Sean McCarthy

Sean McCarthy  is a member of the Elementals, and also a Human-Gem hybrid. He currently lives in Spaceship 9Z5.

Appearance
Sean has the appearance of a teenager boy with light skin and short, wavy black hair and green eyes. His gemstone, which is an azurite that he inherited from his mother, is located on the upper half of his chest.

As a member of the Elementals, Sean wears silver-colored clothing, but he actually got his clothes from Earth, so they are physical, unlike with Gems. He wears a short-sleeved light gray shirt with a thick dark gray stripe on the middle, and also gray pants and sneakers.

Personality
Sean is described as "unpredictable" even by the ones who raised him and interacted with him for his whole life. At times he can be hysterical and act only on whims, even if he is aware that his decisions can cause trouble; he doesn't care much about consequences, and when he is curious or amazed, loses most if not all his sense of "right and wrong". Sean can easily get carried away when he finds things he deems as interesting, and because of this, the Elementals think he has to be supervised 100% of the time.

He is curious about Earth and would like to meet humans, and is upset at being forbidden to do so. Despite being excitable, Sean is also very clever in his own creative and abstract way, which allowed him to become an official member of the Elementals instead of merely a test subject. Since he is considered to be extremely rare and creating another such as him would be a risky, difficult and long process, the Elementals protect him excessively so they can still study him.

Towards new people he meets, Sean is usually very friendly and welcoming, even to the point of prying into their life innocently and sounding too obsessed. However, even if he is good at heart, his time spent with the Elementals warped his morality, which can cause him to be insensitive or be oblivious of people's true feelings, especially if they involve complex topics. Even so, Sean is very open-minded, and always willing to learn and understand new things. He likes giving people or things silly nicknames.

Sean also appears as childish and fun-loving, and also too immature for his age. Due to being always determined to find an adventure, he doesn't care about repercussions and is ignorant of the danger he can put himself into. Sean enjoys challenges and can often be too naive and take things too seriously or trust people too much, which can lead to him getting hurt. He looks up to other Gems, mainly his caretakers, and wants to become as strong and experienced as them one day, having childlike optimism. While he is generally seen as unfit for dealing with important serious tasks, Sean's charisma combined with the status of his birth makes him respected by the rest of the Elementals.

In spite of all this, Sean is not always happy. When the topic of his mother is brought up, his mood quickly changes to dejected, and he can even be brought to tears with this. He feels guilty that he is the cause of his mother's death, and wishes he could meet her; these feelings even affected his relationship with his father, as Sean secretly is ashamed of being with him because of the relationship between him and Azurite. Sean dislikes being referred to as Azurite or treated like her, but never intervenes because of his bad feelings. All this can lead to Sean questioning his own self-identity and sometimes even trying to change himself to become more like Azurite, believing that she should keep existing, while he shouldn't.

During the fourth chapter of Outside the World, Sean's main flaw is exposed: he is excessively altruistic, to the point where he doesn't hesitate to risk his life for others, even if those are against him, as seen when he left the room he was in, in a bad condition, just to go find and help Amazonite even after she tried (and almost succeeded) to kill him. The same chapter also shows Sean being very conflicted about how to feel about his mother after discovering what she did to Amazonite, and agonizing over that thought.

History
Sean's father was Finn McCarthy, a human captured by the Elementals, and his mother was Azurite, one of the Gems that was part of the group. As Azurite was assigned with studying the humans, she eventually met Finn, and the two of them started growing closer and closer, and eventually, Azurite became pregnant with Sean and gave birth to him, dying in the process. While Finn wasn't sure if Azurite loved him like he did, or was just interested in him because he was a human, he deeply cared for Sean and took care of him until he was old enough to be sent away to be supervised by caretakers.

Being partly Gem and intelligent enough to be a member of the Elementals, Sean was respected by the fellow Gems, but still, a great part of them saw him as Azurite and not his own person. As a child, Sean was confused by this, but later became upset because of it. Due to his personality, even though he had to be monitored all the time and never left alone, Sean often snuck out of his room and away from his caretakers to explore the ship, meet new people, play and have fun.

Powers & Abilities
As a Gem-Human hybrid, Sean resembles what would be the fusion between a human and a Gem; while he does possess some of the standard abilities of a Gem, it is unknown if he has them all. Due to receiving lots of training by the Elementals, he is able to control his powers quite well. He is able to fuse with both Gems and humans, though has yet to be seen doing the latter. He is also able to use shapeshifting, though not to actually transform his form, and instead, to enhance it; for example, making his arms longer. Sean can also summon bubbles, and his are of a light blue color.

Fusions

 * When fused with Amazonite, they form Turquoise.

Unique Abilities
De to possessing Azurite's gemstone, Sean's abilities come from her.
 * Rod: Sean is able to summon the same weapon that previously belonged to Azurite, a rod that is blue in color. It can be used with both defensive and offensive purposes, such as blocking an attack or stabbing something, respectively. He first summoned it when he was 12 years old, non-voluntarily; it is possible that the summoning of this weapon is linked to his thoughts and wishes rather than his conscious will itself, and he is only able to summon it if he really feels like he needs to.

Azurite
Azurite is Sean's mother, and they never met because she had to sacrifice herself by passing her gemstone to him upon his birth. She is one of the few topics that can cause Sean to drop his usually cheery and carefree behavior, especially when people think he is her. The guilt he feels about her death makes him want to be more like her, to keep preserving her existence, but he is not sure how. Sean doesn't like talking about her death specifically, but is curious about her life, and constantly asks his caretakers and father about it, enjoying to hear the stories. Also, during the rare times when he is alone, he tends to look and talk to his gemstone as if it were his mother.As a child, he was very confused about the relationship between his father and his mother, and relieved to see that his father also thought the same. While Sean still doesn't understand anything about romantic relationships, he firmly believes that his mother and father loved each other very much, which makes him wonder if he deserves a spot on this family.After the fourth chapter of Outside the World, Sean is even more conflicted towards his feelings towards his mother. While he firmly believes what she did against Amazonite was horrible, especially since she didn't show any kind of regret (such as freeing her), and instead, hid her existence, he doesn't want to hate her. But as Sean's mental image of Azurite was different, it was too shocking for him to discover that, and it damaged his impression of her. Also, since Sean tried to project Azurite onto himself out of guilt, he is unsure whether that would be a good thing to do, as he doesn't want to do the same things she did, and doesn't even know what she was capable of.

Finn McCarthy
Finn is Sean's father. When he was born, even though Finn also had to deal with the sudden news of Azurite's death, he showed concern for his son and was able to convince the Elementals to let him take care of him, as he knew about humans. Finn was the one who gave Sean his name, and he was also the one who looked after him during most, if not all, his infant stage, feeding him and teaching him how to walk and talk. Sadly, however, after Sean grew old enough, the Elementals took him away from his father and transferred his custody to assigned caretakers.

Sean is still allowed to visit his father from time to time, and, especially when he was a child, played games with him. He knows most things about Earth because of Finn's stories, and shared his confusion of his father and mother's relationship with him. Finn said that he shared the same feelings and wasn't sure of Azurite's intentions and real feelings towards him, but he loved her a lot, believed she did the same and also loved Sean himself. As he became older and understood everything more, Sean began feeling guilt over his mother giving up her life to give birth to him, and started feeling ashamed to be with his father because of it.

Pearl (Marine)
Marine is one of Sean's caretakers since he was a young child. Upon meeting her at first, Sean was excited and gave her the nickname of "Marine", after his father told him that in Earth, pearls form in oysters in the oceans. As his caretaker, Marine is very attentious and patient with Sean and constantly worries about his well-being, most of the time excessively, partly because human physiology is an alien concept to her. As the years passed, she became more used to Sean, and cares about him deeply. When he was younger, Sean used to ask her to tell him about his mother a lot, but since Marine was only a servant and didn't know Azurite, she had to sadly decline his offers.

Sean doesn't appreciate the idea of Marine being "just a servant", since he considers her much more than that, and knows that she is able to do great things by herself. Marine can also be overprotective over Sean, such as thinking that he shouldn't be taught how to attack, and instead use his powers just to defend, in fear of him picking fights and getting hurt; this way, even if unintentionally, she gets involved with topics that don't relate to her job, thus "rebelling" from her initial function. Since Marine's assignment as Sean's caretaker is to simply attend to all his needs, she often behaves like a mother-figure to him, by playing with him, chatting, singing to him and telling him stories, and putting him to sleep, which, over the years, made their relationship become even stronger.In the fourth chapter of Outside the World, Marine worries a lot after Sean is attacked and put in a critical state by Amazonite. Because of this, upon hearing him insisting to go and see her, she lets out all the emotions she had been keeping inside herself and snaps at him, saying that she is tired of seeing him risk his life as it takes a huge toll on her. However, the two apologize to each other and reconcile shortly after, and Marine even agrees to sleep with Sean. She is again concerned and shocked upon seeing Sean fused with Amazonite, and has a hard time accepting everything, but eventually hugs Turquoise.

Agate (Olive)
Olive is one of Sean's caretakers since he was a young child. He was glad to meet her and discover that he would be taught how to control his powers. He also gave her the affectionate nickname of "Olive" based on her green color. Sean and Olive get along well because both of them are passionate and love action, even if it involves risking themselves; while she does care about Sean and doesn't want to see him hurt, she is confident on herself enough to trust her own judgement on what he can and can't do, and protect him.Because of her bold, blunt and aggressie traits, however, she can sometimes strain her relationship with Sean. Differently from Marine, who is overzealous and sees Sean as too vulnerable, Olive actually overestimates his capacity, and sometimes doesn't even hold back during their trainings, which can put Sean is lots of danger, even if he doesn't mind. In the start, she was ignorant about most human-related things, and thought that Sean feeling exhausted was just a "silly excuse to be lazy and stop training", but eventually understood that it was important for his health to take a break between trainings, sleep, drink water and eat. Nevertheless, they have a very close relationship.

During the fourth chapter of Outside the World, when Olive and Marine find Sean fused with Amazonite as Turquoise, Olive is initially shocked, but she is the first to accept the fusion and Sean's wish, and after hugging Turquoise, she demands they go to do what they want. This is because she treats Sean as an equal rather than someone who needs protection, differently from Marine, and this can be harmful at times, as she mostly doesn't understand that Sean doesn't have the best judgement always, and depending on his choices, the consequences of his actions can be too overwhelming for a child his age to handle.

Amazonite
Sean and Amazonite's first meeting didn't go well, as upon seeing Azurite's gem on him, she immediately thought Sean was Azurite using shapeshifting powers, and decided to attack him for revenge. After being hit with her sword, Sean passed out, and without permission, went to where she was bubbled and freed her again, despite knowing fully well she had no reason to spare him this time. After they talked, Sean managed to convince Azurite he and Azurite were different people, but she still didn't have much respect for him; after she told him her past with Azurite, Sean decided to help her escape.

When they were being chased by Marine and Olive, Sean proposed fusing with Amazonite, to try convincing them to help. Amazonite was unsure at first, for the first time demonstrating guilt over what she did to Sean, but he said he forgave her, even implying that he also felt sorry nd blamed himself for his mother's actions. The two of them fused, and later, Sean was successfully able to bring Amazonite to a ship she could take to escape.

Stingy
Sean and Stingy first met when he was 12 years old, and while Sean was startled by her unusual appearance, he didn't judge her because of it, instead trying to understand what had happened to her. He was very determined to help her, even comforting her when she got sad during their talk, after her past was brought up. For a long time, he came to meet her to try healing her, even bringing her the sandwiches she liked so much, and when they were discovered by Marine and Olive, he did his best to defend her. However, he ultimately ended up poofing her by accident in self-defense.

When Sean was 16, he and Stingy met again after he decided to take Royal, Magnesite and Blueberry to meet her and see if they could do anything about her corruption. Sean was visibly distressed when the answer was no and reluctant to poof her again, but later approved of Royal starting to take care of Stingy.

Ametrine
Sean and Ametrine have a rocky relationship. While he tries to be as friendly and polite towards her, she despises him, not considering him above any human despite him being half-Gem. She always treats him with mockery and is rude, either "pronouncing his name weirdly" or referring to him as "dimwit" or variants. Despite his extremely high, even excessive tolerance, Sean himself admits that she is "hard to deal with", and as implied by the first part of the third chapter of Outside the World, he believes that his mother was a much better person than her, as she actually had love for humans. Despite all this, he still makes sure to always be polite and respectful towards her.

Trivia

 * Sean's birthday is in August, which makes his birthstones opal and (pink) tourmaline.


 * As evidenced by a line in chapter 3 of Outside the World, when Sean was younger, Marine and Olive gave him a tiny fish as a pet; it is also mentioned that he enjoyed putting his finger inside the aquarium for the fish to bite it.