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imperfectporkchops) wrote2019-05-25 01:07 am
Application: Aefenglom
Player Information
Name: Mica
Age: 32
Contact: Please Click Here
Other Characters: N/A
Character Information
Name: Rose Quartz
Canon: Steven Universe
Canon Point: Some time previous to the video depicted in Episode 35 "Lion 3: Straight to Video"
Age: Unknown, certainly not less than fifteen thousand, possibly many tens of thousands. Appears to be an adult, though actual age is not apparent.
History: Rose Quartz wiki page and History Page (more complete, and with spoilers)
Personality:
"Steven, your mother had healing tears that flowed from her gem.
She felt real love for those around her. She felt real sorrow when they were hurt.
You have the Rose Quartz gem now. I know that power is in you, too."
—Garnet, An Indirect Kiss
Much like her successor, Steven, Rose is a naturally lighthearted, good-humored person. She delights in the natural world, and values all forms of life equally. This has been true for the entirety of her existence; even before she was Rose Quartz, she treated all the Gems she met with equanimity, and delighted in organic life wherever she met it. This has the effect of making her seem often quite childish, much more willing to engage in snowballs and funtimes than hard word and deadlines. She can throw tantrums, when stymied, and is perfectly willing to lash out with violence, if the situation warrants it— though long experience has taught her moderation, in line with the consequences of violence. She explores the world, makes new friends, loves broad and brightly; she's had many human lovers, but hadn't every actually been in love, before meeting Greg Universe. Rose saw the individuality and particular, special nature of everyone she met, and brought that out to shine in the gems she led. Her chiefest values were always that you were special, exactly as you are, and that no matter the consequence, each person deserved to live according to their own nature, not by the rules imposed by society.
"You have so many worlds, and I don't even have one!
It's not fair! I. Want. One! I want my own army!
I want my own planet! I deserve it!
I'm just as important as you!"
—Pink Diamond to Yellow Diamond, Jungle Moon
That's not to say, of course, that Rose is as shallow or as oblivious as she often presents herself. She began life as a Diamond, a position of extraordinary privilege and high status that positioned her as a head of state, a princess among immortal queens. Perhaps due to her height or relative youth, she was taught almost from her inception that she was lesser, both for her playful, loving personality, and for her preference for friendship over fear, both of which were forbidden under the regime of White Diamond. Desiring power and freedom equal to what her supposed status was, Rose, then Pink Diamond, lashed out, both physically and verbally, and rebelled in whatever ways she could; but with her 'parents' being immortal beings, she had no opportunity to release the emotional pressure nor to exercise any skill save the ornamental, nor could she ever hope for circumstances to change as she aged. Her emotional abuse at the hands of her fellow diamonds is not made fully explicit but is nevertheless a campaign of belittlement and disregard lasting perhaps thousands of years; that it was born out of affection and genuine care for Pink made it no less damaging. She carries that trauma with her until the end, even going to far as to fake her assassination in order to escape the stigma and restriction of the name of Pink Diamond.
"We can leave our old lives behind.
If this is really my world, I want to give it to the Crystal Gems.
I want to live here with human beings! I want to live here with you!
We'll both finally be free!"
—Rose Quartz to Pearl, A Single Pale Rose
When Pink did attain power, she was horrified to be confronted with the consequences of the responsibility; there was no more freedom in owning a planet than there was in being a highly ornamental jewel in the Homeworld's high towers. She learned about the fundamental xenophobia of her culture, and the destruction they perpetrated on any life that was different, a destruction she had now become complicit in perpetuating. What she had fought for, struggled and rebelled for, had been nothing more than a lateral step, and nothing had changed in how the other Diamonds, or the other Gems, treated her.
In the end, Rose went to war against her own family, to escape the chains of power and the caustic destruction of Homeworld's policy of enforced homogeneity. A war that she won, at the cost of extraordinary damage to the planet, unknown loss of human life, and the maddened corruption of hundreds of thousands of gems totaling nearly her entire army, with the exception of a handful of her closest friends.
She had won. She was free. She had gotten everything she ever wanted, and lost what she'd had, to all her knowledge irreparably. And she's going to carry that weight, for the rest of her existence.
"...And I need you to know that
every moment you love being yourself,
that's me, loving you, and loving being you."
—Rose Quartz to Steven, Lion 3: Straight to Video
...Which played into her decision to put herself aside. When being Pink Diamond had ceased to be an identity that Rose could cope with, she became Rose Quartz, and eventually cast Pink Diamond aside entirely. But Rose had long admired humans, for their ability to create, to love, but most of all to grow and change. She wanted, more than anything, after five thousand years of regret, grief, and a guilt, to be someone else, to grow and change into a person for whom her past sins could be absolved. So she made the decision to recreate herself as baby Steven, in partnership with Greg Universe, and became a creature who was not defined by any past, nor by his origins, but only by the life he lived and the choices that were made within it. Finally, she would truly be free of the legacy of Pink Diamond, in a way that simply living as Rose Quartz could not. But before she actually was able to enact this plan, Rose was brought here, to Aefenglom.
Sometimes, life just doesn't work out the way you planned.
Abilities & Skills:
☆ Healing Lacrimal Essence
As a Diamond, Rose's gem allows her to excrete a fluid that concentrates and activates the life-force of anything it touches. Through various applications, this can be used to heal nearly any damage or injury, up to an including resuscitation or the newly dead. However, in this last case, the revived life-form is transformed into a more Gem form of life. The natural purpose of this ability is reproduction.
All Gems have the ability to create or "summon" weaponry, in the same way that they form their bodies— out of solid light emanating from their true bodies, their gems. The exact method, and nature of the weapon varies from Gem to Gem. Rose's Gem weapon is a targe-style shield emblazoned with her signature rose-and-thorn motif.
As an extant form of the shield, Rose can also create and disperse a pink bubble which acts as a similarly impenetrable shield. She is able to consciously control the shape and size of this bubble, and can change or disperse it at will.
Like all Gems, Rose is capable of encasing reasonably sized objects in a bubble. This bubble is not particularly durable, and is easily broken from the outside, but holds all its contents in a form of magical stasis. When activated, the bubble and its contents will teleport to wherever Rose considers her current "home".
All Gems are able to manipulate their body's response to gravity in order to adapt to their surroundings, a process that is as natural and automatic as a reflex. Rose, in particular, is able to manipulate this response so as to facilitate light, floating hops of arbitrary height.
Rose is able, with significant effort, to broadcast her own feelings onto other gems, though not onto organic forms of life. It is implied that, by the nature of her 'impurities' that she can only project positive emotions, such as love.
As a rock person, Rose is many times stronger than a human, physically.
Because her body is made of light, Rose is able to share that body and merge with any other person who also matches that description. The resulting fusion of two people represents a melding of their particular features, strengths, and weaknesses. This is a deeply emotional and vulnerable bonding process which nevertheless represents a significant tactical advantage in many survival scenarios.
Rose is able to take significant damage, but even should she be injured to the point of death, or "killed" her body will dissolve back into her Gem. This process, called "poofing" is not actual death, but only a form of hibernation, and after a brief rest, Rose will then be able to revive and emerge, with potentially altered appearance, and no sustained damage or injury. Real damage can only be done to her by harming her Gem, which is the only part of her that is truly physical, in the purest sense.
Rose is skilled in sword combat, capable of wielding a single-edge saber and shield with excellent skill and deadly intent.
We will only ever attain true peace when we do not merely tolerate or accommodate, but take a special delight in all our differences, and in the marvelous variety of forms and experiences that make up all our lives. Rose feels, and expresses, a genuine love of all life, and of everyone she meets, no matter how strange, alien, or hostile they may be.
Inventory/Companions:
★ One (1) Band Shirt from a local Beach City rock show
★ One (1) Straight-bladed Saber with a rose-and-thorn motif. It is very large.
Choice: Witch
Reason: Pretty much all magic and power in Gemkind flows from the Diamonds downwards. Seems to me that she fits best as a source of power. Plus it opens the door to cool bonding shenans with Steven down the road.
Sample: TDM Toplevel