VSG12
[PERSONAL INFORMATION]
Username:
GracefulRose_Knight
Name:
Gemma Marie Williams
Age:
19
Born:
Was technically born in Florida but considers her home Brooklyn, New York, USA since that was where she grew up
Date of Birth:
24 / December / 1998
Major Class:
Criminal Justice
Minor Classes:
Fashion, Business, Criminology, Police Science
Extra-Curricular Class:
Martial Arts
Personality/Mannerism:
There are many layers to Gemma. When many first see her she appears kind of cold and distant. There's typically a professional air around her since she is a hard worker and enjoys learning. She used to be a social butterfly than suddenly became a loner so now she's trying to balance those two qualities to make a decently social person. She loves talking to and meeting new people but she is afraid of how they will view her. Her anxiety holds her back at times but at other times is encourages her to work harder. Overall Gemma is a hard worker with a strong will and impressive determination. Even when she is scared she will try to push her fears down to do what she thinks is right or what needs to be done. Generally speaking Gemma is also a well-behaved girl, but due to being a curious girl interested in investigating she can cause trouble sometimes. Her general moral view is to do whatever it takes to do the "right thing" which sometimes means doing the wrong thing. Her views on what is right and wrong are very complex but that's how those things typically are.
Appearance:
[PERSONAL INTERESTS]
Likes:
✔ Fashion/Making Clothes
✔ Investigating/Exploring
✔ Training (to use her powers)
✔ Reading/Studying
✔ A Challenge (work wise)
Dislikes:
✘ Bullying
✘ When her powers automatically kick in
✘ Pervs
✘ Hurting People (but will to protect people or to get answers she desperately needs)
✘ Drugs (is ok with people doing minor stuff like pot and drinking but doesn't like seeing people do heavy duty stuff)
[HISTORY]
Ability:
Diamond Mimicry: Gemma can transform her body in a diamond form in which every part of her, including her internal organs, turns into diamonds. As a result, she gains incredible strength, a highly increased endurance, electrical and heat immunity, and oxygen independence (meaning she doesn't need to breathe). In this state, she also becomes a natural weapon meaning that her body acts as a shield and she can reshape parts of herself to become sharp like a blade. In this form, if Gemma loses a body part she can also grow that part back unless it is her heard. If her head gets removed, which is very hard since diamond is hard to cut, she will die.
Diamond Manipulation: Can control, create, and reshape diamonds at will. As a result, she can easily craft things ranging from jewelry to weapons from diamonds. She can also use diamonds to "surf on" meaning if she stands on them while controlling them she can fly. As part of her ability to create diamonds, she can create semi-living diamond constructs which are creatures made out of diamonds that have temporary life.
(This ability has not manifested yet) Crystallomancy: Commonly seen as crystal ball reading this ability allows one to gain insight through the use of crystals. In Gemma's case, since she can transform into a diamond form, she can gain insight into past and future events. This ability gives her clairvoyance in more than just this way though. In her crystal form, she can see spiritual and energy beings and even look into the feelings, thoughts, and dreams of those beings (and other people).
Dream Career:
A private detective with perhaps a little fashion thing on the side (like owning her own little clothing store)
Background:
Gemma was born in New York but has roots in France. Her birth mother, whom she has never met, was born and raised in France. As the story goes her mother was a wealthy businesswoman who met her father when she came to the USA for a business deal. They met because he was a server at one of her parties and despite being from different social classes they got along. Her father was a typical bad boy womanizer but was changed for the better by her mother. She would spend many nights with him going on random adventures but eventually, she had to go back to France. Due to her constant back and forth from France to the USA and the fact that her family would not approve of the relation the two had a non-committal relationship that was kept a secret. Even so, neither had much interest in anyone else so the non-commital part of their agreement didn't really seem to come into play.
Eventually, Gemma's father got sick of how complicated their relationship was and just told Gemma's mother that either they had to be an official thing or he was going to end it. This was the first time he had taken a relationship seriously and to his surprise, she also felt the same. So she moved to New York for a while with the excuse that she wanted to make sure the deal her family's company was making would play out smoothly. During that time Gemma's parents grew even closer and completely fell in love with each other.
After 6 months of living in America Gemma's maternal grandfather called her mother back to France, but she didn't want to go. She knew she was pregnant and if her parents found out they'd be furious, plus she didn't want Gemma's father to miss out on raising his child. Unsure of what else to do Gemma's mother ran off one night and moved to Florida with Gemma's dad. They lived in a studio apartment down there for about a year for Gemma's maternal grandparents found them. In order to protect Gemma from being taken by her grandparents her mother lied and said that Gemma was a child that her father had with an ex and she was just helping take care of her. Her reason for doing this is because she knew while her family would be able to financially support Gemma better she'd also be in more danger. The ability to transform your body in a crystal-like state is one that Gemma's maternal side has carried for generations. Her mother can turn into sapphires and her grandfather into rubies. It was an ability that helped them maintain their wealth but also put them in danger.
A specific example is when Gemma's mother was a child and was kidnapped due to her abilities. She was abused by her captors who were trying to force her to change into sapphires so that they could cut her up and sell her crystalized parts. Luckily she was only held by them for a few days before being found. Once she was rescued by her family they "took care" of the kidnappers so that their family secret wouldn't get out.
After explaining this story to Gemma's father he agreed that it would be best for Gemma to stay with him so if they would ever caught they'd lie about her birth. Then the time came to use the lie and it worked. Gemma's mother was dragged back to France and was forced into an arranged marriage. Gemma's father stayed in Florida until Gemma was 3 then moved back to New York since that was where he always felt the most at home.
As years went by Gemma's father became more and more paranoid about her inheriting her mother's abilities. If people knew that Gemma was walking money they'd all be after her to take her apart. This lead to him being extremely overprotective of her which damaged their relationship as she grew older. Their relationship had an especially sharp turn for the worse when Gemma's father became engaged. While the woman was pretty nice Gemma still couldn't accept her as her mother.
Then one day after class her future stepmother picked her up from her middle school so that the two could talk. She took Gemma to a nearby park and bought her ice cream and explain her side of things. She told her that while her father could come off as cold her really was soft on the inside. He loved Gemma more than anything and constantly worried about her which is why it took him so long to start dating again. She knew she could never replace her mother and that wasn't the goal. She just wanted Gemma to go a little easier on her father and at least be able to accept their relationship. After the conversation gemma went home that night and finally spoke to her dad after a week of ignoring him. She told him that she was fine with him getting married but that she'd never see his wife as her mom. For the time being this was enough so the wedding plan continued.
Luckily with age and maturity came a change of heart and Gemma actually became close to her stepmother. They formed more of a sisterly relationship so Gemma would confide in her. Their relationship actually started to make Gemma's dad jealous since Gemma would go to her stepmother for support and advice all the time while she never really went to her dad for anything.
So between having a somewhat strict father and being poor life was a little difficult but it was nothing Gemma couldn't work through. What made it a bit of a bigger challenge was the fact that she was bullied in school. Due to her father having lots of debts to pay off Gemma mostly wore hand-me-down clothes from her stepmother and aunts so she was made fun off by the "pretty girls" for how she looked. For a while, Gemma only knew how to go home and cry alone in her room about it, but after getting an inspiring talk from her stepmother she decided to do something about it. Together Gemma and her stepmother start refurbishing her hand-me-down clothes. They spent many nights making over Gemma's old clothes but it all paid off in the end. At first, the students thought Gemma's fashion states where strange which lead to more bullying, but by the time she reached high school she had become a fashion icon. The styles she made that were mocked were now admired and people actually started paying her to fix up their old clothes.
With this new passion, Gemma became a lot happier and even started being nicer to her dad despite his strict nature. Her love for fashion lead to her helping out the drama kids with costumes and that's where she found her crowd. While the spotlight was never her thing she loved working behind the scenes. She also helped fix the uniforms of many of the sports teams and the band so almost everyone in school knew her. She was still picked on occastionally be some girls who were jealous of her skills but she no longer paid that any mind. She had become more confident in herself and wasn't going to let some snobs make her feel bad just because they were insecure.
This confidence only last so long though before Gemma's powers kicked in. It happened one night after a school football game. Gemma was walking to the subway with some friends after the game when they were stopped by a group of thugs and pervs. Gemma, being the caring person she is, quickly pushed her other friends into the subway station in front of her to protect them which resulted in the guys only being quick enough to grab her. They dragged her into a nearby alleyway but before they got far Gemma's abilities kicked in. They all suddenly were backing away from her looking horrified but before they could run Gemma's now diamond arms extended and punched all of them out. Without fully realizing what she had done Gemma just stood there. Her friends had come back up from the subway and were now looking at her as if she was the criminal. Looking down in a nearby puddle her appearance finally dawned on her. Her skin had become shiny, clear, and rock hard along with her hair. Seeing herself look more like a statue than a human freaked Gemma out and she ended up running all the way home.
When she got home and stormed into her apartment her stepmother screamed while her father only looked sad. He told his wife to calm down and quickly closed all the curtains and locked the door. He then pulled Gemma into her room where he explained to her everything about her mother's family and how their powers gave them wealth but also put them in danger. This also explained why Gemma's father had always been so strict with her. It was all to protect her. After their talk there lingered one question: what now? Many people had seen Gemma so word about a crystal girl was going to get out one way or the next. The only solution Gemma's father could come up with was to take out another loan and send Gemma away to a far-off boarding school until things blew over. Naturally, Gemma didn't want to do this because she knew it would hurt her family's credit even more but they had no real choice.
Within weeks Gemma was sent to a boarding school in England. Luckily she was always a pretty smart girl so getting into a good school was the easy part for her. Sadly having no money to her name meant that she couldn't afford to go home for the holidays so she didn't see her family again until she graduated high school. When Gemma graduated she was listed as one of the top students in the school. Due to her being paranoid about people finding out about her powers she mostly kept to herself, so she had lots of time for studying. Unfortunately, the fact that she didn't really participate in clubs made her look bad when applying to colleges so she didn't have too many options. One place was willing to give her a full ride based on her grades so she was going to accept before she got a letter from Saint Sandorez.
The acceptance letter came as a shock since Gemma had never heard of the school. She had no idea how they received an application about her or found out about her abilities since when she called her father and stepmother about it they had no clue either. With Saint Sandorez being her chance to really learn about her powers rather than fearing them Gemma accepted.
While at first, she thought she'd want to major in fashion she went in undecided. She wasn't sure if she was going to stay at the school so why bother choosing a major if you're going to transfer right? Soon after moving in though she knew she was going to stay and not because of how good the school was but because it connected to her mother. Apparently, her mother and other relatives on her maternal side were alumni of the school. Gemma found this out by seeing pictures of her mother and others on that side in photos around the school. There were photos posted of old clubs and teams and apparently her mother was very active in the University's club life. She was part of the dance team, the drama club, the cheerleaders, and even a science club. How deep her family roots were in the school blew her mind. This lead to her investigated that side of her family secretly but she couldn't find much about them other than the fact that they were very wealthy and lived in France. In the end, Gemma could only assume that it was her mother who submitted an application for her to the University and paid her tuition fees. Currently, Gemma is trying to confirm this by digging up financial records from the school but getting those would require her having to break into one of the offices and hack the computer which is something she doubts she can do alone.
Between her interest in investigating her family and her own personal experiences dealing with crime Gemma has decided that rather than major in Fashion (which was the original plan) she'll major in Criminal Justice. Since entering college Gemma just feels like she should be using her powers for something more than just bedazzling clothes. She can use them to protect people and find the answers to her own personal questions about her past.
