Steven BLUE-niverse season 2

chapter 97 kankamankla

Today, homeworld is silent, not a single gem is working, the bismuths have stopped their work on the buildings, the amethysts are coming back from the zoo and the lapis lazulis are flying home from planets they've terraformed. Today is kankamankla, the day marking the beginning of this great planet and the empire it leads.

Steven didn't know what he'd be doing today and he was very nervous about it. He woke up early and made sure to not miss anything. When he woke up it was still dark outside and pearl was watching over him, "have I missed anything?", he nervously asked her, getting out of bed and going to the mirror to make sure he looked ok, he decided to put his normal clothes back on, so he'll be seprate from his mother when other gems see him. "no",  pearl whispered back at him, making sure to not wake up blue diamond who was asleep not far away, "the sun hasn't come up so the day hasn't started yet", this relieved steven greatly, he was terffied he'd accidentally disrespect all of gemkind in his attempts to introduce himself to them.

Steven waited for his mother to wake up, as soon as she did he ran up and hugged her, eventhough gems didn't need much sleep pink diamond and lapis where also sleeping, ruby was awake but had been laying her head on sapphire's lap for a while. Blue carefully woke them up, she crouched down to pink diamond and whispered if she wanted to take part, pink shook her head and said she would only do it if her pearl was returned to her, steven couldn't hear the rest, it didn't matter to him, blue had been too nice to pink lately and it was making him mad.

"I haven't celebrated kankamankla since before I got stuck in the mirror, I hope it hasn't changed as much as all of homeworld has", lapis said, taking a small, dark blue hat out her gem and putting it on, it only covered some of the back of her head. "Dont worry", pearl said, also taking her own small hat out her gem (this time blue with red lines) and putting it on, "this is a tradition older than most gems, we couldn't possibly change that!". "What are those tiny cute hats?", Steven asked them, running up to them to take a closer look, "do I need one?", he noticed sapphire had also took her own hat out and put it on, much to the shock of ruby and pink who where refusing to take part.

"These are shikishs, prayer hats we wear all day on kankamankla", pearl responded, pointing at the one lapis was wearing, "they're very special all gems have them,  we wear them on this day because it's said Lord paragon had to use a meteor to cover her head from enemy attacks when coming down to what became our homeworld. The reason she didn't attack back is because she was in a state of mediation when descending, when we pray and especially on this day, we try to get in the state she was at that time".

"Oh cool!", Steven exlclaimed, "can I have one of them?", he asked, sticking his hand out for pearl to give him one, "stars no!", pearl jokingly replied, "you're a diamond, you wear entirely different attire for this event as you must lead all the prayers today!", "then what do I wear?", Steven huffed, slightly disappointed he couldn't wear one, he found them very cute. "Well, look at your mother!", pearl replied, very lightly moving steven to face blue diamond who was wearing a long white robe, a larger, tall hat that covered all the top of her head with all her long hair hidden in it and sandals, she was holding a smaller version of the uniform for steven too.

"Wear this!", blue said, throwing him the outfit, Steven grabbed the robe and was just about to out it on before blue commanded to him, "you can't wear anything underneath it, take off your clothes", "are you kidding me!? I have to get naked again!?", Steven cried, blue just angrily looked at him, she could be very scary sometimes so he didn't argue back anymore, he quietly asked the pebbles to make him a small room, he then walked in, closed the little door he made and got dressed.

The inside of the white robe was shining and colourful, it looked like rainbows and lit up the small changing room steven had made for himself, he quickly rapped the robe around his body, it looked like the white coat his mother would wear, only with longer sleeves and no hood, it was the comfiest thing he ever wore, it was so warm and he was convinced he might never be able to take it off again. "If you're having trouble with your shikish I'll help you, you have to stuff all your hair in!", blue called back, "its always torture for me! I had to get your father to help me!". Thankfully Steven's hair was short enough he didn't have to struggle much and soon enough he emerged in his outfit, ready for whatever rituals would come.

"Looking great steven!", pink called to him, "you look like you're about to lead prayers!", suddenly pink's words hit steven, he didn't even know how to pray! How would he be leading them!? "Mum!", Steven rushed to his mother, "how do I pray to Lord paragon!?", he nervously asked, every terrible scenario rushing through his head, blue smiled at him, "I'll show you, it's very simple, follow me!". She took him to outside the window, where they could see the sacred footprints, yellow diamond was already outside and leading prayers for gems returning home, Steven swore he could see holly blue agate, the amethysts and even peridot and jasper in the crowds, all wearing their own shikishs.

Lapis, pearl and even sapphire who dragged ruby along stood behind steven and blue, "make sure you know direction of where Lord paragon first stood", blue said, making sure steven was standing in the perfect direction, "then face youre gem to where she stood", Steven, blue and her pearl stood in the same position while lapis turned around and ruby and sapphire raised their arms. "Then cross your arms, don't close your hands into fists. Then bow your head, during this you think about paragon and who she is and how she can help you as she is a part of your gem", Steven obeyed the command, awkwardly looking down to the floor, everyone else was very deep in the prayer allready, he felt like such an outsider, he couldn't think of anything to do with paragon, only thinking of how he was probably going to embarass himself in front of everyone.

"Then you raise your hands and put them to your forehead, representing the great mind of paragon, a mind you share too. Then, you move them to your knees, getting the the position she did when she first landed", Steven copied blue as she instructed him, he was very sweaty from being so worried about messing up. "then you prostrate yourself to her", blue quickly knelt on the ground with her head still bowed, Steven followed after her, it was all silent.

He closed his eyes and tried to pray along but all he could think about was how odd this all was to him. He was starting to miss earth, eventhough he wasn't fully human he understood them there, he had people like connie to help him, then he only started to think about connie how much he missed her and how much he loved her. Soon this was becoming a distractions, he kept his head bowed now only because he had started to blush as thoughts about giving connie a kiss when he returned popped into his mind.

"You can stay bowed for as long as you want, usually gems do it for a long time", blue said, getting up and going to find greg who was alseep in another room the pebbles made only for him. Steven waited for her to leave then got up, everyone else, even pink diamond, who joined in when no one was looking, was still bowed, he felt really uncomfortable stopping his prayer but blue did said the time depended on the person. He looked out the window and could see all the other gems stopping their prayers at different times, it made him feel less uncomfortable about it.

He went over to his bed, picked up all his clothes and tried to neatly fold them for tomorrow, he could see himself in the mirror next to the bed, he thought he looked quite ridiculous. "I never knew this is what being a diamond would be like", he quietly huffed to himself, taking out his phone and trying to see if he could call connie.