Rainbow Almandine/Biography

## Biography

Blue Garnet had always been a man of very few loves; he loved life, he loved the fight, and he loved justice. Almandine had similar interests, but she felt justice was not the goal; she had her fill of it redefined by Diamonds into glorified regicide. When Blue heard of Almandine's self-sacrifice, he believed he found someone who understood what it meant to feel the pain of loss, no matter whom; he didn't expect her to reciprocate... *mawkishly*.

Blue saw himself as Almandine's companion and squire, but Almandine likened him to a sickeningly sweet friend, and only wanted what was best for him. At first, they traded rocks, small animals, and insights, but that soon dissolved to platonic sentimentality of ooey-gooey proportions, much to Blue's mild delight and mostly bewilderment. Rhodolite liked the idea of someone that could keep Almandine occupied and happy, but soon shared Blue's concerns that she clung to him for his strength and heart, not allowing him much freedom for weakness and mutual commiseration.

These concerns soon simultaneously diminished and came to a head when Rhodolite accidentally invited a "rabid" Gem-Beast to a campfire. The beast, a fractured Andradite with rainbow plays of light, behaved badly after trying to "eat" the fire and nearly burned everyone around it. Blue and Almandine were actually fighting over who should protect the other in order to disable the rampaging brute. Ultimately, the swirl of protector/protectee led to a burst of light, which eliminated the beast in its fiery tracks. This light turned out to be a red giant with rainbow binds, armed with Almandine's sword.

Rainbow Almandine felt he had little reason to exist except for dangerous situations, but Rhodolite insisted that it would be good of "Mandy and Blue" to hang out as Rainbow, since they were already so close. Rainbow had no desires of the such, or *at all.* His components apparently spent so much time wondering what to do that he was all but a vegetable. Rhodolite suggested activities that Almandine and Blue used to do together, but in doing them, Rainbow felt no joy from them, and seemed to think of them as a waste of time.

By the time Almandine and Blue separated, Almandine wondered what went wrong with their relationship, hypothesizing lack of trust or desire. Neither of them lost their desire, but Triphane surmised that they might have lost *themselves*, turning their fusion into a hollow shell unable to make decisions or experience what made them, as individuals, feel good. Angry at herself for becoming a clingy jerk to Blue, she banished him to a sabbatical in Carrauntoohil, Ireland, hoping that it would allow the both of them to become better people.

As Rhodolite discovered the reasons for the fracture in the fallen Gem-Beast, she realized that the source was not only on Earth, but wouldn't limit its destruction to animalistic Gems. It was a Bios-Krystallos-made Faceting and Recycling machine that had gone rogue, dumped into space for its near-indestructibility, and teleported to Earth after a Warp Pad accident. It was self-aware, mobile, agile, and desirous to reshape Gems by any means necessary. Rhodolite wanted to tackle the beast alone, but Almandine wouldn't let her.

While Pyrope could tire out the machine, and Triphane confuse it temporarily, it refused tampering and reprogramming as long as defective/defector Gems drew near. It would take an empath like Blue to source out its innermost weaknesses. Almandine, within Pyrope, traveled to Ireland to apologize to Blue, unaware that the machine followed her. Blue understood what had to be done at once, and worked with Almandine to whittle the machine down. Ultimately, it was Rainbow Almandine that delivered the killing blow and ripped out its source of power: a Blue Goldstone.

This was no quick cure for Rainbow's issues, but since then, the Gems that made him reconciled their issues and grew healthier for it. While Rainbow may never be a good conversationalist, he now has a sense of humor, albeit one that rarely if ever manifests into laughter, and will enjoy the occasional wisecrack. He's also useful for his powers of agility, endurance, and even spectral manipulation—useful in cloaking, illusion creation, and even altering a Gem's Light Body with nearly the same finesse as a Diamond, albeit temporarily.

## Behind the scenes

Rainbow Almandine is a fictional form of Rainbow Garnet. Most specimens of rainbow garnet belong in the grandite group, consisting of andradite and grossular. The reason for this change being that Rainbow Almandine's components belong in the pyralspite group (pyropes, almandines, and spessartines), and that the author disliked the base colors of most rainbow garnet specimens, preferring a dark red almandine hue off which iridescence can play.

## Source

* SU Fusion OC Reference - Rainbow Almandine for deviantART