Roheze Lelande (Rose Lalonde)

Character is a troll from Alternia. They arrived in-game on date and currently live nowhere.

age: Six solar sweeps (thirteen years)

origins: Homestuck, AU

app link: here

hmd: here

played by: Stefan

contact: dragoon1940 - AIM

Setting
Homestuck is a rather odd setting in of itself. Much of the action technically takes place inside a game-created world known as the “incipisphere”. This game is known as “Sburb” on Earth or “Sgrub” on the troll homeworld of Alternia. It is likely that if a variant of the game is played on other worlds, those worlds will also have their own names for it. The game itself is actually a rather elaborate way to bring about the end of the world and the creation of a new one. During the course of the opening stages of the game, meteors are shot at the subject world through portals in the inipisphere (which act as a sort of defense mechanism for the planet at the center of the incipisphere) and the players must race against these impending impacts to transport themselves and their dwellings to the “medium”, which makes up much of the incipisphere.

This accomplished, the players must then level up all while facing a variety of enemies in lethal combat situations, until they can finally depose the Black Queen and King (essentially the end bosses of the game). This is made more difficult by the process of prototyping – all of the players unleash a kernel sprite in the opening stages of the game, which they must the imbue with a certain object, whether a clown doll, a dog, or a bird. The enemies they face take on aspects of whatever the kernel sprite was prototyped with, while the sprite itself can serve as a valuable ally early on in the game. Thus, the players must weight the usefulness of the sprite against the potential lethality of the enemies they will face.

More information on the game itself can be found here.

This particular version of Rose does not hail from Earth, as the canon one does. Instead, she comes from the planet of Alternia, which is inhabited by trolls. Trolls are humanoid creatures, possessing two legs, two arms, a set of eyes, a nose and a mouth. However, their internal organs and physiology differ in many key aspects. They possess a pair of horns and their teeth are almost all universally sharp. They are predators, after all. Their life cycle all differs. All trolls are birthed by the Mother Grub from a so-called “incestuous slurry” of genetic material (and thus all trolls are technically related) and the first part of their life is spent in a larva-like grub form. If they survive this period of their life, they cocoon themselves and after a period of growth and metamorphosis, move on to their ambulatory stage and must undergo a series of trials. If they survive these, they are then adopted by a lusus – one of the many creatures who inhabit the surface of Alternia, who will act as a guardian and teacher to the trolls as they grow. The troll must then construct a Hive to live in and then spends their childhood and adolescence on the surface of Alternia until they reach maturity, at which point they join the rest of the adult trolls in helping to conquer the galaxy.

Troll society is heavily stratified, based primarily on blood color. There are many blood colors and the wide range is called the “hemospectrum”. Various shades of purple tend to be the highest, with greens and blues falling in the middle and trending towards the higher end. Yellows, reds and oranges are the lowest, with bright, cherry red being an abominable mutation. The higher on the hemospectrum, the better one's position in troll society. In addition, the highest colors on the hemospectrum are aquatic – being sea-dwellers – and tend to have an antagonistic relationship with land-dwelling trolls, as there were apparently wars in the distant past.

Troll relationships are also incredibly confusing and are generally divided into four seperate quadrants. One, colloquially known as “redrom” or “to be flushed”, corresponds to the human idea and emotions of romance and is (appropriately enough) represented by a red heart. It is also referred to as “matespiritship”. The second quadrant is represented by a black spade and encompasses what is, essentially, a vicious rivalry and hatred between two trolls. This is known as “kismesisitude” and one would refer to your opposite is this quadrant as a “kismesis”; it is also known as “blackrom” or black romance. Somewhat akin to the human “nemesis”. The third quadrant is represented by a red diamond and is referred to as being “pale” for someone. This is a platonic, incredibly close friendship bond. Partners in this quadrant are called moirails. The fourth and final quadrant is represented by a black club and represents a troll who acts as a go-between between two trolls who would otherwise slaughter each other and mellows them out. This troll is known as an “auspistice”.

Yeah. Really complicated.

Some trolls possess some sort of psychic power, including the ability to exert control over other trolls. However, trolls with this sort of power can only put humans to sleep. All trolls suffer from bloodthirst and nightmares. However, sleeping in a recuperacoon helps ease these effects.

Anyway, Roheze and her friends started playing this game (Sgrub) and accidentally ended up destroying their world and moved into the Incisisphere, much as their canonical counterparts did. There, they were contacted by a group of aliens known as humans who both needed – and offered – help, thanks to the fact that the trolls (and humans) had both fucked up their game sessions beyond belief. Roheze, determined to overcome, has entered into a vague pact with the horrorterrors – the denizens of the outer ring – and is currently seeking to destroy The Green Sun, which acts as a power source for a nigh omnipotent creature they need to beat.

Included in both Alternia and Earth is the strange system of sylladexes - essentially personal portable pocket dimensions, which allow items to be stored in card form. They're very often needlessly complicated.

Personality
Roheze is a decent troll when it comes down to it. What that actually means is anyone's guess. However, she does seem to genuinely care for her friends (to an extent) and supports them through their session - however, without them she is unlikely to survive, so it's just as possible that it's an outstretch of self-interest. She tends to be more straightforward than not and will speak her mind – thus, she comes off as direct and to the point. She is, however, reserved with her emotions and is not given to the overt displays of celebration and happiness. She prefers dry wit and snarky comments to more “wet” or overt humor and trends toward cynicism. This cynicism may extend from her general loss of status - despite her high blood color, she feels as if she's been denied her birthright and to an extent, she's imposed a sort of social exile on herself until she can prove that she's "good enough" for the Alternian Empire. She also has a bit of a cruel streak - when she wins, she really enjoys driving the point home.

She remains a leader (or at least tries to be), as she is the first one of the four friends to begin playing the game (or at least is the one to pester her friends into playing). She also does her best to guide her friends through their first encounters with Sgrub and their subsequent journeys into the incicisphere. Roheze possess an impressive intelligence and awareness - she is, after all, the first to go “off of the rails” and begin investigating ways to break the game. She magically shatters the gate to her second level in order to begin testing Sgrub. Some of this may be attributed to influence from the Dark Gods and Horroterrors, who's whispers she has begun listening to. She believes that she may able to somehow break the game in order to free herself (and the others) from their fate, although her willingness to trust the horrorterrors implicitly may spring from her belief that she was meant to care for the Emissary (a horrorterror that serves as a lusus for the highest-blooded Alternian).

In addition to her cynicism, wit, and her own straightforwardness, Rose is not afraid to admit her mistakes – she will readily admit when she has made an error, do what she can to repair the damage and then move on. However, she is also imbued with a certain degree of arrogance, which adds to her sense of being aloof - she is a highblood after all, even if she is a mutant. She's meant to figure things out and to eventually help lead the Alternian race. She is also very intelligent (or at least well-read), considering the vast vocabulary she employs (which sometimes confuses her friends).

She is also a very private, reserved person - she does not easily share things she considers “private” (such as her journal and writings) or her true personal feelings (such as her sorrow over the loss of her lusus). Of course, some of this may result from her cynicism and the belief that opening up to other trolls may leave her vulnerable to death and usurpation). This belief is not entirely unjustified, given troll culture.

Abilities & Weaknesses
Aside from being a mean hand with a pair of knitting needles, she's also a capable combatant when armed with said knitting needles (she took down an ogre armed with yarn and knitting needles – no joke) and she's a fairly capable physical combatant. She also enjoys writing and creative writing in general, as well as possessing a prodigious intelligence. She has excellent critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Once she enters the world of Sgrub, her abilities become stronger and stranger. In addition to being able to wield her knitting needles as weapons, she begins to tap into dark magic and quickly becomes a very capable witch. Capable isn't strong enough a word – she quickly becomes a very powerful witch. After converting her knitting needles into wands (which enable her to channel the power of the Dark Gods), she is able to use her magical abilities to blast her way through hordes of enemies, utilizing lightning and other magical energies, as well as using her magic to shatter her gate to her second level.

In addition, she seems to be able to levitate a whole castle or tower, along with a large chunk of the earth it's built on and disassemble it. The exact extent of her abilities is unknown, but she seems to be one of the more able combatants and magic users within the Homestuck universe and within her small circle of players. She can also use her magic to levitate herself and fly at high speeds, as well as ascend to great heights.

She possesses a form of "hammer-space" known as a sylladex. It is currently set up to operate as a "tree" - i.e. when she stores items within it it files them alphabetically in a sytem of branches and "leaves". Removing one of the support branches causes any items supported by said branch to collapse and fall out of her sylladex.

For all of her magical ability, she is still physically a thirteen-year-old girl (or six Alternian solar sweeps). She's relatively small and a grown man could probably manhandle her fairly easily if he got the drop on her.