Grossular (ACiAR)

## Grossular

**Grossular** is a formerly Homeworld-aligned Gem with a knack for history, tactical planning, and finding enemy weak points.

## Appearance

Grossular is a tall gem with an hourglass figure, with green skin, light green hair, and green mirrored irises without pupils. She moves coolly and calmly, with an inhuman smoothness and snappiness to her motions that often unsettles both humans and Earth-aligned Gems. Her head is squared or octagonal with round cheekbones and a slightly pointy chin.

Her gemstone replaces her nose, making for a feline appearance when combined with the green stripes on her cheeks and large, curious eyes. She refuses to wear her braids shorter than shoulder or chest length, as she has noted the resemblance of her shorter ponytails to cat ears, which she regards as feline appearance overkill.

Her outfits are usually ruffled dresses, thigh-length, with a bare midriff and poofed sleeves. Her flash grenades circle around the waist of her skirt like jewelescent decoration, only removable by Grossular and capable of infinite regeneration. She also wears knee-high boots and occasionally forearm-length gloves. Infrequently, she may wear a short cape, sometimes hooded, especially when in the company of humans in the wintertime, seemingly to appear "warmer" and more approachable in spite of her bare elbows, waist, and knees staying "chilly".

## Personality

Grossular has inborn military training and conduct, often unable to shake off a stoic, ever-alert demeanor even when "at ease". However, she also possesses a dry wit and desire to understand human behavior, if only to socialize better with human warriors she respects.

Grossular is at her happiest when fighting, either physically or verbally. Time without conflict is time wasted to her, and time wasted only makes her feel depressed, which makes her mirrored eyes grow foggy and dim. For lack of grueling challenges, she takes whatever fights she can get, from a good logical debate with Almandine, to the frequent illogical spat with Rhodolite.

In spite of her uptight nature and strict discipline, Grossular desires a universe free from Homeworld rule, even as she retains the dull diamonds on her uniform that used to show her alliances of several Diamonds before. Humans unaware of Gem politics and behavior may think of her as a Homeworld mole or double-agent, but Grossular simply has no time for human niceties and would prefer to form acquaintanceship through shared tactical plans rather than pastimes.

## Abilities

Grossular possesses standard Gem abilities, including super strength and durability, shapeshifting, agelessness, regeneration, fusion, and bubbling.

### Fusions

#### Two-member

* Grossular fuses with Rhodolite to form Hessonite
* Grossular fuses with Almandine to form Golden Garnet
* Grossular fuses with Blue Garnet to form Mint Hydrogrossular
* Grossular fuses with Triphane to form Viridine
* Grossular fuses with Bloodstone to form Unakite

#### Four-member

* Grossular fuses with Rhodolite, Almandine, and Blue Garnet to form Yttrium Aluminum Garnet

### Skillset

* **Battle-oriented future vision:** Grossular's mirrored eyes allow her to cast her gaze up to an hour or two into the future, specifically for use in predicting battle strategies in the heat of a fight. Sensing which moves would lead to unsatisfactory timelines, she picks one which leads to the best course, even if it leads to short-term damage to herself or her troupe. Because of its specialized nature, it cannot predict events outside of her fights, such as natural phenomena or battles not yet intersecting her own.
* **Eidetic tactical memory:** Thanks to her crystal engineering, Grossular can look back at her memories of past battles with crystal clarity, remembering not only her own tactics, but the tactics of enemies she's witnessed, allowing her to adapt her own strategies and the strategies of others into new and improved tactics with each battle. She's also able to divulge her tactical wisdom to others, either through psychic transfer, or through holographic playback.
* **Whipmanship:** Grossular's main weapon is her whips, capable of quick and brutal cutting damage, as well as wrapping enemies in constricting binds that can crush a Gem's light body within seconds. The whips are indestructible to blades and bullets, but can destabilize and disintegrate if tangled too tightly.
	+ **Whip multiplication and shape-shifting:** Grossular's whips can multiply and divide in length, diameter, and number, wrapping in on themselves to form a tightly-woven beaver-tail sap, or blackjack, or lengthening out and fraying at the ends to form a devastating cat o' nine tails.
* **Flash grenades:** Grossular has four grenades around the belt-line of her dress, each capable of delivering a debilitating, though non-lethal, blast of light and sound that can confuse, disorient, and even temporarily corrupt enemy Gems. The grenades instantly rematerialize after exploding, theoretically allowing Grossular to throw an infinite number of them; however, her own personal energy and concentration limits both her throwing power and the number of grenades she can summon at any given time.

## Relationships

### Rhodolite

Grossular has a mixed relationship with Rhodolite, resenting that she owes her continued fight on Earth to her carelessness, frustrated at her random, unpredictable tactics she cannot counter or copy, and ultimately admiring of her indomitable spirit. They will often swap tactical trivia and otherwise have random spats for each others' sanity.

### Almandine

Grossular has a more amicable relationship with Almandine, the two discussing battle tactics as peers and mutual students. However, what Grossular admires the most out of Almandine is her ability to put up with, even work alongside, Rhodolite, which she regards as a mental feat.

### Blue Garnet

As an older Garnet warrior, Grossular admires Blue's wisdom and abilities, and the two will often confide on the frustration of being in a rebel group of misfits.