Bloodstone (ACiAR)/Biography

## Biography

Bloodstone was one of the last Chalcedonies of Silica-Terra before its mineral resources ran out and it became a hollowed-out space port and communications hub. Due to the diminished resources, Bloodstone and other quartzes and chalcedonies among her came out shriveled and shrunken, yet possessing of deep-cut powers; Bloodstone in particular burned with such power that her small birth crater melted to smooth silica glass. In spite of her advantages, all her commissioners — Green Diamond, Rhodochrosite, and the Azurite-Malachite Court — considered her a failure for her shrunken stature and lack of real weapons. Only Rhodochrosite inadvertently saved her life by giving her to a full-grown Mtorolite to shatter personally.

Luckily for Bloodstone, the Mtorolite took a strange liking to this tiny, spunky dollop of napalm. Knowing that she'd be in serious trouble if she allowed these defects to survive, the Mtorolite arranged to send Bloodstone and other defective Chalcedonies onto random-course rockets in the hopes of either surviving on distant worlds outside Diamond control, or perishing in the sun. Bloodstone's rocket ship wound through to a disused Solar System and crash-landed on Mars, a frozen, iron-rich world. To Bloodstone's horror and sorrow, the planet's icy atmosphere not only ate away at her fiery resolve, but also wounded her small, sensitive light body to dissolution, its only mercy leaving her gemstone intact, for now. Her stone stood silently in a Martian crater for years, until the Martian gem Seifertite took the stone to their underground cavern, heated by geothermal energy.

Bloodstone recovered near-instantly once sufficiently warmed up, and soon learned of Earth through Seifertite's tales of observations and visitations. Seifertite witnessed the Gem Wars on the planet, and how they ultimately left the planet scorched and cracked in their wake, and all for naught as the Diamonds declared the world under quarantine after all that trouble. Nevertheless, they also witnessed a strange rebirth for gems that have remained on Earth, their discarded nature allowing them to express their own personalities and desires once more. Bloodstone took a shine to such a free planet, and even better, Seifertite offered to send her to Earth, especially on one of Earth's toastier climes. Though Bloodstone couldn't believe that a predominantly blue planet with white poles could even possess warmth to her liking, she soon learned otherwise on Seifertite's next stop to Earth, and she vowed never to leave.

Though she knew of Earth's harsh winters, she appreciated their temporary nature and limited boundary, and migrated with the birds to warmer climates yearly. She took an affinity to the flying creatures, following one particular family of hunting hawks for generations, helping them hunt, heal, and find shelter. Unfortunately, one of the hawks soon ate a gem shard, formerly belonging to one of White Diamond's elite Crystal Quartz soldiers, and the bird soon transformed into a gigantic, sentient, hungry beast with an appetite for minerals and mineral people. Angered at both allowing her animal friend to turn so against their nature and accidentally causing such chaos in their shared environment, Bloodstone vowed to stop this monstrous creature, no matter the cost. With vague memories of a master tactician past, the giant bird craftily evaded most of Bloodstone's attacks, even forcing her to use her most destructive fire attacks to ignite a massive forest fire, destroying much of the wildlife and cooking meat to the bird's desire.

Bloodstone watched as the fires consumed the woodlands around her, forcing the fauna, including the giant's former relatives, to flee for safety; she realized that not every creature took to such warmth as she did, to her confusion and horror. Having enough of the combined destruction of her flames and the monster's appetite, Bloodstone jumped straight into the giant bird's stomach and tore it apart from the inside out, leaving nothing but half-digested mineral slag and cremated animal remains. Once the forest fire burned down, Bloodstone cooled down as well, sticking around to watch the warmth-dependent seeds of jack and lodgepole pines sprout new life into the decimated forest floor, not leaving until the weather necessitated her migration once more.

Instead of traveling with birds this time, she hung out with other animals, especially the curious primates known as human beings, who like Seifertite utilized this heat for warmth, light, and comfort, even in dark caves. She became a welcome guest in one family's den, which she called the Hun-bun family after their youngest member's excited vocalizations, and delighted in aiding them with hunting and gathering, as well as scaring off opposing tribes with her flame-throwing. However, when a massive Imperial Jasper beast with a leonine build and 16 legs threatened the Hun-bun family, Bloodstone repeated her scorching performance with greater heat and vengeance. Though it more than dissolved the Jasper's light body and locked its gem in silica glass, it also injured many humans in the area, even killing the Hun-bun elders. Shunned by the Hun-bun family and forced to leave, the confused and heartbroken Bloodstone vowed never to let herself near vulnerable Earth creatures for fear of killing them in the process – it was only too bad that humans and other animals couldn't grow back like pine trees.

Traveling alone for millennia frustrated the distraught Bloodstone, believing that nothing she could do could ever fix her destructive nature; she even considered allowing herself to succumb to a bitter winter and leave her gem to the elements. However, she soon found another gem like her one unseasonably warm autumn: the compassionate Blue Garnet took pity on the tiny Chalcedony, and gave her a place to stay which would keep her warm during the winter. She told her story of influencing life and death, explaining how she wished to find people that could understand her and have immunity to her powers. While the latter was a bit more difficult outside of a hardy Ruby or some species of wasp, Bloodstone found her understanding tribe within a growing band of Midwestern U.S. based gems, soon to be known as the Gem 16.

Through their guidance and training, she was able to hone her fire and preserve lives around her; at least helping animals and people find shelter before she lets loose with a firestorm. Though nearly as unhinged as her new leader Rhodolite, and often with the same eagerness to learn and fight as Grossular, Bloodstone nevertheless fights to preserve love and happiness, with the hopes that she'll never have to use her powers for harm one day... maybe just for a good, controlled pyrotechnics show every now and then.

## Source

* SU Gem OC Reference - Bloodstone on deviantART