Pink Is Such An Ugly Color

C34: Colonial Holdings Review

Context: Big bold letters are the hidden letters I occasionally sprinkle in the chapters on QQ. The ones you would normally have to select with your mouse to read properly. Just so y'all are not confused abt it

Time passes rapidly fast when you are immortal. Years turn into minutes, decades turn into hours, centuries into months, and millenniums turn into years. And as the years have passed things have been changing. Our technology grew, we expanded, we learnt. Yet, all of that progress wasn’t undocumented, unregistered, or even unmanaged. Every Gem’s discovery was noted down and shared into the Database archive. From the most trivial of knowledge, to the most useful information could be found in it.

Yet, there were only a select few trusted into accessing and inputting all of this information into the Database’s databanks. I was not one of these Gems. No, I was a simple reviewer. At least, for today, as I have to review my Diamond’s colonial holdings and report their progress and state. 

With her busy investigating Gems, and her frequent visits to Homeworld such duties befall me. Normally, this would’ve been handed to a Garnet, like Ochre Hessonite or Frost Grossular. Sadly, my Diamond still seems to not be too much trusting of them. And so, she offloaded the duty onto me, to keep me… Distracted from her investigations. She’s really adamant that she has to do it alone, and while it was admirable to finally see my Diamond take something seriously… It was only to her detriment, and to our shame, for her to not depend on us. 

To let us help her as we were made to do. But qualms about such things must be ignored. For I now have to review my ex-colonial holdings, of which were left in charge of Frost Grossular. Maybe some time down the line, I’ll be told to review our military holdings. But for now, I only had to review and investigate our colonies status.

Make sure that our plans were progressing at a steady pace. Or as steady as they could be, Pinkara is still behind schedule despite our best efforts to fix that. I really questioned how in the Diamond’s name we managed to lost so much equipment and resources down in that planet. It was like a hungry black hole! We lost a whole container of Diamond Essence down there! Diamond Essence! I had to shatter thousands of Gems for being somehow capable of losing Diamond Esseence! Bloody absurd. That planet is cursed, I swear.

But besides those… setbacks in furthering the colonization of Pinkara most of the actual structures we have built are up to code. Even if some of them were slowly becoming outdated due to new technology being rolled in. A large chunk of the planet has been thankfully mined, and after I conscripted about five thousand Peridots to study the tectonic plates of Pinkara, we have also confirmed that it won’t have any seismic activity in a long while. 

A few gigaanums, to be specific. Which by that point the planet should be hollowed out, and such worries would be ones of the past. But besides the large chunk of what I think used to be russia was mined out… Such operations have been put on halt. I wasn’t sure of why, besides my Diamond saying that she needed to process all the resources we had mined from that section of the planet. Which… Sounded wrong. But I couldn’t exactly say that. So, besides Russia now missing a gigantic chunk of itself, the geography of Pinkara is still somewhat similar to what Earth used to be.

That is if you counted a large chunk of Africa being moved to South America. Alongside what I think is Australia being a lot more… flooded than I remembered it being. India was also cut into two, though that was mostly due to us mining a canal to facilitate the transportation of resources. An old project implemented due to the Warp Pads being few in the early stages of the colony. And they still are, mostly being restricted as well so that high-rank personnel could move around quickly.

Still, didn’t mean the lower caste was stuck by foot. Ships, this time being naval, were used frequently to move Gems around Pinkara. This would’ve been a problem if we wanted to speed up the colonization of Pinkara but… Well, Pinkara has always slugged behind compared to Rubesco or Grameen. And talking about those two systems, I really ought to go and check them out.

Grameen was still under my control, so I’m aware of most of the ongoing projects and changes. Both building projects and biological ones. The Grameen fascinated my Peridots for some reason, and they did provide interesting results. Especially for potential bio organic weapons.

Project ‘’Esser’’ showed high potential in being a planet killer class weapon. Being practically a… super collection of roots focused on the complete and total mineral extraction of planets. It would slowly kill off the local fauna and flora, and in a few days to weeks would make it so the planet would be incapable of sustaining life, as the ground becomes infertile. Or, well, that’s the plan. Project ‘’Esser’’ though, has shown nothing yet. Besides consuming minerals from the earth a tad quicker than other flora in the planet. Still, it had potential. And so it was still being worked on. The fact it was so cheap to research it, was also one of the major reasons it was still being researched.

Differently from Project ‘’Tappaja’’. Tappaja is a local word from the Grameen people, it means Killer. This is, or well, was, practically a super-soldier program. Focused on turning the Grameen people into Bio Organic Weapons of mass destruction. Instead, it has proven to be an… Utter failure in that regard. The test subjects would all turn into females, large, fat, and just relaxed females that would do nothing but take care of other tribe members, and give birth to thrice as many of them. A super-weapon turned practically into a broodmother served no purpose. Though my Diamond was quite happy about the big and chubby mothers, she event spent a whole week intermingling with the people. A whole week! It was absurd, but her time wasn’t… Completely wasted.

The Grameen People see my Diamond as a Goddess, just like they see us as Goddesses as well. Or, well, Demi-gods as the Peridots explained we came from the Diamonds, and we lived to serve them. The Peridots, though, had explained that we were more like a ‘’family’’ so that the Grameen People could understand. Which was a cute affair, as they threw us birthdays. Yes, birthdays. Apparently they had such a custom, and they were quite… Energetic.

Grameen are just as soft, and tight as I thought they would be. Still, sleeping with such species wasn’t something I… liked that much. It was a novel experience, don’t get me wrong. And I’ll probably engage in it again, but I really don’t think they can beat a Gem in such an area. Spinel was… an experience when we didn’t fuse to fuck Apricot. And Apricot was… a nice soft experience compared to the one I usually have with Spinel. The Grameen really depended if I used the herms, or the females. Both were really varied though. Still, that’s enough about my sexual relationships with my Gems, and organics.

Something I… Haven’t really been paying attention has been caught up to me. And that is my age. I was… I was four thousand years old. Four thousand years… It really didn’t feel like that. But it checked out. Granted, if we adjusted to Pinkara’s rotation it was more like three thousand and nine hundred and ten. But we didn’t use Pinkara, but Homeworld to keep track of time. So, I was four thousand years old. It was an achievement to grow so old. Especially since there were very few Gems that were thousands of years old. Or, well, not really. There are thousands of such Gems back in Homeworld, especially Noble Gems and High-ranking Gems. But it was still an achievement worthy of note.

Even if it made me feel… old. I have certainly… changed in a few ways throughout the years. Yet, I was still me. Just more. Wiser, experienced, knowledable. And daring. I wonder if I would ever reach a million years? Only our Diamonds are that old. With White Diamond being rumored to be maybe billions of years old. Or at least approaching a billion years. We didn’t exactly have any records to when she was made and we couldn’t… Exactly ask that without getting shattered. It was a very sore topic. Our origins weren’t something we thought much about. We came from the Diamonds, through their essence, and that was it. But who made our Diamonds?

Were they naturally formed from Stars? Born from them? Or were they injected into them, with their own special Injector to incubate and give birth to a Diamond?

We were made to achieve Immortality. A failed attempt. One that turned against it’s creators after millenia of protecting them. Their organic weakness, did not stop Her. Should we really know this information? We all come from her, one way or another. Her memories are her own, but that does not mean she doesn’t project them in her restful stasis. Our oldest deserves her rest, but her domain of the mind does not stop her from projecting those memories into the cosmos. Unseen by anything, but us. A Diamond can only reach another Diamond. It is what makes our hold in the galaxies so extreme and efficient. We are unstoppable. Unbreakable. Does she not get shattered? She deceives, she does not cease to be. Enough.

It was a topic I was interested in. Especially since I never understood why we only had four Diamonds. I didn’t know how they were made, but couldn’t we have more of them made? More people to guide us through our future? To cast their lights onto our paths? To give birth to more Gems? Hah… I wish I could know more about it. But to do so would be… Treason. And I will not commit such a thing, even for such valuable information.

Both the Grameen System and Pinkara passed the review. Even if Pinkara had a few things it had to solve before it was anywhere near schedule, or close to finishing. Moving onto the Rubesco system, it was relatively the same as I had left it. I did notice a few new Kindergartens, both currently producing Gems and new ones being built. One of them I had even the chance to see the new batch come out of their holes! And they were Agates! It was a wonderful sight, especially all of them were made perfect. Or they at least seemed to have been made perfect. I couldn’t look at their Gems and distinguish flaws from that far away, as I was in a command tower at the time.

But besides new Kindergartens producing a variety of Gems, the Rubesco System was thriving and way ahead of schedule. Mostly thanks to my early efforts when I was in charge of it, but Frost Grossular has been steadily improving and expediting things in the system since my last time as it’s Governor. It really proves that while I did a decent job, a Gem made for such a job will outclass my abilities and knowledge. It was… Reinvigorating to know that. Now, if only my Diamond would allow me to make more Garnets, and expand further beyond Pinkara, Rubesco, and Grameen… But that was too much to ask. Especially at such a time.

My Diamond’s investigations took precedence before expansion. Though as the Millenium Ball approached, I feared her investigation would have to be put on hold as we had to attend the party. Or, well, I didn’t have to. I was just forced to because my Diamond liked to drag her Gems into anything related to Balls and Parties. I really pitied her Pearl, even if both of them seem to be… Quite friendly with each other…

Okay, I have to admit it stinged me in a bad way seeing a random replacement Pearl interact and handle my Diamond better than Pink Pearl ever did. It really hurt. And it took a lot to be professional at times when we were left alone to not berate or insult her because Pink Pearl would’ve done a better job or noticed something, or remembered- Point is. As much as this new Pearl has helped my Diamond in her duties… I haven’t moved on from the fact she is now Pink Diamond’s Pearl.

There was only one, and the fact she didn’t stand by her Diamond’s side anymore… Hurt me more than I realized. I wouldn’t be able to bear that pain, if Apricot was replaced with another Pearl. Even one made by me. I couldn’t. Wouldn’t be able to. Or Spinel… Stars, if my Diamond ever wanted Spinel back with her…

Treason?

I… I don’t know what I would do. 

You would shatter her on the spot. She is yours, she does not deserve to get back what she discarded away. Such a cruel game.

Regardless, she was my Diamond. If… If… anything were to happen I would just have to differ to her orders. To her command. I was made to serve, after all.

Made to Lead as well. You are not a mere Emerald. Not for long.

Finishing the Colonial Holdings Review, I filed away the report and sent it to my Diamond. Or to her Pearl, as she’s the one that’s been taking over doing the paperwork of my Diamond. I’m pretty sure my Diamond was inspired by the way I dumped half of my workload onto Apricot and Spinel. Though she really had to look over that type of paperwork herself, instead of delegating it to her Pearl. A Pearl wasn’t a secretary Gem, after all. Mistakes were bound to be made.

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