White had come to Yellow with plans for Blue, adorned in silver. She held out a hand, and in a flash, the image occupied every corner of Yellow's attention. Blue existed as a sketch drawn as a curvaceous woman with long, flowing hair shaped like a tear.
"What do you think?"
In her mind's eye, Yellow held her carefully. Though it was a photograph of a drawing taken from White's point of view, Yellow could easily make out her wide, round hips, her large supple breasts, and her plump, pouty lips. Even in graphite, her lines were smooth as ice, slipping the viewer from the base of her neck to between her legs. Every angle attracted the eye.
"Oh, isn't she beautiful? She's to be our Blue, just as commissioned."
"What will she do?" Yellow asked. "What will she be for?"
"Why, she'll be for Homeworld." White smiled in rescinding the image, granting Yellow back her consciousness. "Watch over her, won't you, as she grows?" But White had already begun walking away.
They had set up screens to monitor her progress, with cameras set to the location from which she would emerge and updates current to the second. From Yellow's control room, she had a window open, displaying Blue's slow-beating heart, and the messages popping into existence with a ding. They would show her mass and color, darkening as she grew, temperature constantly displayed.
"You know, when you were forming, this technology didn't exist," White had said. "One just had to hope you emerged as desired."
Yellow didn't ask what would have happened if she hadn't.
Having it open a few minutes, Yellow would have closed the status updates, or momentarily turned off the camera recording the unmoving ground, but she waited a while longer. But Blue's color didn't change and she didn't shake, so Yellow went back to work. In the reflection of screen, she was smirking.
During the rare moments alone in her chambers, Yellow might make that rough heap of diamond a hologram, which she held in her hands. Despite being buried well beneath the dirt, it depicted Blue's gem, deeply pigmented and sparkling. Yellow would cup the image tightly enough to distort it, and report to White, "She's about the size of my palm."
When her gem had grown nearly to completion, White created her chamber. Where White had projected a chair, workers built a chair. They decorated the walls to the tile, lights to the bulbs, curtains to the fibers.
Popping into creation left plenty of dust, so White sent her Pearls to clean. They scrubbed, polishing the statues, purging the dirt.
With Blue's gem projected into the chambers with them, Yellow and White went together. The clean lines composing her diamond matched the crisp, perfect walls of her palace, the shine of the chandeliers and the elegance of the ornate rugs.
"Isn't it beautiful?" White asked, but didn't give Yellow a chance to answer. "When she emerges, wash her here before bringing her to me. There's a bath in that room, over there."
The image appeared within Yellow's mind, even though neither had entered.
"Why not the Pearls?" Yellow asked.
"You should see her," White answered. As the image of the bathing room with its extensive tub disappeared, so did she.
Before the entrance of Blue's chambers, Yellow lingered with the theoretical gem projected within her hands. She stood and held it, the color of her gloves turning. Her edges had become so clear, slightly rounded like a tear.
The time came for Blue to emerge. The updates arrived with their glow, reporting that she was ready, and should be anticipated any moment. That message in particular hovered longer than the others. Embellished with an exclamation point, it seemed to indicate that Blue might burst from Homeworld any second. It was her beginning. Be ready.
Yellow alerted White but didn't hear anything back, and every few hours, the messages pinged again to the top of the feed, with the same exclamation point. Don't forget. Another Diamond is coming.
So many notifications arrived that when the initial shake occurred, Yellow jumped inside her chair. From the outside of her chamber, sirens howled as the screen illuminated with more incoming data: how severe the quakes were, how much the ground would rend.
Among the sirens rang an announcement to stay inside, but Yellow went to Blue.
She arrived before Blue had burst forth. Standing on the edges of the canyon she would make, she watched the cracks deepen.
Where the ground shattered, and rifts developed, pale blue light poured from them, filling the crater like flood water. Homeworld shook as the rift grew and particles of dust and pebbles interrupted the beam, dense as a layer of foam.
Even at a reasonable distance, Yellow's eyes watered. She wiped them continuously, but the brighter the light grew, the more her eyes flooded. Finally it drained, receding into the planet. The quaking ground calmed. For only a moment, Homeworld drew a breath and held it, darkening, dying, before exploding outward with a tsunami of light. The kindergarten crinkled, and like salt from an ocean wave, it rained sparkling debris. From the chaos arose Blue.
She was as White intended, long silver hair and curves. Covered in dirt. Crying.
She caught her breath and walked to Yellow.
"Are you a Diamond too?" She asked.
Yellow cleared her eyes.
Blue drew nearer and inquired more softly, "Are you a Diamond too?"
"Yes," Yellow took her hand, "I am."
Even within the cavernous bath, the sirens rang the tiles with a new message: "Blue Diamond has emerged. All gems are to take to the streets to witness her."
The bath had been drawn, and the words afflicted the water as well, sweeping across it in rings.
Blue followed, clutching her hand tightly. With their feet in the water, Yellow released her. "You can get in," she said. "White wants me to bathe you."
But as Yellow fetched the soap, Blue hesitated. She studied from the point of Yellow's hair to the heels of her boots. Despite being naked and dusty, she didn't hide herself, mouth forming a full-bodied pout.
"Who is White?" she asked, "And don't I have servants?"
"You will," Yellow stepped into the water, a hand upon Blue's back, "but White wanted us to meet."
Yellow wasted no time, removing her gloves and soaping up her hands. "I'm going to touch you," she said, taking Blue's arm and lathering it. Yellow worked quickly, avoiding eye contact as her hands found every nook and cranny. She exfoliated the dirt, equally distributed the soap, never lingering in any one area.
As Yellow rinsed the dust away to expose glowing skin, Blue asked, "What is White like? Do I belong to her?"
Yellow paused, pail emptied. "We all belong to her," she leaned over to fill it. "Just do as she says."
"Is that why you came to greet me? Because she asked you to?"
"There are only three of us," Yellow poured more water along her back. "I would have come to see you no matter what."
"Well," Blue looked over her shoulder. "I can't watch you emerge, but if you find yourself in need of a bath, I'd be happy to return the favor."
Yellow laughed. "Come on. They're waiting for you."
Washed and gowned, Blue went with Yellow to White's chambers, the sirens still announcing her birth. Pictures were projected on the screens, which Gems gathered to watch as Blue's emergence occupied the sides of buildings. Flat surfaces and endless windows illuminated with well-shot scenes of her breaking through the rock, the capitol awash with her body. The cameras, wherever they had been, captured her with her arm out to Yellow, displaying her perfection. The commission sketch made its appearance too, juxtaposed with the real-life version, comparing the arc of her breasts, the abundance of her hips, the plushness of her mouth.
The onlookers gasped. They bowed as she passed, but rather than keep their noses toward the ground, they looked upward to drink every drop of her.
When they approached White's bust in the center of the city, Blue and Yellow stopped, arms linked.
"I'm sure she'll love you," Yellow said. "She's been waiting a long time."
Blue merely touched Yellow's shoulder. The words seemed to be coming, but before Blue could produce them, a light enveloped her, bleaching her colors, sweeping her inside.
She didn't have a chance to scream, nor did Yellow gasp for her, before she had gone.
Eventually, she turned away, footfalls echoing in the streets once full of noise.