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There are about seven different songs going around about Gem’s backstory, about how she was picked up by Joe Hills and Mechanized.
None of them are the truth.
The only people who knew the truth were Joe Hills, Cleo and her brother Impulse. She was going to keep it that way as long as she could. Her death wasn’t something she particularly wished to relive and neither was her life before the crew.
Though that will never stop people from wondering how it is that she became who she is today.
So, how is it that our First Mate became who she is today?
That is an interesting story, though which of the stories told are true and which are fabricated?
Does she herself even remember how she died after all of these years of lies?
Some stories say that she shot her mentor, a price to pay to be brought on by Joe Hills and granted the gift that is immortality. They say that her mentor was shot through the heart and that’s why she had her heart mechanized, a symbol of the kill that got her immortality. Others say that her home didn’t have guns, only swords and bows, that she stabbed her mentor in the heart instead of shooting him like many think.
Some stories say that the first ever Mechanism herself, Cleo, was Gem’s mentor, that they took the girl under their wing and had her mechanized after a heart attack that the girl had too young. That would explain her Mechanism being her heart, but had some holes with Cleo being from a different planet, though the Mechanisms were known for their travel so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that it could have happened.
There were rumors that she was an orphan, some that she shot her father, others that she shot her mother. The stories weave and change from year to year and planet to planet. From city to city. No one really knows if she ever had a family to leave behind and mourn.
Some say that she drowned, though that wouldn’t explain why her heart was her mechanism and not her lungs.
There is one story around, one that she sticks by, though one that has a few variations from tale to tale.
Gemini, a young girl from a water filled planet was taken under the wing of an engineer on a tugboat named Etho. He showed her what he knew, teaching her everything she needed to know, though she found herself fishing and studying the sea more than she did engineering.
This is where the story seems to change.
Some say that she went crazy, that she claimed the sea was whispering to her, that it was telling her to kill the man who had been her mentor. Some say that the sea was Cleo or Joe. Others say that it was Etho who was hearing the sea whisper to him, that he stabbed her in the heart as the sea dammanded. They say Cleo and Joe found her body in the water and brought her back to life.
There’s a version of the story where it wasn’t Etho to stab her, no, it was a fish, similar to a swordfish, that buried itself into her heart. They say that’s why she’s covered in scales.
There are people who claim the first mate is some kind of siren, that her scales are natural, that her mentor learned of her inhumanness and killed her for it. They say that Cleo and Joe mechanized her in a way of pity.
There are some stories that say she was found fighting on the docks, that she was a renowned sword fighter, that she died fighting and that was what brought Joe and Cleo’s attention to her.
There are rumors that say that Gem wasn’t alone on that ship, that she was joined by an elder brother named Fwhip. They say that he was the reason the pair were on the ship, it was him who was working under Etho while Gem soaked up every bit of information she could.
They say that Cleo joined them for a time early in her immortality, that they were intrigued by Gem and her optimism, as well as her fighting skill. They say that the two were extremely close, thick as thieves those two, almost closer than Gem was with her own brother.
They say that the sea did indeed drive Etho and Fwhip insane, though Gem, she embraced the sea, the insanity taking its root much deeper. This is where her scales come from, from the sea claiming her as its own.
They say that Fwhip failed to recognize his own sister and stabbed her in the heart one day while she was sparring with Etho. They say that it was Cleo’s insistence that got Joe to agree to mechanize the girl.
These rumors don’t name her, not directly. They say that to invoke her name is to call the sea and its champion to them. They say that to invoke her name is to sign your own death warrant.
The man who began these rumors is long dead.
Etho, the man who spread the least known story when it comes to the First Mate of the Tango Tek, died years after Gem was mechanized. He was found with water in his lungs, a green-blue scale in his hand and his sword missing from his scabbard.
Some say the sea claimed him.
Some say Gem herself returned to kill him herself.
Some say that his death was a test by Cleo to be sure that Gem would be good for the crew.
If you were to ask Gem about any of this she’ll spin you a tale so full of holes you can’t help but assume every word out of her mouth is a lie.
If you were to ask Cleo of what is true they would smile at you, sharp and dangerous and tell you to ask the ghosts if you’re so curious.
Stories and rumors only get you so far, though some have truth to them, don’t you think?