Petrified Wood

* Enhancers
* No Enhancers

Petrified Wood is an off-color Gem in the Remade Gems. She was made by Chrysolite in the early days of her modification experiments.

## Appearance

Petrified Wood is a small Gem, about the size of a human infant. She has pale brown skin, a chubby body, and short, stubby arms with no hands. Her head is large for her body and round, with a pointed nose, golden brown eyes with no pupils, and no lips. She has brown hair with a stylized widow's peak, done in large spikes that vaguely resemble tree branches. She wears a tawny brown dress with a frayed bottom, covering her legs and feet. Her Gemstone is on her chest, and resembles the cross section of a tree trunk. Petrified Wood is normally seen wearing dark brown limb enhancers with lighter brown, floating fingers.

## Personality

When she first emerged, Petrified Wood was similar to a human toddler; that is, she tended to wander and would imitate Gems around her. As the years have gone by, she has "grown" in a way similar to a human child. She is aware of how relatively small she is, and gets nervous easily around strangers—especially if they are significantly bigger than her. Petrified Wood is still unsure of who she is, who she wants to be, and what she wants to do with her life, likely due in part to how she was made.

## History

Petrified Wood was created by Chrysolite in the early days of Pandora's colonization, using part of a Pandoran tree. The intent of the experiment was to create an organic-Gem hybrid; however, it instead made a new Gem type that was given its fitting name by Chrysolite herself. As the Gem was small with the mind of a toddler, the Peridot found Petrified Wood adorable and adopted her as a pet, making her custom limb enhancers, but kept her existence a secret from everyone except Peacock Pearl.

As the years went by, Petrified Wood mentally grew and learned, developing her own personality. She joined the Remade Gems on her own volition, and has become close with many of the pseudomorphs created by Chrysolite. While she helps them figure themselves out, they do the same for her.

## Abilities

Petrified Wood has at least some standard Gem abilities.

### Natural Abilities

* **Superhuman Strength:** Petrified Wood is deceptively strong for her size, able to split boulders in two with no technologic assistance.

### Tools

* **Limb Enhancers:** Petrified Wood wears custom-made limb enhancers to serve as her hands. They lack many of the functions that are common in standard Era 2 limb enhancers, since they are intended to just be prosthetics.

## Relationships

### Chrysolite

Initially, Petrified Wood admired Chrysolite, seeing her as a parental figure due to how often the two were together. Due to how naive and sheltered she was upon first emerging, it took her centuries to realize the Peridot was objectifying her. After figuring this out, she became disillusioned, and she currently dislikes talking about her creator.

### Peacock Pearl

Petrified Wood views Peacock Pearl as a familial figure, and, after learning of his status on Homeworld, came to admire him for standing up for himself and others. Like many other Remade Gems, she looks up to the Pearl, and listens whenever he has something to say.

## Trivia

* Petrified Wood was made for Gemsona-HQ's February 2020 Monthly Gem Challenge. Despite this, she is considered canon to the Mars AU.
* Petrified Wood is designed to resemble a dead tree or a dryad (a forest spirit in Greek mythology that inhabits or takes the form of a tree).
* The decision to make Petrified Wood a synthetic Gem made by Chrysolite stems from the fact that many real-world fossils, including petrified wood, are a unique type of pseudomorph in which minerals replace organic matter.
* At one point, Petrified Wood's Gemstone was planned to be on her head, resembling a headpiece. However, this looked ugly and was too reminiscent of the previous MGC Gem, Star Mica.

## Gemology

* Petrified wood is the fossilized remains of prehistoric trees. It is a very common fossil, being found in many parts of the world, and formed in a way similar to other plant and animal fossils.
* The substance that makes up petrified wood varies from sample to sample, but it is typically some form of silica. The most common variety is agatized wood (made of chalcedony), but opalized wood (made of opal) is also fairly common.
	+ Sometimes, though very rarely, opalized wood can consist of precious opal, creating some eye-catching fossils that are coveted by collectors and jewelers.
* Petrified wood typically resembles actual unrefined wood for obvious reasons. It can be so perfectly preserved that it is superficially indistinguishable from the real thing.
	+ In the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado, there is a petrified sequoia stump that is so convincing, lumberjacks once confused it for real wood and attempted to cut it apart. To this day, saw blades are visibly embedded in the "Big Stump."
* Petrified wood is not a traditional birthstone for any month; however, it is a zodiacal stone for Leo and Virgo. Petrified wood is also Mississippi's state stone and Washington's state gemstone. In addition, a specific variety of petrified wood is the state fossil for Arizona.
* Metaphysically, petrified wood is considered a stone of grounding and transformation, and is associated with the root and sacral chakras.