application :: witches' reign
Name: Aaron
Journal: one_truespark
Contact: AIM; live the kind
OC or AU: AU
Character Name: Rose Lalonde
Series: Homestuck
Gender: Female
Age: 13 human years, or 6 Solar sweeps
Requested Sponsor: Opal
Entry position (Cadet, SeeD, Instructor, other): Cadet
Appearance: the troll on the right. She is seen here with her human counterpart, to accentuate the differences.
History:
Once upon a time, four kids named John Egbert, Rose Lalonde, Dave Strider and Jade Harley played a video game that destroyed the earth and killed all of them at least once, shattering a lot of objects in the process and generally turning their entire lives upside down.
Until they were trolls.
Once upon a time, four trolls from Alternia crash landed via meteor on the surface of Alternia, instead of being born from the Mother Grub like any normal wriggler. After their trials in the brooding caverns, from which they returned victorious, they were all granted a lusus, or caretaker, and told to set out and make their young fortunes on the planet of Alternia wherever they should so choose. Rose Lalonde was granted a Lynx lusus, by the name of Jaspers, and set out to make a unique hive (or home) that settled over a large river near the ocean, which powered the hive. She didn't have many friends -- or any at all really, since friendship was considered to be a disease in the higher echelons of troll society. Rose lived a solitary life, practicing the art of knitting and engaging in battles with wandering monsters to bring home meat to feed Jaspers and herself. Rose also liked to read fantasy novels, particularly those about wizards (though she kept this a secret from most people, and placed a facade on instead, one of hatred for the wizard kind). In fact, most of her sweeps were spent in isolation until the day she turned five solar sweeps.
It was that day that a troll by the name of Jade Harley contacted her over Trollian. She spouted some nonsense about dead lusii and seeing things in the clouds. And against her better judgment, Rose allowed her to keep on talking. The girl was fascinating -- a creative mind, but more open about her pursuits than Rose herself was. In fact, Jade became Rose's first "friend," though she would never call her that. And in time, over the sweep, Rose was introduced to two of Jade's other friends, two trolls named John Egbert and Dave Strider. Though occasionally they fought, the four of them became good companions, frequently talking to each other over Trollian and awaiting the arrival of a new game called SGRUB.
Rose was the first of her friends to retrieve it, and waited patiently until the day that John retrieved his, as well. Dave had refused to play with her -- they weren't the best of friends all the time, though they were there when it counted -- and Jade had no idea what it was. So Rose synced up to John as a server player and began a game to end the world. At first, no one thought anything of the countdown. But then meteors started crashing to the ground, John disappeared into the middle of a strange new world, and Rose needed help getting into the medium. She couldn't do it on her own. Turning to Dave, he fooled around with her at first, setting her house on fire due to the proximity to the falling meteors and getting Rose annoyed. But finally, Rose Lalonde entered the Medium to take her place in the Land of Light and Rain as the Seer of Light.
While traveling around her world and learning the secrets to beating the game, Rose was pestered by a strange new trollian handle -- grimAuxilliatrix, or Kanaya Maryam. Soon, Rose learned that 12 humans from the planet earth had played the game before them, and had failed. Even more devastating was the news that the trolls' own session was doomed from the start -- due to Jade's lusus being prototyped and the creation of a strange, futuristic bunny that was used to kill an important player in the game and allow the Big Bad, Jack Noir, to ascend to power over Derse. Of course, Rose was less than pleased.
Taking matters into her own hands, Rose decided to set out on a quest to tear her land apart looking for answers. She not only destroyed her first gate -- the pathway to the next part of her quest -- but also destroyed a palace of her consorts, looking for answers to mysterious questions about an entity called the Green Sun. Finally, she devised a suicide mission. Rose would take a bomb from the center of Skaia, the battlefield planet around which everyone centered, and send it into the Furthest Ring, to destroy the Green Sun and the source of Jack's power. And, in addition, fulfill her side of the bargain with a mysterious guardian named Doc Scratch, the first guardian of the humans' session, who was waiting to die. She refuses to tell anyone but Dave about her plan, judging that he'll be the best one to keep it secret. Of course, after such a shock, he complies.
I will be taking Rose from after her conversation with Dave about the Green Motherfucking Sun.
World History:
Homestuck is set on Earth, and it’s mostly like our regular everyday earth -- the same places and landmarks exist, and it’s assumed that everything else is the same as it was in April 2009.
Except for you know, meteors. And a swap of worlds.
On Alternia, the sun is so bright that the species that live there, the trolls, are required by nature to be nocturnal. All trolls save the rare jade-blooded trolls live in darkness, sleeping during the day in recuperacoons. These sleeping devices soothe the nightmares of the troll kind, which plague them constantly, by immersing them in spoor slime, a horrible substance never meant to be ingested. In addition, it's a very vicious culture -- young trolls are expected to kill or be killed, and are subjected at birth to a rigorous trial called the brooding caverns. There, the young wrigglers must fight for their lives, killing each other in order to emerge into the society, where a lusus (a guardian creature, always white, that lives on the planet of Alternia) takes charge of them based on blood color. They are then expected to seek out a life on their own, building their own homes and fighting off trolls that may be less than friendly to their arrival with the help of their lusus.
The troll society is based on a caste system by blood, as previously mentioned. Lower blood colors (red, orange, yellow) are considered to be fairly common -- there are more of the lower colors of blood, and as such they are easily susceptible to manipulation and death. In exchange, however, they are given psychic powers beyond compare, ranging from the ability to speak to the dead and commune with animals to psionic power that can move objects and be shot out of eyes as lasers. Higher blood colors are more rare, and are given immunity to psychic manipulation in exchange for their high status. They are generally bestowed larger, more powerful lusii, or at least more intelligent ones than some lowbloods. Rose's personal lusus is a lynx, an intelligent cat that follows her footsteps like a watchful guardian. Her own blood color, bright purple, sits between blue and indigo on the hemospectrum. As such, she is regarded as a high ranking troll, a rare breed that is closest to the nobility (or sea-dwellers) and is responsible for keeping the lower classes in line. Rose grew up with full knowledge that one day, as an adult troll on the spaceships of Alternia, she would be required to subjugate her friends and colleagues in the name of the Empress. Of course, she takes this very seriously, regarding it as a position of power which she is preparing for with the utmost solemnity. Even the lowest color of blood knows that they have a role to play in the Empire, and takes their futures very seriously, considering it an ambition that they have to fulfill.
Even troll romance is different than human romance. While this may not seem like an important installation in society, it actually is -- the trolls' lives depend on finding at least 2/4 of the quadrants that they can fill in romantic implications. Every sweep, a drone comes, requesting genetic material from the caliginous and the flushed partners. If they are unable to provide, they are culled (or basically, outright slaughtered). The quadrants are as follows:
FLUSHED (hearts): The closest to the human form of 'romance,' the flushed is based on mutual pity for one another. It is one of the two quadrants required for reproduction.
MOIRALLEGIANCE (diamonds): Sort of like a human best friend with romantic implications, a moiraillegiance keeps both trolls in line and inspires them to be the best trolls they can be for their flushed partners.
AUSPISTICE (clubs): A relationship that involves three trolls, two of whom are in potential black romance with each other, and a third that attempts to solve the conflict between the two in order to keep them from killing or severely injuring each other. Obviously the most volatile of the quadrants, and the one that is most likely to flip into another quadrant (which the relationships are wont to do in troll society).
CALIGINOUS (spades): The relationship that is the farthest from human romance -- this relationship is based purely on a mutual attraction between two trolls that is entirely hate-based. But they don't want to kill each other -- they merely want to make each other as miserable as possible, to make the other hate them even more. And also make out. The other quadrant that is required for reproduction.
Before coming here, only one of Rose's quadrants was filled -- moirailegiance. Though she had brief black flirtations, she was never particularly interested in red romance.
But to get back to the basics.
Rose and her friends weren’t actually born like normal trolls - turns out, the video game that they play (SBURB) has had them in mind from the beginning. It’s not chance that they were born and raised to play. They were created within the game itself, using a process called ectobiology, and then sent back in time (on meteors!) to be raised by guardians (who were also sent back in time via meteor). In addition to this abnormality, the characters of Homestuck are also equipped with a data structure-like storage system called a Sylladex. This allows them to store items as data within cards called captchalogue cards and access them at any time. These cards can be rewritten, though it tends to shoot whatever is inside out of the Sylladex.
Oh, and the world is destroyed by meteors. Didn’t I tell you that meteors were important? The world ceased to exist on the same day that John Egbert turned six solar sweeps (or 13 years old). The newly-turned trolls were pulled inside of SBURB and placed on their own lands, another difference between the worlds. They were presented with quests and given special powers that, if used correctly, would help them to defeat the black king and win the game, achieving immortality.
The players' worlds surround the planet called Skaia, the chessboard planet in the center of the Incipisphere (or the universe that the game exists in). Skaia is the ultimate goal for players of SBURB - they are literally told to "build up to Skaia," that is they build their houses high enough up that they can leap through the final gate of the game and fight the Big, Bad Boss. The point of the game is to create another universe, though the trolls' session was doomed from the start. Each troll's personal quest takes a ridiculous amount of time to complete (for example, the kids' session was completed in just over a month). This keeps them all extremely busy.
The players of SBURB also have another self, called their dreamself. Rose's dreamself has been asleep on the moon of Derse for a long time, until a doomed timeline merger woke her up, with added information about the game and Rose's purpose in it. Derse is the moon farthest from Skaia, close to the Furthest Ring. The people that dream there are given access to listen to the whispers of the horrorterrors, netherworld creatures that have a stake in the winning of the game of SBURB.
Abilities & Physical Abnormalities:
• Troll features. Gray skin, yellow scleras and fingernails/toenails, and two large candy corn colored horns that protrude from her skull.
• Seer abilities. The ability to see through objects to what's inside -- particularly when things are hidden. Takes intense concentration, but most people would never know that she was looking through things to see what's over there.
• The ability to manipulate dreams. A skill of highblooded trolls, Rose can cause people to see things in their dreams, and even give them nightmares. Particularly susceptible are the lower blooded trolls, like Dave. Doesn't work on highbloods, who are resistant to this technique to some extent.
• Sylladex: not necessarily an ability, but definitely a data structure that, for all we know, is implanted within the heros' minds as features, like in a computer. Rose's sylladex is set to 'tree,' which organizes things based on the first letter of the object.
• Advanced ability to utilize knitting needles. Rose fights with knitting needles, and can make them into particularly deadly weapons.
Personality:
The first time the reader sees Rose, it's as a vibrant shade of violet text that appears as one of John Egbert's friends through the client Pesterchum. When John talks to her, she seems wise beyond her years -- mature and refined, Rose is the only troll to type with correct grammar and syntax. She prides herself on her elegance, often using an extensive vocabulary to display her intellect. Intelligence is something that Rose Lalonde has in spades, and she's not afraid to admit it: she reads Lovecraftian horror stories at the age of thirteen, and has a deep interest in writing. She dabbles in psychoanalysis, often joking with her friends that she's writing all their interesting quirks and habits down in a notebook to keep for future publication (no one actually knows if this is true or not). Certainly, she seems to have insight into her friends' behavior more than any other person in the game, befitting of a Seer. Rose is also the person that orchestrates most of the game, becoming the first server player and directing John through the game while simultaneously keeping a verbose game guide such as the ones found on GameFAQs. She is meticulous in her planning and orchestrating, detailing every section of her journey through the game until the results of the game prove that there is no way they can win. Her intelligence ekes out here as well -- it's her prosaic rendering of the game that initially attracts Kanaya's attention and gains her affection.
In addition to her intelligence, it's clear that Rose is a very secretive person. She hides things from her friends -- secrets about her troll!wizard slash (which is written so elegantly that it's actually quite difficult to parse) and her journal full of MEOW code, the genetic code that would be stolen at a later date to create the omnipotent first guardian of Alternia, otherwise known as Jade's lusus. While the other trolls are content to tell most of their ideas straight out, Rose prefers to hide her master plan until it benefits her to reveal all the steps. She is not above lying to her friends in order to gain something. She tricks John into finding The Tumor by telling him it's treasure. Later, she remarks to Dave that it's actually a bomb, used to destroy the Green Sun and therefore rid their session of its aberrations. She acts as a beneficial guide in John's quest to win the game while hiding important information for a later date. Especially as a troll, Rose can be very manipulative -- it's part of her nature, born and raised to control lower blooded trolls through the coercion and manipulation of dreams. She uses this manipulation to her advantage when she can (like her consistent one-up competition with Dave) and does not see it beyond her range to manipulate her friends into doing what she wants. Unlike Rose's hesitations as a human to hurt her friends, troll Rose will hurt them if it means that they will eventually get what they need to complete some objective, mostly because friendship isn't really a thing on Alternia. So if there are no friends, why should they care if you hurt them for a cause?
Above all, Seers in the game desire power, or the collection and retention of information that could place them higher than any other player. Rose has grand aspirations to ascend to God Tier, though it was supposedly not in her future until recently -- she questions Doc Scratch and Kanaya about this, simply taking in her options -- she is led by the forces of the outer ring, which she is privy to as a Derse dreamer. Rose fully believes in the power that information holds, and will destroy things to gain it -- she rips apart the seams of the game and her world in order to unearth the secrets of the Green Sun, flagrantly disregarding the warnings of the kids. Knowledge is useful, and Rose knows how to distribute it for her personal gain. Taking risks is simply part of the game, and she will play the game to its fullest -- death is not a deterrent to her. She purposefully listens to the gods and creates her Thorns (dark magic-fueled knitting needles) with the intent of following their orders on the promise of knowledge and a successful game session. Power plays are frequent in her dialogue, especially with her friends. Rose doesn't like losing in anything, be it SBURB or a simple conversation. She must always get the last word, frequently having verbal spars and even psychic manipulation wars with her ectobiology sibling Dave. Her ability to analyze other people's tactics makes her a formidable foe where passive-aggressive tactics are concerned. She knows just how to annoy or frustrate whoever she's speaking to.
Rose believes that it's inefficient to go around spewing emotions all the time -- she only expresses her sorrow or anger when it's so great that she can't hold it in any more, like after her Mom is killed by Jack Noir. She actually cares a great deal about her colleages, despite seeming detached. While her sort of affection is a little lopsided and strange, she does wish all the best for them, and works towards success with their interests in mind, even if it means hurting them. In her mind, she hides information to help them, as well as better herself. She's also very compassionate towards animals; Rose loved her lusus, Jaspers, dearly before he passed away with the advent of the game. She made her first friend in him, and this sort of tender affection for pets seems to translate over to the consorts of her world. The consorts are elegantly dressed in fashion that Rose designed herself (with the help of Kanaya, supposedly), and she takes care of them, even bringing them with her as helpers when she travels to Dave's world. Most of the time she hides what she feels and presents the calm, reasonable exterior that most are used to seeing. She has gotten so good at this facade that it's her natural reaction -- excessive displays of emotion are uncomfortable for her, and she would much rather talk about things calmly than display hysterics. Sometimes, however, her feelings get the better of her, and she will tear apart the game in order to get revenge for the people (and animals) she loves.
There's a lot less pressure to do what's expected (or what she thinks is expected) when she's by herself, and Rose revels in solitude. She's had ample time to explore her interests, and cares for her precious free time, as it allows her to be a real person, rather than some sort of emotionless weird troll (which she's not). Rose just doesn't want people to think less of her -- power lies in the exterior presented as well as the interior knowledge behind the words, and Rose leaves nothing to chance.
To sum up the differences between a troll version of Rose and the human version:
- Troll Rose cares less about her friends' safety when it comes to accomplishing goals. She has no qualms about putting them in danger if it means that eventually, they will turn out on top. Particularly in the game of SBURB where there are two lives, she sees no problem in dying once to accomplish something or gain new understanding.
- Because of her upbringing on Alternia, Rose has a sense of purpose surrounding her future aspiration -- a subjugator, someone who controls the rest of the population. She even practices this on her friends, particularly Dave, who she plagues with nightmares in a continual need to be better than him, and to prove her superiority.
- She's a little bit snobbier than her original self, because of her high place on the hemospectrum. It's gone a little bit to her head, though her moirail John (not the John currently in the game) helped her with that over the sweeps. Now, she's merely a vision of what her past self was like, though she can still be haughty and cold when she deigns to, or when it serves her purpose.
- Less of her time is devoted to silly practices, such as riding ponies while wearing scarves. Because of her sense of purpose, things that are fun are mostly deemed as irrelevant (though she has been known to still hold up alternian letters to her nose in the shape of a moustache).
What are your plans for the character in-game? Putting Rose into a situation where she is surrounded by a species that she finds inferior will be interesting. It'll be fun to deal with the implications of having her friends who aren't actually from her universe around her, as well as have her learn the value of being able to trust others without being able to manipulate them to her will. She'll actually have to open up around people to get them to trust her.
Anything else?
Rose writes in a violet shade that is equivalent to her blood color.
She types in complete sentences and with correct grammar, unlike her companions. Don't worry, she won't try you with her elongated prose if you find it too overbearing.
Complete TWO out of the FOUR options.
i) IC Questionnaire (can be found on the application page)
(As this questionnaire is entirely IC, your character is free to lie.)
What do you prefer to be known as? Rose Lalonde. Call me by anything else, and I won't answer.
How old are you? Six sweeps.
Do you have any history in combat? Of course.
If so, have you ever killed? [ ... ] I advise that you continue down that list of questions. You wouldn't want to know the answer.
i) How do you feel when you get involved in some project that calls for immediate and rapid activity? I take control and handle the project. If it calls for alacrity then there's no need to waste time. I'll finish it efficiently and as quickly as possible.
ii) Do you organize and initiate leisure activities? No.
iii) What role do you take when working in a group? I don't work in groups. At least, preferably. I work best on my own.
iv) How talkative are you around other people? Does it matter? That hardly seems fitting for a mercenary camp to ask.
v) What three things would you want to have with you on a desert island? State your reasoning. My Thorns, to protect myself. John, because he might be necessary to keep us all sane with his ridiculous movie references. And... [ A pause, she looks at her hands. ] My lusus. I'm not going to state my reasoning. I'd just like her with me.
vi) Is it important to be liked by a wide range of people? Why would it be important? If you're doing your job well, does it matter?
vii) When the odds are against you, is it worth taking a chance? As long as the rewards are great, then yes. I believe it's always worth taking a chance, especially if you worked hard to get there in the first place.
Never give up.
viii) Do you consider yourself to be an impulsive person? I do a lot of planning in my spare time. Does that answer your question?
ix) Would you agree that planning things ahead takes the fun out of life? Based on my previous answer, do you really think that I'd answer this question any differently than you expect me to?
x) Do you like surprises? It depends on the surprise. Will it attack me, or will it come bearing gifts?
xi) Do you sometimes wonder if there is something wrong with you? Never.
xii) Do you consider yourself to be smarter than your superiors, and disagree with their decisions? It depends on their decisions. If I don't like them, I'll find my own solutions.
iv) Thread link
ONE (1) Dear Mun post.