Editing Eavesdropper's Earring (section)

== Appearance ==
The earring is held on to Lucy's earlobe with a standard earring pin. There's a loop of metal going up around the inside of her ear, made from one handle of a pair of antique scissors, studded with crystals. A fine wire hangs down from it, holding a smoky red gem in a metal cage.<ref>The loop of the handle where the fingers were inserted had been separated, made to sit inside the outermost rim of her ear.  It extended to the lobe, and there was a pin there to extend through the hole in her earlobe she already had.  A fine wire dangled, and a smokey, red-tinted crystal was set within a cage of the same material the scissors were made of.  More crystals studded the upper portion. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/17 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.7]]</ref> The metal is sharp enough to be used as an improvised weapon<ref>She pulled her earring off, and gripped the bottom end and wire in one hand.  She raked the metal reinforced jewel at the bottom end across his fingers, to weaken his grip.  - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/21 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.8]]</ref><ref>She reached up, taking his hand, and gripped it, squeezing her ear and his hand both, with the metal and decorated studs between them.  He jerked, and she held on, digging into her own ear with her fingernails for traction, squeezing.<br><br>He finally pulled away, his hand bleeding.  He turned and fled downstairs.<br><br>Her own blood dripped from her ear to her earring, collecting, she imagined, on the dangling crystal, before dropping down to stain her jammies. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/21 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.8]]</ref> and is a little tarnished.<ref>The earring was different, but it was hard to pinpoint exactly how or why.  Maybe a bit more tarnished, a bit sharper where the segments that ran inside her ear were, the gem a little redder, but all in ways that could be explained as a change in the light.  - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/24 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.9]]</ref>

During the Implementum ritual, the earring manifested as a black smoked-metal version of Lucy with red crystals for nails, wire hair ending in red crystals, and shining metal eyes. It was clothed in the red and black ribbons and banners that represent [[connections]] to her [[Sight]]. She wore an exaggerated version of the earring across one side of her head.<ref>Stretching across the line, doing its own writing, was an arm, slender, black-skinned, and prickling with goosebumps.  The nails were like red-tinted crystal framed in metal, the skin had a faint smokey texture to it, and the wrinkles at the knuckle and the crook of the elbow had deeper, almost tarnished texture within them. [...] Sitting opposite her was ''herself'', wearing not clothes, but an intricate and careful wrapping of the same crimson and charcoal colored banners and ribbons that Lucy had seen so many times, tied to the handles of swords she viewed with her Sight.  This other her had her hair tied back, but the ponytail was wire in tight curls, ending in innumerable ornaments like the ones on the earring, grazing bare shoulders and running down her back.  The other her had skin of a similar color but a different tone and texture, catching the light, her eyes were metal, and she wore the earring, exaggerated and writ large, framing one side of her head. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/17 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.7]]</ref> It spoke in whispers.<ref>Rigid and tense, the Earring put one hand as far forward as she could without crossing the line, leaned forward with fingers splayed on the ground, and then began to whisper. [...] “''Someone in this room was,''” the Earring whispered.  ''“I’m to challenge you.  To get to the heart of you.”'' [...] Metal lips grazed Lucy’s ear, whispering, ''“She defended you against teammates.  She questioned Bader.  She could have pushed harder, but she pushed.  You know this without hearing it or being told.”'' - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/17 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.7]]</ref> As a result of the scissors used to make it being [[tempered]] and Lucy's own personality, it was somewhat harsh and uncompromising.<ref>“Are all implement rituals this harsh?”<br><br>“No.  I don’t know anything you don’t, except what threads through my manufacture, my design, my aesthetic.  But the same tempering rituals that scoured me clean of small evils and pollution also erased some of the softer edges.”<br><br>It felt like Verona should walk though that door, ready to change into Lucy’s pants.  Or the alternate Verona, from the real sequence of events, where Lucy hadn’t heard those words as she’d walked into the girls washroom at school, hadn’t retorted in the same way, hadn’t made Emerson just a little irritated, so she’d talk to Verona…<br><br>“Besides…” the Earring whispered, her head moving beside Lucy’s so a cool metal ear could press against Lucy’s own ear.  It should have squished the earring between their heads in an uncomfortable way, but it didn’t.  “…Would you have me be anything but harsh?  Uncompromising?  Willing to challenge?” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/21 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.8]]</ref>

Similarly, to [[Avery]]'s [[Sight]] the earring appeared exaggerated, with wire flowing through her hair and multiple metal-framed crystals hanging in the air around her head.<ref>Avery turned on her Sight, and she could see the earring, exaggerated.  Metal-framed crystals, elongated, hung in the air, close to her head, and wire ran from her ear, along her hair, and into her ponytail, where it proliferated, decorating what was there. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/24 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.9]]</ref>