Connie. Connie, connie, connie. Co. Nnie.

It didn't feel quite right. But it didn't feel wrong either. It was just, different. She had never used her name before. She had never thought of it as her name. She was Pearl, Type Aubergine, Facet MHS-WRN, Cut CN-NI. In school, when she had been one of a class full of different colored pearls, she had been called Aubergine Pearl. If she was in trouble- which was more often than not if a teacher was acknowledging her–she was referred to as "Pearl Facet Mesh Dash Wern." Her facet's official pronunciation was "Maheswaran" but strangely enough the official pronunciation was never used by officials. Thinking of herself as anything but Pearl was just so foreign.

Still, Steven had asked her to try, and he was her quartz. He didn't think of himself as Rose Quartz, so she didn't have to think of herself as Pearl. And he was going to prove his point with an outing. They were going into town together to meet some of Steven's other friends.

Steven apparently had a simple time hiding his special importance from his friends since it was popular in Beach City for young gems to hide their gems and gem types when off duty to equalize things. People knew Steven had taken over his mother's spot in Pink Diamond's court as rose quartz, but they didn't know any details beyond that. Since they refused to ask, due to the social custom of the day, he didn't have to lie.

"We can all just be ourselves!" Steven had said. "You'll see. You'll love it!"

She hoped she loved it. She wanted to love it. For Steven.

"Connie!" Steven appeared out of nowhere, floating down from the air.

He had told her to wait for him in a strange place, near the old gem temple by the beach. She looked up, frowning.

"Where did you come from?" she asked.

"The Temple. I have access to it. Pink Diamond gained access to the inner sanctum when she regained control from the Crystal Gems."

"Oh…." She looked at Steven. He was wearing his cloak as usual, but new pants and shoes, slim black leggings, and fancy new shoes. "You've got new clothes for the concert?"

"Yep! It's sort of a thing. I got you a dress for the show." Steven reached into a bag he had slung across his body and pulled out a dress.

She held it up. It was black as well, with a pink diamond over where her gem would be. The dress had puffed sleeves and a puffed skirt, with pink lace over the sleeves and red lace over the skirt.

"Why do we have a uniform?" she asked, frowning.

Steven blushed. "It's not a uniform. It's just a thing we do. Like a style. Sadie Killer and the Suspects are kinda… dark. So black. And we all wear pink and red because we're in Pink's Court. I… hope it fits. The Stars told me your measurements, but I forgot them, so I sort of… eyeballed it."

Going blank and blushing, she stared at Steven. "From seeing me?" she guessed and breathed out. "No big deal. That was–"

"I pick you up a lot." Steven corrected.

She froze, unsure of what to say. After several awkward seconds, she managed to mutter: "I have to change."

"If you go around the corner, there's a little space," Steven said. He was hiding behind his hair again.

She rounded the rock and found there was a little kiddy corner where she could get dressed. Her harness she ended up putting right up against her skin, then she put the dress on over it. The dress fit perfectly. It was even a bit fitted. She needed to stop letting Steven pick her up. Pulling a mirror from her gem, she looked at herself.

It wasn't bad. She looked nice in black. She had always looked nice in dark colors. With a smile, she stuck her hand out as if she would shake her reflection's hand.

"Connie Maheswaran, ready for action."

#

Once she was dressed, Connie returned to Steven. He was waiting for her by a rock formation, hood up, rocking back and forth on his shoes.

"I'm ready," Connie said.

Steven turned and smiled at her, a blush on his face. "You look great! Does it fit?"

"Yea," Connie muttered. "You have a good eye."

"Thanks. We're going to float to it. Stay mostly out of sight."

"I suppose you have to," Connie said as he offered Steven her hand.

Steven took Connie's hand, then wrapped a hand around her waist. "Yea. Basically." He jumped softly but launched them into the air at an angle. With practiced eased, Steven turned them around and took a single step off the top of the temple's head and sent them flying towards the city.

"I can't let too many people know about me. The only people who do are my friends Sadie and Lars, her band, and his crew. Other than that, I'm sort of… a cryptid."

"A cryptid?" Connie said, watching Steven's face.

He shrugged in midair as he stepped off the top of a tower. "I know people have seen me. A pink-cloaked figure darting around."

"What about this concert?" Connie asked. "Won't people… know who you are?"

Steven laughed. "Not really. Everyone has their gem covered, and it's pretty dark. Even if I get up on stage, I'm just an organic gem with no memorable features. When the Di… I mean, after I stop having to hide, people will remember they've seen me, but it won't matter then."

"Oh." Connie wanted to say more, but they were slowly drifting down behind a building.

"We're here," Steven said. After they touched the ground, he let her go and took off his cloak, tucking it behind some boxes.

Connie straightened her dress, then turned and saw that Steven was dressed completely different from normal. He was wearing a short black dress like Connie's with ruffled pink and red skirt. The top had sheer straps that hugged his shoulders gently, and there was a pink diamond at his belly button. His hair was still up in its normal ponytail. Connie squealed non-the-less.

"We match!"

"Yea! I was hoping that'd be okay." Steven blushed behind his bangs.

"It's the best! You're the best!" Connie threw her arms around Steven and squeezed. Then she let go and gestured toward the door. "Shall we, Steven?"

"We shall, Connie," Steven said, offering his arm.

#

Connie's only experience with musical gatherings were balls. Pink Diamond's colonies had held balls for thousands of years. There were dozens of ball nights in each planet's calendar. Connie had been to a quite a few before she'd come to New Homeworld.

Balls on the colonies were dazzling affairs. Held in bright, open ballrooms a ball night was the time for a gem to off their cut and earn the validation of their superiors and the envy of the subordinates. Each gem dressed to the height of fashion for their rank, every gem from emeralds to peridots showing off the best their station had to offer. It was all about being the best of your type and promoting that the best you could.

Before Pink Diamond and White Diamond went into seclusion, Pink Diamond often traveled throughout her colonies, surprising and delighting her subjects with her presence. Her colonies never knew when she would appear, so being polished at every ball was of top importance. Now that Pink Diamond was gone, there was a new ball night on the anniversary of her going into seclusion. On New Homeworld the night fell on the fifteenth of the eighth month, in mere three months. That ball was the most dazzling of them all.

But as they walked into the venue for the concert, Connie realized this was nothing like a ball.

It was dark and cramped with gems that appeared to be little more than shadows in the gloom of the warehouse. What Connie could pick out in the dim lighting was that there were organic and natural gems mixed in the crowd. The profiles were unmistakable. When she followed the pale lines of light upwards, she could also see that aquamarines were hovering around the beams above their heads, easy to identify even in the dark because of their tiny bodies and wings. But the aquamarines weren't up there alone, some other gems were sitting on beams and they were impossible to guess the identity of. The gems that were close for Connie to see the gloom were so close she couldn't get a good look at them, but she saw they wore outfits of black, with red and pink accents like herself and Steven. And there wasn't a gem in sight. Gloves with pink palms and pink patches on the back of them, pink patches on chests, on stomachs, on thighs, on cheeks, on backs, every gem was covered by a pink diamond-shaped piece of cloth.

Connie found herself at a bar where a slim organic gem in a black tank top smiled at her. Her eyes were covered by a visor, but she had a pink eye patch in the shape of a diamond over her left eye.

"Get you something to drink?" the unknown eyeball gem asked.

Connie cleared her throat. "Um…"

Suddenly Steven leaned into her. Connie had practically forgotten they had their arms linked. "How about some sodas?"

"I…" Connie leaned in. "My wallet is… unavailable." She meant it was in her gem but didn't know how to say that without telling everyone within earshot that she was a pearl. Connie wasn't sure it wasn't uncouth to reveal your gem type, even by accident.

"Don't worry, Connie," Steven laughed. "I've got it." He turned to the bartender. "Two sodas, please." Then he reached his free hand into the top of his dress and fish out a small wallet.

"Where did that come from?" Connie asked.

Steven laughed. "I've got a few tricks," he said. "Secret tricks. I can teach them to you." He unhooked his arms from Connie's and paid.

"I can carry that," Connie said when Steven moved to return his wallet to his dress.

Steven gave her a sad look.

"What? I have more padding to keep it still than you do." Connie smiled a pearl-like smile as he plucked the wallet from Steven's fingers and tucked it securely in the front of her dress.

#

They talked a little at the bar, about the venue - a typical one for Sadie Killer and the Suspects- and the fact that Steven had a surprise for Connie. Connie pushed at him for details, but he sipped his soda and smiled innocently. After Connie gave up on it, Steven asked if she ever heard a Sadie Killer song. Connie shrugged.

"I have no idea. I've listened to a bunch of New Homeworld music. I haven't really been paying attention to it. I just play it in the background while I train. And back home, I listened to music a lot, but mostly local artists."

"I see," Steven nudged her. "Well, maybe you'll like them. They sing my favorite song. I hope they open with it." Gulping down the last of his soda, Steven stepped away from the bar. "Let's push our way up front."

Connie turned her head towards the stage. There was already a crowd in front of it.

"I don't think we can," Connie muttered above the noise.

Steven simply took her arm and pulled her away from the bar and into the crowd. Connie would have preferred not to shove her way through the tangle of bodies, but Steven put his left arm up in front of them and walked forward, parting the crowd like walking through a field a grass. Connie kept her head down. She wasn't sure how the other gems were going to take Steven's pushing, but she decided not to find out.

Eventually, Steven stopped and put an arm around Connie, and Connie felt safe to look up. They were right up front, so close to the stage that when the band came out, they might be able to touch them.

"This is great," Connie said.

"Anything for you, Connie," Steven said, squeezing her.

Connie flushed. She knew they were supposed to be only themselves, but Steven was still her quartz and it made her so happy that he loved her. They stood together for several minutes until the dim lighting in the warehouse turned to pitch-blackness.

Steven squeezed Connie to his side as a curtain fell from the ceiling. Then light flooded the stage and there was a roar from the crowd. After a few seconds, a couple of stray, drawn-out notes floated out over the crowd. The curtain parted to reveal three organic gems on stage. They wore black bodysuits that looked strangely familiar to Connie but were dressed up with sparkling jackets, fingerless white gloves, white collared shirts, and black ties. They all had red sneakers on. Their harnesses were made of gold chains, but their gems were covered with patches of pink cloth. As the crowd roared again, Connie noticed a shadow above them and looked up.

Above the stage was a huge, gem sized box hanging in mid-air. As it lowered from the ceiling, Connie recognized it as an incinerator, the small box organic gem's bodies went into after they died and had given their last rites. After it was closed, it burned the body, and the ashes were sent to fertilize natural gem kindergartens. Squeezing Steven's arm, Connie felt a little faint.

The low haunting notes wove themselves together as the incinerator set down and then the melody picked up. The incinerator door swung up, and inside a young gem shrouded in white clothes and multi-colored sparkling dust. The dust coated her blonde hair, her make-up whitened face, and her clothes. It was unmistakable. It was supposed to shattered gems, which were ground up to power-up the gems of organic gems and used to fertilize the food production grounds that made food for organic gem kindergartens with baby gems and new mothers. All the death imagery made Connie dizzy. Steven squeezed her to him.

"This is it!" he said. On stage, the blonde gem looked from side to side, as if confused. Her band-mates stared forward, oblivious to her.

The blonde - who Connie assumed had to be Sadie Killer herself - stepped up to the microphone. "I used to be sick. Sick and tired," she sang.

Steven suddenly let go of Connie but did take her arm. "Delirious, dizzy, terrified," Steven sang loudly. The crowd was singing along as well, but Connie could mostly hear Steven.

"But I'm suddenly up and out of bed," all the voices sang together. "You'd never believe I was almost…" The music picked up and Connie felt Steven jump and squeeze her arm so hard it was uncomfortable.

"Why can't you see me?!" Steven yelled in her ear. "Why can't you see me?! I think I might be a g-g-g-ghost!" Steven swung into Connie and hugged her arm.

On stage, Sadie gave a build shaking roar, similar to a quartz solider on the battlefield.

"Ohh, ohhhh! Can't you see that I exist?!"

"And I don't need a black onyx to let me out!" Steven sang, jumping up and down. "Look at me and I'll appear. Why can't you see that I'm right here? That I'm right here?"

Two things hit Connie at once. First was Sadie Killer's band were dressed as fancy onyxes - more death imagery - and two that she'd heard Steven ask almost that exact question on their trip to Yellow Diamond's former base. With a sudden understanding of why he loved his song so much, Connie squeezed him back and watched him.

"Why can't you see me?" Steven sang with Sadie and the crowd. "Why can't you see me? I think I might be a g-g-g-ghost." Steven looked up as the music died down.

Connie followed his gazed to find Sade Killer rising from her incinerator in a plume of ash and smoke.

"I'm calling you from the other side…" she said as the music faded out.

The crowd irrupted in roars and curtains closed on the Suspects, finally noticing Sadie and staring up at her floating body. Connie was almost too shocked to applaud. She'd never seen anything like that before. Steven nudged her.

"Wasn't that great?!" he asked.

"Yea," Connie said. "It was intense."

"I know. It makes you feel something. Like you know when you get that feeling like something is squirming around in your guts and you just want to do something about it?"

Connie did not.

"Or," Steven went on, excitedly, "that feeling when you're standing perfectly still and you're smiling but you're screaming your head off, but you're not showing it!"

Eyes widening, Connie's mouth opened. "I thought I was the only one who did that."

"No. Whenever I have to listen to… my aunts. They just drive me crazy. I want to scream at them, but I promised to be nice. Besides, I'm the baby so… I just want to them to see that I'm not–"

The music started up and again and the crowd roared. Steven glanced at the stage, then back at Connie. He squeezed her arm, which he'd never let go of, and smiled. They would finish this later.

The next song was less intense and was a self-titled song that introduced the band to the crowd. Connie found she was much more comfortable with this song. Then the lights went down again, and a low haunting melody began to play over the crowd screaming. Connie realized that she'd heard this song before.

"Steven!" Connie yelled. "I know this. It played on Centuri!"

"Really? Do you like it?" Steven asked excitedly.

"Tired from work!" Connie shout-sung with the band. "Hate my job. I really ought to be in mourning. But I've another shift this morning."

The entire crowd was chanting the song. Less singing and more saying, like a mantra. "Every day seems like it's never-ending. What's the point of this time I'm spending here at this dead-end job?!"

Connie grabbed Steven's neck with her free hand and pressed her mouth to his ear. "This was practically the anthem for my class!"

Steven laughed and moved his arm from around Connie's arm to around her waist. "Figures for a bunch pearls-in-training," he said in her ear.

"Look at you. You seem so bright and healthy," Steven sang, pressing his forehead to Connie's.

"And your eyes and full of joy and wonder," Connie sang back.

"Stay a thousand miles from the condition that I've got from all the stress I'm under!" they sang together. Steven's arm around Connie's waist and Connie's arm around Steven's shoulders. "Don't come near me or you might encourage all these terrifying sudden urges!"

They stayed like that for the rest of the song, at the end of which Steven lifted Connie onto his shoulder for her to clap and wave at the band. When Connie was back on the ground they stayed linked together for the rest of the show, Steven singing to her most of the time, and Connie joining when she knew the words. After the band did a tribute song a singer call Mr. Universe, they announced they would be doing a special song that would take a few minutes to set up and curtain closed.

"Connie," Steven said. "Stay right here. I've got a surprise for you."

"Now?" Connie said in disbelief. "But the show!"

Steven kissed her hand and smiled. "Don't worry. I've been planning this for weeks. Promise me you won't go anywhere."

Connie frowned, but Steven was still her quartz. "I promise."

"Great! I'll just…" Steven paused, looked at her, seemed to be about to say something, but ultimately turned and rushed away.

#

For a few minutes, Connie waited in the crowd. It felt small and vulnerable without Steven. If she was anywhere else, she'd be a pearl of the Pink Stars. Who was she here? A random organic gem with no friends and no standing. There was something dangerous about being outside the system. Connie had never accomplished anything outside her gem type and rank. What did she have to offer as just herself?

Luckily, she didn't have long to dwell on such awful thoughts. The lights went down again and the sound of a guitar ripped through the air. Connie looked for Steven as the curtains rolled back, but he was nowhere to be seen. Sadie Killer appeared on stage, smiling.

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you," she said. "Thank you for gracing me with your presence."

Connie looked up. That was a funny thing to say. Something you'd say to a high-ranking quartz or even a Diamond. She scanned the stage and along with Sadie and her usual band, there was a drummer, obscured by poor lighting but still close enough to the front of the stage to a visible. An organic gem with a microphone. They sang along with Sadie.

"Good afternoon, Ma'am. What can I do, Ma'am? Just say the word, Ma'am. Anything for you, Ma'am."

Connie smiled and made an effort to dance a little. The song seemed to be from the perspective of pearl.

"Your friends all say, Ma'am. You don't deserve me. I disagree, Ma'am. I live to serve, Ma'am!"

Connie laughed out loud and danced. Every pearl knew that line. That pearl-like line of pretending to be simpler, more loyal, more naïve than you were.

"I think about all the wasted time I've spent! I wanna be disobedient! I stood awake wondering where my summers went. I wanna be disobedient. Disobedient. Disobedient."

Wondering where Steven was and wishing he was there to hear this, Connie continued to dance. The song went on that she'd been good, so very, very good, but for what? Connie wondered, what was she being so good for? What was the point of a rose quartz having a pearl? Had Steven's mother had a pearl? Couldn't he just use her, then? Why a new one? What was so special about the former rose quartz that she'd been allowed - or forced - to have a half-organic child, anyway?

She'd given Steven everything single thing she'd had, the song reminded her. And it was strange (man), this whole arrangement. Connie felt as if she'd been cutting Steven too much slack because she liked him. But the truth was, had said in the beginning that he was a lair. Maybe she just let herself forget that. And she was going to end up totally deranged.

"When I think about all the wasted time I've spent! I wanna be disobedient! I stood awake wondering where my summers went. I wanna be disobedient. Disobedient. Disobedient." Sadie sang with the hidden drummer before they broke into a bridge.

Then suddenly the drums stopped, and drummer stood up and took mic into the light. Connie gasped.

He had his hair down now so that his curls covered his shoulders, and someone had done something with his bangs, but it was Steven. Connie could see him moving his head from side to side, searching the crowd for something as he brought the microphone up to his lips.

"I want to be disobedient," Steven sang in his clear, cool voice. "I want to be–"

He jumped off the stage. The crowd gasped and cheered. The few people in front of Connie moved, but Connie was frozen in place. Steven found her, and as he and his spotlight closed the distance between them, she wasn't sure if it was him, or the light, or herself that was making her warm.

"Disobedient," Steven sang deliberately, as if trying to tell her something important. "Disobedient. Disobedient. Disobedient."

The last notes of the song strummed through the air and faded into nothing.