Loyalty and Determination
Garnet admires steadfast loyalty when she sees it. Mostly, though, she admires determination.
That’s immediately what comes to mind when she meets Pearl for the first time. Loyalty and determination. They are, she thinks, Pearl’s most defining characteristics.
She wasn’t there when Rose met Pearl—rescued her from mandated destruction due to a superficial defect, rather—but ever since, Pearl has always been with Rose.
She starts off demure, always biting her tongue. When Rose asks Pearl for an opinion, Pearl nearly chokes on air. “Ma’am, pearls don’t have opinions,” she used to reply, voice faint. “We just do what we’re told.”
Pearls have a Mohs of four at the very highest. Sapphire and Ruby, both nines, took a reduction in hardness to become Garnet’s seven, but even old Containment Unit inmates like them will never know what it’s like to be a caste that low. What must it be like, to have your individuality systematically leeched from you like that?
“Of course you have opinions,” Rose would say crisply. “You’re just really good at hiding them. Now, my Pearl, tell me what you think.”
With Rose’s constant and systematic encouragement, Pearl sheds her pallid demeanor. She can plug into all of their tech, which Rose finds useful when she needs to flick through records in a hurry. When Pearl reveals her talent for organization and fact keeping, Rose immediately asks for her help with administrative tasks. Her remarkable memory and attention to detail inspires Rose to bring her to every important meeting, just in case she herself misses something. Pearl’s interactive holograms of people and places inspire Rose to build an entire room of pink clouds that can do much the same thing—just to test out the possibilities.
Rose shows Pearl how to conjure her spear out of abstractions of light and pure energy, and for the first time Pearl’s ballet—a programmable feature that allows pearls to provide entertainment for their masters—realizes its full potential. It’s hard work, but Pearl plods on with bovine determination to conquer her own fear of herself. Sword fighting is yet to come, but they aren’t in a war against their own people yet, either, so that’s only to be expected.
Soon, Pearl is always with Rose for another reason entirely, and ‘my Pearl’ takes on a whole new timbre. With her newfound voice and confidence, Pearl proclaims that she doesn’t give a damn who was Rose’s friend first, or who was close to her before—you either needed to adjust to Pearl, or Pearl would find some way to phase you out. It isn’t a secret from anyone, except maybe Rose.
What’s more, is Pearl’s good at it. She has been unlocked—unleashed—and only her own imagination can hold her back now. For someone who didn’t know they could be powerful or influential, this is downright intoxicating.
Rose Quartz has taught Pearl to be strong, and Pearl’s loyalty to Rose bids her show off her strength with the wholehearted determination that is born from wanting to please, always.
Garnet watches all of this without saying a word. Pearl will calm down eventually, though it may take Rose lashing out to make it happen. Still, she can’t help but admire Pearl’s drive. She doesn’t think she has ever met a gem quite like this.
“You never take off those mirrored glasses,” Pearl says to her one day. Rose is still around, albeit just out of earshot. “What are you looking at? What are you hiding? I don’t think I trust you.”
“Pity,” Garnet replies.
“Rose doesn’t see like I do. I see everything.”
“Well, that’s a coincidence,” Garnet says. She moves her glasses just enough for Pearl to see her third eye blink. “So do I.”
She’s being a little snarky, she knows—but there again, Pearl’s being a little annoying.
Pearl actually pales. It seems Rose neglected to mention the fact that Garnet is a fusion to her pearl—either that, or the implication actually does intimidate her.
“I, uh—has that always…?” No, it seems that Pearl really hadn’t known about the third eye. As Garnet’s pretty sure that means Rose left that little factoid out for Garnet herself to reveal when she was ready. Classic Rose, that. It’s one of those nice touches that makes Garnet glad they're friends.
“Maybe you should talk to someone before you decide you don’t like them,” Garnet tells Pearl before pushing her glasses back up her nose and taking her leave.
Pearl is far more polite to her after that (and less obvious about pushing others away from Rose, if she does it at all). A little intimidated by Garnet’s size and aura, perhaps, but nonetheless polite. She’s driven to be so, and it’s obvious because everything she says and does is plainly forced, but over time it gets easier because Garnet makes a point of not picking on her, either.
Loyalty and friendship are not one way streets. Garnet can’t forget that.
The first time Pearl makes Garnet laugh—her remark about a particular human is just so unexpectedly sarcastic, Garnet can’t help it—she flushes bright blue, but she’s smiling like this is something she’s proud of.
“You don’t laugh very often,” Pearl observes.
“No,” Garnet admits. “But you don’t joke very often, either.”
Truth be told, levity is probably something they can both work on.
“Actually, I didn’t mean for what I just said to be a joke.”
“I know. That’s why it was funny.”
Pearl is confused, but she shakes it off anyway. Her demeanor changes, becomes more solemn. “Listen, Garnet, I’ve been pretty rude to you in the past, and—that wasn’t right. I know it wasn’t. Just because I’m no longer required to be polite to anyone doesn’t mean I shouldn’t do it anyway. I’m still trying to strike the right balance between courtesy and independence. I-I’m sorry you got caught in the crossfire.”
“It’s all right. A lot has been changing for you recently.” Garnet smiles and puts a companionable hand on Pearl’s shoulder. “But you’ll figure it out. I know it.”
Pearl’s jaw goes slack, but only for a moment. “Thank you,” she says, and while Garnet can tell she means it her voice is stunned and faint. She lets out a small laugh. “It’s funny, I—I don’t really know what to do, when it’s not Rose believing in me.”
Garnet squeezes the other gem’s skinny shoulder before letting her hand fall. “Well, you had better figure something out, because I’m not the only one,” she says.
Pearl blinks, starts to laugh it off, but then she realizes that Garnet is not joking. “Really? You think so?”
“Know so,” says Garnet. “Look for it next time, and you’ll see it too.”
Pearl smiles, and for the first time, it actually starts to feel like they’re friends.
Pearl will always be Rose’s before anything else. Garnet was sure of that five thousand years ago, and she’s even more convinced of it now. Rose, whether she realized it or not, was an integral part of helping Pearl reinvent herself. Pearl’s most defining traits will forever be tainted pink, but that does not make her dedication to her friends and family any less real. Once Pearl decides you are worthy of her devotion, she will stay her course with the kind of resolve that Garnet can’t help but respect. Sometimes her belief in you is all there is left for you to grasp on to, and that’s far more powerful than it sounds. All truth told, she’s glad they’re on the same side.