"I've only said ‘I love you’ to three people: my mom, my dad, and my dying grandpa, and one of those I regret."
BASICS
RETIRE INFO:
Rosa: Retire
Rosalisk: Adopt
NAME: Rosa, born Rosalia but nobody calls her that
GENDER: Female
PRONOUNS: She/her/hers
ORIENTATION: Bisexual (recently realised)
BIRTHDATE: Late Winter 2740
AGE: 26 as of Late Autumn 2767
LOCATION: High Reaches Weyr
OCCUPATION: Sunburst Squadmember, guard,
WING: Sunburst Squad
APPEARANCE
EYES: Chocolatey brown
HAIR: Curly, dark brown with hints of red, and hard to manage.
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5’10, muscular
PLAY-BY: Stephanie Beatriz
FULL APPEARANCE:
A domineering, almost angry-woman at first sight: Rosa is not a person with whom one ought to trifle. Her resting expression is one that invites the observer into her personal realm of darkness; in fact, she exudes an air of danger and apathy, from the haughty quirk of her brows to the uncompassionate frown on large, full lips. This isn’t to say she can’t smile- Rosa has a wide range of human facial emotions, at which she is well-practiced. But at first- at first- it is mostly a look that questions your very existence.
Dark curls of a deep, mahogany brown brush her shoulders, framing a long face. They are often left loose and wild, but she has no issue manhandling her hair as she sees fit. Her skin is a very soft shade of olive, with cheeks that rarely flush or show colour. A large nose is slightly skewed, having seen one too many punches perhaps, and a small, faint scar marks her eyebrow as the result of a knife-fight, separating the hairs completely. Dark eyes are accented with kohl and other homemade makeup products, for she is secretly vain and not-so-secretly proud of her dark, dangerous beauty.
She is not remarkably tall, but she stands with confidence and pride, making her seem larger than her true height. She is muscular from Turns of physical exercise and training, but due to her love for figure hugging clothes in dark tones of brown and black, often bears a slightly feminine air. She tends to stride more than walk, and her favourite standing position is one with arms tightly folded across her chest.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
Rosalia is a woman of few words and fewer desires still to share those words with strangers. She doesn’t especially like to talk, but will make the effort with squadmates and Weyrfolk with whom she is familiar. She is not fond of small talk or social niceties, and finds it very difficult to open up- even to close friends. She certainly detests discussing the past, and will never offer more than a passing sentence on questions requesting personal information. She possesses a peculiar sort of silent confidence, and is fully aware that people tend to agree with her unexpressed point of view simply by looking at her; so what’s the need in speaking, right?
Her anger is a formidable force with which to be reckoned; Rosa has some anger issues, and her reactions to adversity can be quite extreme. She has been known to break things that don’t work immediately, or throw things that break after use. She does not like to be messed around with, and has very little patience for anyone’s crap. As such, she is not above making idle threats about people’s health and wellbeing. Fortunately for those people, she very rarely acts on them. Rosalia actually has a great deal of self-control when it comes to violence against other people- inanimate objects won’t complain that she hurts them, but living things do. And, well, she doesn’t exactly want to get in trouble with those who might make her life uncomfortable.
She thrives on the feeling of being completely and utterly in control of a situation, and has a hard time relinquishing power to others. She is stubborn, obstinate, impulsive and bullheaded, often deciding on a (usually violent) course of action to resolve her problems without consideration for the consequences or problems that might ensue. Despite this, she takes orders from superiors fairly well, and respects the chain of command- she is no anarchist bent on destruction, but more of a fiercely independent woman determined not to have her freedoms stolen from her.
Rosa has little regard for her personal wellbeing, placing the safety and happiness of others above her own- she just doesn’t like to tell them that personally. She is comfortable taking large risks, as well as involving herself in fights, at great personal cost. She is a great friend who is loyal-to-a-fault, and expects the same loyalty from those she claims as friends. She may be a poor conversationalist, but she will (possibly reluctantly) listen to a friend’s problems and dispense some wise- and often blunt- counsel if needed. She is a woman of action, who prefers to spend time doing something with somebody else, rather than speaking. Silence in her company is quite often comfortable.
Sensual despite her dislike for small talk, Rosa enjoys flirting and pursuing further engagement with those who draw her eye: she is an intensely physical person, and not at all ashamed of public displays, or her own sexuality and womanhood. In recent times, she has discovered that she is as interested in women as she is in men, and is exploring that part of her identity as well. Though she may seem flighty and temperamental, Rosa yearns for a monogamous partner who will understand and see past her more violent tendencies to the more sentimental, caring woman beneath.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
- Father: Derosan {JM Harper}
- Mother: Sylla {Cook}
- Sisters
- Close friend: Jaekhen ‘Jaek’
BIRTHPLACE: Southern Boll
HISTORY:
TW: bullying, violence
The eldest of three sisters, Rosalia grew up in a traditional, firm, yet loving home at Southern Boll, and encouraged from a tender age to pursue interests deemed ‘fit’ for a young lady. She was a quiet, obedient child, a real ‘yes-girl’, and was sent to Fort Harperhall at age twelve, to begin a Harper apprenticeship in the spring of 2753.
She had a decent hand, and her reading and memorisation skills were keen. It was her singing that brought her to the attention of a few of the Masters present, and she was gently pushed into a life of vocal practice and performance. It was possibly the more glamorous part of the Harpercraft, and Rosalia found herself stepping into the metaphorical spotlight more and more as she entered her teens.
It made her a target of ire and dislike from her fellow apprentices. When she was around the age of 16, her voice was slowly adjusting to the effects of puberty, and consequently deepened. She knew it would only be a matter of time before she found her true range, and did her best not to dwell on her fear of losing importance and status amongst the Harper's. Some of her fellow apprentices preyed on her vulnerability and worries, and began to mock her more overtly. One taunt too far- about how ‘her star was falling’, how ‘she would never perform again’- was all it took to make her snap: Rosa turned on the other apprentices and let her fury fly. She doesn’t remember much of the physical altercation, but her hatred burned with an intensity she had never known until then. She hated Harpers and the Harper Hall, and officially left the Craft and returned to Southern Boll shortly after the incident.
Rosa’s fury, from then on, was dangerous yet strongly-controlled. Questions were asked upon her return, and a few rumours followed her too. She was a young woman ‘best left to her own devices’, according to some, and Rosa never formally entered another Craft, preferring to take up odd jobs as she figured out what exactly she wanted to do with her life- the more physical the work, the better. Her behaviour was at odds with her father’s ideal of her, and their relationship grew somewhat more strained in time.
In the early summer of 2759, she came across a young man who had been cornered by a group of unsavoury types. Rosa got pissed, and saw red: that they outnumbered him four-to-one was disgusting in and of itself, but one had even brought a knife. She jumped into the fray without further thought, and earned herself a broken nose, a deep cut that would leave a lasting scar across her eyebrow, and a friend for life. Through the trial of their scrappy fighting, they formed a bond that lasts to this day.
Jaekhen, it turned out, was a Guard-in-training for Southern Boll. Rosa made the acquaintance of some of his friends, and found herself enjoying the physical activity that guards were expected to do. Jaek breathlessly, enthusiastically shared his plans to become a wherhandler with her, and she, too, decided that would be her future. So the young woman volunteered to become a guard and a wher candidate. Rosa’s physical aptitudes soon shone, and she was both scrappy and bloodthirsty when it came to sparring, never backing down from a fight.
At 21, she was finally able to buy her first wher egg. It was medium-sized, and hatched the most beautiful garnet she had ever seen. Dark, with hints of purple bandied about her body as though she were a walking field of flowers, Rosa didn’t realise just how much love she was capable of until the garnet shared her blood and a bond was formed. Rosalisk became Rosa’s best friend and counterbalance: whimsical, thoughtful and wise to Rosa’s heated passion and fury.
The pair finished wherling training, alongside Jaek and some of his friends- who were now hers, too. Rosa had a desperately strong urge to move away from Southern Boll, to anywhere else on Pern, wearied by the closeness of her family’s presence and her father’s unspoken judgement. This, coupled with Rosalisk’s neverending curiosity for Pern as a whole, was what brought the pair to High Reaches in 2765, offering their services as part of the ground crew and Sunburst Squad.
With two Turns to adjust and settle in, Rosa and Rosalisk begin to flourish, away from the past and in an environment that benefits from their physical skills and competence. They are unscathed during the disaster that is Threadfall of 2767.
