Rose Lalonde (Alpha) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
arosewiththorns) wrote2014-06-18 11:34 am
arosewiththorns) wrote2014-06-18 11:34 am
Application for The Games
OUT of CHARACTER
Name: Nutmeg
Other characters: N/A
IN CHARACTER
Name: Rose Lalonde (Alpha)
Fandom: Homestuck
Canon point/AU: Mid-rebellion against the Condesce.
Journal:arosewiththorns
PB: Art from Homestuck
History: The Alpha version of Rose Lalonde grew up in the universe created when the Beta versions of herself and friends scratched their failed sburb attempt. Here the Beta kids switched places with their own guardians, so had everything gone to plan Rose would have found herself mother to Roxy Lalonde. And in a way she still is, as Roxy refers to her as her mother despite the fact that the two of them never actually met due to time shenanigans.
But that's jumping ahead by quite a few years. Rose, like all children created by ectobiology arrived on Earth via of a good old fashioned meteor. She was adopted by a lovely couple and raised to be a talented young level headed woman. But from a very young age Rose found herself dreaming of another universe and a game, the dreams fractured and vague on details. It wasn't until the April after her thirteenth birthday that that changed, Rose waking up on that day with a complete memory of her beta self's life up to the scratch. And it changed Rose, who withdrew into herself, a trait she carried for most of her life.
Not only did her memory return that day but her abilities as a seer were reawakened. This didn't help Rose from withdrawing, as she was suddenly faced with more than a thirteen year old girl should have to know, and could find herself easily knowing the fates that choices would lead to, and which one would be the most fortunous. In many ways she's similar to Kankri, who in the trolls scratched session went on to be The Signless/Sufferer, fueled by his own memories of a more peaceful Beforus. Due to Beta's Rose's history of going grimdark it is implied that Alpha Rose retained her majyyks, remembers all that the horrorterrors once taught her.
One of the few people Rose did reach out to was Dave Strider. As John was already famous by the time Rose remembered, and Jade already embedded in her own rebellious plans they were both harder to reach than Dave. They wrote back and forth for months, Rose slowly testing the waters to see if the bonds of friendship she remembered could be as strong as her memories made her believe. And when Rose finally felt he was ready, she told him that his dreams were more memories, and the barest information about the game and the alternate universe, as well as their own genetic connection.
And then later she told him about Dirk and Roxy. Roxy was one of the few things Rose actually enjoyed knowing about, and found herself actually looking forward to. And while they waited for them to appear Dave and Rose both focused on their own passions, Dave on his horribly ironic movies and Rose on her writing, becoming a published author with the series “Complacency of the Learned” which always seemed to contain hidden subtexts from the games.
However when Roxy never appeared, life became a little more bitter for Rose. And then sixteen years later when Crockercorp underwent rebranding that life changed for Rose and Dave and Earth as a whole. Rose had known it was a possible future, and upon it she and Dave took to quietly adding in their own attacks on the Condesce, or Batterwitch as they call her, in their works. They were careful, knowing too much before they were ready would get themselves killed. It was a slow and steady escalation of quiet rebellion.
And that's where I'll be taking Rose from, in her late 30's and orchestrating many a passive aggressive attack at an alien overlord..
Presentation: Rose is amongst all other things, a private woman. She prefers to keep most of her own thoughts and feelings to herself, and has a tendency to hold others at arms length. A lot of this comes from her natural cynicism, as she expects the worst from most people. But most of it comes from her memories of another life, and her abilities to see fates. Knowing exactly where a friendship could go and how it could end doesn’t tend to inspire one to make a lot of friends.And when you can remember the great bonds you once had you often don’t find yourself wanting to attempt to make new ones as you know deep down they could never really fix the ones you’ve lost.
The life of a writer, even a famous one, tends to lead one to becoming a recluse. After all she’s just being eccentric. And so no one has ever really encouraged Rose out of her shell, and in turn the only real connection she has in her world is to Dave Strider, her ecto-brother. He is one of the rare people she reached out to first, and simply because he was the one he could reach easiest. Dave is the only person on Earth that actually has Rose’s trust, though even with him she remains quite private, half because it’s her nature and half because she knows he doesn’t want to know all that she does. And she’s fine with that. It’s not a burden she’d share with anyone.
So cynical and a recluse, Rose keeps people away, either with simply never talking to them, remaining aloof, or by sharp quips. She’s been known to hurt more than a few people with her words, and with her passion of psychoanalysing others she’s made a few people dislike her. Half because she can see quite quickly what a person’s like, and half because she doesn’t sugar coat her words, she’s blunt and she gets to the point. She acts like nothing ever reaches her, that nothing ever hurts her, but deep down Rose is a grown woman who learnt far too much about the world, from what it’s like to lose someone to what it’s like to walk into your own death. That tends to leave you a little cold and disconnected.
Aside from Dave, the one person Rose ever intended to really grow close to was Roxy. She had looked forward to her mother-daughter’s arrival, and when she never showed it cut her deeply. It’s a pain she carries still, mostly because she remembers beta Rose’s mother and on some side was looking forward to regrowing that relationship. And she feels guilty, even if it’s not something that she can control, that she won’t be there to raise her daughter. It’s why she threw herself into the rebellion with Dave, why she ended up giving her life. If she had the smallest chance to make life better for Roxy she’ll take it.
In regards to trolls, Rose is not as hateful as Dave is of the race, simply because she remembers the ones she once met. She’s not going to trust them all without question, but the only one she truly despises is The Condesce. The others she remains suspicious of, unsure if her memories are flawed due to the age, or if she should trust her younger alternate. But they at least have a chance to earn her trust over time.
Alpha Rose also shows that she shares many of her beta self’s hobbies, from knitting, to an interest in wizards to writing. She’s a published author or a best seller concerning wizards, and in turn can be quite critical of the genre. She’s not the hugest fan of Rowling, simply because her books are just not her taste and she can see many flaws in them. Dave has also found himself with many an ironic sweater in his christmas gifts, Rose a constant knitter to keep herself busy. She also has a cat, named Frigglish that she’s quite fond of.
However she doesn’t quite share beta Rose’s fascination with the horrorterrors, simply because she remembers what contact with them did to her. She has retained her majyyks, and sure they come in handy but she knows better than to speak about the horrorterrors. They’re a force to be respected from afar and not to be messed with. Eldritch tongues are hard on the voice box after all.
In the end Rose is a proud, private woman, her circle of friends few and far between. If you are able to break into that circle you’ll find yourself with a firm and loyal friend who will often put yourself above her own well being. But if you find her to be your enemy then you better be watching where she’s keeping her knitting needles.
Motivations: What drives Rose Lalonde? What motivates her? It’s a question that’s been asked time and time again, in interview after interview and Rose has a rather long list of answers she’s give from the almost sincere to the completely sarcastic but said in a sincere enough tone that interviews have had to take it as truth. But in truth no one is completely sure what motivates Rose, and sometimes that includes herself.
Her biggest motivation is usually making a better world for her future daughter/genetic mother and that’s expressed by being the head of a rebellion against Her Imperial Condescension, otherwise known as Betty Crocker, who is in fact an alien bent on conquering Earth to attempt to recreate her own native planet on it. Ever since Rose realised Roxy would not be arriving in her own lifetime, but would instead arrive to a world where the human population has been destroyed she made it her work to try and both ensure that her daughter would have all the resources she would ever need, from alcohol to block her natural Void abilities and allow her to make the necessary friends for the game, to guns to ensure she’d be able to fight when needed. But she also did her best to try and weaken the Condesce’s grasp as much as possible.
However, while I do say that Rose went straight into preparing for Roxy’s inevitable future arrival, in truth there was a year or two where those plans were not in process. Realising Roxy would never arrive in a time where she could actually be there to help her cut Rose deeply and she fell down a hole Lalonde’s seem susceptible to. Alcohol. Nowadays she’s fine, a recovering addict yes, but she has a sense of determination few can squash and she’s perfectly able to resist temptation as she knows it doesn’t help anyone. After all, drinking blocks her ability to See, and that’s a skill necessary to fight in her eyes.
Like I said above, Rose is an incredibly private person, and it both makes her incredibly mysterious to some but also closes her off to most. She has very little bonds to people, aside from Dave and her editor, and it makes it difficult for her to trust people completely. It also means she’s prone to keeping her concerns to herself, keeping them from Dave also. This is naturally not always the smartest thing to do, as if often leads to her going off and doing her own thing, ignoring the risk to her own safety most of the time. She has a slight suicidal tendency, thinking more about the greater benefit that the risk it may be to her, much like her beta self. After all, she is still the girl who stepped in willingly to the Horrorterror’s corruption and later attempted to pilot herself off into a solo suicidal mission. She’s just a little more grown up.
Her other main motivation links back to the first, attempting to give Roxy a good chance at life, as it is her motivation to destroy the Condesce and her empire that drives Rose a lot. It’s lead to her slipping references regarding the game into her book series, though the references would be lost to those who hadn’t encountered SBurb. And by now Rose is well aware that her fate likely, most probably, ends in death and yet she’s still fighting. She’ll keep on fighting, right up until the fish bitch skewers her on her oversized fork because probability isn’t certainty and she has to try and take her down, no matter the cost.
Setting:Rose, for the first few years of her life had a fairly normal childhood. And then she woke up with her memories of her beta self playing a game that practically promises death. So she can recall her alternate selves deaths fairly well and she has also known for quite a long time her own eventual death. So death is nothing new to her. Nor is fighting for her life, as she's spent most of her adulthood rebelling against the Condesce and her schemes which included many a battle. She's prepared, both physically and mentally to do what needs to be done and she has the abilities to do so in my opinion.
SAMPLES
First Person Thread: [Death. Really it hadn't be that surprising to her, even with her less natural abilities stripped down. Death was a likelihood in this so called game, and fortune was a fickle bitch when it came down to it. She's not surprised to hear the odds were not in her favour, to steal a phrase she's heard more times than she's cared to count since her arrival here.
The metal slab under her is like ice but she doesn't move, merely staring at the ceiling. She can hear the little device chirping at her, as annoying as a morning wake up alarm but she's used to ignoring such petty annoyances. She'll talk if and when she feels ready. When she knows her voice won't crack and her emotions won't show.
She has an image to uphold after all.
Finally she moves, each shift as graceful as ever and Rose scoops up the little device holding it carefully in her palm as she considers her words, studying the blank wall before her without a clear expression on her face. And when she does speak it's slow, emotionless and even bored.]
My current feelings on my loss? What are you expecting? Are you expecting grief, that I mourn my own demise? That seems rather foolish, after all, I'm clearly here and quite alright. Death tends to lose it's shock when it's not your first recollection of it, and it's even less effective when it's not lasting.
Not, [And she huffs a small breath of laughter] that I'm complaining for those who may wish to take it that way. I do enjoy life. It has it's entertainments.
So no, not grief. Frustration? No, I can't say I feel any of that either. Winning would have been acceptable, but it's no great loss to me. I suppose I'll be playing this game again next time, if what they told me is correct. So, there are plenty of opportunities for success in later days and that's acceptable to me.
I suppose acceptance is the current feeling. Boring, I suppose, but what can I say. [She hums] I don't truly care to say anything more in truth. So I suppose that's your answer.
[And carefully she puts the device down, hand pressed firm against it and for a moment Rose almost seems to crack. She's a good liar, one of the best but she's tired. She's tired and as much as she tries to ignore it death leaves a mark, on the psyche at least if not the body.
But she masks it again, carefully, quickly, a second of weakness and slowly she slips off her slab, feet light as she crosses the floor to the door, waiting for it to open. They got their answer, she'll play their games, but she'll play them her way.
And she'll win them in the way she sees fit.]
Prose: They wanted to see what she could do. Even if they hadn’t told her that, even without her natural ability to See Rose could tell that easy enough. After all, there was little reason to bring her here, and the nature of the games, as much as she’s managed to collect in her brief explanation of why she was here and where here even was. It stands to reason that for one to enter a game it’s intended audience would like to have a grasp of what they were skilled at. Similar enough to most sports, in a basic, bare bones way.
For a moment Rose contemplates not playing along. She could sit, protest in that way. Maybe if she does they’ll return her to where she belongs. Unlikely though, these captors of hers seem as unreasonable as the Batterwitch. For all she knows she’s connected to this in a way, it’s a scheme of hers and yet a part of Rose knows that’s not true. The witch has never shown an ability to make it impossible for her to See and she flaunts her psionic abilities with a sense of arrogance.
In truth Rose is not a woman who can ignore a request like this, and so she wanders the room with a near sense of boredom, skimming fingers over the selection of weapons, looking for one that will suit her most. Swords are manageable but they’re more her brother’s trade in truth and Rose crushes the part of her that wonders where he is, if he’s here too, going through this as well. Spears are cumbersome when you’re petite, and bows and arrows aren’t her craft. Finally she finds a collection of needles, much smaller than her usual choice, intended for delivery of poison she assumes but. They’ll do.
Carefully she scoops a few into her hand, her steps measured as she makes her way to the dummy they’ve given her. It’s almost frustrating in truth, there’s no true way to show her abilities off with a target that stands still but, beggars can’t be choosers. She’ll work with what she’s given and her mind is dealing with bigger things, calculating what will be enough to impress but not to make her a target of too much interest.
Finally, she decides and she moves, steps quick and light. The dummy stands no chance still as he is, and needles find their marks with quick flicks of her wrists, Rose barely having to look to check they make their marks. Groin, opening a vital artery. Heart, deep enough that all she has to do is yank it free and they’ll bleed out within minutes. Throat, and on a human that would go straight through them. The last two needles she keeps in her hands, held tight as she speeds forward and it’s easy to leap and land, dummy and her crashing down together and she buries the needles where the eyes should be as they go.
She’s barely winded as she stands, raising a brow to the audience above her and Rose takes a deep curtsey, a mocking one before she stands and turns without waiting for a signal of dismissal and makes to leave the room.
She’s given enough of her time to them today.
What is your character scored: I’d rank Rose around a 7-8. She’s better than average, having been fighting a rebellion of sorts for many years, and while they’re more at the passive aggressive stages rather than open combat she has faced attempts on her life. And she’s been honing her skills for years as she knows what is likely coming. Her main weapon is needlekind, as in knitting needles, typically and while they seem like a silly weapon she’s quite skilled in them, having killed a man by stabbing him through the eyes and riding his corpse down a waterfall in her later years. So even at 38 she’s quite physically fit and she’s an excellent tactician in turn, having been one of the unofficial leaders of the rebellion against the Condesce.
In a powered up arena I can easily see Rose rising to a 11 if not a 12 due to the fact that she has been left with many of the skills her Beta self possessed. This includes a skill in majyyks, which she has used to black herself out from photos and videos, and can channel through her needles to form blasts of light. She also has a connection to the Horrorterrors, which is how she’s gotten her majyyks in the first place, but it means in turn she can go Grimdark is pushed, which reduces her to speaking in Eldritch tongues but adds to her power. But her most important ability relates to the class and aspect she was given in game, a Seer of Light. Seers have been shown to be the only ones to recall the game after a scratched session, and they also have the ability to use their ability to, well, see, basically. Light is a double edged class, relating to both knowledge and fortune, and so together Rose has had the ability to see the likelihood of an outcome and it’s other effects, as well as finding it quite easy to know pretty much anything, like how Roxy and Dirk were supposed to arrive and be the children of Rose and Dave, as well as later realising that they wouldn’t come for centuries after Dave and her own death. So ultimately Rose is a difficult opponent to beat when she has her abilities as it’s exceedingly easy for her to see what her opponent is going to do, and it can take someone with an equally powerful gift in psionics to best her.
Popularity wise, Rose has spent her years as a public figure, a famous author and so she’s used to the fickleness of people. But she’s not a woman to give much away and so she’d likely play it the way she always has and be the enigma, the mystery. It’s enough to catch someone’s attention, and it keeps them wanting more.
Additional information: N/A
Name: Nutmeg
Other characters: N/A
IN CHARACTER
Name: Rose Lalonde (Alpha)
Fandom: Homestuck
Canon point/AU: Mid-rebellion against the Condesce.
Journal:
arosewiththornsPB: Art from Homestuck
History: The Alpha version of Rose Lalonde grew up in the universe created when the Beta versions of herself and friends scratched their failed sburb attempt. Here the Beta kids switched places with their own guardians, so had everything gone to plan Rose would have found herself mother to Roxy Lalonde. And in a way she still is, as Roxy refers to her as her mother despite the fact that the two of them never actually met due to time shenanigans.
But that's jumping ahead by quite a few years. Rose, like all children created by ectobiology arrived on Earth via of a good old fashioned meteor. She was adopted by a lovely couple and raised to be a talented young level headed woman. But from a very young age Rose found herself dreaming of another universe and a game, the dreams fractured and vague on details. It wasn't until the April after her thirteenth birthday that that changed, Rose waking up on that day with a complete memory of her beta self's life up to the scratch. And it changed Rose, who withdrew into herself, a trait she carried for most of her life.
Not only did her memory return that day but her abilities as a seer were reawakened. This didn't help Rose from withdrawing, as she was suddenly faced with more than a thirteen year old girl should have to know, and could find herself easily knowing the fates that choices would lead to, and which one would be the most fortunous. In many ways she's similar to Kankri, who in the trolls scratched session went on to be The Signless/Sufferer, fueled by his own memories of a more peaceful Beforus. Due to Beta's Rose's history of going grimdark it is implied that Alpha Rose retained her majyyks, remembers all that the horrorterrors once taught her.
One of the few people Rose did reach out to was Dave Strider. As John was already famous by the time Rose remembered, and Jade already embedded in her own rebellious plans they were both harder to reach than Dave. They wrote back and forth for months, Rose slowly testing the waters to see if the bonds of friendship she remembered could be as strong as her memories made her believe. And when Rose finally felt he was ready, she told him that his dreams were more memories, and the barest information about the game and the alternate universe, as well as their own genetic connection.
And then later she told him about Dirk and Roxy. Roxy was one of the few things Rose actually enjoyed knowing about, and found herself actually looking forward to. And while they waited for them to appear Dave and Rose both focused on their own passions, Dave on his horribly ironic movies and Rose on her writing, becoming a published author with the series “Complacency of the Learned” which always seemed to contain hidden subtexts from the games.
However when Roxy never appeared, life became a little more bitter for Rose. And then sixteen years later when Crockercorp underwent rebranding that life changed for Rose and Dave and Earth as a whole. Rose had known it was a possible future, and upon it she and Dave took to quietly adding in their own attacks on the Condesce, or Batterwitch as they call her, in their works. They were careful, knowing too much before they were ready would get themselves killed. It was a slow and steady escalation of quiet rebellion.
And that's where I'll be taking Rose from, in her late 30's and orchestrating many a passive aggressive attack at an alien overlord..
Presentation: Rose is amongst all other things, a private woman. She prefers to keep most of her own thoughts and feelings to herself, and has a tendency to hold others at arms length. A lot of this comes from her natural cynicism, as she expects the worst from most people. But most of it comes from her memories of another life, and her abilities to see fates. Knowing exactly where a friendship could go and how it could end doesn’t tend to inspire one to make a lot of friends.And when you can remember the great bonds you once had you often don’t find yourself wanting to attempt to make new ones as you know deep down they could never really fix the ones you’ve lost.
The life of a writer, even a famous one, tends to lead one to becoming a recluse. After all she’s just being eccentric. And so no one has ever really encouraged Rose out of her shell, and in turn the only real connection she has in her world is to Dave Strider, her ecto-brother. He is one of the rare people she reached out to first, and simply because he was the one he could reach easiest. Dave is the only person on Earth that actually has Rose’s trust, though even with him she remains quite private, half because it’s her nature and half because she knows he doesn’t want to know all that she does. And she’s fine with that. It’s not a burden she’d share with anyone.
So cynical and a recluse, Rose keeps people away, either with simply never talking to them, remaining aloof, or by sharp quips. She’s been known to hurt more than a few people with her words, and with her passion of psychoanalysing others she’s made a few people dislike her. Half because she can see quite quickly what a person’s like, and half because she doesn’t sugar coat her words, she’s blunt and she gets to the point. She acts like nothing ever reaches her, that nothing ever hurts her, but deep down Rose is a grown woman who learnt far too much about the world, from what it’s like to lose someone to what it’s like to walk into your own death. That tends to leave you a little cold and disconnected.
Aside from Dave, the one person Rose ever intended to really grow close to was Roxy. She had looked forward to her mother-daughter’s arrival, and when she never showed it cut her deeply. It’s a pain she carries still, mostly because she remembers beta Rose’s mother and on some side was looking forward to regrowing that relationship. And she feels guilty, even if it’s not something that she can control, that she won’t be there to raise her daughter. It’s why she threw herself into the rebellion with Dave, why she ended up giving her life. If she had the smallest chance to make life better for Roxy she’ll take it.
In regards to trolls, Rose is not as hateful as Dave is of the race, simply because she remembers the ones she once met. She’s not going to trust them all without question, but the only one she truly despises is The Condesce. The others she remains suspicious of, unsure if her memories are flawed due to the age, or if she should trust her younger alternate. But they at least have a chance to earn her trust over time.
Alpha Rose also shows that she shares many of her beta self’s hobbies, from knitting, to an interest in wizards to writing. She’s a published author or a best seller concerning wizards, and in turn can be quite critical of the genre. She’s not the hugest fan of Rowling, simply because her books are just not her taste and she can see many flaws in them. Dave has also found himself with many an ironic sweater in his christmas gifts, Rose a constant knitter to keep herself busy. She also has a cat, named Frigglish that she’s quite fond of.
However she doesn’t quite share beta Rose’s fascination with the horrorterrors, simply because she remembers what contact with them did to her. She has retained her majyyks, and sure they come in handy but she knows better than to speak about the horrorterrors. They’re a force to be respected from afar and not to be messed with. Eldritch tongues are hard on the voice box after all.
In the end Rose is a proud, private woman, her circle of friends few and far between. If you are able to break into that circle you’ll find yourself with a firm and loyal friend who will often put yourself above her own well being. But if you find her to be your enemy then you better be watching where she’s keeping her knitting needles.
Motivations: What drives Rose Lalonde? What motivates her? It’s a question that’s been asked time and time again, in interview after interview and Rose has a rather long list of answers she’s give from the almost sincere to the completely sarcastic but said in a sincere enough tone that interviews have had to take it as truth. But in truth no one is completely sure what motivates Rose, and sometimes that includes herself.
Her biggest motivation is usually making a better world for her future daughter/genetic mother and that’s expressed by being the head of a rebellion against Her Imperial Condescension, otherwise known as Betty Crocker, who is in fact an alien bent on conquering Earth to attempt to recreate her own native planet on it. Ever since Rose realised Roxy would not be arriving in her own lifetime, but would instead arrive to a world where the human population has been destroyed she made it her work to try and both ensure that her daughter would have all the resources she would ever need, from alcohol to block her natural Void abilities and allow her to make the necessary friends for the game, to guns to ensure she’d be able to fight when needed. But she also did her best to try and weaken the Condesce’s grasp as much as possible.
However, while I do say that Rose went straight into preparing for Roxy’s inevitable future arrival, in truth there was a year or two where those plans were not in process. Realising Roxy would never arrive in a time where she could actually be there to help her cut Rose deeply and she fell down a hole Lalonde’s seem susceptible to. Alcohol. Nowadays she’s fine, a recovering addict yes, but she has a sense of determination few can squash and she’s perfectly able to resist temptation as she knows it doesn’t help anyone. After all, drinking blocks her ability to See, and that’s a skill necessary to fight in her eyes.
Like I said above, Rose is an incredibly private person, and it both makes her incredibly mysterious to some but also closes her off to most. She has very little bonds to people, aside from Dave and her editor, and it makes it difficult for her to trust people completely. It also means she’s prone to keeping her concerns to herself, keeping them from Dave also. This is naturally not always the smartest thing to do, as if often leads to her going off and doing her own thing, ignoring the risk to her own safety most of the time. She has a slight suicidal tendency, thinking more about the greater benefit that the risk it may be to her, much like her beta self. After all, she is still the girl who stepped in willingly to the Horrorterror’s corruption and later attempted to pilot herself off into a solo suicidal mission. She’s just a little more grown up.
Her other main motivation links back to the first, attempting to give Roxy a good chance at life, as it is her motivation to destroy the Condesce and her empire that drives Rose a lot. It’s lead to her slipping references regarding the game into her book series, though the references would be lost to those who hadn’t encountered SBurb. And by now Rose is well aware that her fate likely, most probably, ends in death and yet she’s still fighting. She’ll keep on fighting, right up until the fish bitch skewers her on her oversized fork because probability isn’t certainty and she has to try and take her down, no matter the cost.
Setting:Rose, for the first few years of her life had a fairly normal childhood. And then she woke up with her memories of her beta self playing a game that practically promises death. So she can recall her alternate selves deaths fairly well and she has also known for quite a long time her own eventual death. So death is nothing new to her. Nor is fighting for her life, as she's spent most of her adulthood rebelling against the Condesce and her schemes which included many a battle. She's prepared, both physically and mentally to do what needs to be done and she has the abilities to do so in my opinion.
SAMPLES
First Person Thread: [Death. Really it hadn't be that surprising to her, even with her less natural abilities stripped down. Death was a likelihood in this so called game, and fortune was a fickle bitch when it came down to it. She's not surprised to hear the odds were not in her favour, to steal a phrase she's heard more times than she's cared to count since her arrival here.
The metal slab under her is like ice but she doesn't move, merely staring at the ceiling. She can hear the little device chirping at her, as annoying as a morning wake up alarm but she's used to ignoring such petty annoyances. She'll talk if and when she feels ready. When she knows her voice won't crack and her emotions won't show.
She has an image to uphold after all.
Finally she moves, each shift as graceful as ever and Rose scoops up the little device holding it carefully in her palm as she considers her words, studying the blank wall before her without a clear expression on her face. And when she does speak it's slow, emotionless and even bored.]
My current feelings on my loss? What are you expecting? Are you expecting grief, that I mourn my own demise? That seems rather foolish, after all, I'm clearly here and quite alright. Death tends to lose it's shock when it's not your first recollection of it, and it's even less effective when it's not lasting.
Not, [And she huffs a small breath of laughter] that I'm complaining for those who may wish to take it that way. I do enjoy life. It has it's entertainments.
So no, not grief. Frustration? No, I can't say I feel any of that either. Winning would have been acceptable, but it's no great loss to me. I suppose I'll be playing this game again next time, if what they told me is correct. So, there are plenty of opportunities for success in later days and that's acceptable to me.
I suppose acceptance is the current feeling. Boring, I suppose, but what can I say. [She hums] I don't truly care to say anything more in truth. So I suppose that's your answer.
[And carefully she puts the device down, hand pressed firm against it and for a moment Rose almost seems to crack. She's a good liar, one of the best but she's tired. She's tired and as much as she tries to ignore it death leaves a mark, on the psyche at least if not the body.
But she masks it again, carefully, quickly, a second of weakness and slowly she slips off her slab, feet light as she crosses the floor to the door, waiting for it to open. They got their answer, she'll play their games, but she'll play them her way.
And she'll win them in the way she sees fit.]
Prose: They wanted to see what she could do. Even if they hadn’t told her that, even without her natural ability to See Rose could tell that easy enough. After all, there was little reason to bring her here, and the nature of the games, as much as she’s managed to collect in her brief explanation of why she was here and where here even was. It stands to reason that for one to enter a game it’s intended audience would like to have a grasp of what they were skilled at. Similar enough to most sports, in a basic, bare bones way.
For a moment Rose contemplates not playing along. She could sit, protest in that way. Maybe if she does they’ll return her to where she belongs. Unlikely though, these captors of hers seem as unreasonable as the Batterwitch. For all she knows she’s connected to this in a way, it’s a scheme of hers and yet a part of Rose knows that’s not true. The witch has never shown an ability to make it impossible for her to See and she flaunts her psionic abilities with a sense of arrogance.
In truth Rose is not a woman who can ignore a request like this, and so she wanders the room with a near sense of boredom, skimming fingers over the selection of weapons, looking for one that will suit her most. Swords are manageable but they’re more her brother’s trade in truth and Rose crushes the part of her that wonders where he is, if he’s here too, going through this as well. Spears are cumbersome when you’re petite, and bows and arrows aren’t her craft. Finally she finds a collection of needles, much smaller than her usual choice, intended for delivery of poison she assumes but. They’ll do.
Carefully she scoops a few into her hand, her steps measured as she makes her way to the dummy they’ve given her. It’s almost frustrating in truth, there’s no true way to show her abilities off with a target that stands still but, beggars can’t be choosers. She’ll work with what she’s given and her mind is dealing with bigger things, calculating what will be enough to impress but not to make her a target of too much interest.
Finally, she decides and she moves, steps quick and light. The dummy stands no chance still as he is, and needles find their marks with quick flicks of her wrists, Rose barely having to look to check they make their marks. Groin, opening a vital artery. Heart, deep enough that all she has to do is yank it free and they’ll bleed out within minutes. Throat, and on a human that would go straight through them. The last two needles she keeps in her hands, held tight as she speeds forward and it’s easy to leap and land, dummy and her crashing down together and she buries the needles where the eyes should be as they go.
She’s barely winded as she stands, raising a brow to the audience above her and Rose takes a deep curtsey, a mocking one before she stands and turns without waiting for a signal of dismissal and makes to leave the room.
She’s given enough of her time to them today.
What is your character scored: I’d rank Rose around a 7-8. She’s better than average, having been fighting a rebellion of sorts for many years, and while they’re more at the passive aggressive stages rather than open combat she has faced attempts on her life. And she’s been honing her skills for years as she knows what is likely coming. Her main weapon is needlekind, as in knitting needles, typically and while they seem like a silly weapon she’s quite skilled in them, having killed a man by stabbing him through the eyes and riding his corpse down a waterfall in her later years. So even at 38 she’s quite physically fit and she’s an excellent tactician in turn, having been one of the unofficial leaders of the rebellion against the Condesce.
In a powered up arena I can easily see Rose rising to a 11 if not a 12 due to the fact that she has been left with many of the skills her Beta self possessed. This includes a skill in majyyks, which she has used to black herself out from photos and videos, and can channel through her needles to form blasts of light. She also has a connection to the Horrorterrors, which is how she’s gotten her majyyks in the first place, but it means in turn she can go Grimdark is pushed, which reduces her to speaking in Eldritch tongues but adds to her power. But her most important ability relates to the class and aspect she was given in game, a Seer of Light. Seers have been shown to be the only ones to recall the game after a scratched session, and they also have the ability to use their ability to, well, see, basically. Light is a double edged class, relating to both knowledge and fortune, and so together Rose has had the ability to see the likelihood of an outcome and it’s other effects, as well as finding it quite easy to know pretty much anything, like how Roxy and Dirk were supposed to arrive and be the children of Rose and Dave, as well as later realising that they wouldn’t come for centuries after Dave and her own death. So ultimately Rose is a difficult opponent to beat when she has her abilities as it’s exceedingly easy for her to see what her opponent is going to do, and it can take someone with an equally powerful gift in psionics to best her.
Popularity wise, Rose has spent her years as a public figure, a famous author and so she’s used to the fickleness of people. But she’s not a woman to give much away and so she’d likely play it the way she always has and be the enigma, the mystery. It’s enough to catch someone’s attention, and it keeps them wanting more.
Additional information: N/A