Rose Lalonde


 * For the post-Scratch version of this character, see Roxy's Mom.

Rose Lalonde is a friend of John Egbert in Homestuck. She was originally named Flighty Broad by Kanaya MaryamHS 4603, 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. Rose's role in Sburb is the "Seer of Light", as shown by her presence in the Land of Light and Rain and her Exile, the Windswept Questant, calling her 'Seer'.

Biography
Rose was raised by her Mom (the only one of the kids' guardians with a genetically-accurate moniker). 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 claims that 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. She had both Sburb discs at the beginning of the story and, unlike the other kids, had no trouble using them.

Rose is John's server player, interacting with the space around John by moving, building, and destroying objects. Rose is proficient enough with Sburb 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 aided John and built up his house in the first two acts; however, her internet connection was unstable, causing numerous shenanigans. She relied on a connection from the nearby lab which was mysteriously unsecured, but she had to move to her dead cat's mausoleum to get closer to the source of the connection.

When the generator powering her laptop failed, she discovered a secret passage in the mausoleum. This led to the Skaianet Laboratory next to her house. Here she came 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 decided 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 set up a Sburb connection with Dave as her server. She initially prototyped Jaspers per Jade's advice. Dave then prototyped her kernelsprite again with the Eldritch Princess doll. She produced her cruxite artifact, a bottle, to enter the medium.

She began Act 4 in the Land of Light and Rain, a reference to her Associated Classical Element and role. Her house is situated much closer to the rest of her land than John's house, separated not by a spire of rock but by an expanse of sea. She was soon contacted by the Windswept Questant, though only for a short time. She then talked to John and Dave, as well as a troll.

She then began 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. Atop the back of this ogre she talked with Dave, as well as AT and then GA again, who had received advice from Dave on trolling her. She then finally tracked down Jaspersprite, who talked to her confusedly about something to do with the ocean and life and songs and letters and yarn purr purr.

She contacted with Jade, who talked 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, which came about as 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, granting him near omnipotence. On Derse's moon, she went and made Dave realize his dream self was already awake. They then had a dance party.

By using Dave's dream computer, she saw that John was at her house. She forced herself to wake up, but was unable to reach John before he left using his rocket. Then she began to do some alchemization. Most significantly, she created a pair of black magic wands, the Thorns of Oglogoth, by combining the needles and a grimoire.

She soon grew tired of playing by the game's rules. After learning that their session was impossible to win, she began trying "alternative tactics", such as blowing up her first gate. Rose abandoned her GameFAQs walkthrough, and using magic she placed it in the Furthest Ring. Here Kanaya Maryam 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 "mentally retarded alien girl", 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 began to act even more cynical and disillusioned, coming across as emotionless in conversation with John. No longer playing to "win", she was 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. The new outfit may be a combination of the Velvet Squiddleknit Dress, the pink scarf and the Grimoire.

She was contacted by other trolls, such as Aradia, who urged 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 became extremely knowledgeable about Sburb, and began 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 planned 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 which Rose did not expect her dream self to return from. At this point she still believed that the Scratch would banish Jack from their session, but denied this in another conversation with her. He helped 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 urged her to ask her Magic 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 caused her to fall into "the fabled blackdeath trance of the woegothics," changing her skin tone to gray, giving her wide, black eyes, and causing her to speak only in an eldritch tongue. She flew towards Skaia to seek revenge.

Upon landing on the castle where her mother and John's father lay dead, she eventually found John and attempted to talk with him. This failed, as she could only speak in an eldritch tongue. She took John to the top of the castle, where they encountered Jack Noir. Seconds into the fight, Noir killed John with a teleportation stab. Rose flew into a rage and clashed with Noir, causing an enormous explosion. Rose lost the fight against Noir and died. John revived her dream self with a kiss as per Vriska's instructions.

After she awakened on Derse, Liv Tyler arrived with The Tumor. Rose and Dave severed the chain connecting Derse to its moon. They argued over who should go on the suicide mission, but she then knocked Dave unconscious. She began piloting the moon on a course through the Furthest Ring to destroy the Green Sun. While dreaming, Dave appeared to Rose in the moon and tried to talk Rose out of sacrificing herself. As they argued, the Draconian Dignitary entered and stabbed Dave. He wakes up on Derse and started after Rose.

What would you say if I said a reserved girl enamored by what dwelt in shadow was selected by the horrorterrors for service, and did their bidding at every step while convinced of her own autonomy? -

Dave caught up with Rose and killed the Dignitary. They then found their respective Quest Beds within the core of Derse's moon. Here they released The Tumor, which shed its outer shell, revealing a bomb that physically contained the kids' and the trolls' universes.

When the timer on The Tumor reached zero, both universes were simultaneously destroyed. This created the Green Sun, what they were trying to destroy in the first place. Rose then emerged from the sun with Dave, having Ascended to God Tier as the Seer of Light and skipped up a god tier to HS 6246 (Ariadne's Threadspinner), presumably for the achievement of creating the Green Sun. She and Dave finally meet the trolls in person. And after convincing Kanaya, she shows the path to the new session using her new abilities as the Seer of Light. Her new abilities include knowing the right actions that will be the most favorable for the session.

Over the course of the next three years, 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 the B2 session first and help the B2 kids win their game. She is later seen in a dream bubble, containing the memory of her strife with Jack Noir, watching him fight with John. Later still in the last part of Openbound, she is seen on the Trolls' Meteor. She talks to Kanaya about the apparent absence of Rainbow Drinker phosphoresence, and Kanaya reveals Porrim taught her how to switch it on and off. Rose is trying her hand at non-sburb alchemy at the time. The reader can become her and talk to Gamzee, who reveals his kismesissitude with Terezi. She is friendly to him and warns him to go back into hiding in the ventilation system to avoid Kanaya.

During A6I3, Rose successfully HS 7303 (alchemizes alcohol) and verifies her HS 7321 (matespritship) with Kanaya while very drunk. Later, in A6I5, HS 7837 (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.

Personality and Traits
Rose is of a similar physical stature to 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). 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 inflated ego with comments about how well known he is, causing Dave to confess to John that "She lays it on thick." 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 'insufferable prick.' 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 "facetious sentimental gesture," 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 begins to display a more playful personality. She shows a guilty pleasure of trashy romance novels and steals one away from Karkat and another from Meenah. The reasons for this change in character are unknown.

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. In the flash Seer: Descend John awkwardly brings up Karkat's declaration of John and Rose's eventual marriage. Rose's response is predictably unintelligible, but she does not appear to shirk away from the suggestion.

Mom Lalonde
Rose 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.

Kanaya Maryam
When pressed by Meenah, Kanaya HS 7163 (revealed that) she and Rose are "" together. Supporting this theory, HS 7298 (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.

Gamzee Makara
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.

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 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.
 * Rose's eyes are HS 4709 (purple), matching her Pesterchum text. She was the first kid to have her eye colour shown.
 * Her astrological sign is Sagittarius.
 * Rose's squiddle shirt was vandalized herself. More info on that here.
 * She was wounded in the same area as Kanaya.
 * It is 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 7303 (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, Doc Scratch said that he had warned her not to stare into that ball. "I warned her about stares [8^y]". The text in the following panel likely translates to "It keeps happening".