Bluff

Bluff is a Gem Criminal on Homeworld, apprehended for crimes of fraud, stalking, tampering and sabotage.

## Appearance

Bluff is of roughly the same build and height as an average Sapphire. Her skin is trout grey. She, as most other Sapphires do, has only one eye in the centre of her face, well-defined lips with a darker grey tint to them resembling lipstick and no visible nose. She has a few distinctly visible eyelashes, and her eye is a bit thin in shape. Her iris and pupil are sparkly and black, with a white starlike shape in the centre. She also appears to have a beauty mark under her eye to the left, resembling a mole. Her hair is shoulder-length, fossil grey, and rounded, closely resembling a Castle bob haircut. Her bangs frame her face and do not obstruct her eye. She has a sparkling lacey headband with a black flower accessory resembling a carnation on the right side. The band itself is comprised of a row of upright diamonds, the majority of them being short laguna gold diamonds, but the largest and frontmost one, located just above her eye, is white. She is very soigné by default. Her outfit is a gold slip dress. The top half, down to her hips, is creme coloured and plain. The sparkling royal gold bottom half, flowing down and reaching about knee-length, is pleated and frilled in layers. She has a pair of white opera gloves and a pair of white stockings, honey gold t-strap high-heels with black soles and heels, and a feathery black boa around her neck that drapes down in the front and drapes down slightly longer in the back. Her gem is on the front of her left wrist.

## Personality

Bluff has a very suave and sophisticated personality that she presents herself with to the fullest extent. She keeps a very good balance between threatening and refined in the persona she displays. She is dignified and posh, very delicate in posture, speech and mannerism, and often shows high intellectual quality, if occasionally lacking foresight. She is calm, calculating and rarely gets worked up, abstaining from and avoiding brutishness and barbarism. She is incredibly confident and holds little fear in social situations, being an excellent speaker and listener, and good at persuasion. She's not afraid to flirt, and does so relatively often to the point she could be considered in and of herself flirty, though shows a clear preference in attraction. She can also be seen as conniving and sly, often able to make a situation advantageous for herself, and not afraid to manipulate others if that's what it takes. She can be seen as Machiavellian by some, has a great level of control and dignity and will do almost anything to maintain this reputation. She is overconfident and boastful. On the other hand, she is also very righteous and has a heavy emphasis on the idea of justice, being herself a very open and tolerant individual, but taking vigilantism upon herself when she believes it necessary. She has an excellent poker face.

## History

There once was a Black Star Sapphire, well-known around Homeworld's various upper-status gems for her excellence and proficiency in what basically equated to Gambling. A cynosure of conversation and known for the games she played, and for being undefeated at them. She had a never-broken winning streak and was quite proud of this fact. However, the reality of the matter was that she was always cheating. Nobody was aware of this, or even dared think that she may be dishonest in such a manner. After all, as she was a Sapphire, she was highly respected by default by the credulous public. So, her reign of victory lasted for several millennia. She played against many different gems of all different sorts, including Beryls, Aquamarines, and even a particularly rowdy Emerald. She continued to play until one fateful day with a single stroke of bad luck. One day, another Sapphire, one with more developed ability, attended when a crowd had gathered to watch a game she was playing up against someone. After observing the gambling Sapphire's actions and behaviours during the game, the observing Sapphire stepped forward before drawing attention to herself and declaring that no gem should play another game with the gambling Sapphire, as they would surely not win. So declared the observant Sapphire, the gambling Sapphire was a fraud and a cheater, who used her abilities to win. Now confronted with the consequences of her actions and choices, the gambling Sapphire quickly fled.

Gambling fraud of such a sort would have been a mere two-bit crime that she wouldn't've had to worry about. However, gambling fraud was not her only crime. There had been rumours of terrible luck befalling many of those she'd gambled and won against. Now, with her credibility being called into question, many of those who had been seemingly affected by this bad luck began to indagate the incidents. Soon enough, evidence was found of her committing such crimes as stalking, tampering and sabotage. While playing against gems, she had gauged their personalities and singled out those with undesirable behaviours and actions. She would then, later, follow them intently, and sabotage them with intense purpose. For example, rigging an Emerald's ship engine to break down while in use, or publically humiliate a commander by tripping them with ice. For such intentional actions to hinder her fellow gems, she was sought out, hunted down and apprehended for her crimes.

She would then, soon after, meet Starlite, who was to defend her of her criminal charges. Starlite, like with all the others she had in the past, would proceed to take in Bluff, essentially fostering her. The start of her introduction into the group was quite rocky, with her being incredibly anxious around everyone, but she quickly adjusted.

## Abilities

Bluff possesses the common abilities of most gems, such as shapeshifting, fusion, retreating to her gem to regenerate and enhanced physical capabilities.

* **Clairvoyance**: Interestingly, despite being a Sapphire, and clairvoyance being essentially the sole purpose she was created for, she is not good at using her future-sight for anything that isn't gambling, or similar to gambling. When she tries to use her future-sight for any other purpose, it tends to put great strain on her, give her a headache, use up all her energy, and is rarely effective anyway, mostly only giving her small flashes of the future in blurry detail.
* **Sabre and Blackjack:** Also rather interestingly, Bluff, despite being a Sapphire not created for combat, possesses the ability to summon weapons. Most commonly, her weapon is a sabre, though she has also been seen with a mere blackjack weapon.
* **Cryokinesis:** Bluff, although a White Diamond gem and not a Blue Diamond gem, also possesses the ability to generate and manipulate ice.
* **Lumikinesis:** Bluff possesses the ability to generate and manipulate light, and is always sparkling.
* **Gem Storage:** Bluff possesses the ability to store things in her gem. She uses this often to cheat.
* **Minor Levitation:** Bluff possesses the ability to hover above the ground. However, as she wears a shorter dress than some other Sapphires, it looks somewhat awkward and she avoids using it.
* **Gliding:** Paired with her levitation, she possesses the ability to glide across the ground at great speeds, but it looks similarly awkward, so she improvises with a more 'ice-skating' based method.
* **Balance:** Bluff cannot slip on ice.

### Fusions

* When fused with Bug, they form Golden Obsidian.
* When fused with Joyride, they form Trapiche.
* When fused with Magpie, they form Black Scapolite.
* When fused with Spark, they form Star Almandine.
* When fused with Starlite, they form Indicolite.
* When fused with Vanny, they form Pyrite.
* When fused with Bug, Icepick, Joyride, Magpie, Spark and Vanny, they form Ammolite.

### Skillset

* **Swordfighting:** Bluff is proficient in the use of the sabre.

* **Gambling:** Bluff is a master at all sorts of gambling, especially poker and roulette. This is of course because she is a cheater.
* **Lying and Bluffing:** Bluff possesses impressive proficiency in keeping a straight face under many situations and much great stress. This, along with her calm demeanour, makes her an excellent liar.
* **Flirting:** Impressively, Bluff is strangely fantastic at flirting, mostly with other gems.
* **Intimidation:** Bluff is surprisingly good at intimidating others, and instilling fear.
* **Piloting:** She's not very good at it, but Bluff possesses the skill to pilot ships.
* **Psychological Prowess:** Ahh, the best weapon... **Psychological manipulation.** Bluff possesses a good understanding of psychological functions, which serves her well when lying, intimidating, flirting and gambling.

## Relationships

### Bug

Bluff admires Bug's technical knowledge, and though they do not interact often, they often interact well when they do.

### Icepick

Bluff and Icepick get along rather poorly, especially considering Bluff is incredibly haphephobic and Icepick has made it her sole purpose in existence to stab anything that moves.

### Joyride

Despite their interesting interaction in the past, and their first meeting afterwards, which was rather rocky, Joyride and Bluff act in the capacity of ride-or-die sisters and best friends. Bluff supports Joyride's reckless actions, and Joyride is incredibly protective of Bluff. Both show intense care for each other and each others' well being, and they spend a lot of time together. Joyride is the one who is best at calming down Bluff when she is worked up.

### Magpie

Though their interactions aren't very unique in and of themselves, Magpie absolutely *adores* how *shiny* Bluff is.

### Spark

It took Spark a while to understand the idea of avoiding hugs and touch with Bluff, but once she finally managed to get the idea, their relationship improved greatly. Other than Joy, Spark is one of the best at calming down Bluff when she's more angry than panicked, tending to merely sit with her and somehow have that work out just fine.

### Starlite

Bluff adores Starlite as her saviour and guardian, as the reason she's still alive. Starlite adores Bluff just as much as the rest of her clients, and is incredibly appreciative of her calm nature, though she does certainly wish Bluff would stop encouraging Joy's chaos so much.

### Vanny

They both hold high respect for each others' 'arts' but they rarely interact in unique capacity, due in part to the fact that Bluff is completely terrified of Vanny sometimes, after seeing and being caught in the collateral of a few too many outbursts and meltdowns.

### Cuprite

They don't exactly have history, but Bluff did go against her back in her gambling days. Bluff describes her succinctly as a 'Class-A, Grade-A Narcissist'. Bluff, after winning against her, proceeded to sabotage her ship and a technological attachment. The ship crashed, and Cuprite's been furious about it ever since.

### Bumblebee Jasper

They don't have much history, but Bluff did flirt with her once and employed her briefly as a bodyguard as well.

## Trivia

* Bluff's appearance and many facets of her character closely resemble the Flapper fashion movement of the American Roarin' Twenties (1920s).
	+ Fittingly, other aspects of her character resemble very closely the culture of Speakeasies in America. At the time, prohibition was in place and gambling was illegal.
	+ This means, fittingly, that she is largely based on a criminal culture of the era she is designed based on.
	+ She also draws a few elements- mostly behavioural- from the Mob or Mafia, which was a prevalent and similar theme from around the same time in America, and was another criminal culture.
* Her gem placement is in reference to having an ace up one's sleeve.
* Having a blackjack as a weapon is rather obviously a reference to the blackjack card game.
* Her cryokinesis is partially a reference to **black ice**, a term for a coating of ice that is transparent, named so because it usually appears on roads, and so appears black.
* Bluff is attributed to White Diamond's court, both because there is no more suitable placement for her, and because a black gemstone is the inverse of a colourless (white) gemstone, absorbing all colours while white absorbs none.
* She likes hammocks, neon lights, and swing music.
* Her type is Quartz soldiers but mostly Amethysts.