Chapter Text
In the beginning, there was darkness.
She didn’t exist. And then, suddenly, she did.
She could hear people talking, all around her. Muffled.
No, one arm is too long. Make sure the essences meld correctly. Stars know what’ll happen if this one fails, too.
She could feel herself growing. A torso. A face. Four graceful limbs.
It worked, and then it didn’t. The limbs retracted. The face twisted.
The voices started up again.
Stabilize it, you sorry excuse for a Tourmaline!
It was like all the pieces of her body didn’t want to stay together. They wanted to separate- she could feel four, distinct pulls in each direction.
Someone was screaming. Was it her?
She lost consciousness.
She wouldn’t remember this when she woke up.
◊◊◊◊
When she opened her eyes, she knew what she was supposed to do.
She was a Pearl. She was made to serve the Diamonds.
But other than that, she was clueless.
She should know more than that, shouldn’t she? It was like there was a pocket of information in her head, tightly locked away. She couldn’t access it, no matter how she tried.
“Pearl!” a voice barked. “This way.”
Pearl had never heard someone speak before. But she somehow knew what the words meant. She looked around for the speaker, but she was alone.
A section of the wall to her right glowed pink. In a daze, she rose from where she was seated on the stone floor and reached out. The wall fell away as soon as she touched it. A face was revealed.
Pearl began to laugh.
The face frowned. “What’s so funny?”
“Oh, nothing!” said Pearl with a grin. “It’s just very nice to meet you.”
The figure turned away with a huff and started to walk in the other direction.
“Wait!” Pearl called, tripping over her own feet in her haste to follow. “Who are you? Who am I? What is this place? Why am I-”
The figure turned so abruptly that Pearl almost slammed into her.
“I am Tourmaline Cut 7HO, Facet P8X9. Designation Researcher and Creator. You are a Pearl, and I am your superior. Everyone is your superior. Listen to your nature and act accordingly.”
Pearl frowned. What nature? She didn’t know anything about anyone. Except for the fact that Tourmaline was stuck up.
“This way,” the Tourmaline said haughtily.
Pearl had no choice but to follow.
◊◊◊◊
The room was the grandest thing Pearl had ever seen. The ceiling towered over her, and she couldn’t help but wonder what life forms were tall enough to fit inside such a place.
There were two figures, hands folded behind their backs and eyes lowered, standing against the opposite wall. They were very monochromatic- one blue, one yellow. Not like Pearl. Pearl was a dizzying mess of all different colors.
But Pearl felt a burst of curiosity when she realized that if you discounted color schemes, these two looked just like her. The Tourmaline who had brought her here was stocky: thick, green arms, hair piled high on top of her head. These gems were slight. Graceful. A little pointy, if Pearl was being honest- but then again, so was she.
“I’ll leave you in their competent care,” said the Tourmaline. “They will prepare you for serving Pink Diamond.”
Pearl turned to thank her, but she was already gone.
Pearl crossed the room to the other gems. “Hello! I guess you’re Pearls, too? It’s nice to see you. I’ve never met any other Pearls before.”
The yellow Pearl squinted at her.
“My Diamond disapproves of your existence entirely,” she snapped, “and believes you should be shattered at the earliest possible moment.”
“My Diamond is not pleased with your existence,” the blue one added quietly, “but she wants Pink Diamond to be happy. She’ll convince Yellow Diamond soon enough.”
Pearl frowned. “Well, what do you think?”
Yellow Pearl’s eyes widened so far that Pearl was legitimately concerned that they would pop out of her head. “What?”
“I mean, that’s what your Diamonds think, but do you agree?”
Yellow Pearl dropped her head into her hands, a bit over-dramatically, if Pearl was being honest. “Oh my stars , she’s even more defective than my Diamond first believed.”
“Defective?” Pearl laughed nervously. “I know I’m not entirely pink or anything, but I’m just as good as you are.”
The other Pearls glanced at each other.
“...Aren’t I?"
“No one explained this to you?”
Slowly, Pearl shook her head. “Explained what?”
Yellow Pearl pulled a computer screen seemingly from thin air and began to type away at it. After a few moments, she hummed disdainfully.
“Well, to start with, most of this is terrible. You’ve got improper essence ratios, improper gem placement, incompatible personality traits, extremely improper thought patterns…”
Pearl couldn’t help but bristle at that. “What do you mean improper?”
Yellow Pearl narrowed her eyebrows. “Well for one, you keep asking meaningless questions for no particular reason.”
Pearl glanced at Blue Pearl, but she remained silent. Pearl cast her eyes down.
Yellow Pearl continued to type away at the screen. “They managed to give you a few things that aren’t worthless. Storage capabilities, domestic skills, unconditional obedience, a good amount of deference...but an almost complete lack of knowledge of proper protocol.”
“You can see all of that on your screen?” Pearl blurted.
She already told you to stop asking questions.
Yellow Pearl’s fingers paused, and Pearl’s gaze was met with a harsh glare. “Do you think you would be trusted with caring for Pink Diamond if you hadn’t been thoroughly inspected?”
Pearl shifted uncomfortably. “No. I guess not.”
Yellow Pearl closed the screen with a sigh. “My Diamond instructed me to ensure that you won’t embarrass yourself at the ball tonight. So, we will teach you the proper protocol you must adhere to.”
“All right.”
Yellow Pearl’s squinted at Pearl disdainfully. “To start with, proper Pearls never speak unless prompted to do so by their owners. I was ordered to instruct you on protocol. You have yet to receive a single order from your Diamond.”
Pearl took a breath to answer, but shut her mouth just in time. She nodded instead.
Yellow Pearl hummed, unconvinced. “Secondly, once you are presented to her radiance, Pink Diamond, you are to bow deeply and salute, like this.”
Neither of the Pearls moved. Pearl raised an eyebrow in confusion, and Yellow Pearl coughed pointedly.
“Oh,” Blue Pearl breathed. She then crossed her ankles and bent her knees, lowering her head and placing her hands over her chest in a strangely contorted shape.
“Do we really have to do that?” Pearl whispered.
Yellow Pearl’s eyes looked as if they were going to pop out of her head. Pearl wondered absentmindedly if it hurt to have such a sour expression on your face all the time.
“Yes,” Yellow Pearl hissed. “And if you weren’t defective, you would know that already.”
Pearl felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment.
“What did you think all of the gigantic symbols everywhere were for? Decoration?”
Pearl suddenly noticed the pattern on the floor they were standing on. Four Diamonds, each with a distinct, rich color, came together to form one, cohesive shape.
“Oh,” Pearl realized. “That’s the shape you made.”
Yellow Pearl sighed loudly.
“What?” she exclaimed, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Are you telling me that the Diamond salute makes a Diamond symbol? Blue, did you know that? I’m utterly shocked.”
“She didn’t know,” Blue Pearl said quietly. “It’s alright to give her a break.”
Yellow Pearl shot Blue Pearl a haughty look before continuing. “If Pink Diamond accepts you, you are to stand silently by her side for the duration of the ball. We will do the same for our Diamonds.”
If Pink Diamond accepts her? Was there really a chance that she would be rejected in front of all four courts? Pearl knew it was naïve, but she had actually thought that the Diamond she was made for might want her, too.
Time to stop dreaming.
“Now for some everyday rules,” Yellow Pearl droned. “You’ll obey Pink Diamond’s every command whether you want to or not, but be sure to obey her requests as well. If something is not phrased as an order, but in the form of a question or statement, you are to do your utmost to make it happen. When your Diamond does not ask you to do things, it does not mean that you have nothing expected of you. Your job is to be intuitive. You must anticipate your Diamond’s every need and desire. And above all, you must do anything you can to make her happy . Each Diamond’s happiness is the primary reason for our existence in this world. We are here to please them, and to please them only.”
Pearl toed at a small crack in the floor. How much longer was she going to talk? Did she really enjoy hearing the sound of her voice that much?
Yellow Pearl coughed pointedly again. Pearl didn’t look up.
“Well,” Yellow Pearl snapped after a moment. “I see this one wasn’t made with manners either. Keep an eye on her until the ball, Blue. My Diamond has more important matters for me to attend to.”
And with that, Yellow Pearl spun on her heel and began to walk down the hallway. She began to mutter loudly, appearing to talk to herself, but Pearl knew it was directed at her.
“No thanks at all. She could have said anything- thank you for showing me the salute! Thank you for making sure that I won’t embarrass the entirety of Homeworld at the ball tonight! But no, she stands there and stares at her discolored feet like she can’t even understand what I’m saying…”
Before long, the sound of Yellow Pearl’s voice drained away, and Pearl was left alone with her blue counterpart.
Pearl stepped into the spot Yellow had vacated next to Blue and let the back of her head thunk against the wall. Would Pink Diamond be as cruel as everyone else she had met today? Would she be tall enough to fill a room as large as this one? Pearl shivered at the thought. A creature of that size could easily squash her underfoot if she did something to displease them.
Minutes passed. Pearl shifted from foot to foot. She wasn’t supposed to talk...right?
“I think your shoes are nice,” Blue Pearl murmured.
Pearl nearly jumped out of her skin. “My- oh! Thank you!”
Pearl let out a shaky breath. Could this other Pearl be a friend? She seemed very shy- her face was almost completely covered with a length of sleek, baby blue hair.
Pearl raised her hand to her own scalp self-consciously. Did she have hair? She couldn’t see any of it. Yes, there it was- fluffy, curling around her cheeks and temples. Was that pink, at least? She hoped so.
Pearl let her eyes wander around the room. At first, the opposite wall appeared to be simple, polished marble. She squinted her eyes in concentration and nearly jumped out of skin when she noticed. Dozens, hundreds of eyes, whole faces with bodies and arms and legs and gems connected to them, were entangled with each other on the wall. Every pair of eyes was trained on her. More than a few of the (could they even be called gems?) things were whispering to each other in hushed, unintelligible voices. It was clear what they were talking about.
One of the gems in the corner was straining forward, its face red with the effort of trying to cleave itself from the wall. The gems next to it quickly reprimanded it for its behavior, and it fell back into the wall with a sigh.
“What are they?” Pearl hissed. “Do they need help or something?”
Blue Pearl shook her head, almost imperceptibly. “We don’t talk about things like that.”
Pearl should’ve taken the hint. She should’ve shut her mouth and waited patiently for the ball.
She didn’t.
“That symbol on the floor,” Pearl began, “it has four shapes. Four colors. That’s for all four Diamonds, right?”
Blue Pearl nodded.
“So why are there only three of us? What about White Diamond? Where’s her Pearl?”
The small part of Blue Pearl’s face that wasn’t obscured by her hair didn’t shift, but suddenly the air seemed rife with tension.
“Yellow is right,” Blue Pearl said, her voice stilted. “You shouldn’t ask questions. It’ll only make things worse for you.”
Pearl turned back to the front. It might have been a trick of the light, but she could’ve sworn that in that moment, a single tear slid down Blue Pearl’s cheek before being quickly wiped away.