Perfect Yellow

                   “Hmm… Not bad. Try a different angle.”

While the supposably mission was nothing big and exciting, yellow pearl brought up the idea of checking out the planets the scouts had explored. Her eyes lit up like stars as she smiled big. “Oh I would love to see the new planets! I’ve always dreamed of having my own planet but I know I have to work for it” She was eager to at least try to be a diamond and show the others she’s capable of being like them. 

One thing for sure was she wasn’t sure how yellow’s pearl is. Pink didn’t mind how her pearl walked with her, typically she had her walk along side her but the others had their pearls walk behind them. This was an opportunity to see how others work and the perspective they saw through their eyes. “Yes we shall be going if we want this assignment to be done as early as possible” She walked from her chair and down the few steps heading towards another part of homeworld.

The monarch hoped this would be an easy task to accomplish and that she tries to do everything perfect. She couldn’t manage to get yelled at by yellow and blue again. She felt confident in herself, she just can’t let herself slip.

“Having your own planet will be a lot of responsibility and a lot of work as well” Yellow stated, of course knowing what it took to run a colony from having been with her actual Diamond for as long as she had been. Which probably was another reason why this swap had been done in the first place. But she wasn’t just here to give more qualified help, but also to monitor how the young Diamond behaved while not around the others. 

Nodding as Pink said they would be going to get this done as soon as possible which was a good thing. Yellow did walk behind the Diamond but not by as much as some others would, her own Diamond cared more about the pearl keeping up with her then how far behind she was. She also was quite often picked up and carried, though Yellow hardly did so when there were eyes on them unless there was a good reason. 

Arriving at the pod station soon enough, the Peridots there of course saluting the Diamond before one of them, the leader of this whole operation, stepped forward. “Pink Diamond!” She greeted with enthusiasm that Yellow could spot as being played up. Not that she could blame the gem a Diamond visit could be quite exhausting on anyone especially if you were in charge of things and something went wrong. 

“What do I owe the honor?” the greed gem asked before looking over at the pearl, who she was more used to seeing then she was the Diamond. Yellow did want to answer knowing how things like this usually went, but well today wasn’t usually so she stayed quiet letting the Diamond handle this. It really shouldn’t be much trouble at all, if the gems here were even just borderline capable they would have already made sure everything was set up for the next launches. 

Lapis couldn’t disagree with the pearl’s observation about the actual empire not being ended. After all, a new era didn’t mean that their entire civilisation was now dismantled. However, that didn’t take away from the gems who strongly believed like Era III’s way of the empire was wrong. Lapis had to restrict plenty of gems who were angry and violent over the change of the era. 

“Well, that’s good to hear…” Lapis said, crossing her arms as she let a little bit of tension out of her shoulders. Now that the immediate fear she had felt had waned, she was curious as to what this diamond’s pearl was doing out in the woods on her own. 

The former terraformer stretched lazily and spoke out again, “So what are you even doing here?” 

Yellow had never been good with social interactions, but even she could tell that this was awkward for the both of them. Neither of them clearly thought they would met somebody else and well Lapis reaction to her also didn’t make things easier. Yellow understood it though the position she held, would make her a great candidate to hate all the changes. And well she did to a certain degree the Pearl just wasn’t very outspoken about it, partly since she in a way still had her old job, and she certainly wasn’t going mad like some others. 

Letting out a sigh when the other asked what she was doing here Yellow didn’t even know how to really answer that. “I just needed a break from homeworld, but I knew if I stayed near the school, somebody would try and rope me into doing or trying something out.” 

“So I thought I would just walk into the woods, find a quiet space and relax for a little before going back home when things hopefully calmed down” that was the best explanation she could muster that didn’t give too much away about what she was doing while on homeworld. 

YD Gem Steven moved to get his face out of the and spitting a mouthful of sand out, and blinking a bit to get it out of his eyes. He cleared his throat, and looked over. “Mmm yea, just being… clumsy.” He turned away to check his gemstone, since Yellow Pearl probably wouldn’t have wanted to see it. He paused, “Ok. I can’t see if my Gem is cracked… but I feel fine… so I think I’m ok…” He replied, covering it back up with his shirt.

“Oh...” Somehow that was not the answer she had expected, then again she hadn’t expected any of this to begin with. Yellow tilted her head when Steven turned away clearly checking on his gem not being sure why he would hide it from her. It wasn’t like she didn’t know what gem he had so it wouldn’t be shocking her. 

“I didn’t mean it in that way- I just.. I didn’t know if you would have received it well, is all. Maybe- Maybe you’ll enjoy taking a look at some of them when-”, Cinnabar almost finished, before feeling an unexpected zap of energy jump from Yellow’s hand to hers. She flinched at the sudden sensation, but didn’t let go fully.

“Ah- you’ve zapped me!”, Cinnabar says in a light hearted tone, attempting to ease the tense air she could feel had been forming between them. She chuckled softly as she felt her own nerves disperse, not making a big deal of the whole thing.

She had even been able to tell how tense Yellow was, in the fact that she seemed a little rigid and not as natural and flowy as someone who was relaxed might be.

They had been walking along the beach for quite a while. The Temple came into clear view and the boardwalk was not so far from it.

“I’m so sorry!” pulling her hand away now that Cinna had mentioned it, becoming a little panicked. Yellow knew her powers could act up when she felt strong emotions, at first it had only been when she got angry, but by now any strong emotions could make them act up. 

Opening her mouth to said something but clearly stopping herself from doing so, biting her lip instead. Part of her wanted to explain what had just happened but she couldn’t do it. What if Cinna hated her for having powers so closely related to Yellow Diamond? Even worse what if her learning about them led to the gem realizing that she was still quite close with said Diamond? 

No, no that wasn’t worth it, she didn’t want to lose Cinna but she also had no idea how to explain that shock. “I’m prone to giving people static shocks” that wasn’t a lie but it really wasn’t the truth either, this wasn’t just a natural build up that had jumped over and Yellow knew that. She knew what really happened and now was very aware that it could happen again, if she was unlucky it could even get worse. 

“Oh um yeah. It’s just me working on this project. Usually I have the other bismuths helping me but apparently they’re working on some construction for blue diamond.” If she had to guess sanctuary for some noble rare gems like sapphires. She had to agree with pearl here. Such beauties as this structure deserved to be enjoyed by gems who weren’t used to living in luxury. Gems who would appreciate it.

“But thank you! Hopefully your diamond will like it.” If she did she could avoid both a scolding from her and her manager. Who already gave her a hard time about her work. Something about taking too many artistic liberties with her designs.

“Right this way.” She said as she lead her into the next room. “This one is more experimental. This building is for more elite gems and what do elite gems have at their side? Pearls! So I thought why not design this room with pearls in mind?” She explained quite passionately.

The room served the same purpose. To be a place of lavish comfort but the decor took a pearls aesthetic into consideration. As well as display some painting of various pearls from around homeworld. She wouldn’t reveal she was the artist for now. First she wanted to see the pearl’s reaction. “What do you think? Oh and you could take a seat on the sofa if you’d like. You could test it out for me. Tell me how comfortable it is.”

Making a mental note of Bismuth working alone on this project, while it might not be important now it could be later. If Yellow Diamond liked the others work, it could lead her to move up quite a bit. The rulers always needed good builders and planners on hand and while it was not easy to impress them, the Pearl could see this very much being enough to do so. At least if the rest of the place continued to be this well done. 

“I think she will” Yellow mused, knowing better than to make a more telling statement. After all, there was a lot that could influence the Diamond’s opinion and not everything had to do with the gem or the building. An annoyed Diamond was hard to impress no matter how good your work was, if anyone knew that then it was their Pearls. 

Following along, still looking around, making sure that there was nothing she was overlooking. “You made a room for Pearls?” tilting her head a little as they walked in. Yellow knew she had to stay neutral, not give away how she and maybe by extension her Diamond felt on certain topics. Humming a little to keep herself from talking without thinking about it, the Pearl looking around the room. 

Taking the offer to sit down crossing her legs when she was relaxing a little “It’s quite nice” she finally said “both the couch and the room, you said this was experimental so I’m guessing this was not planned like this?” She wanted to say more but knew she really couldn’t. While a room for pearls might sound odd or wasteful to some elites, not all gems thought like that. She was sure most of the people that were against such things would be shocked to learn that a Diamond had something very similar for her Pearl. 

“Oh my stars.” She pretty much gasped out her words. “Yellow Diamond. A diamond sent you?” She spoke more to herself than the pearl in question. She was blown away and felt a tad more nervous about this visit. Feeling the pressure to impress one of their leaders. “That’s such an honor.” Hopefully she wouldn’t disappoint her. She was confident in her work but still this was a lot of pressure.

She did a quick bow. Not knowing how to act with this new nugget of information. Blushing a bit in embarrassment afterwards but she quickly cleared her throat to keep her composure. “Of course. I’d be happy to. If you’d just follow me?” She questioned. Leading the pearl into the building. “This is the main living quarters. Where elite gems such as sapphires and beryls will get to relax.” The marbling of the floor was rather beautiful especially with the color scheme. The room had many lavish and plush surfaces to rest on. As well as being stocked with gem literature.

Well that at least wasn’t a bad reaction, maybe things wouldn’t be too awkward though it was clear that Bismuth was now nervous. Understandably so, Yellow Diamond wasn’t known to hold back when something wasn’t to her standard. part of her wondered if that was the reason the ruler had begun sending her out of things like this, so she could point out things that had to be fixed before the Diamond had to waste her energy on it. 

“Lead the way” following the other inside Yellow had seen a lot of fancy places in her live, it came with the job so to speak. Still she knew that not everything had to be as it seemed and there could be flaws hidden being a shiny exterior. Though she struggled to see anything that could be wrong her eyes being drawn to the very elaborate flooring. 

The gem beamed in pride. She knew it looked good but hearing someone else agree made her that much more proud. “Thank you! I am pretty proud of it and I think my manager is gonna be quite impressed.” She spoke her hands rested firmly on her hips. “Is she the one that sent you?” The bismuth wouldn’t know she was yellow’s pearl unless the gem told her.

It’s not like she’d ever been around the diamonds. She wasn’t some rare aristocratic gem. She was just a simple construction worker. “Oh yeah no problem. Feel free to look around. I can even give you a tour if you’d prefer that. I know this building like the back of my hand.”

Oh, that was also surprising, usually people knew who she was...interesting. Yellow was almost tempted to not say who she actually belonged to just to see how she was treated. But since the other asked she couldn’t really say nothing and lying was not something the Pearl was fond of at all. “Not quite...” a little nervous chuckle coming from the lithe gem. 

It was a coin toss really how Bismuth would react, “I’m Yellow Diamond’s pearl, she sent me to look over this” that felt so awkward to say. It usually wasn’t but the other's friendly disposition towards her made her almost want to hide it thinking things would be way less pleasant now. 

“Oh hey there!” The bismuth greeted the pearl from all the way up on her ladder. Quickly hopping down once she caught the gem’s eyes on her. “Can I help you or did you come by just to catch a sight of my work of art?” Maybe she was a bit cocky but she took pride in her work in construction.

Yellow had a lot of different tasks entrusted to her, it hadn’t always been like that, the Pearl having been entrusted with more important things once she had proven to be a hard and reliable worker. Sure, some gems were less than please to have to make do with her instead of her Diamond, but she had gotten quite used to that as well. 

Which made the Bismuth reaction to her all the more surprising, it was rare for people to not at least be a little annoyed. Not that she would complain, this was a nice change “A bit of both” Yellow said, being more friendly than others might describe her as usually being. What those people failed to realize was that the Pearl often just replied in kind to people, so of course she wouldn’t be all nice and sweet to somebody that was being rude to her. 

The Diopside’s enthusiasm could be a bit too much for others.  Either by it simply being overwhleming to the other person or it made Black Star come off as annoying.  She still had to learn to realize when she needed to reel it in.  Of course Black Star was able to catch herself sometimes, but there were also times that black Star needed a direct request to ‘tone it down.

“Nope, I’ve never worried about that” answered Black Star simply with a few shakes of her head.  What Yellow said next confused her.  “Huh?  I don’t force myself” argues Black Star with a couple blinks.  “I just really love learning” explains the Diopside, stars forming in her pupils as if she were very excited about something.  “Don’t you like learning new stuff, Yellow?  Oh oh!  What about.. learning about something on Earth?”

It was cute seeing a gem being this excited to learn stuff, if all the Pearls and other gems she had taught over the years had been this enthusiastic Yellow’s live would have been much easier. Then again most people really didn’t like being told what to do by a Pearl even if she belonged to a Diamond, other Pearls were mostly fine though. 

Blinking a few times at his question, really not being used to being around somebody that had so much energy. Or well at leas not such a bouncy and friendly energy. “Well that depends I suppose, there are topics I enjoy learning about but also some that I do not” 

Today was the day pink had dreaded. It was the day her pearl would be swapped out with yellow’s pearl and she wasn’t too fond of it. She couldn’t get a word in as it wasn’t in her power to intervene with the decision making. Supposably this was all for her own good and she will never learn if she kept up her shenanigans. The monarch knew she was quite the handful and could never stay out of trouble even if she tried but she disliked all the strict rules and having to follow everything to a T.

Seeing yellow pearl arriving before her as she bowed she thought of any assignments she could accomplish but as of right now she had none in mind. Not a lot of responsibility was given to her quite yet, only one small task at a time was given. “As of right now no, I’m not given a lot to do quite yet” She placed her chin in the palm of her hand as she groaned of boredom scrolling through the screens looking for any tasks that would pop up. 

Finally something popped up from yellow as pink sat up in excitement “Ooh! I got one from yellow!” Pink started to read the order as she only groaned and slowly slumped out of her chair. “Well, we have to go check on the peridots and make sure they have all the pods up to maintenance and ready. They’re sending a few gems out to planets today” 

This was one of the things Yellow had been warned about, Pink wasn’t the most responsible, so she wasn’t given a lot of tasks. Which was one thing the other Diamonds hoped would improve now that she had a Pearl by her side that was better prepared to help out. If that meant that the young Diamond would be getting more tasks soon would remain to be seen, but the pale gem hoped she wouldn’t get too bored. 

Walking over to be by the taller gem's side, already resigning herself to being left taskless for long times. Thankfully it seemed that at least for a little but they would have something to do. Even if that something wasn’t thrilling in any way and normally a job a supervising Agate could handle but it was better than being idle she supposed. 

“Great! Shall we be off then?” while phrased as a question, Yellow was more stating a fact. They should get going so the pods could leave for their assigned missions. Being very much like her Diamond, who didn’t like wasting time trying to do things as efficient as possible. Though, the Pearl highly doubted that her stay here wouldn’t be as organized and planned out as what she was used to. 

If she was honest, that alone made the pale gem quite nervous, enjoying things to be planned and done in certain ways. Being very work focused and not the best at social things, Yellow worried that things could get awkward between her and Pink. Her not knowing what she could get away with also didn’t help her nerves, the very blunt Pearl feeling a lot less confident when separated from Yellow Diamond. 

Having of course noticed the other’s lack of enthusiasm, not that Yellow could blame her really, the smaller gem had an idea to maybe make this more interesting. “I know some new planets were scouted recently while we are already in the area, we could look at what the scouts found. I heard some of the planets were quite interesting”

YD Gem Steven looked toward the stars. He could agree with her not being good with her emotions considering the events of last year, but he wasn’t one to talk either, holding the trauma of his creation closer than the gem in his chest.

YD Gem Steven practically jumped to his feet excited to head into town regardless of how late it might have been the town still had some lights on, so they weren’t closed yet, and probably wouldn’t close the door on one of Earth’s saviors.

YD Gem Steven walked with Yellow Pearl showing her the places to eat, the places to get little novelty t-shirts, he was excitedly showing her the arcade explain that his favorite game was “Punch Buddy.” But was in disrepair since since he had taken some aggression out on them. YD Gem Steven continued walking before Mr. Smiley would kick them out since technically he was kinda banned for life, but sometimes Mr. Smiley didn’t remember all that well since well he’s over worked.

YD Gem Steven paused to figure out where that music was coming from only to hear that Yellow Pearl was humming? He smiled back seeing that she was doing a lot better than before, he might have been staring for a little longer than was normal, but he was just enjoying her humming as they walked, only for him to walk straight into a bench and slamming his face right into the sand.

While Yellow was far from being calm, she was doing better now, humming had always helped her not spiral. It gave the Pearl something to focus on without completely tuning things out around her. Normally only doing it when she was alone, but at times she started doing so without even noticing, especially when there was music playing. 

Surprisingly, the Pearl did enjoy being in town, even though she clearly wasn’t comfortable being in crowded places. Which was why she was glad when they started to walk away from town as it got later walking back towards the beach. By now Yellow was very aware that she was humming but didn’t want to stop, doing that was leagues better than letting her powers act up. 

Looking around as they walked until she heard Steven walking into something managing to just look to the side and see him face planting into the sand. “Steven!” rushing over to the other offering him a hand if he needed it. “Are you alright?” had she distracted him with her humming? She wondered, not being sure about that fact. 

Lapis’s reaction, she thought, wasn’t that unfounded. Despite the Diamonds being all for Era III because of their precious ‘Pink Diamond’ being back, Lapis knew that not all gems had been so welcoming to the idea. Especially those that were higher up on the food chain. Sure, a pearl was still a pearl at the end of the day, but anyone who was anyone knew that in gem hierarchy a Diamond’s pearl ranked higher than plenty of elites. 

Maybe it was silly for her to be on guard. She’d been around a lot of gems lately that she once would have called enemies, and some even lashed out when Steven wasn’t around. Little Homeschool might have been great for tearing down the monarchy and whatnot, but some gems hadn’t adjusted too easily. Getting herself involved with those said gems probably caused her caution as well; Steven had asked her to recount a little of her experience of becoming a Crystal Gem in an attempt to warm some of the more hesitant gems… Which led to her often dealing with conflict and resistance to the change of the Era. 

Letting out a small breath of relief at the words of the other, Lapis still didn’t completely relax. “I could think of a few reasons… Anyway. If you’re not one of the rogue gems that think they can ‘rebuild’ the Empire, then… I’m okay.” 

People had reacted to her in many different ways over the years, but people being scared of her was rare, and it had never happened when she was fully alone. Gems had been scared to see her since Yellow was known to never be too far away from her Diamond, but as soon as they realized that she was alone people usually calmed down. 

Anonymous:Question for the mun

Do you ever think the gems look too human-like

That’s an interesting question anon, and I actually went and looked through the wiki just to refresh my memory a bit on what kind of gem designs we saw. Now that I have my answer to this is no, I don’t think gems look too human like. 

It of course makes sense for the show to make the gems look human adjacent in a way. Even if it doesn’t make the most logical sense that an alien race would share so many similarities with humans. Though gems could just be the exception here and other aliens look more odd.  But it also doesn’t make sense that they all speak earth language (even though I actually have a HC/theory on that but that’s not for now) 

I think gems look alien enough to get the point across while not getting to obscure with their designs. There is also really no limit to what gems could look like since they bodies are made out of light and we know corruption can make them look different as well. 

Serving a Diamond was the most prestigious position a Pearl could ever hold, they were still Pearl’s of course, but they were given certain perks that others didn’t receive. They also had not the easiest of jobs, but people only seemed to focus on the former. Which was one of the reasons most Pearls would be thrilled if they were to be assigned to a Diamond. 

Yellow was one of the few who was the opposite of thrilled when she learned about being assigned to Pink Diamond. Granted her being a Diamond’s Pearl already for one gave her more insight on what this swap would entail and she instead of moving up in homeworlds system stayed the same or even got moved down a bit. 

Of course none of this was ever said out loud by Yellow not questioning the order at all, though she did hope that this would be temporary. The youngest Diamond wasn’t anything like her own, which didn’t make them the most compatible. Then again, the whole purpose of this seemed to be that she might be able to keep the Pink gem out of trouble.