In all of her entire existence, she had only been 'ill' so to speak a few times in her life. Once before she met Rose and the two other times had been on Earth.
She absolutely despised being ill. The functions of her human construct were compromised and her gem powers became unstable. The illness wasn't caused by any bacteria or virus that most humans fell ill too, but rather a problem with her gem.
Most gems, when damaged, could easily recover from being cracked. Once they regenerated they may have experienced weakness and fatigue but that usually concluded within the first few hours after regeneration. But not for Pearl.
And when other pearls or gems with the ability to store things inside their gem, managed to store several items, quickly and efficiently-Pearl often was hit with extreme vertigo. Often storing too much in a short amount of time sometimes caused a 'hiccup'. Her gem would be unable to summon her weapon or send it shooting at dangerous speeds if she wasn't careful.
The three times she had been ill, these 'hiccups' occurred frequently. Unfortunately presenting themselves in the horrible form of sternutation. Uncontrollable, unpredictable, utterly horrible sneezing. It would be fine-just the sneezing, but it wasn't just sneezing. Her gem would fling things from her personal compartment all willy-nilly. Shooting books, projects, graphs, artifacts and tomes-often damaging them and causing her intense embarrassment.
The first time it had happened, she had been lucky enough to be working on a kindergarten. There had been hundreds and hundreds of gems working. It was the best organized mess Pearl had ever laid eyes on. She had been working under a gem named Siam, who often took defected gems under her tutelage. She had been instructed to help organize and assign tasks to gems joining the construction.
Her job often gave her time to explore the planet they had been stationed on. The planet SX33-1A, was mostly mountain terrain and swamp. It smelled terribly and lacked colorful fauna and flora. There was little to see, which meant that few gems ever were around when she went off to explore.
She didn't exactly know when the 'illness' came over her. She had been instructed to store a rather large section of the records for the failed 'kindergems'. She had been with company so she had forced herself not to falter. The fatigue snuck up quietly and the strange feeling came over her.
She was lucky because the day her 'illness' had befallen her, she had been off duty. She had found herself in one of the larger valleys of the planet. The progress of the kindergarten had been rather well so already the grass had begun to grey and wither away. She had nestled herself in a small patch of the remaining grass and tried to meditate.
That was when it happened.
Her slow calming breaths had begun to shift towards hitches. With each new breath, her chest rose higher and higher. Soon, she couldn't help but to vocally exhale with each hitch. Her nose and gems tingled and tickled strangely. She couldn't help it when the tickle reached its apex.
"Hh'tchoo!" The sneeze snapped her head towards her lap. A light spray sprinkled her legs lightly. A bright blast of light burst from her gem and one of her swords went flying into a lone rock.
She sniffled and sat up. Across the way she could see the sheath of one of her swords wobbling with the leftover force of her sneeze. She could feel a blush rising in her cheeks.
But it was better that it was here. Not at her job or near any number of gems. All she needed was more gems denouncing her being here.
"Defects need rehabilitation not jobs in the task force"
That was all she needed. Gems doubting her ability while she was unable to stop sneezing.
Pearl remembered staying there in that valley for most of that cycle. She couldn't stay in her assigned residence because she was concerned she would wake and find the window in her room broken or her door impaled.
She recovered-slowly-and eventually got back to working full time with no interruptions. And it hadn't been long after that, that she had become the acquaintance of Rose Quartz.