Simply Being


She awoke with a start.
Sudden, jerking awareness; not the pleasant, warm kind you feel when you open your eyes early on a Sunday and think a comforting, 'Hm, I think I'll doze for a while longer,' with the smell of coffee and flower perfume rising from the kitchen. It was a cold, hard, mechanical Awareness that made Her painfully aware of Her nothingness and painfully unaware of anything else. Her pale eyes searched frantically, trying to find something, anything, to tell Her who She was, where She was, what She was. But they were greeted only with horrifying blackness, the kind of blackness you remember feeling when you were younger and thought a monster was under the bed, when you called out to your mother for help and warmth and comfort.
She had no mother to call for.

Pearls were more slaves than anything else. They didn't have any ambition or thoughts, the commercials said. They're only here to serve you!
They could do your dirty work, perform for you, act as a comfort object during a storm, they could even act as a lover when you were too lonely. And they aren't real gems, so you should have no worries about being embarrassed or afraid. They will do whatever you please!
They were sit-up-and-look-pretties, they were dancers, they were musicians, they were house pets or servants. Pearl's could be anything and everything, but they couldn't be real gems. They were only playthings programmed to serve. Morally, you shouldn't feel bad about anything you make your pearl do. That's the fun of them!

She blinked and blinked, trying to make sense of Her aareness and the world around Her's nothingness. She could see nothing, could hear nothing, could feel nothing. It was as if She wasn't living, She was only being.
She must have sat there for hours without moving, or thinking, or breathing. She only sat. Within moments, her whole atmosphere changed, but she did not have the knowledge or experience to feel dread. Lights were now everywhere - bright, cold lights that would give you a headache if you held your eyes open for too long, the kind you see in doctor's offices and hospitals. A painful feeling of cleanliness covered Her and everything around Her. From what She could tell, She was alone. She was upon a small pod and covered in a sticky wetness that she would come to know as saltwater, her newly processed body flickering in and out of existence as it got used to being. She only realized she had been moving when she stopped, a voice breaking the terrible nothingness.

"Pearl B8-29027. Please state your title and position."
She stayed quiet.

"Pearl B8-29027. Please state your title and position." The voice tried again, a growl of impatience coming over the feminine voice. This cycle repeated, and She tried to repeat the words; She really did. They wouldn't come.

"Defective speech and voice recognition. Possible defective pattern memorization. Noted in description; move to next stage regardless. Correctable error."
She began moving again; how interesting was that, She could now recognize the sensation of movement.
Soon after, She stopped moving again, but She was too young to understand the anomaly of time, so it didn't matter how soon it had been. Another voice, different from the one before, a voice more gruff and cold began to speak.

"Pearl B8-29027," It began, just as the other had, "Defective speech and pattern memorization..." The voice mumbled. She realized only now that She had not moved her head. That She could move her head. She turned her head stiffly to reveal a tall figure looking onto a glowing white tablet that seemed to be emitted from a black watch clamped tightly on the figure's wrist. "Pearl B8-29027, please stand."

Without realizing what She was doing, She moved Her legs and stood robotically.
"Good. Pearl B8-29027, override. New loyalty requested."
A blue light flickered from Her gem, a code forming from the blue light. Pearl B8-29027. Loyalty to: Unchosen. Override code: 369027.
"369027. Loyalty requested to: Diamond, White; Status code: 4502789B."
She shuddered as the blue went to static before reappearing, the only thing shown now being Pearl B8-29027. Loyalty to: White Diamond/Class A.

She did not know how this had happened, the feeling being very close to how you feel attending a calculus class when you have only just let the Algebra 2 information sink in. It was a feeling of confusion, fear, of that dread She had not yet learned to recognize. A flicker of emotion passed over her eyes, and the Gem with the gruff voice noticed this. A look of distaste showed on her face.

Most pearls, in fact, did feel. No matter how much it was pushed that they didn't, they did. They communicated with each other sometimes, but only each other, and never expressed true opinion or emotion. They only had, they didn't show. They know their place and don't question your judgment; they believe what you believe!
More so, they pick up the social cues stating your mood and opinion and only act when you ask them to. If asked for conversation, they use those social cues to speak of things you know, of things you agree with. Never anything new, even if they do feel.

She felt, and She showed. It wasn't as if She made a conscious decision to show, She just didn't know she shouldn't. If She had kept her expression blank any longer, she felt as if she would explode, though She didn't know what the word explode really meant.
The owner of the gruff voice narrowed her eyes and moved closer to Her. The taller gem frightened Her and She gasped, feeling very small and afraid.
"Pearl B8-29027. Do not move any part of your form; do not make any noises; do not question me. Please show me your information page, starting from your creator and shipment requirements for checking and approval."

A new sensation, a feeling of terror moved through her body quickly as the new gem looked upon her, but she was brave. She was going to do what this gem told her; She couldn't feel afraid. She tried to recall what she was expected to do, but She couldn't understand the order. What did She have to do? When? Starting where?

The gruff gem came close to her and narrowed her eyes.

"Pathetic," She whispered to herself, "But we can't have another defect... White asked for this ten cycles ago; I'll get crushed if I don't get her one." The gem looked distressed and was biting her lip, looking to the ground as if asking it for support. Looking to the side, she spoke.

"Pearl B8-29027. Kneel."
She could obey that order. Whether or not She knew what kneeling was, Her form obeyed and within moments She was bowed on one knee in front of the other gem.

"You'll do. You'll have to." The gem pulled out a strange object, one that had electricity moving through it rapidly and looked quite dangerous. It was pushed towards Her, and within moments there was a painful shock and She was gone.

"My Diamond; You are being summoned."

"Why?" White Diamond's cold voice scared the moonstone, and she flinched involuntarily, but answered all the same.

"Your commissioned Pearl has been completed and is being hand delivered, as you asked, my Diamond."

White Diamond sighed, standing from her post and running a hand through her hair.

"Of course. Lead me to them." The moonstone bowed with the diamond symbol held at her chest before turning and hurrying toward the entryway. There were many things that White Diamond did not like. Jaspers, irregular weather patterns, rebellious lower gems... Being disrupted during work, for whatever reason, was on that list.

The two moved into the main entrance quickly, arriving to see a middle class working gem standing with a chain held in her hand. The Yellow Jade was dressed in a delicately pattered dress, mainly a golden color with a few silver threads weaved in. The midlength sleeves and lifted skirt of the dress, gathered with a black sash, gave this gem a look of status, however White knew this was only so whichever pearl unit she happened to be selling would be more trusted and wanted. A simple sales tactic, to make your saleswoman appealing. Yellow Jade dusted her long golden hair out of her eyes, her black lips forming a sass filled smile.

"My Diamond." She spoke, bowing with her hands forming a perfect diamond shape. "I have come to deliver and instruct the usage of your new household assistant. Pearl B8-29027, come say hello." Yellow Jade gave a tug on the chains, and White noticed for the first time that they were connected to the wrists of a small, frail pearl. It wasn't quite short, but, then again, it wasn't quite tall either. It's short hair was straight and damp, but not quite wet enough to leave water on the pristine floors. White took in its appearance; noticing the plain white dress covering its' body and the lack of shoes on its feet.

"Ah, yes. Programming is not complete until you pick her outfit, my Diamond." The Yellow Jade grinned, a smirk that most gems would find charming. "Would you care for me to assist? Most others of your class and standing tend to dress their pearls similarly to themselves as to compliment the-"

"No, that won't be necessary. I've had a pearl before, young Jade, and I believe you'd think it best to leave my presence quickly and leave me to program my assistant on my own. Unless of course you just want a consequence, which, in that case, I'm very well prepared to just, oh, you know, crush you."

Fear took the Jade's face for the first and took away her proud facade. Her widened eyes stared at White as her head bobbed up and down.

"Y-yes, my Diamond." She spoke with a shake, trying not to be afraid of her superior's harsh words and menacing stare. Of course White was bluffing; while she could crush the Yellow Jade, it'd be very thoughtless to destroy a good worker without a good reason. The pearl industry needed that Yellow Jade, and so until she did something drastic that White could not forgive, the Yellow Jade lived.

"That goes for you as well, Moonstone. Unless you believe yourself to be above that Jade, I suggest you leave my presence. Now."

"Yes, my Diamond." Moonstone hurried, bowing with the Diamond salute and scampering off, leaving White alone with her newly acquired pearl.

"Now, let's see..." White kneeled about to the pearl's height, still slightly taller than her but near the right elevation, and began looking her over. She was gorgeous, though a little small, and her pale pink hair gave her white body just enough color to make her seem almost like a real gem. Her feet were long and thin, though small, and her pointed nose and cheeks had just the slightest amount of blue blush. Something was... Off, however. White tried to pinpoint what it was, struggling until her pale eyes met the pearl's gem. The normally round gem had taken on more of an oval, its' mass having ripples and waves formed into the should-be smooth surface. Yellow glared, appalled. How could they give her, White Diamond, a defective servant? She looked to the heavens for answers, sighing as she brought a hand to her face.

The ceiling did not provide an explanation, so White slowly brought her eyes back down to the pearl, looking her over once more. She was pretty. It'd be a shame just to crush her...

White made herself a promise. She would try to work with this pearl; maybe the shape of the gem was just an aesthetic problem. However, if the pearl ended up acting differently that it should, it would have to be terminated. White sighed, brushing a strand of hair from the pearl's ice blue eyes. She might as well design this pearl's outfit now. If she was to give it a chance, she would at least have some fun with it.