Chapter Text
Pearl cried for her Diamond many times.
In ten thousand years, many planets could fall, she learned. Not many could thrive. Blue Diamond lived for more than ten thousand years, she knows.
She was old, older than Pearl could ever be, perhaps. Pearl had her every detail memorized: the thin strands of braided hair her Diamond allowed herself to brush in a moment of boredom, the meaningless wave-like patterns on the hem of her dress, the tinted glass and the waxed ceramic beads caught in her hair, the glimmer of whatever intricate set of rings, pins or claws she wore at the moment. When she stood, silent and huge, her face was unreadable. Pearl was only about as tall as her calves and never dared to look up from the ground — look up at her purpose.
Pearl was not the first of her kind, but close. A couple test runs were produced before the quick construction of the Shell, where she and a couple others came to be. There was no reference to go by at the time, none to tell her how she was supposed to serve.
She envied all those other gems that existed before her. As a Pearl, and a lovely one at that, she was not at all necessary for the success of an expansionist authority like Homeworld. Obviously, the Diamonds came first — then noble quartzes like Aura and Emeralds, lesser commanders like Agates and Morganites. The Empire grew fast, so Jades became necessary for the administration. Lapis Lazulis and Bismuths for all the new planets. More gems, Peridots, Sapphires, technology, strategy. Fodder, Rubies, Amethysts, Jaspers, Rose Quartzes. Like all those Zircons and Rutiles and Carnelians, the heads of the Empire experimented with Pearls to see what use they showed.
Pearls showed no use. They took beautiful forms, sung and bowed. The Diamonds learned they liked beautiful things, songs and whatever bowed to them. So they kept her and the others emerging with her.
When she was young, she had a hard time comprehending sizes. Sapphires and such didn't feel as small as the others seemed to think they were. Amethysts were just a little taller than her, but soon she learned that most things were not the same size they looked. Quartzes could look at her amazed, pinch her skirt or mess up her hair all they wanted, but no matter how tall or wide they were, they needed to straighten up as soon as their commander walked in.
Sapphires and Aquamarines in her Diamond's court were the opposite. At first, she analyzed their little faces and shiny copper tiaras, tear glass pendants attached to their ears with close attention. Only when she was caught looking, red-handed but oblivious, she knit her eyebrows and learned to lower her gaze to every gem in front of her.
It was very soon she was proved wrong again.
It was for a long time (or what she thought was a long time at that age) that her life was peaceful. Blue Diamond rarely went out to conquer a new colony, leaving all but water planets to her companion, so Pearl stayed in the Palace with her as well. Meeting the other Diamonds in the same room was rare, so she had only brief impressions of them.
Yellow's sky-high towers, her colonies, self-awarded medals on her chest, monoliths holding up her part of the Palace. A gem just as big as Blue, voice thundering in the halls. Her Pearl, who emerged with her, who she would later grow close with.
Pink's adorned palanquins, playgrounds, gardens, theaters, towers. She was much smaller than Blue and Yellow. Her hair was fluffy like those plants that are wet to the touch. She smiled a lot, and the ground squeaked when she skipped on it, chasing one of the others. She had a Pearl too, a cute one, pink, but who didn't show any interests beyond whatever Pink Diamond wanted to play.
White lived in the palace as well. She wasn't familiar with White. She never looked up to see her, and she didn't want to.
After all, Pearl thought she thrived in her place. She believed it was alright to live kneeling.
Blue Diamond, as the years went by, naturally grew closer to Pearl. It was an expected development and not at all exclusive to the two of them: All of the Diamonds enjoyed the presence of their closest helpers and confidants like a sweet vice, appropriate for beings of their magnitude. Pearl and her kin started attending administration and strategy meeting with their masters, ordering Jades and Emeralds in their stead, standing next to the pillars in their family reunions.
None of them were blind to the ever-stirring pot of the Diamonds’ tensions.
Pink Diamond wanted a colony. Pink Diamond would scream for it. Gone were her sweet smiles and echoing songs in the palace, warm meetings with Blue Diamond.
Finally, about six thousand peaceful years after her creation, Pearl finally faced her master's rumoured power first-hand. Under the guise of a simple meeting in the onsen, Pink stomped in, pleading, then complaining, then whining, then screaming, vibrating. Pink's Pearl, stationed in the corner, looked at the ground in front of her feet. Blue Diamond was not fazed.
Both Pearls knew they had the same ringing ears, but maybe for a lack of intimacy, they would not console one another after that. Pink Diamond stomped her foot so hard the ground shook. Probably shattered a couple pebbles by accident, but she didn't mean it. Despite her best attempts, not getting the answer she wanted from Blue, Pink Diamond stormed off again and dragged her own Pearl along.
They would never see each other again, Blue and Pink's Pearls, but that fact did not dominate her memory of that day.
Rather, the first time Pearl cried. Water flowed out of her eyes in thick drops, blurring her vision and reason. She gagged and struggled for air. Her chest tightened from the inside out. She felt pain inside her head, pulling on some part of her she wasn't aware was even there. She looked up, and there was her master: looming in place like a marble statue. Her hair, snow-white and blue-ish obscured her visage like always. A drop of water fell on the ground, as big as Pearl's head, then another, and another.
Pearl was not sad. She was terrified. She wanted to pull her hair out and run to some deserted, ugly kindergarten away from the glory of the Authority where she could maybe not feel this way.
She sucked it in.