Application for witchesreign!
OC or AU: AU
Character Name: (Troll) Jade Harley
Series: Homestuck
Gender: Female
Age: A little over six solar sweeps (or, about thirteen and a half years old)!
Requested Sponsor: Opal
Entry position (Cadet, SeeD, Instructor, other): Cadet
Appearance: From normal Jade Harley, it's pretty close to a simple palette swap; her skin is now a darkish grey hue, her sclera are yellow (with black pupils and grey irises, to turn a light green as puberty hits), and the “devilbeast” symbol on her shirt has metamorphosed into a much more abstract, scratchy version.
Aside from those, there are three big changes:
1) Her blood and tears are both a light shade of green - in fact, they are very close to her text color! This affects about what you'd expect: when she blushes, she blushes green, and when she bleeds she bleeds green;
2) Her teeth (buckteeth and all) have sharpened up considerably, lending themselves to a much more carnivorous diet; and
3) A lovely pair of candy-corn horns in the rough shape of wolf ears have sprouted atop her head. These really serve no purpose, save for possible fights for dominance within Alternia's militaristic culture.
And that's about it!
History: Check here, right up until “...she had to find a way to bring the four planets of their medium with them into the new session after THE SCRATCH.” At this point the AU begins to diverge from the alpha timeline!
See, instead of relying on their own devices, the kids and trolls strike up a different desperate deal with a not-so-metaphorical devil, the nigh-omniscient Doc Scratch. The exact details are never specified; however, in the process, the universes are linked and reversed. The four children wake up on a foreign planet with only vaguely familiar lusii, and all twelve trolls (yes, even the dead ones!) awaken as thirteen-year-old human kids on planet Earth. Naturally, this causes some confusion amongst everyone; when Sburb/Sgrub is discovered to exist once again, this time in one large conglomerate 16-player session, even more confusion is created.
The kids-turned-trolls are forced to survive two months on a hostile planet in bodies that betray them, with minds that drive them towards anger and violence, and with almost no friendly members of their own species around to aid them (past a few horrifying contacts with their old “guardians”), while many of the newly-turned humans find themselves pacified - and in the case of those who have died, amnesiacs with respect to their time on Alternia. I'll be taking Jade from shortly before any interuniversal contact is established; thus, the kids have already established that the trolls are now living on Earth, and that they'll contact them soon enough, and they are just waiting (impatiently) for the time to do so.
World History: The multiverse in which Homestuck takes place has quite a few oddities about it! Notable amongst them are:
Specibi/syllabi: Everyone in the Earth/Alternia of this multiverse has two methods of inventory: a strife specibus, one that allows them to allocate/equip weaponry to fight with, and a syllabus which allows them to store items based on some esoteric principle. In Jade's case, this is based off a series of old board games: Memory, Connect Four and the like! (e.g.: if she can match the two face-down cards which store her item, she can retrieve it to her hands.) Jade's strife specibus is allocated to riflekind, and she is quite good with it!
Sburb/Sgrub: In this multiverse, a game denoted as Sburb or Sgrub is discovered within a universe! Its purpose is usually unknown to most as it comes out; as it turns out, it basically causes the apocalypse. Whoops! But it's okay - its “stated goal,” at least as suggested by the trolls and one Doc Scratch (both imperfect narrators, to say the least), involves the creation of a new universe - and the entering thereof as its gods manifest. The trolls created the human universe, and so on!
The game plays as an unholy cross between The Sims and some absurd MMO; eldritch reality warping technologies are at play, as a server player can directly modify the real world around their client player, and as they level up and save grist, they can build more to reach their gates (and eventually, the Skaian battlefield - where the final showdown and reckoning occur!)
The Reckoning: On the battlefield of Skaia, two forces wage war: the white pieces of Prospit, and the black-carapaced Dersites. White stands for the creative genesis of a new world; black stands for its destruction.
White is always, always fated to lose.
Without this necessary loss, the game, the children, and their guardians would not exist. You see, when black wins, they take the staff of the White King and set about the reckoning - putting into motion the time-traveling meteors which will destroy the Earth. On these meteors are sent the paradox clones of the guardians and the children destined to play, each guardian genetically cloned from themselves and then swirled together in pairs to act as genetic “parents” for each child.
Alternia: The homeworld of the trolls, and thanks to temporal/spatial displacement the new homeworld of our four favorite children. While we do know a fair few details of the place from what has been revealed in canon, parts of this characterization will also come from the expanded canon given by the AU. These parts will be clearly marked to make processing easier!
Hemospectrum: Alternia is a highly dangerous place, one where undead roam freely during the daytime and all trolls who have survived to a certain age are sent off-planet to encourage both rampant colonization and discourage any form of armed rebellion. The planet is filled with children and teens, as such, and is about as chaotic as one would expect of a celestial body ruled entirely by dipshits going through puberty. It is ruled with an iron fist by its off-planet empress, her Imperial Condescension, and governed largely by its restrictive hemocaste. Within it, the redbloods are considered gutterbloods, the indigobloods are the rulers of the land, and anything higher are the nobility of the sea. (Seadwellers and landdwellers tend to hate each others guts; true story!) While lowbloods are more likely to display powerful psionics, ranging from hearing the voice of the undead to complete control over telekinesis to mind control, highbloods are usually more resistant to such things.
Reproduction: With no adults, there can obviously be no parents, but the issue is far greater than that. You see, trolls reproduce by contributing buckets of “genetic material” to the Imperial Drone come collection time, one bucket for each concupiscent quadrant (but more on that later!). This is all thrown together into one giant incestuous slurry, which is promptly fed to a Mother Grub. She proceeds to spawn all the young wigglers of the newest breeding period, most of which will not see it through their first day due to various occupational hazards (vicious fauna, vicious flora, cannibalization, and so on).
Lusus naturae: Those that do survive long enough to wrap themselves into a cocoon in some safe spot will find themselves with a lusus, or more literally “freak of nature.” These are usually separated into groups based on blood-caste: that is, a musclebeast butler is far more likely to assist a blueblood than some pathetic redblood. These act as custodians to the young trolls, bringing them fresh kills for food and mauling any idiot trolls that try to get too dangerously close. In return, the kids keep watch on them; it is a symbiotic sort of relationship, one distantly reminiscent of a child and their parent.
Romance: Hooooboy. As they grow, young trolls become vividly aware of an ever-impending problem: once they have grown, the Imperial Drone will come for their genetic material, and if they prove themselves unworthy or unable to find two sets of mate before that point they will be spontaneously culled. Because of this, they attempt to fill out their quadrant-based romance system with an urgency unseen in most of human society. Additionally, thanks to the whole “incestuous slurry” thing mentioned above, gender (and even blood relations) are largely seen as irrelevant where romance or sex is involved; Karkat had no idea how “homosexuality” could even be a thing, and mentions later that he finds humans and their weird hangups over incest quite odd.
There are four hemispheres - the division between pity (red) and hate (black), and the division between concupiscent ( <3 + <3< ) and conciliatory ( <> + c3< ).
Matespritship: <3. The closest thing to human romance. It is based on nonplatonic “pity” (curiously close to human love in many ways), and it is one of the two buckets all (surviving) trolls will have to fill at some point. Referred to as “red romance.”
Moirallegiance: <>. As trolls are violent, near-psychotic little twerps on average (especially as you rise up the hemospectrum), oftentimes it comes to light that a particularly dangerous troll finds some calmer one to balance out their dangerous urges. These two trolls act to complete each other in a completely platonic (and yet undeniably romantic) manner; no pails will ever be filled, but they will certainly hold a link almost describable as “soulmate” between each other. Referred to as “pale romance.”
Kismesissitude: <3<. Being unfathomably angry at pretty much everything, trolls have a relationship (or two) based on seething hatred. It is known as “Kismesissitude,” and it essentially goes like this: imagine a rival who you hated every little bit of, who you detested so much the thought of others hurting them made you sick because it could have been you. They are someone to be kept alive at all costs - because if they ever died, you wouldn't be able to make them suffer any longer. They inspire you to new depths of rage and hatred, and this leads you to make strides as a person - specifically to disown those traits of theirs that make you loathe them so. Referred to as “black romance.”
Auspisticization: c3<. Remember how trolls get pissy at everything? This leads to an unfortunate sort of problem in which they will engage in blackrom at the drop of a hat, which leads to infidelity, which... is seen as kind of a problem! So this is where a neutral third party, an auspistice, comes in. They act to cool tensions between the two parties, and in this manner things cool down to a mere simmer instead of exploding into the stratosphere. Referred to as “ashen romance.”
Finally, I choose this point to add in a few AU notes: within this world, Alternia is a feral, untamed world. Food is not bought at stores or shared (which makes sense); rather, it is caught and eaten, perhaps raw, perhaps not. Technologies obviously exist to some extent; thermal hulls (or “fridges,” in the dainty dialect of the highbloods) can be used to store drinks and unused food. Much of the electronic technology seems insectoid-based, from husktop computers to apiary networks to mind honey.
The trolls seem violent, but it is often a point of contention as to whether this is societal or genetic. Within the AU, it seems to be heavily skewed towards genetics; that is, if Doc Scratch's tender touches influenced them societally at first, the species as a whole evolved to adapt to it. Despite being human-minded, Rose adapts incredibly quickly to the touches of black romance; Jade practically embraces it, and all the kids show signs of drastically changed temperaments due to the new hormone imbalances in their heads.
Garden History: N/A
Abilities & Physical Abnormalities: I believe they've all been mentioned within the appearance section! Due to her caste, I'm going to assume Jade is quite the hunter with that rifle of hers; additionally, based on her sharpened teeth and (hunter's) caste, it's likely that, like Rose, she eats fresh game without much complaint. This might be a little odd within the Garden grounds!
Past that, her syllabi and strife specibus should be the only out-of-the-ordinary powers, and her troll body should be the only physical abnormalities.
Personality: Jade is quite the quirky young lass! Part of this could be ascribed to her dreams of the future; after all, accurate soothsaying will have quite the effect on impressionable young girls. However, more important than this is her (lack of) upbringing. At a very young age, her grandfather and sole human guardian died thanks to a tragic troll-related accident, and Jade was left to be raised entirely by the internet and her wonderful dog, Becquerel. This dog happened to be omnipotent, and the oldest living lifeform on the planet. This was only partially related.
Growing up on the internet had some odd effects, to be sure. For one, she speaks like the excited chatroom dweller from hell - smilies, lowercase, and all the exclamation points in the world. As a child raised in relative solitude with a whole island full of excitement and gadgets, she does pretty much whatever the heck she wants to! She's not half bad where botany is concerned, and she often passes the time with fun little games or exploration of the island (often assisted by her teleporting dog, Bec. Did I mention he was omnipotent? Because that is not a thing that stopped happening). She's got a somewhat short attention span due to the sheer glut of opportunities that have barraged her since day one; in her introduction, she wakes up from her spontaneous nap, plays the flute (badly), runs around oinking like a pig and tossing fertilizer all over her plants, then goes to explore before playing a rousing game of Memory in which she already knows which cards to pick. The entire time, her shirt is constantly set to change by her nuclear wardrobifier, and she uses the tiny reminder bands on her fingers to remind her to do things at the right time. Suffice to say, she has a BIT OF AN ATTENTION PROBLEM. This is what happens when you see back, forward, and present in time at various points, and have to do things to affect all three.
But a YOUNG LASS with a SHORT ATTENTION SPAN would hardly be an interesting character in the slightest! So we move on from here. Jade is fiercely intelligent, and when she finds something she actually enjoys doing she becomes quite the prodigy - possibly due to her lack of anything else to really do other than browse the internet. She's rapidly developing an interest (and potential) in nuclear physics, could probably outwit many engineers on the workings of high-tech electronics (such as transportalizers), and can even play one hell of a bass solo with her dreambot while she's asleep. She also taxidermized her dead grandfather, which is a little awkward to be quite honest - but hey, it's family tradition, who are we to judge!
So, we've established that she is a YOUNG LASS with NO ATTENTION SPAN except where RIDICULOUS FEATS OF INTELLECT ARE INVOLVED. But get this - she loves cute things, like Squiddle tanglebuddies and anthropomorphic fauna, where many of her childlike whimsies and fantasies lie. Sometimes, she likes to dream of what it would be like, to run free with these humanoid animals! Also, Dave sends her furry stories and drew her furry SBaHJ and she has furaffinity bookmarked and basically what I am trying to get at here is that she's a furry with little to no sexual interest in the topic.
Due to her lack of human interaction outside of the internet, she seems to have a fierce sort of temper - as early as the first game of memory the readers play with her, she makes comments within the narration of how they are pretty much worthless at this and maybe it would just be better if she took over again. Nonetheless, she tries to keep such issues compressed; however, as the trolls have pestered her her entire life for perceived injustices (namely, in the inadvertent part she played in destroying their universe), sometimes she just ups and snaps. The trolls are one good example - when interacting with Karkat, even in a mostly-friendly fashion, her normal excitement and cheer immediately sours in favor of cursing and irritability.
And this is where her trollification kicks in. You see, Jade is a big bundle of repression: from the beginning, she's had to watch as her friends did things she knew would happen in the future. She's had to look at her dead, taxidermized Dream Self for many, many years in the upstairs loft, and even when she finally got the power to do something in-game she'd long since been outclassed by all her friends. This leads to a frustration and feeling of powerlessness - one that she can't really show around her friends. After all, it's not their fault, and she wouldn't want to hurt their feelings for something like this! She even tries to stay polite with the trolls who have given her hell for all her life, for the most part - simply because it's the right thing to do.
So when she is barraged by aggression, irritability and finally given an outlet (black romance) for her frustrations? All hell breaks loose. This might be in part due to her newfound status as a troll; having not grown up in the environment, she knows very little about these exciting new quadrants save for a few biological cues (the stirring in her vascular pump-based circulatory core, for instance) and is much more likely to mistake things for it than not. However, part of it's a newfound freedom - on this world where she is not only allowed but encouraged to take control of her own actions and destiny, to do what she wants and screw anyone who says otherwise (and is of a lower caste/not easy to kill), black romance provides an almost constructive way to express her frustrations and anger. And express herself she does - so far in her AU, every troll she's contacted has had some form of black flirtation or pickup. She's hilariously inept at it, as even with Karkat's beneficial nature expanding her vocabulary, she's not particularly mean-natured; however, it's certainly not for a lack of enthusiasm on the subject.
While it hasn't been explicitly addressed, one would assume that given the carnivorous, bestial nature of Alternia, Jade's pacifism where fauna are concerned was laid by the wayside pretty quickly. Her lusus, Curie (a howlbeast quite similar in nature but not potency to Becquerel) brought her food, and within the two months that have passed it seems likely that Jade has gone hunting to support herself, her friends and her lusus.
So, to recap: since becoming a troll, Jade has become more temperamental and passionate - or at the very least, more willing to express these parts of her than before. All these parts combine to create a different sort of Jade - one that is still quite surely the same Harley, just in a much, much different environment.
What are your plans for the character in-game? While I'm quite interested in interacting with WR's superb Homestuck cast, I'm even more interested in the fun that could be had from an “alien” like Jade interacting with normal sorts of people. While many of her perspectives haven't had time to change too drastically, certain parts of her mindset have already adapted quite well to Alternian society; I'd love to play out her more inhuman aspects, especially with human foils to counterbalance her!
Anything else? Nooooot particularly! If anything needs renegotiated or edited on this, I'm more than willing to compromise. :3 If the thread linked doesn't provide enough comments, I'm more than willing to write a new sample!
Actually, on second thought, two quick questions! Jade has a lusus, Curie - effectively, a large howlbeast/wolf that watches over her. To prevent her from dying, she prototyped her with her sprite - thus ensuring that Curie would be her guardian, advice-giver, and sort of NPC sidekick throughout the new game session. With this in mind, would it be possible for Curie to show up as a GF for Jade?
Second, with the knowledge that stats don't mean quite so much in this game, would it be possible for Curie to come with the Devour ability? This would fit in quite nicely with Jade's troll status - and in case powergaming is an issue here, it wouldn't be an issue of instakill or stat boosting, either. I just like the idea of distancing Jade from her human counterpart in another odd, sort of alien way.
Obviously, if GFs and the like are worked out later on, then there's no need to worry about any of this! I just figured I'd ask here. :V
i) IC Questionnaire!
What do you prefer to be known as?
Mm... Jade Harley should work, I think! I guess "Troll Jade Harley" would be okay too, if there was an issue with clones or something like that!
How old are you?
Six solar sweeps! That's like thirteen and a half human years. Since you probably don't use solar sweeps and all.
Do you have any history in combat?
Yeah!
If so, have you ever killed?
...mmhmm. Not many things, though! It was mainly for food, and we used the rest of it too, so...
i) How do you feel when you get involved in some project that calls for immediate and rapid activity?
Hm... excited, I guess! It's really fun to have something important to do, most of the time. If it's too big, it can be really frustrating, though!
ii) Do you organize and initiate leisure activities?
I... guess? That is kind of a weird question! Especially since there are really only four of us around anyway. So if you mean "do you play games with the others," I try to, sometimes!
They're really rude about losing, a lot of the time...
iii) What role do you take when working in a group?
I stick around and support the others! It is basically the most important role, and nobody else is willing to do it, usually. Which is really stupid when you think about it!
iv) How talkative are you around other people?
I'm not really sure how to answer this! I mean, you're the one doing the interviewing, right? What do you think so far?
...oh, right, I'm supposed to answer. Um- pretty talkative, I guess! I don't know, I've never really been asked that before!
v) What three things would you want to have with you on a desert island? State your reasoning.
Oh, this one is easy! One: remote access to some renewable power source. Two: a working way to access the internet, and three: an Appearifier or Transportalizer! You could basically do anything with those three- the internet would make maintenance even easier than usual, and as long as the power supply wasn't nonrenewable you could do things in small bursts to make sure you had clean water and everything! How about you?
...oh. Um, yes, next question, please.
vi) Is it important to be liked by a wide range of people?
This is kind of a biased question! I mean, what if there are only a few of you around in the first place? It isn't really important then because everyone's already dead!
Buuuut... yes, in general, I think so! Things are a lot easier for everyone when people get along, or at least like or hate each other in the right ways! So I think that's basically the ideal way to do things.
vii) When the odds are against you, is it worth taking a chance?
Duh! Is this even a serious question?
viii) Do you consider yourself to be an impulsive person?
Noooo? I mean, if I really want to do something, I do it, but that's not really the same thing! I can totally stick to a plan if it's important enough, for as long as I need to.
ix) Would you agree that planning things ahead takes the fun out of life?
What? No! I mean, it can make some things a little boring, especially when you already know what's going to happen and just have to wait anyway... But that's not that often! I mean, usually you'll forget by that point anyway, and then it's like a whole new exciting discovery just waiting! And even if it weren't, there's so many neat things you can do other than the planning and waiting stuff.
No offense meant, but that is kind of a stupid question!
x) Do you like surprises?
Really? I mean, duhhh! Opening up something brand-new is the coolest feeling. Aside from giving them, I mean! And watching their expression. That is definitely the coolest thing!
xi) Do you sometimes wonder if there is something wrong with you?
No...? I mean... I guess I do, a little! But I'm pretty sure everyone does that sometimes, so. In general, I like to think I am a pretty darn good troll!
xii) Do you consider yourself to be smarter than your superiors, and disagree with their decisions?
Only when I am smarter! And if that were the case, I am pretty sure they wouldn't be my superiors anyway. So usually, that is a big honking no!
And their decisions are probably there for a reason. If they seem really off, I might ask why we have to do it, but generally speaking people know what they're doing!
xiii) Lastly, how do you feel about cabbages?
Uh.
I am really not sure how to answer this question, or even what it has to do with anything! Do I get a few more minutes to think about-
Oh, shit- shoot! Shoot, um, I guess they're kind of neat? They're really easy to grow, and I guess they go okay with things, so... I mean, they are not my favorite vegetable or plant, but they could be way worse!
iv) Thread link!