Chrome Tourmaline

Chrome Tourmaline is a Gem currently residing on Mars in The Fortress. She works for, and is considered an official member of, the Progressives.

## Appearance

Chrome Tourmaline is a short, stocky Gem with wide hips and dark gray skin. Her hair is a black bob cut with an exaggerated top. She has a crooked nose and rounded light green eyes with no pupils. She is often depicted with separate teeth. She wears a black jumpsuit with a white diamond around where her navel should be, a green vest with short dark green sleeves, and dark green boots. Her Gemstone is on her throat.

## Personality

Chrome Tourmaline is known and even notorious for her eccentricity, having few friends and few qualms against her line of work. She is not a very social Gem, preferring to let her partner do the talking for them both—though the two will quietly speak amongst themselves from time to time. Instead, she focuses on creating new, or improving on existing, Gem-powered contraptions, often creating machines specifically for a particular Gemstone or Gem type. While she tends to put herself before others, Chrome Tourmaline still values friendship, and will go out of her way to help those she is close with.

## History

Chrome Tourmaline's life before and during the Rebellion was unremarkable. She was made for White Diamond and eventually sent to her Martian outpost to help build and maintain the technology there. When Homeworld issued evacuation orders for the star system, she decided there was no way to actually escape Mars with Howlite's guards around, and instead fled into the wasteland while they were busy rounding up the fleeing elites in the hangar, convincing a Cerussite to accompany her. As Mars began to dissolve into virtual anarchy, she decided that her best chance for survival was to go rogue.

For thousands of years, Chrome Tourmaline was a rogue Gem, using her technical savvy to construct weapons and machinery from whatever she could find. It was during this time that she first discovered that inactive Gemstones made powerful batteries, and began to incorporate them into her machines. This proved to be a boon when Cerussite's Gemstone was cracked in a skirmish; Chrome just made some Gem-powered limb enhancers to keep her functioning. Unfortunately, even their Gem-powered tech could not save them from being separated during a fight followed by a bad sandstorm. While they tried to find each other again, both Chrome and Cerussite separately decided they had to presume their partner to have been captured.

Chrome Tourmaline wandered the wastes alone, though it wouldn't last long. She met and befriended a Pezzottaite that had recently left The Garden. Pezzottaite saw potential in Chrome's Gem-powered gadgets, and decided to try to "sell" it to one of the factions. They avoided speaking to Howlite or Pink Zirconia, and Blue Goldstone found the very concept abhorrent, refusing to sponsor them. However, Hessonite's right-hand Gem took interest in their work, and got them into the Progressives as formal members.

## Abilities

As an Era 1 Gem, Chrome Tourmaline presumably has standard Gem abilities.

### Fusions

* When fused with Pezzottaite, they form Black Opal.

### Natural Abilities

* **Photokinesis:** Chrome Tourmaline can project light from her Gemstone. She uses this ability to help her work when she needs extra light.

### Skillset

* **Wrench Proficiency:** Chrome Tourmaline's "weapon" is a wrench that she can alter the size and shape of to fit a variety of purposes. She mostly uses it as a tool for building her contraptions, but can also use it as a blunt force weapon.
* **Intelligence:** As a Tourmaline, Chrome Tourmaline displays a sharp mind and quick learning.
	+ **Engineering:** Chrome Tourmaline is adept at building machines with various uses, from transportation to combat. These machines have been used by the Progressives ever since her arrival.
	+ **Gemstone Evaluation:** Due to her experience creating Gem-powered machinery, Chrome Tourmaline can evaluate a Gem's worth as a battery, and knows which Gem types would make the best batteries.

## Relationships

### Cerussite

Chrome Tourmaline and Cerussite were close friends at one point. Before they were separated, Chrome had crafted limb enhancers specifically for Cerussite's use, in an attempt to keep her in one piece after another rogue cracked her Gemstone. Though she is unaware of Cerussite's current status, she would be glad to learn that Cerussite is still intact and in relatively good health.

### Cubic Zirconia

Chrome Tourmaline seems to be aware of the Zirconia's true status on Homeworld, as she does not take her seriously like many of her acquaintances.

### Howlite

Chrome Tourmaline considers Howlite to be wicked, self-serving, and even insane—the latter of which she considers ironic, due to Howlite's role on Homeworld. In fact, the only reason she fled the Palace was to escape Howlite's tyranny, fearing that she would be brainwashed like the many captured Crystal Gems if she did not.

### Pezzottaite

Chrome Tourmaline and Pezzottaite work together as partners, and it's clear they view one another as friends, calling one another by nicknames.

### Pink Zirconia

Chrome Tourmaline has expressed an interest in acquiring Pink Zirconia's Gemstone and turning it into a battery. She has even has designed a prototype device specifically to hold the Gemstone and take full advantage of its properties.

### Rhodochrosite

Chrome Tourmaline hates Rhodochrosite with a passion, as she has made (and is continuing to make) attempts to separate her and Pezzottaite. She hopes that Tiger's Eye will bubble her and hand her to Chrome to be turned into a weapon, but knows to not expect it, much less express it out loud, due to the hold she has on Tiger's Eye. Instead, she expresses her disdain for Rhodochrosite by pulling pranks on her.

### Tiger's Eye

Chrome Tourmaline respects Tiger's Eye, or at least her payments for commissions. The Chalcedony will respond to her when Chrome addresses her by her nickname ("Big T"); however, it's only because Tiger's Eye has not been able to get her to stop.

### Yellow Tourmaline

Chrome and Yellow Tourmaline have only met once, while the former and Pezzottaite were attempting to join the Martian Loyalists. She quickly deduced that the fellow Tourmaline was horrified by her work; after they left, Chrome mentioned that she would rather not try to work out her differences with Yellow Tourmaline again. If the two met again, Chrome Tourmaline would go out of her way to make Yellow Tourmaline uncomfortable.

## Trivia

* In The Forgotten Planet, Chrome Tourmaline's speech bubbles are green.
* Chrome Tourmaline's dark complexion and hair mirror the oversaturation of real-life chrome tourmaline, which makes it appear black if a stone is too large.
* Chrome Tourmaline's pet nickname, "Dravite," is drawn from the variety of tourmaline that real-life chrome tourmaline is composed of.

## Gemology

Gemstone Information

* Chrome tourmaline, or chrome dravite, is a rare variety of tourmaline, known for its rich and intense green received from vanadium and chromium—hence, its name.
	+ Chrome tourmaline is different in composition from typical green tourmaline, and the two are therefore considered distinct.

* Chrome tourmaline is only found in East Africa, and has such a concentrated color that the best quality pieces are smaller than with other gemstones—larger samples of chrome tourmaline often appear too dark, resembling black schorl tourmaline.
* Tourmaline in general is the official birthstone for people born in October, and is sometimes given on the 8th wedding anniversary.
* As it is, bizarrely, considered multi-colored, chrome tourmaline is seen as a balancing stone.