Story 2
Green is the color of Life
Emerald took Green Pearl to his home dimension of Mobius Prime. Being in the services of some of the finest of Gems, she was use to teleporting and traveling across great distances, but she didn't understand yet that she traveled across time and space to another reality with her new master. She had so many questions, but as a Pearl she knew it wasn't her place to ask her master of anything outside of how she may serve him. Green Pearl was surprised with the way Emerald the Hedgehog treated her, he talked to her like she was a normal individual and not just a servant. "This place looks beautiful, don't you think?" Emerald said as they stood at the top of some ancient ruins.
Green Pearl didn't believe she was entitled to express how she felt, it wasn't her place, and she was made to serve and to agree with her master. Even if the decision or statement wasn't to her liking, unless of course she knew all too well that he could be hurt if she just blindly agreed to something. In that scenario she'd be very vocal on her concerns that he'd get hurt and possibly die, she knew organic lifeforms were fragile next to Gems, "it's beautiful." Was all she could think of saying as a means of agreeing with her master, she heard him use the word beautiful often and knew it was an expression of something desirable.
Emerald had a lot of knowledge on the Gem race, and he knew from personal experience why Green Pearl agreed with him. "Do you actually like the view? Or are you just agreeing with me?"
Green Pearl suddenly felt nervous, in all the thousands of years she was in service. She had never been asked if she was just agreeing or how she actually felt. "I'm meant to agree with you my Emerald." She said as she gave him a bow.
Emerald shook his head and laughed, "You don't have to agree with me. Especially if you don't like it."
"You don't want me to agree?" Green Pearl was confused by the statement her master made.
"Only if you don't agree with me." Emerald realized all too well that Green Pearl had the entire caste system of her place in the Great Diamond Authority drilled into her mind. She couldn't just break that behavior after traveling with her new master for only a couple weeks.
"But I was made to serve a master. Agreeing with my master is my duty." Green Pearl said while trying not to upset her master.
Emerald was thinking for a moment, he then picked up a twig off of the ground. "What do you think of this twig?" He asked.
Green Pearl wasn't sure how to respond, she knew the twig was organic. And she was raised to believe that organic life is different and inferior next to Gems. Yet her new master was organic, and she didn't want to offend him while telling her what she thought of the organic twig. "It looks very odd, yet hard. What's its purpose?"
"Well it's a broken piece of a tree." Emerald said as he pointed at a tree.
"Why did it break master?" Green Pearl asked, she didn't know why she felt compelled to ask.
"If it was natural, then it was either from the wind blowing very hard. Or from the tree discarding a dead limb so new ones can grow." Emerald was glad that his Pearl was asking questions about one of the simplest things on earth. "Twigs can be used for all kinds of things, when they naturally decay that can fertilize the soil. Or it could be used to draw in the dirt." Emerald said as he made a quick sketch of Green Pearl's head in the dirt, she found it interesting how he was able to detail her nose in the dirt sketch. "It can also be used as firewood."
Green Pearl was wondering if her master was purposefully making her question about things, and encouraging her to learn things outside of being subservient. Green Pearl then looked at the view of the sun setting on the ancient ruins, she then thought for a moment. "I liked it better when we could see the ruins."
Emerald held one of her hands, this made her feel a bit excited because she wasn't use to holding hands with someone. "That's it, now you're starting to get the hang of speaking your mind."
"My mind can't speak with you." Green Pearl didn't understand the metaphor.
"It's just a figure of speech. A metaphor for the fact I want you to speak about your opinions of things." Green Pearl was starting to come up with some form of understanding her master now. After hearing those words she was convinced she figured out what he wanted her to do, in her mind she believed that he wanted her to behave differently from all of the other Pearls. She believed it was his desire for her to ask questions, state her opinion, to learn about so many things.
Green Pearl believed she figured it out, she then watched as the ruins became dark. "The ruins have an interesting presence in the dark."
"They can be scary at night." Emerald said.
"Yes they are." Green Pearl said out of her force of habit.
"Are you just blindly agreeing with me again?" Emerald asked.
Green Pearl found the statement strange, she then thought about the hair covering her eyes. She lifted it up so her eyes were visible. "I'm not going to blindly agree if my hair is up." Emerald laughed a little. "Did I say something wrong my Emerald?"
"No not at all. It's just humorous to teach someone as old as you about how to be an individual like everyone else." Green Pearl blinked as she looked at her master, she then thought she figured out more about what her master wanted from her. She believed he wanted her to just be an individual, to be vocal on things, to behave the way she wanted, but the trouble was she couldn't think beyond being just another Pearl. With the exception of voicing her thoughts on something like the ruins or question about the nature of a mere twig.
Green Pearl wondered if her master Emerald laughed because it amused him to see her behave how she normally does. She wondered if it was good to make him laugh, of course she never asked him what she could do to bring him enjoyment. "Does it please my Emerald for me to make you laugh?"
"Sure, especially if you laugh with me." Green Pearl thought about what her master said, she hadn't really laughed before. It wasn't her place to just laugh in the line of work she served in, she served many people in Yellow Diamond's army. Being transferred from one military commander, soldier or medic to another in the chain of command every few hundred or thousand years. Most of the time her old owner gave her away to another Gem out of boredom, but more recently it was under the words (please accept my Pearl as a gift.) and she was used to being a gift in a chain of command she was meant to serve. At least until she came to travel with Emerald the Hedgehog.
Green Pearl decided to wait to laugh the next time Emerald the Hedgehog laughed. The two much to her surprise began to explore the ruins, the ruins belonged to some ancient civilization the likes of which she'd never seen before. Of course being a Pearl she never learned about ancient civilizations, and she couldn't possibly have known anything about the beings that made these ruins because she was in another dimension. Her soft voice spoke to Emerald after they entered one of the buildings, "what made these ruins my Emerald?"
"These ruins belong to the Mobian Trolls of the Second Great Civilization. The Trolls had many unique structures. Most of them relied upon the crystals they were deeply obsessed with." Emerald said as he got a piece of wood, Green Pearl watched as he put some kind of liquid on the wood, he kept the liquid in a bottle that had a circle with a flame on it. He then took two rocks and made sparks, the sparks hit the wood and then it caught on fire. "There we go, we've got fire."
Green Pearl felt completely stupid in the moment, her master needed a light for clarity. She then activated her gem light from her forehead and apologized to her master. "Forgive me my Emerald for not making clarity for you."
"It's alright, now we both can see with our own light." Emerald made Green Pearl confused once again, did he want to make light for both of them? And if so why? She believed it wasn't his place to do such a thing, she was supposed to serve him.
Green Pearl believed she was supposed to give him a light for him and him alone. He wasn't supposed to make the light, he wasn't supposed to help her see too. Yet he did just that, "I'll keep my light on for you my Emerald."
"Okay. And another thing, just call me Emerald. I don't like having to hear anyone call me their Emerald. We're equals you and I." Emerald the Hedgehog said as he walked ahead of Green Pearl.
Green Pearl blushed, she didn't expect to hear such a powerful being ask her to forgo her formalities. And she especially didn't expect him to call her an equal, her a Pearl an equal to someone that even a Quartz soldier considered a superior. She blushed and kept quiet as she followed Emerald, soon they heard a sound. "What's that sound?"
Emerald then looked and noticed the floor was about to collapse, he quickly grabbed Green Pearl by lifting her up the same way a gentleman would carry a lady. He then ran at amazing speed and jumped over collapsing floor tiles, his jumps and speed surprised Green Pearl. "Watch your step my lady."
Green Pearl blushed, but this blush came from her feeling that she was being careless, and feeling embarrassed that she was saved by her master. "I'm sorry."
"For what?" Emerald asked.
"For being careless. Emerald… I'm sorry I've been careless." Green Pearl said.
"We all take a misstep every now and then." Emerald said as he gently placed Green Pearl down on her feet. "That's why we need friends to help lift us up."
"Friends?" Green Pearl thought she heard the word in the past, yes she recalled it being used among some of the Gems on Home World. But the word was used very sparingly and wasn't often mentioned in public, it was a more private term used between Gems who had a mutual understanding and respect of one another.
"Green Pearl, you have a lot to learn from me. And I'll be glad to teach you. I may consider you a new friend, but it seems you see me more as just a master than a friend. It'll be a while before we both can truly call each other true friends." Emerald said as they continued walking down the dark hallway of the ruins they were in.
Present Day
"So you thought you were obeying orders when you were learning to be yourself?" Pearl of the Crystal Gems asked Green Pearl.
"At first yes… It would be a while before I'd come to think of myself as worthy of the title "friend" to Emerald the Hedgehog." Green Pearl had a smile on her face as she thought back to old times.
"We all have our humble beginnings." Emerald/Green the Hedgehog said to his friends. "Though I became amazed Green Pearl when you started to really learn and question things in life."
