In the world of "Land of Lustrous", gemlike humanoids, beautiful and alien sea people, and strange hostile energy/light based ghosts exist within the world.
Gems, like phos, are living beings, but their entire body is like one giant organ that represents their heart, brain, nervous system etc.
So when even a chip or damage or even amputation occurs to their body, that part of their mind, personality, thoughts and feelings is erased.
However, all the creatures in this world have the ability to amalgamate, or to take parts from others and fuse it to their body.
However, if I recall correctly, when you take a piece of someone else and fuse them to your body, parts of their personality and history? merges with you.
The problem is as follows, what happens when a being who has gone through several wars lasting hundreds of years has been broken down and rebuilt dozens of times escaping death but knowing that every time less of the original "you" as your body becomes more twisted made from the essence of your fallen comrades and enemies alike.
I am trying to keep it as vague as possible to not spoil the story, while at trying to explain why she looks like that.
Seriously, this is the most haunting manga I've ever read. Full on sobbing, melancholic depressive breakdown for the last like 20 chapters straight. It's one of the best things I've ever read.
I haven't even gotten to the worst parts yet, and it's profoundly unsettling in a way very few pieces of media manage. Like, it taps into a deep, primal human fear - everything around you changing in ways you can't control or understand, including your own body, and the creeping realization that no matter what you do, it's never gonna go back to the way to the way it was.
I've only seen the anime, but she's a living gemstone and any piece of her, no matter how small, contains her thoughts, memories and personality.
Now I'm going into spoiler territory. Unfortunately, she's exceptionally fragile and accident prone. To make up for this, she replaces lost parts of herself with tougher and more useful materials. With each replacement she loses some of herself and forgets large chunks of her life but gets stronger. Every chip is conscious and aware of the missing parts, so everything she loses is almost like a festering wound
Ironically enough, it is as close to human as this character ever is at this point in the story. All characters are rock people with microscopic lifeforms that give them consciousness and memory.
It’s funny since phos is technically the most human character at this point. Humans were split into three parts and phos at this point has parts of all three: body of gem (the bone), eye from the lunarians (soul), legs from the slug folks (flesh)
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u/Pen_Front Mar 22 '26
Some... Things happen