As a pearl gem, she was considering being replaced. She was failing to please her diamond. Falling to inspire the pink gem to happiness. Instead, she was now standing uselessly by her side watching as the monarch was laying on the floor. Her face on the floor. Small pebbles ever so often climbing onto her hair and back before getting bored and sliding off as their Pink was being boring. They were not the only one complaining.
Pink diamond herself was complaining about being bored, about not finding any reason worth trying for. Pearl tried, yet all the reason she provided to her diamond, were concluded not being worth to move for... It worried Pearl.
"I could sing for you?" she offered.
"No." Her diamond responded, as she already heard all the songs Pearl sung.
"I could dance for you?" she offered.
"No." Her diamond responded, as she already saw all the dances Pearl danced.
"I could draw for you?" she offered.
"No." Her diamond responded, as she already had all the art of things Pearl draw.
"I could play a game with you?" she offered.
"No." Her diamond responded, as they already played all the games Pearl knew.
"I could watch you juggle?" she offered.
"No." Her diamond responded, as she already juggled with everything in the room for Pearl to see.
Failing.
"I could read the newest report from Yellow diamond for you? "she offered.
Her diamond didn't respond with anything but a grunt, as it was not a 'no', Pearl counted it as a yes.
She started to read it aloud. Her diamond shifted on the floor to look up at her. Now only half a face on the floor.
An unknown reason has caused a malfunction in the injectors, causing a serious postponing of the beta kindergarten. On the happy side, the gems in the prime kindergarten are set to emerge in a few cycles.
"Ugh!" Pink sat up. Suddenly, and without warning, bursting with movement. Pear stopped reading.
"Can you imagine something interesting or mysterious actually happening here?" Pink said sounding interested for once. Pearl grasped onto it.
"I could imagine it for you!" She offered hopefully.
A disappointed sigh left her diamond.
It wasn't exactly a no, though the disappointed may have been worse. She displeased her.
Pearl's eyes roamed the room, trying to imagine something to fix the disappointment she caused. Something anything...
Mysterious…
Interesting…
Like something unknown...
Except...
She didn't know anything mysterious.
How was she to know anything unknown?
A few seconds passed, a shift of fabric as Pink diamond went to lay back on the floor, looking so...empty. Rolling now to blankly stare at the ceiling. Resembling more a pearl waiting for their master than a master.
Imagine, something anything. She had to. There had to be something she could do. It was unacceptable to look at her and see her like that. Pearl's eyes settled on the mirrors in the room. The mirrors they used to adjust Pink clothes to perfection... She saw herself in it.
"A pearl..."
A hum of her diamond and Pearl jumped slightly.
"I could tell you about a mysterious pearl?" She offered.
"Like a report?" Her diamond responded.
"... An imagined report?" She offered.
Her diamond perked up, giving her a chance from the floor where she kept on laying.
Pink was trying not to be falling to boredom. Pearl had to help her with this task. That what pearls are for, a diamonds pearl especially. She read countless reports, she could just try to ...to mix a few with problems and somehow shove a mysterious pearl in it... Closing her eyes she tried to focus.
There was a malfunction on a starship. Unknown cause. It will delay the delivery of... the batch of injector replacement... mysterious pearl seen...
to the nearly completed colony.
There she did it. She made a new report taking parts from existing and throw a mysterious pearl in it... She opened her eyes, to see Pink eyes all but be a few inches away from her face.
"Erm.." Pearl offered, thinking she was no longer just failing but probably getting shattered.
"Why did the mysterious pearl cause the malfunction on the starship?"
Pearl blinked. She had no idea, why ... but Pink diamond looked so happy... and the way she put the reports together... it could be ... interpreted as that… the mysterious pearl causing it...
But that didn't help her with the why portion. Should she try to say something from a report..but would it make sense? Should it make sense?
"Mystery?" She said aloud, nearly starting to dislike the word, not that it mattered what she disliked, as long as it pleased Pink diamond. It did please her.
That was not yet the end.
"How does the mysterious pearl look like?"
"Its a mystery?"
"Give me at least two or three hints!" Well look at that, her diamond just gave her an order after several cycles.
Finally!
But she didn't know!
She couldn't disappoint. Not when this was the first order in a while. She had to fulfil it somehow.
Her eyes briefly wandered to the mirror and her own reflection.
"Well... the pearl has her gem on the forehead, two bright eyes...and... no one knows how she looks?"
Three things, she felt proud she did the order exactly as asked.
"Why does no one know?"
"Ugh..." This was proving to be a challenge. She had to come up with something. She didn't know how to. Her diamond provided the answer for her.
"Is it because she hides her face."
Huh? That was not a question and the words Yes, my diamond slipped from her lips before she even caught up with their meaning. Hiding their face... that wasn't all that bad actually... She could see it, it was logical. She could see her own reflection hiding her appearance, all but her gem…
"Ooh! I wonder how the face is hidden." Pink diamond wondered aloud.
"And body." She offered.
"Yes?" Her diamond responded with eyes intrigued because Pearl made a projection of the mysterious Pearl, dressed in black, only her white pearl and two white eyes visible in the black silhouette. That the silhouette had exactly her haircut was luckily overlooked. Mercifully ignored.
"That is amazing Pearl! Tell me more about her! What does she do?"
A wide smile.
Finally...
She managed to make her happy.
"My diamond, you asked me to remind you about extraction chamber as the last few appointments have been cancelled." She offered.
Her diamond took a moment to think and finally she did not cancel the extraction session.
"But afterwards you are to tell me more about the mysterious pearl and what she does!" The diamond jumped up, her movements still a bit sluggish.
It still was better than having the pink gem just waste herself away on the floor.
The extraction time was important to Pearl as well.
It provided the time she needed to combine countless reports from the archive into new reports she could say the mysterious pearl was involved with.