Garnet Stein

Garnet Stein is the leader of Team GVNT and a character who debuts in Volume 2 of The Coming Storm.

Personality
Garnet has what most would assume to be a soft-spoken personality. She doesn't speak loud, but her actions certainly do so. She likes to have fun when she can, but has to be the one to keep a situation under control when her teammates go at each other. She offers good advice and a few life lessons every so often, and wants to make sure those around her know just what they're doing. Because of this, most find her off-putting, primarily because of the look on her face. She enjoys life like any person should, but doesn't realize she's not smiling while it's happening. If anything, her facial expressions happen more in her head than on her face.

Background
Garnet grew up with a small family on the shady side of Mistral. Her older sister Rydia was 13 when she was born, and her mother was the only parent taking care of them after their father left. While their mother was at work, Rydia was put in charge of Garnet, looking after her from 9 to 5 for four or five days a week. When they weren't cooped up in the house, Garnet was out with friends her age, playing all kinds of games that got her more scuffed up than usual. Her mom would come home and assume Rydia hadn't done her job as an older sister and a babysitter. Garnet would recover just fine, but it still annoyed Rydia to no end.

A day came when Garnet was about 4, and Rydia was ready to ship off to Siren Academy for combat training—but their mother had different ideas. She had to work, and someone had to look after Garnet, meaning Rydia couldn't go to her dream school like she always wanted. That was the day Rydia blew a fuse. After her mom came home from work, she found Garnet bruised all over, and Rydia had written something on her bedroom wall: "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT." They didn't see her again for a long time. Garnet's mom quit her job and stayed home to look after her, wondering what to do with an only child. Garnet grew up since then, learning how to cook early on and do some standard cleaning so she could take the pressure off her mom. The two made out a good existence since then, and came to love each other dearly.

Finally, Garnet was in her mid teens, but she didn't plan on leaving the house anytime soon. Her mom refuted and said she couldn't just stay to cook and clean all her life; she had to find something that would motivate her to have a fulltime passion and career. Despite her protests, Garnet suddenly found herself trying out for Siren within a few months. The first time around, she wasn't accepted, mostly due to a lack of experience and lack of a weapon. That soon changed when she was shopping around one day and found herself on the site of a bank heist. The doors exploded, and out came someone who looked like a blonde version of her sister—Rydia. She was baffled, and after seeing people in danger, she practically threw herself into the line of fire to protect a little girl. Rydia was ready to shoot her down alright, but not before Garnet had the chance to fight back; she yanked the weapon away and found herself throwing kicks and punches like her life depended on it. Her eyes were shut tight, but after taking a few hits, there was darkness, a gunshot, and then a scream. She looked up and her sister was gone, but the police were coming. They praised her for stopping a wanted criminal from doing any collateral damage, and she found herself going home with a new credibility to put on her application.

After using the reward money to commission a weapon, Garnet reapplied to Siren and got in, much to her surprise. The following several months came with a lot of events, ranging from her initiation to making a few new friends...and rivals.