EVENT: The Homeworld Ball: Master Thread

[White Beryl]

As the Diamonds revealed themselves and sat down on their thrones, Radiant was standing at the periphery of the group sworn to White Diamond. Although seeing his elegant Diamond in all her authority made him proud of his position in the order of Homeworld, and although the beginning of her announcement concerning the rebellion allowed him a feeling of superiority, the ceremony as a whole made him feel annoyed. That is until White Diamond spoke about rebellious gems potentially having infiltrated the ball. The anxiety over his research failures did not disappear for him, but it was pushed aside. Now things could get interesting.

He could never really get used to the notes and rhythms used in most of Homeworld's music. Human music seemed much more well-structured and more elegant to him, at least some of it. The music playing during the ball was to him as awkward as his attempts to dance, and he kept as much to the wall as possible so that he could hide as best as he could. He slid to the sides, slipped on the crystal-clean floor and pushed down a pearl with him. Instantly he stood up and pulled the pearl up with him, trying to act as if his mistake never happened. He examined the gem he had accidentally bumped. She was a black peal, belonging to White Diamond like him, as her insignia indicated. Besides her, there was a Carnelian, probably her owner, Radiant thought. "I am, uh, terribly sorry", the White Beryl said before heading to one of the balconies, trying to leave the two. How embarrassing. This was all one giant disaster. The only thing he wanted now was for the ball to end as fast as possible so he could return to his station on Earth.

[~Panzerschurke~]

“Well then, with that, let the Ball begin”

Carbide heard the words echo through the halls and out to the entrance of the grand hall. There was no mistaking the stark, clarion tones of White Diamond's voice. Despite the stalwart disposition of the heavy scout, the voice that echoed through the air gave her a bit of pause, a shiver running up and down her back, pausing to tickle eerily in the corners of her gem. "Don't worry Fulgur, I am not going to be one to hide behind a pile of boxes for this whole event.  I'm not looking to increase CG/HW hostilities, but if I can find out some information that can be used to keep things from escalating, then I am on board."

Ironically enough, her voice DID drift out from where she was momentarily concealed behind some crates, as a soft magical glow faded out, and she emerged with her appearance modifiers rather modified indeed.  Gone were her usual tank top and pants duds, and instead the tall femme was adorned in a elegant but daring split legged ball gown, that was a mix of blues, mauve and iridescence sequin patterns that coiled like fire up one side of the dress.  "So how do I look, Fulgur?"

It had been a long time, no make it a really long time since the heavy scout had set foot on Home World, the cloven planet, throne world of the Gem Empire, ruled by the diamonds three. Being home evoked a mix of strange feelings. Some of them generated a sense of ease and familiarity within the gem, and others made her fretful and anxious, like she was being closed in on all sides.

Lightly slapping her cheeks with both hands simultaneously a few times, then shaking her hands in the air, she collected herself and let out a huff... "Okay, I think I am ready, I can do this.  So Fulgur, Do we just, you know, walk in the front door then and take our place in the crowd?  You and your friends seemed to be the ones with the plans after all"

Under her visor, now aesthetically modified to appear less utilitarian, and more like a mauve candy-glass opera mask, her dark marble orbs peered up at the endless spires that rose up about them and seemed to tickle the underbelly of space at their tips.  It was strange, after so long on her own, and then on earth around humans, being surrounded entirely by her own kind was a strange sensation, even though finding another of her exact type might very well be an impossibility. Such is the life of a gem prototype it would seem.

[Light]

Light flinched when he felt the metal hand on his shoulder. He looked behind him to realize that the hand belonged to the familiar face, Fulgurite. It was still hard to get used to the fact he was a combination of a gem and a machine. But he was glad that Fulgurite was there to comfort him and the rest of the group. 

The gem noded. "Yes, exactly! Now let's go-..." He started to move forward before stopping and talking a step back. "I mean... you go! Yes, go ahead. I am right behind you so I can cover you." It wasn't anything new, he knew he could do it. While being on Earth he noticed he started to become more vocal,chatty and now he had to suppress this. Silence... so annoying, but he was doing all of this for Earth.

After chatting a bit the group finally continued on their way to the ball. While they went, nothing particular happened, but they could notice more and more different gems arriving as well. Soon they were all in a line and the Topaz guards were inspecting everyone and each newcomer. Light felt extremely stressed after seeing them, but there was no need to. One Topaz in particular glared at Fulgurite and his mechanical parts, but after seeing that there is a Sapphire among the group they just put their weapons away from the door and thus letting them in.

Pearl had never been inside the palace, it was... magnificent form the artistic point of view. However, he couldn't really think about the art at the time. He also noticed that there were some Pearls present which just brought back bad memories. He would perhaps chat with them later and see what he can learn.

Soon he heard a chord of the Diamonds. He couldn't help, but quickly turn back in the direction to the entrance with a terrified look on his face. There was Pink Diamond's Pearl announcing her Diamond. Light cringed when he saw her, she was acting like a mindless drone... not like his hero, the great renegade Pearl. And then there was she, their greatest enemy, the merciless, but also cowardly Pink Diamond. Light heard from Chip that she was acting "nice", but he knew that it must have been some sort of act, play, not her true colors. She was... big, he had never seen such a giant gem in person before. There was maybe only one gem fusion he saw at one point that matched her height. Suddenly he started to feel as if he was losing all his strength. Just looking at her could make a simple and common gem like him feel tiny, pitiful. And there were also all of those other gems who saluted for her. He forced himself to salute as well, but it took him some time to do so.

Then it was time for Blue and Yellow Diamond to appear as well. His fear naturally didn't go away, it only got worse. But he just managed to remain in one place with his hands creating a diamond salute. But he did lower his head to the ground, hoping that it would help him comprehend all of this.

He raised his head, he was sure that was it. How wrong he was, at the entrance stood the terrifying Pearl that belonged to White Diamond. He thought she was just a legend, an old tale that was used to scare new Pearls to behave properly.  But there she was, announcing the arrival of...oh no.

The bright light soon appeared and blinded him. Pearl tried to cover his eyes with his hands, but he soon took them away to see his Diamond. Never in his life did he expect to be in the same room with her. At one point maybe he would feel honored to see her, but not anymore. This blinding light, this elegance, this power, White Diamond was a walking example of "Perfection" that nobody could ever achieve.

He could feel his legs shaking as she spoke. Did she... did she know about them being here? He got a little bit closer to his group and tried to just tried to avoid looking at her directly. What she was saying just made him boil up inside. When she finally took a sit, Light had a hard time staying quiet "I can't believe it, she is actually here..."

[Melody]

The familiar sound, the chord everyone knows, the Diamond chord. Melody turned to the source of the sound and made her Diamond salute. She took the last glance at her form to make sure everything looked proper.



Soon she saw the familiar figure, Pink Diamond's Pearl. Pink Diamond said it herself once, she was a perfect Pearl, Melody took it literally and believed she must be a true role model for all Pearls. It was one of the reasons why she wanted to change her attire for the ball. Her Pearl always looked elegant despite her simple-default settings. Her Diamond was so loving, she saw beauty in such simple things. Cream as well tried to come up with something modest, but pretty. It felt good- She felt good.



It was hard not to smile when her Diamond entered the hall. Magnificent as always, she watched in awe the flames she created while moving forward. She could watch her Diamond like this all day. She felt proud to belong to her court.



Blue and Yellow Diamond had perfect entrances as well, obviously. But they weren't her Diamond, not her savior. And She still remembered the first time she saw Yellow Diamond. Of course, she would never dare to speak out, but she naturally felt more attached to her own Diamond. 


Blue Diamond lowered her hood and fully revealed her face and hair. She was... beautiful, she didn't know why would she cover her face like that. But in a way she kind of understood. She was like a closed book, a true politician, putting her emotions aside, staying calm like a stream of river for the sake of her gems.



After Yellow Diamond's arrival she was about to say something to Euclase before hearing the Diamond chord again. Surely it couldn't be a mistake, but there was only one explanation. White Diamond was about to appear. Sure enough, her Pearl appeared to announce her. Melody felt dizzy just by looking at her. Unintentionally she placed her hand on her own left eye. She asked herself, what happened to her? How could this be real? Is this a perfection White Diamond expected from her Pearl. And her voice, Cream felt terrified just by thinking about the way her voice reverberated through the room.
She heard about her before, but that doesn't mean she believed those stories. She never wanted to believe that a Diamond would do this to her own Pearl. But perhaps it was just a stylistic choice, it had to be.


She saluted once again and bowed, this time not just due to the respect, but also because of the light that White Diamond was emitting when she appeared. When the light started to fade she finally looked up. It seemed all like a strange vision, never in her life did she expect to see White Diamond in person. She thought is is a good thing that she wasn't present during the conference on the moon, she wouldn't menage to say anything with her around.

She couldn't hear anything her Diamond or White Diamond were saying, she was simply too far away. But what she did notice was a strange look her Diamond made. She looked uncomfortable... it was none of her business of course, but she couldn't help, but worry about her.

And then there was White Diamond's speech. She felt a small sensation that went through her form. Was she nervous? She wasn't a rebel, she wasn't defective... That is what she hoped was the case anyway. She was about to speak out to Euclase, but she noticed that she was starring open-mouthed during all of this. She quickly corrected herself  "Pardon me."The music started to play. She wondered that maybe if their circumstances were different, she would talk with this gem responsible of playing music and learn some new tunes from her. She looked at Euclase again "Would you like me to dance for you?"She figured that Euclase was just as tensed as she was and that maybe a little dance would help. A reassuring, but fake smile rested on her face.

[Chip the Fire Opal]

Chip knew this will be basically torture, but it was even worse. So dull... dull dull dull dull dull. He wasn't a dancer but a warrior! Why did Pink ask him to come? Of course, he couldn't refuse. And so he was watching as the Diamonds entered. He was happy to see Pink of course. Yellow was fairly impressive he had to admit that. Blue? He wasn't a fan of Blue since she wanted to get rid of him just because he was different and that was difficult to stomach. Then White appeared she was... difficult to describe. Certainly quite impressive. And also smart as it was fairly obvious that there were some Crystal gems in this area. They would be stupid not to come... after all this was a wealth of information! He looked around but so far he didn't see anyone he knew.
He suspected it was just a matter of time before he would notice Light or Sapphire or someone else...

[Euclase]

Euclase had begun to open her mouth as she turned to her Pearl intending to respond to her question about doing something in the meantime, of course this whole ball thing was new to her, while some smaller scale celebrations had been done on the Moonbase for events, The first batch of 100 gems on Pinks Colony, The completion of the first gem structure on Sigma 1 and so on, there had never been anything of this scale or size that she had seen before. Regardless she hardly knew what to even do while they were waiting; mingling seemed like such a daunting task with such a huge amount of unfamiliar gems, before she could speak though she was cut off by the tune of the Diamond note.

Naturally the first in attendance was of course the prestigious Diamond who presented the event in the first place, like the others Euclase saluted as Pink Diamond, and her always familiar Pearl entered the ball. Having a Pearl by her side now had made her appreciate them much more, the companionship, the dependability, and of course the relief of having someone who was surprising immune to getting involved in the quartz's shenanigans, at least for now. She chuckled to herself quietly about the last point as she spared a tiny glance and smile at Melody beside her.

With Pink now present Euclase assumed it would not be long before the other two Diamonds were in attendance and after a few moments her assumption was confirmed, with the second note playing and the Blue Pearl entering the archway to announce the present of her Diamond, Blue Diamond entered with all the regality her court and herself tended to carry, dare Euclase even say that’s Blue court could be a bit pompous at times due to this thematic of nobility they tended to maintain. Despite this Euclase still had quite the respect for Blue Diamond, while Pink Diamond shall always and forever be her Diamond, her creation was still a project between both of them and would not have happened without both their resources. Euclase like a few others was surprised when Blue removed her hood to reveal her face, it was a uncommon sight certainly and while she had seen with her hood down when she was speaking to Pink on the Moonbase in private, but she still did not expect her to reveal her face in public like this.

That only left the third Diamond, Yellow, who true to her punctual nature showed up almost immediately after Blue Diamond, her Pearl had slinked through the doorway and clearing her throat in a way that made it very clear she did not even need to do that, she announced the presence of her Diamond. Like the other she did a small flourish and display of her power, Euclase wondered if being hit by those sparkles would have had the same effect of being hit by her destabilization.

With the Diamonds in attendance Euclase began to turn towards Melody again but was once again forced to turn back when the lights flickered, initially Euclase thought there was an attack, without thinking she had moved her hand up to her gemstone, her gem glowing slightly as she intended to summon her weapon, but as she saw the glint of White in the archway she realised what this was, and a small part of her wished that it was an attack instead. Euclase raised her arms up in the Diamond Salute again and looked forward. Like the other she was forced to close her eyes as the blinding light erupted over everything, where it resided now stood the final Diamond, White Diamond, Euclase let out a tiny shiver as she saw her, somehow it person she was more terrifying then everything she had seen on screens, she tried to maintain her composure as the Diamond walked past up to her throne, it seemed Pink and White were talking about something, something Pink seemed to not be too thrilled about. Euclase wonder if perhaps Pink Diamond shared the same discomfort Euclase had for White. Regardless she tried to ignore her nerves as White addressed the rest of the Ball with her message. For a moment Euclase had to wonder wether White was correct, everything else Euclase thought would seem to go against the idea that rebels would EVER attend this ball, it would be such a high risk venture for what was a likely low reward, and perhaps Euclase was right and White Diamond was doing this to simply fuel paranoia and vigilance, or perhaps White really did know something about rebels being present, but still, it seemed so, illogical.

Euclase was so deep in her own thoughts she almost didn’t hear Pearl, shaking herself out of her cycle of questioning and paranoia in her mind she turned back to Melody, the other Diamonds were all here, including their Diamond, nothing was going to happen.
“My, my, Singing and Dancing, what other talents have you been hiding from me?” She jested with her own smile “I must say I have hardly seen traditional dancing before, well apart from the normal Jades” She said glancing over at the groups of Purple and Orange jades that were twirling around with their geometric dresses “It would be wonderful to see, but don’t feel forced to dance just for me.” She added.