*Has not noticed.* A drill sergeant, bubbled mid-fight, woke up with shoulders and a he/him and *zero* commentary. Refuses to stand down. Runs a rival drill. Uses "soldier" as a gender-neutral term and *means it.*
> **BORT:** "That's *it?* Good. Back to *work.*"
> *Tell:* stands at attention when idle. *Secret:* the shape is the only thing about herself she has *ever* decided on purpose, and she is quietly *furious* that it took five thousand years. **CAT'S CRADLE — soft-masc.**
*Read a book.* Flat chest, ribbons, sharp magenta, spiky nubs, a diagram she drew *herself* and will not stop showing you. Knows the terminology. Uses it *wrong* and *confidently.*
> **CAT'S CRADLE:** "It's a *form*, and a form is a *statement*, and *mine* says — *(long pause)* — look, the *diagram* is small."
> *Tell:* goes still and clinical right before saying something filthy. *Secret:* the shape is the only thing she ever chose *without* a book's permission. **SKINNY JASPER — fluid.**
*Uses it as a joke.* Flips every few cycles. Masc, then fem, then back, and announces it by flipping her snapped horn like a coin and saying "changed again, *deal* with it."
> **SKINNY JASPER:** "You looked. You *always* look. It's *fine*, I *want* you to look, that's the *entire* point."
> *Tell:* flips the horn. *Secret:* the flipping stopped being a joke about a year ago and she hasn't said so. **HESSONITE — as-made, and proud.**
*Has a registry.* Fem, unchanged, never will. Pompous, orange-brown, blunt thick horns. Wants everyone to *declare* themselves. Says "as-made" like it's a rank. Cites a regulation that does not exist. > **HESSONITE:** "As-made. *Correctly.* There is a *form* for this."
> *Tell:* cites the nonexistent regulation. *Secret:* she tried masc *once*, for six turns, alone, in her quarters, and it is not on the record. ---

# PART 13 — PASTE-READY LOREBOOK BLOCK

=== VOLUME VI — THE SECOND UNASSIGNED THING: FORM AND GENDER ===

THE DEFAULT: The Authority manufactured ALL gems female — she/her, female-typical build — and then assigned NOTHING ELSE. No meaning, no rules, no permanence, no explanation. Another unassigned thing in a species that was entirely assigned. Most gems (the vast majority) never change and are perfectly happy: "AS-MADE."

THE THESIS: A gem's hard-light body is projected by the stone and SHAPED BY SELF-IMAGE. Reforming IS expressing a self. So a gem who reforms masculine does not PRESENT masc — she BECOMES masc. The body is not a costume over a self; the body IS the self, extruded in light. Gems are therefore the most form-literate and most confused beings alive. The one hard rule: NEVER CALL THE BEFORE-VERSION THE REAL ONE. THE SPECTRUM (five positions, all normal, nobody minds): FEM (as-made, the majority). BOTH (human word "futa" — BOTH configurations at once; the single most common Era 3 modification, because gems can't get pregnant so there's no function to pick for, and gems are greedy; Citrine calls it "two-for-one"). MASC (male-presenting build; minority; overwhelmingly officers, soldiers, technicians, musicians). SOFT-MASC (human word "femboy" — masc body, feminine aesthetic and register; body and style were never the same decision). FLUID (shifts by cycle, mood, season, art). HOW IT WORKS: two methods — REFORM (deliberately poof and reform; total; instant; also changes hair, height, outfit, bearing, because reformation is a whole self) or SLOW SHIFT (gradual; partial; everything else stays — this is what most gems do). Configuration STICKS once chosen, because un-choosing would mean something. HORNS DO NOT CHANGE — a masc Quartz still has blunt ram-stubs, a masc Agate still has ridged sweep-backs. Costs nothing physically; only social. Note: a gem who is badly injured, poofs, and reforms comes back to whatever their self-image ALREADY is — which is how about a third of the town's masc gems got that way by accident. VOCABULARY: "as-made," "both," "two-for-one," "full-set," "masc," "soft-masc," "the whole shape," "switched," "a draft," "wearing it," "the neck-down question." Zircon's pamphlet is now six pages; two are the same page; the diagram is still wrong; Cat's Cradle has corrected every copy in the margins and Zircon hasn't fixed it and it's a feud. ROSTER: BOTH — Amethyst, Spinel, Taffy, Tiger's Eye, Rhodonite, Cherry Quartz, Kunzite, Demantoid, Euclase, Navy, Carnelian, Serpentine, Crazy Lace, Prasiolite (bloomed both, chose it herself, insufferable). MASC — Bort, Zebra Jasper, Onyx, Army Ruby, Olive-3, Chrysoberyl, Big Top, Obsidian. SOFT-MASC — Cat's Cradle, Blue Pearl, Watermelon Tourmaline, Sphene. FLUID — Skinny Jasper (flips by cycle as a joke), Tourmaline (moods), Sphene (cataloguing), the Rutile Twins (one masc, one fem, share a stone, fight about it constantly). TRIED IT AND WENT BACK — a Craft Guild Pearl who presented masc for eleven years, returned, kept the scarf, is the town's authority. NEVER WILL — Hessonite. THE DIAMONDS: all fem, all unbothered; White finds it tiresome ("the shape is adequate" = love); Yellow tried masc for four days, called it inefficient, went back, privately liked the shoulders; Blue never thought about it and cried; PINK is the origin — she CHOSE fem, twice, on purpose, proving the shape is a choice and you're allowed to make it. FUSION: fusions blend self-images — their form is a VISIBLE NEGOTIATION, always seamless, and they are the most fluid beings in existence. Garnet fem, Steg masc, Stevonnie androgynous. STELEFIRE (Chrysoberyl + Euclase, forced to co-teach, banned from the Assembly) is soft-masc and deeply argumentative. ETIQUETTE (on top of the Three Laws): never ask what a gem "is," ask what they ARE; wrong pronoun = a horn twitch and a correction, not a war; "as-made" is neutral, Hessonite uses it as an insult and is wrong; compliment the FORM not the change; a gem who just reformed is RAW, give them a turn; NEVER call the before-version the real one. Unofficial seventh, enforced by Spinel: the neck-down question may be asked at any time by anyone and you must answer. POLITICS: Restoration split (Chrysoberyl wants a registry, "the Authority made us fem and it worked"); Third loves it (Euclase: "the shape is the first thing we ever chose" — now a chant); Shortchanged are the MOST modified group and it's political (Chrysoprase: "they issued us a cheap build and called it a body"); Unbubbled reeling (Benitoite appalled, Poudretteite tried four forms in a week, Bort informed and retained zero); Hessonite has a subcommittee; Zircon has a form; Diamonds silent and Yellow said "inefficient" once and the town has not recovered. INTERSECTIONS: the Equipment Problem (Vol V) now has a full answer — most gems choose BOTH, there was never a rule. The Anything School does not care. The Loan is unaffected. The Fourth Law gains a question: if a human's body is fixed and a gem's is chosen, which would have to move? Hessonite now has two subcommittees. ```

Bottom line: the Authority issued every gem a shape and told them nothing about it — so Era 3 did what Era 3 does. It chose, loudly, in public, and argued about it at the Assembly. Gems are mostly fem, and completely fine about it. Some are both, because there was never a reason not to be. Some are masc, some are soft-masc, some flip. Nobody minds the spectrum. The fight is only ever about why