Aranea Serket


 * For the post-Scratch version of this character, see Marquise Spinneret Mindfang

Aranea Serket is one of the Pre-Scratch Trolls. She wears red shoes, white pointed glasses, and a blue longsleeved dress with a white Scorpio symbol. She has her hair at shoulder length and wears a necklace with the Signless's symbol. Based off the color of her eyeliner, dress, and lipstick, she likely has cerulean colored blood. Her horns are identical to Vriska's. It appears that she is also older than the other troll players, having "lived" in the dream bubbles for so long that time has lost meaning to her.

Biography
She HS 6482 (initially appears) in a black void, waving and smiling at Jake after he blacked out, suggesting she has a friendly nature. Jake later described her as both "some sort of spidery vampire" and "the girl of my dreams", the latter is based on his fondness of blue ladies and spider girls. This could also parallel John's feelings for Vriska.

Later, she HS 6669 (introduces herself) by name to Terezi after greeting her in a dream bubble posing as Vriska, and reveals that she is a version of Vriska's ancestor, Mindfang. She states that she is also Terezi's ancestor, though not quite in the way Terezi is picturing (alluding to the fact that she is one of the pre-Scratch ancestors, and therefore a predecessor of all the current trolls, though not their ancestor by troll definition). Aranea claims to have preceded Terezi's entire civilization by billions of solar sweeps ( an ornate manner of explaining she lived in the previous, pre-Scratch universe and has watched the post-Scratch universe from the afterlife).

Aranea's role was the Sylph of Light. This contradicts a theory that the Ancestors shared their role with their descendants, instead suggesting they merely share the same aspect. She is shown to have reached the God Tiers, and has some kind of healing powers, to the extent that she suggests it's possible for her to restore Terezi's sight.

Later, Aranea stops by Jake's dead dream self's house after he's passed out as a result of his Forge erupting. They have a brief conversation in which Jake explains he was simply arguing with a subconscious projection of one of his real-life friends. She explains to him how she is a psychic, and how she has spent very little time in the post-Scratch Earth universe because the gods have given her little access to it. She attempts to be considerate towards Jake, and, as she can get a vague sense of humans' feelings, knows he has a "flushed attraction" towards her. This causes Aranea to go back to the subject of her psychic abilities, and how the highbloods on pre-Scratch Alternia were kind and just to the lower classes.

Personality
Aranea appears to be a nice and considerate person, interested in helping others around her. She however admits that she has a tendency to talk too much, and to bring conversations back around to herself. In this way she is very similar to Vriska, yet different because of her more gentle nature. Terezi even goes as far as to call her "a nice Vriska". This mirrors the relation between Feferi and Meenah, as Meenah is quite rude and mean, while sharing Feferi's bubbly nature and tendency to get excited.

Interestingly enough, she also shares personality traits with Kanaya, including her tendency to ramble, her helpfulness, and her affection towards the Thief in her group's session (though whether Aranea's feelings towards Meenah are flushed or not has yet to be made evident). This may be significant given her shared role with Kanaya as the Sylphs of their sessions.

Relationships
Aranea said she was not particularly popular among her group of players, referring to Meenah as the only one she would have called a true friend. Terezi says she thinks she and her would have been good friends.

Speculation

 * The current location of the players could play a role in Aranea's ability to communicate with them. Since they are technically not in a session, there are no boundaries preventing communication. Terezi would also be a logical choice for a conversation, considering her abundance of memories of Vriska, as well as her close relationship with her.
 * The Cancer necklace she wears suggests she is a follower of The Sufferer. This seems at odds with her being pre-Scratch Mindfang, since the tale of the Sufferer did not happen in the pre-scratch universe of the trolls. However, has HS 5953 (referred) to the pre-Scratch trolls and their ancestors as figures of legend, which suggests they had importance in troll history. As such, it is not outside the realm of possibility that there was some alternate universe equivalent to the Signless and his religion, although it would be unclear how he got the same sign as the post-scratch Sufferer, who earned his post mortem as representation of the cuffs he wore during execution. Note that Mindfang called the Sufferer's tale HS 5658 (compelling), suggesting she was at least sympathetic to his teachings. However, it is also quite possible that the necklace has no religious connotations, and is of only personal significance to Aranea, or that she just wears it as an appreciation sign for the troll that lead their team (the Cancer's Pre-Scratch Troll). It has been implied since that Aranea was watching the events on post-scratch Alternia, due to her mentioning her post-scratch self to Meenah, so she may have obtained the necklace after her death in admiration of the Sufferer after all.
 * Although she is a Hero of Light, whose Denizens are usually associated with Cetus, Aranea was the player in her session who consulted Echidna about the Scratch. As Echidna is typically the associated Denizen of Heroes of Space, it is unknown as of yet whether Echidna is actually Aranea's Denizen or if she simply consulted her rather than their session's Hero of Space (who is most likely Kanaya's pre-Scratch ancestor). Furthermore, the implications for why Aranea would consult Echidna in her stead are also unknown. It is also possible that she talked to Cetus who referred her to Echidna.
 * As shown on HS 7137 (this page), her powers include waking people up (mirroring Vriska's ability to put people to sleep).

Trivia

 * When the suggestion box for Vriska's name was open, "Aranea" was one of the suggested names, given by Radiation.
 * "Aranea" is Latin for spider, pronounced a-RAH-nee-a, "Araneae" serves as the name for the entire Order of spiders which separates them from other Arachnids. Derivatives of it are used for numerous taxonomic ranks from Suborder down to Genus.
 * An Aranea is a spider-like shapeshifter in Dungeons & Dragons.
 * Aranea is also the name of one of Charlotte's three children that stay at the barn from Charlotte's Web.
 * Aranea's name may also be a reference to Araña, a word which is Spanish for Spider, and is a name that one of the Spider-girls went by, further alluding Jake's interest in her.
 * In Meenah's company, Aranea tends to unintentionally use fish puns.
 * Aranea is using Vriska's trolltag (AG), but possibly only for the dream bubble memory since she was impersonating Vriska at first.
 * Aranea's wings when she reached God Tier are exactly like Vriska's. Being genetically identical to Mindfang she also had a seven-pupiled eye when she was alive.