I couldn't get this little idea out of my head, and then this happened. I can't seem to stop writing Rose-centric fics... But anyways, enjoy!
Far, far in the future, Rose might have compared the Homeworld of her time to a time of 'Renaissance' on a small, distant planet called Earth. Born into a world of beauty, of aesthetics, where the artists and musicians were the most prized of gems, Rose- and the whole Quartz gem series- had never been intended for violence or fighting. Rose lived for life, in all its vibrancy, and for love.
And love flourished everywhere. Love was the music of the cosmos, the endless dancing of planets, of stars, of galaxies, of endless, unexplored space. Love was the beat of life in each gem she met, filling cities, thrumming an endless background noise. To the innocent, naive Rose, bursting with feeling and still untainted by the cynicism of a long life, love was everything and everyone she saw. Love was life, and life was love, and Rose lived and loved the world.
Time passed. That world of beauty aged, began to lose its gleam- to wilt, like a cut flower. Like a rose. The world had never been perfect, Rose began to realized. She loved all equally, reached out to all around her with an overflowing heart, but as other gems watched and whispered, she understood that not all felt as she did. There were systems, divisions, social rules to obey. Intelligent, elegant Rose had come to be in a higher class, and no one tried to stop her formally when she reached out to all those around her, but more and more, society began to press in, to pull her from her so-called childish play. 'Stop wasting your time on that little defect.' 'Don't lower yourself to talking to her type.' There were politics to respect, if she was to influence anything in the world around her, and slowly, that world forced her to listen. And so Rose learned subtlety. She distanced herself, loved from afar, and the swirling music of life grew quieter, like a song played and played and turned to background noise.
There were more important things to worry about, after all. Rose loved, but she worked as well. The world began to turn from beauty and art as the government of Homeworld began to realize that their world was running out of resources to make more gems with. They had been wasteful in their creating, and the planet had become overused and overpopulated, infertile and full to bursting – and so came the Dark Days. Now, it was scientists they needed, and gems like Rose had to scramble to keep up with the new ways. Research became the thing to do, into astronomy, to distant stars and planets, and into gems themselves. How could they make new gems more quickly? What other planet could possibly create functional gems? New programs began forming: the space program, to give gemkind room to spread, the Pearl program, the Kindergarden program...
And through all this, the government began to shift and change. A once open system closed as the Diamond Authority took its place at the top, directing and streamlining and giving gems what they needed. Who needed defective gems? Homeworld was crowded enough. From the near collapse of the Dark Days, things began to improve, and the 'functional' gems could easily look the other way when it came to the Authority's flaws. Soon enough, they had to.
What was the place of love in this new world? As the Authority militarized its empire, Rose armored her heart, held her love close to her. She still worked to treat those below her with care, but now, there was a distance. Responsibility and enclosure muted the music of life, hid the dance of the universe that once had seemed so bright and new. Rose worked to save lives where she could, but often, necessity forced her to turn a blind eye. She ignored the rumors that Kindergardens only worked on planets with life, ignored the whisperings that 'defective' had come to mean free-thinking. She tried to reform the system from within with kindness. She never commented on the rumors that someone had begun to shelter defective gems. Still, they spread, ant it was rumors like those that had her sent to Sol-3, a backwater planet with a single moon circling an insignificant yellow star like so many others in its little spiral galaxy.
It was there that, for the first time in millennia, Rose Quartz heard the music of life.