Rose Lalonde

Rose Lalonde is one of the main characters in Homestuck. She was originally named Flighty Broad by Kanaya MaryamHS 2703, but that name was rejected and the name Rose was chosen. She uses the chumhandle when chatting on Pesterchum.

Her web browser of choice is Cetus.

Rose's Associated Classical Element is water, as evidenced by the water running through her house, and Rose's Associated Item is chalk.

Childhood
Rose was raised by her Mom. At some point before the story she befriended John, Dave, and Jade via the internet. On her thirteenth birthday, some months before the story's beginning, she received knitting needles and yarn from John, and some cryptic advice from Jade concerning her dead cat Jaspers and the possibility of resurrecting him. She was also contacted by GA, whose claimed she had talked with Rose in the future were met with doubt. She later used her needles to enhance a cherished childhood toy which she intended to send to John on his birthday.

Pre-Entry
Rose is John's server player, interacting with the space around John by HS 139 (moving), HS 151 (building), and HS 261 (destroying) objects. She had both Sburb discs at the beginning of the story and, unlike the other kids, had no trouble using them. Rose is proficient enough with Sburb HS 249 (that she created) a walkthrough on GameFAQs. Rose observed that all other Sburb walkthroughs ended before the Medium is reached, probably due to the author's termination by meteor, so she included instructions on how to get into the Medium as quickly as possible. As John's server, she aids John and builds up his house in the first two acts; however, her internet connection was unstable, causing numerous shenanigans. She relies on a connection from the nearby lab which was mysteriously unsecured, but she has to move to her dead cat's mausoleum to get closer to the source of the connection.

When the generator powering her laptop fails, she discovers a secret passage in the mausoleum. that led to the Skaianet Laboratory next to her house. Here she comes into contact with Sburb technology, such as ectobiology equipment, transportalizers, and appearifiers. The lab also contained such incongruous things as a tea set, a pink bed, and a mutant kitten. The transportalizer in the lab led to what she thought was her Mom's room, which she decides not to be especially melodramatic about.

Back in her room with a hub from the lab to provide power and internet to her laptop, Rose sets up a Sburb connection with Dave as her server. She prototypes Jaspers per Jade's advice and Dave prototypes her kernelsprite again with the Eldritch Princess doll. She breaks her cruxite artifact, a bottle, to enter the medium.

Entry
Rose enters the Land of Light and Rain, a reference to her Associated Classical Element and role. She is soon contacted by the Windswept Questant, though only for a short time. She then talks to John and Dave, as well as a troll.

She begins battling many of the Medium's enemies using her Knitting Needles with great skill, for instance sticking her needles in the eyes of a Lime Ogre and wrangling the fell beast into submission with ease. Later she finally tracks Jaspersprite, who talks to her confusedly about something to do with the ocean and life and songs and letters and yarn purr purr.

She contacts with Jade, who talks with her about their dream selves and let slip that Dave said she had written something on her walls. Before she could contact Dave about this however, she was merged with a copy of herself from an alternate future where John had gotten himself killed by his Denizen. This merger caused her dream self to awaken, and allowed her to see the writing she had made on her wall: the letters M, E, O, and W. This is code for DNA, with M=G, E=C, O=A, and W=T. She also wrote this in her journal, which, through shenanigans, was involved in the creation of Becquerel. On Derse's moon, she finds Dave and they have a dance party, later throwing Lil Cal outside his room.

By using Dave's dream computer, she sees that John is at her house. She forces herself to wake up, but is unable to reach him before he left using his rocket. Then she does some alchemization, most significantly a pair of black magic wands, the Thorns of Oglogoth, by combining the needles and a grimoire.

She soon grows tired of playing by the game's rules. After learning that their session was impossible to win, she begins trying "alternative tactics", such as blowing up her first gate. Rose abandons her GameFAQs walkthrough, and using magic places it in the Furthest Ring. Here Kanaya downloaded a copy of Rose's walkthrough prior to playing Sgrub, causing her to look up to Rose and view her as a hero, until she actually saw her in her session. She initially believed Rose to be a, but predicted they would become friends anyway, and eventually divulged the fact that she has been utilizing the walkthrough to Rose.

Since learning that their version of the game could not be won, Rose begins to act even more cynical and disillusioned, coming across as emotionless in conversation with John. No longer playing to "win", she is instead trying to break the game in hope of "repairing her fate". To reflect this change she abandoned her velvet dress in favor of a black dress more befitting of a dark witch.

She is contacted by other trolls, such as Aradia who urges her to stop destroying her planet, to no avail. Through a combination of contact with the trolls, deciphering information found around her planet, and finding several artifacts including a mysterious crystal ball, Rose becomes extremely knowledgeable about Sburb, and begins developing plans to save her friends and break the game. By the time her viewport fades to black she has assembled a fearsome entourage of wizardly followers from all 4 planets.

After contacting and learning of the nature of the Green Sun as the first guardians' power source, Rose plans to use her dream self to travel through the Furthest Ring with Dave's guidance and destroy it, nullifying the first guardians' and, by extension, Jack Noir's powers. This was to be a suicide mission Rose did not expect her dream self to return from. At this point she still believes that the scratch will banish Jack from their session, but denies this in another conversation with her. He helps her utilize her Seer of Light powers, allowing her to look into the Magic Cue Ball, which told her to talk to Jade.

After finding out about her Mom's death, and Jade convince her to ask the Cue Ball if the Horrorterrors were as benevolent as they seemed. Rather than answering her question (or perhaps by answering it too well), the cue ball causes her to fall into [], changing her appearance and causing her to speak only in an eldritch tongue. She flies towards Skaia to seek revenge.

Upon landing on the castle where her mother and John's father lay dead, she eventually finds John and fails to talk with him, as she can only speak in eldritch tongue. She takes John to the top of the castle, where they encounter Jack Noir. Seconds into the fight, Noir kills John with a teleportation stab. Rose flies into a rage and clashes with Noir, but loses the fight and is killed too. Later John revives her dream self with a kiss as per Vriska's instructions.

After she awakens on Derse, Liv Tyler arrives with The Tumor. Rose and Dave severe the chain connecting Derse to its moon and they argue over who should go on the suicide mission, but she then knocks Dave unconscious. She begins piloting the moon on a course through the Furthest Ring to destroy the Green Sun. While dreaming, Dave appears to Rose in the moon. As they argued, the Draconian Dignitary enters and stabs Dave, waking him on Derse. He catches up with Rose and kills the Dignitary. They find their respective Sacrificial Slabs within the core of Derse's moon and release The Tumor, revealing a bomb that physically contained the kids' and the trolls' universes.

When the timer on The Tumor reached zero, both universes are simultaneously destroyed, creating the Green Sun, what they were trying to destroy in the first place. Rose and Dave emerge from the sun, having ascended to god tiers. She and Dave finally meet the trolls in person and Rose shows the path to the new session using her new abilities as the Seer of Light.

The three-year journey
Rose, Dave, the surviving trolls, and WV travel on the trolls' meteor for 3 years to the post-scratch kids' session. Over this course Rose, with Kanaya's help, spends time gathering information about what is to come from her own foresight, from secret libraries hidden in the depths of the trolls' meteor, and from encounters with the dead in dream bubbles. She compiles the information into a large journal which also includes details of the entire adventure so far and of Sburb. From this, she deduces that the new session is a void session and figures out how the scratch worked. She also sees Roxy in a dream bubble and later sees her and Dirk in a dream bubble meet-up organized by Aranea.

In Openbound, she agrees with Meenah's proposal to gather an army to face, but believes it's not the right time yet, as they must make it to theÂ B2 session first and help theÂ B2 kids win their game.

Rose successfully HS 5403 (alchemizes alcohol) and verifies her HS 5421 (matespritship) with Kanaya while very drunk. HS 5937 (A conversation) between Dave and Karkat confirms that both the matespritship and the alcoholism that arose then are still going strong right before the meteor's entrance into the B2 session.

After the meteor's entrance, a mind-controlled Jade confronts the crew and Rose ends with Terezi in her planet somehow. Later Dave HS 6655 (notifies) Rose to come to LOFAF. Rose arrives to see Dave pursuing Bec Noir and asks him what he is doing, but receives no response. She's then shocked to see Roxy, who had been put to sleep by Aranea, and Aranea herself, who is in the process of having her soul torn out of her body by a Brain Ghost Dirk rendered real. Dirk tells her to and she HS 6755 (takes her) to a safe distance. Rose shouts at Gamzee to stop beating Terezi, but cannot remember whether such behavior is actually appropriate between kismeses due to her intoxication during Kanaya's explanations. She finally intervenes firing a spell at Gamzee but misses, instead sending Jake flying.

After The Condesce's arrival, a massacre takes place. Kanaya is incinerated by her psiioniic blast and Rose lunges for the Condesce, but is impaled by a well-aimed lob of her 2x3dent. Rose is about to be hit by another psiioniic blast when she is rescued by Roxy via unspecified Void powers. Rose is gravely wounded and dies a HS 6981 (Heroic death) later.

Her body is then buried on LOWAS. Jaspersprite later steals the corpse in order to create Rosesprite.

New Timeline
In the new timeline created by John's retcons, Rose traveled as before with the others on the trolls' meteor, this time with Vriska as well. Unlike in the other timeline, Rose managed to get over her drinking problem before arriving in the new session; she credits Kanaya for helping her do so, though the Vriskagram flash suggests Vriska played a role in this.

On the new session, she is almost killed by mind-controlled Jane but Roxy sacrifices herself, saving Rose. She is later seen with everyone else on the victory platform and talks to several people, including a Roxy who came from the old timeline. Additionally, pre-retcon Rose's corpse is prototyped by Jaspersprite into Roxy's kernelsprite to create Rosesprite, so now both pre-retcon and post-retcon Rose are simultaneously alive.

After Vriska explains each of the villains' plans, Rose and Roxy both decide to take on the Condesce, and John joins them as well. Along with them, Kanaya and Jane, Rose battles the Condesce on Derse, and is present when Roxy finally deals the killing blow to the Empress. She subsequently joins the other kids and the surviving trolls in entering the new universe.

During the credits, she is shown to have married Kanaya Maryam, and has helped her raise generations of new trolls.

Personality and Traits

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Rose is of a similar physical stature as John, and she wears a headband and a shirt featuring a character from the television show Squiddles that she has altered to resemble the Horrorterrors.

Rose's interests include a passion for obscure literature and creative writing (about which she is very secretive). Her passion for writing is shown several times in the story was she wrote a fictional story about wizards, she wrote psychological analyses for all her friends, a walkthrough for Sburb and a tome with all information about Sburb and it's classes. She is interested in the bestially strange and fictitious and dabbles in psychoanalysis. Despite her mature exterior, Rose can also be quite silly. She enjoys knitting, having learned to do so after John's gift of wool and needles for her most recent birthday. She also plays the violin.

Her room is filled with items that follow a molluscan theme, ranging from squiddles to the fabled Ink of Squid Pro Quo. She even has a poster of Fluthlu and some concept art of Beasts hung on the walls over her bed. She's a little messy.

Rose uses the elegant, though not especially practical, tree modus for her sylladex. The tree modus auto-sorts items in alphabetical order on a system of branches and leaves. If an item is taken that breaks a branch, any items that rely on this branch fall from the sylladex. Her sylladex has at least eight cards, though it is likely that it can hold many more. Her Strife Specibus is Needlekind. This is preferable to the equipping of her grimoire because of the dire consequences this would have. She uses her needles and wool to great effect.

Following her escape from the "unestablishment" of Skaia Laboratories, she adopted a scarf as a part of her wardrobe in order to "Be the Rider."

Rose's personality can be described as one of stoic intelligence. There's no denying that she's one of the smartest characters, and she isn't reluctant to show it through inventive use of her extensive vocabulary. She can seem snarky and even hurtful at times due to her constant sarcastic tone, and is fairly reclusive, rarely initiating conversation unless it is important. She conceals her true feelings rather well, and even appears incredibly calm about the prospect of dying in the destruction of the Green Sun.

She pesters Dave to play Sburb with her, at the same time building his already (possibly ironically) inflated ego with comments about how well known he is, causing Dave to confess to John that. It is possible that Rose's comments are a minor indulgence on her part and that she only wants to play Sburb with Dave because he was, at that point, the only person she knows who has the game. When speaking with John she evinces no particular liking towards Dave, even describing him as an HS 63, but she seems to be quite fond of Dave. It has been speculated that her desire to play Sburb stems from Jade's prediction that it will allow her to resurrect her cat Jaspers, for whom she may have more affection than she cares to admit.

Rose is private about her own belongings and doesn't like to share private things with ANYONE. Cynicism comes easily to Rose; she has difficulty admitting the sincerity of certain actions, even beyond the continual strife with her mother. She regards John's birthday present (and the accompanying note) as a, although it is uncertain whether she believes this or if she's unwilling or unable to admit her appreciation of the gift.

Rose's personality of the straight-man is shown in a number of ways.
 * A rarity among characters, she types with perfect syntax and capitalization.
 * She continually punctures John's propensity for over-the-top Hilarious Antics by reminding him of his objectives, and when she is pranked by him, her Prankster's Gambit level is the lowest yet seen.
 * She jokes very little, and is prone to sarcasm.
 * She peppers her sentences with long words, confusing John.
 * She is cognizant of her own mistakes.
 * When named, instead of expressing exuberance, she gives a small grin rather than the over-the-top dorky smile John makes.

In Act 6, Rose steals an Alternian romance novel about quadrant vacillation. Trashy novels could be a guilty pleasure of hers, or she could simply have been fascinated by the concepts of alien romance and wanted to learn more.

Rose is frightening in combat, taking down an Ogre with nothing but a pair of knitting needles to the eyes, and later blasting a hole in another Ogre's head with the Thorns of Oglogoth. When she began to hear the voices of gods from the Furthest Ring, she acted mysteriously towards both her friends and the trolls. Her attempt to return to normal behavior and learn the true intentions of the gods resulted in her long-awaited descent into grimdarkness - surprisingly, she still seems to act only mildly more mysteriously, despite her inability to speak English, and physical alterations.

Rose's Mom
Rose originally believes her mother is not supportive of her, mocking her through Cruel Irony; however, it is likely that in the same way that John is annoyed by his father's genuine displays of affection, Rose is annoyed by her mother's genuine interests and attempts at empathy. She often expresses frustration upon encountering a wizard statue, but not the small wizard toys in her mother's childhood bedroom/ectobiologist lab. It is unknown if this was enough to clue her in on Mom's genuine wizard interest. She was visibly shaken when her mother died at the hands of Jack Noir, stating that she had seen her as more of a sister and that she believed she was meant to achieve greater things.

Jaspers/Jaspersprite
Rose is very fond of her cat, Jaspers, and was very distressed when the cat disappeared and was found dead several days later. When Jaspers was revived as a sprite, the two share a very sweet, childlike relationship. Jaspersprite often gently urged Rose to complete her quest, but was never forceful about it. Rose's interactions with Jaspersprite was one of her few truly tender interactions during her time in her original session.

Dave Strider
Seeing as the two share an interest in sarcasm and one-upping the other, Rose and Dave's relationship is characterized by ironic dishonesty and banter. Prior to the discovery of their blood relation, their interactions were colored in a somewhat flirtatious light. However their relationship has since transitioned into something akin to a sibling rivalry and appear to think of each other as a their respective twin. The two care greatly for one another -- Dave especially; becoming visibly upset at the idea of Rose attempting a suicide mission and insisting on accompanying her so she doesn't have to die alone. Their relationship appears to be something of a universal constant, as post-scratch selves, and pre- and post-retcon selves all seem to interact similarly.

Roxy Lalonde
Rose's relationship with Roxy appears to be very sisterly, and after finally meeting, they quickly bond over their respective maternal figures, past-alcoholism and mutual alt-motherhood. They both find comfort in their similarities and clearly see their connection as means to connect and put aside their respective baggage towards their long-deceased mother-figures. Both of them, especially Roxy have been shown to be willing to put their lives on the line for the other, through their respective alternate selves. Rose finds Roxy and Dave's interactions to be absolutely fascinating.

Kanaya Maryam
Even before Rose and Kanaya were considered to be matesprits, the two shared a strong friendship forged by their extensive communication (and playful contention) earlier in the comic; Kanaya was one of the first definite patron trolls, and this relationship would only become stronger over time.

When pressed by Meenah, Kanaya HS 5263 (revealed that) she and Rose are together. Supporting this theory, HS 5398 (she asks) Kanaya if she is, and. Rose also would not let Dave join in on these plans, possibly because she wants to be alone with Kanaya, maybe making this a date. After ingesting some strong liquor, Rose went on a walk with Kanaya, and during that, they shared a kiss. Rose then proceded to fall down the stairs. When Rose was drunk and organizing cans for the mayor, Kanaya became angry, prompting Rose to ask if Kanaya was going to break up with her. The answer was an emphatic no, further supporting that Kanaya and Rose are together.

During the events of HS 6278 ([S] Act 6 Act 6 Intermission 1), when Rose and Terezi find themselves sitting on the surface of LOLAR nursing their respective hangovers, Rose HS 6349 (expresses regret) over the way that she had been acting toward Kanaya throughout her period of drunkenness and refers to Kanaya as her girlfriend for the first time in the comic:



After the Condesce kills Kanaya as Rose watches, Rose goes after the Condesce. She fails and is stabbed. Before dying, Rose HS 6978 (says) to Roxy and John that she loved her.

While Kanaya's emphatic refusal to break up with Rose even in her rage over Rose's drunkenness showed that their relationship possesses the fortitude necessary to survive great hardship and emotional strain, Rose's express of regret (and mention of Kanaya as her girlfriend, even in sobriety) maintains this with even greater certainty and puts to rest doubts that the entire relationship was made possible by Rose's drinking.

Rose and Kanaya's relationship happened in the old timeline as well as in the new timeline, which Kanaya explicitly confirms HS 7779 (here). The two are seen reading a book on the quadrants together, with them both being annoyed when Vriska joins them, and Kanaya mentioned that Vriska likes to, referring to the times Vriska saw Rose , which implies that Rose is happier than she generally is when she's with Kanaya. John remarks they and that their relationship must be a strong relationship if it can survive both a three-year reboot and the sudden presence of Vriska.

Sometime after the kids and surviving trolls entered the new universe, Rose married Kanaya, and subsequently helped her oversee the future propagation of the Troll race, helping her raise future generations of young trolls.

Jasprosesprite^2
Rose finds Jasprosesprite^2's existence and behavior as absolutely mortifying. She considers her squared-sprite self to be an upsetting funhouse mirror version of herself and can't stand Jasprosesprite^2's talkative, self-absorbed and flirtatious attitude. This is largely due to how the sprite's obvious similarity to herself and how the sprite's behavior reflects on her. Even when Jasprose was merely Rosesprite, Rose found the prototyping of pre-retcon self to be absolutely absurd and nonsensical through the lens of her seering abilities, sending Rose into a fit. Jasprosesprite^2 doesn't appear to have any particular animosity towards Rose, but as she begins to affirm her own identity, she starts to realize that she was very stuffy when she was Rose. This view on her former self may reflect on the Alpha Rose.

Other
John and Rose share a friendly, often very playful relationship. Although Karkat had insisted that the two were destined to marry, their relationship seems have remained, by and large, platonic. John considers Rose to be very intelligent and deeply mysterious

Rose and Jade share a friendship similar to John, but appear to interact less regularly. Jade had the unfortunate responsibility of informing Rose of her mother's death. Despite Rose's spiraling emotions, she admitted that Jade was honestly doing a very good job of comforting her.

Vriska and Rose don't appear to have any significant relationship, as Vriska considered Rose to be very unapproachable and makes an effort to avoid interacting with her. After the retcon, Vriska is present on the 3 year journey and is largely responsible for getting Rose to quit drinking. Rose considers Vriska to be a absolute bitch, albeit a necessary one.

Eridan attempted to start a black romance with Rose, and made several unsuccessful attempts at wooing her. Eridan callously states that Rose's magic is fake and tells her to get off her. He also erronously believed that Rose was a highblood. Rose merely responded by exploding Eridan's computer.

Terezi and Rose generally do not interact, but Rose briefly tries to befriend Pyrope after the two are stranded on LOLAR, but Terezi rebuffs these attempts. Rose had also unsuccessfully attempted at acting as auspitice for Terezi and Gamzee's black romance. Post-retcon, the two appear to interact even less, due to Terezi generally oribiting Vriska. Terezi later admits to Vriska that she is very fond of all in the kids, Rose included and finds herself to be somewhat jealous at how they all seem to complete each other.

Prior to the retcon, Rose appears to be on good terms with Gamzee, as he reveals his blackrom with Terezi and she advises him to go back into hiding to avoid Kanaya. Upon arrival in the new session and witnessing him attacking Terezi, she declares that  and attempts to attack him with a spell. Following the retcon, the two don't appear to have had any significant interactions whatsoever.

Rose appears to be generally fond of Nepeta, and teases the troll when she asks to talk to Jaspersprite

During her brief interaction with Aradia, Rose admitted to finding the troll to be. After Aradia reaches godtier, the two don't appear to have any significant relationship, but appear to get along, at least. Aradia and Sollux were present when Rose and Dave godtiered inside the Green Sun.

Trivia

 * The name Rose Lalonde was chosen by Gankro.
 * Her last name, Lalonde, may be related to Lalande, a red dwarf star in the Ursa Major constellation.
 * Lalonde may also be a play from the magician; George Lalonde
 * Lalonde may also be a play on Jérôme Lalande, who was known for being a writer and an astronomer.
 * Rose's post-scratch self also appeared to be a celebrated author.
 * Alternatively, it may be a play on Larry LaLonde, guitarist for the band Primus.
 * She was the first kid to have her eye colour shown.
 * She is confirmed to be, like her ecto-mother, a HS 1930 (natural blonde).
 * Rose's squiddle shirt was vandalized herself. More info on that here.
 * She was wounded in the same area as Kanaya.
 * It is HS 4989 (hinted) that Rose, with pretty much nothing to do otherwise, consumed some of her mother's stocks of alcohol in the Alternate Dave doomed timeline. What effect it caused on her typing and/or mood is unknown.
 * Although it was probably HS 5403 (something like this).
 * Rose seems to have developed a tendency to snatch pieces of literature out of one's hands over two years of traveling on the meteor.
 * Like Terezi and Vriska, she is commanded by a carapacian queen.
 * Rose and Terezi are both Seers. Rose and Vriska are both Heroes of Light.
 * After Rose went Grimdark, said that he had warned her not to stare into that ball. I told her about stares. [ 8^y ]  . The text in the panel likely translates to "It keeps happening".
 * Rose has had the purple velvet pillow with her from when we first met her, all the way through to the end of Homestuck.
 * Rose is depicted in her Seer outfit holding a book (possibly her journal) on the "II: The High Priestess" card in the Homestuck tarot deck, as well as on the "XVII: The Star" card with John, pre-god tier, and "XXI: The World" with all 4 B1 kids. She is on the "Six of Cups" card with Jaspers, and on "Four of Swords" with Jaspersprite. She is also on the "Five of Wands" card with most of the main cast.
 * Based upon her birthday, aspect, and lunar sway, Rose's Extended Zodiac sign is Sagipia, the Empirical.
 * Roses HS 239 (laptop background) was drawn by the artist Ray Caesar in 2007.