its time t0 be 0ut 0n the t0wn we went t0 carry 0ut missi0ns
[ PLAYER INFORMATION ]
Player Name: Alley
Age: 16 still, yo.
Timezone: EST (US)
Personal Journal: bialleyhoos
Contact Information:
Instant Messenger: AIM | alleykizzy
Email: bialleyhoos@yahoo.com
[ CHARACTER INFORMATION ]
Name: Aradia Megido (apocalypseArisen), the Maid of Time.
Age: 6 Alternian solar sweeps/13 Earth years
Gender: Female
Fandom: Homestuck
Timeline: The middle of [S] Wake, before stopping Jack.
History:
Aradia had an average troll childhood. Average, for the most part, with the exception being that she had the ability to hear the voices of the deceased. They would whisper things to her, such as things that need to happen for the Greater Good (essentially, the apocalypse and destruction of Alternia). Before she died, however, she mostly put off their statements in a Screw Destiny-esque manner. Post-death, she accepts their commands and only really does things Because Destiny Says So.
When she was still alive, Aradia took part in FLARP, an intense live action role playing game with a few of her friends. She enjoyed the adventurous nature of the game, unlike the majority of trolls who played it just to find treasure or for their own benefit. There was one significant FLARP session that caused a vicious cycle of revenge amongst Aradia and her fellow players. During the session, one of Aradia's good friends (Tavros Nitram) was psychically controlled to jump off of the cliff just outside of his hive. The culprit was one Vriska Serket, a blue-blooded troll with slightly overwhelming cruelty. Overcome by guilt that she wasn't able to help her friend (due to a Trollian Ruse which served as A Distraction), she spent a lot of time making sure he recovered well and got used to his new handicap.
That wasn't enough, however, because although she was helping Tavros, Vriska still deserved punishment for what she had done. So, using her powers that attached her to the realm of the dead, she summoned ghosts of all the trolls Vriska had killed in her many FLARP sessions (of whom she then fed to her lusus). Aradia had hoped that by forcing Vriska to deal with the spirits of those she murdered, Vriska would learn to have empathy. It didn't go as planned. Despite being bothered by the ghosts, Vriska decided she could probably live with it. Until Doc Scratch got involved. Doc Scratch was/is the guardian of Alternia, in the same way Becquerel is the guardian of Earth. A "God" of sorts.
Scratch came into contact with Vriska through Trollian, telling that her the haunting would stop if she killed Aradia. Vriska wasn't sure if she wanted to comply, and only decided to after their conversation in spite. It was the only way to make the spirits disappear, and Vriska found herself being engulfed by them.
And so, using her manipulative psychic powers, she took control of Sollux Captor, Aradia's "boyfriend". Like Aradia and Vriska, Sollux too harbors supernatural powers. Mind rays of sorts, coming from his bifurcated mind through his red and blue eyes. He has the power to destroy whatever is in his path. Vriska could only control him half of the time, due to his brain, but it was all the time she required. Using his powers, she eliminated the source of her problem. Presumably, he regained control of his being the moment he destroyed his moirail (?) and her hive. Not to mention, her lusus.
It isn't known how long it was between her death and becoming a ghost. When she did come back, however, she was completely different. She lost interest in everything, only able to find pleasure in breaking things.
The voices of the deceased became louder. Clearer. They urged her to visit some ruins she had previously discovered due to her interest in archeology. These ruins would become her new home, after she abandoned her hive. (In her opinion, the only thing her hive did for her now that she was dead was bring up bad memories. It was time to close that chapter of her "life".) Essentially, the ruins held the secret to "Sburb". The voices guided her into the Frog Temple, showing her how the patterns on the walls of the temple were to be adapted into a computer game. Having absolutely no experience with coding, Aradia called upon Sollux, who was the best troll she knew for the job.
After the creation of the game, all twelve of the trolls proceeded to enter the Medium on their respective planetary Lands which orbit Skaia. Aradia was the second to enter the medium, while on the blue team. It was essential for her to enter second, because she had no lusus to prototype, and used the severed head of the Frog from the temple ruins. This is important because of the hatred the Dersites (the moon whose inhabitants are anti-creation) have for frogs. Frogs being the key item to winning Sgrub/Sburb- they are required to create a new universe. This development would weaken the Black Queen (who ruled over Derse), and the information would be sent to Karkat who was the first to enter the game.
In result, they would succeed in exiling the Black Queen.
Once Aradia first tier prototyped and entered the medium, the sprite was attracted to her spirit (as is the nature of the kernelsprite) and prototyped with her as the second tier. Because of this, Aradia gained lots of knowledge about Sgrub but was unable to communicate it without being cryptic (which wasn't much of a change for her because she always had been).
Equius entered the game after her, having built her a soulbot as a present. The robot was programmed to have some emotions (mostly anger), including romantic feelings for him. Upon discovering this "upgrade", she promptly screamed at Equius, plunged her hand into her chest, ripped out the artificial heart he'd placed inside of the robot, and stomped on it. She then proceeded to hit Equius instead, and then, surprisingly, kiss him. It's unclear whether they are kismesis or matesprits, but their feelings seem to swap between the two a lot.
Once all of the trolls entered, Aradia sought out Vriska with her new found rage. Before the soulbot, Aradia was completely 0k with her death. If she had the willpower on Alternia, she would have gotten her revenge then. Aradia found her on one of the planets, teleporting through space and time to get to her. She then proceeded to Make Vriska Pay. And how! Aradia practically beat the scorpio to death, leaving her on the ground bleeding profusely.
What happened to Aradia afterward is unknown, because she Skipped To The End. She narrated the battle on Skaia in a memo, using video footage taken by the soulbot. In order for the trolls to win their game, she was required to buy them time over and over. Going back in time every second to create an army of Aradiabots. Their strength in numbers would be another thing that was crucial for the trolls' success.
After the defeat of the Black King, the trolls would be presented their reward for winning the game. Before Karkat is able to reach that reward (literally inches away), Jack Noir of the kids' session would prevent it from happening. The primary timeline!Aradia would then transportability all of the trolls into a laboratory somewhere in the veil where they could hide. Her past selves, already doomed, were left to fight and lose to Jack.
In the veil, the trolls set up a computer lab where they can troll the kids. They blame the four children for what happened to them, because of Jack. Some time passes, and after minimal interaction with the kids, Aradia's robot explodes. But not before she has a completely heartbreaking conversation with Sollux.
The reason she explodes is because her dream self (which she believed to never have had one) was awakening. It resided deep in the center of Derse on a Quest Bed. Jack Noir was destroying the moon, burning it completely, when her dream self perished on the bed, leading her soul into its body. It is then that Aradia reaches the God Tier and realizes her full powers as the Maid of Time.
And it is then that she will wake up in Death City.
Character Personality:
There are three major stages of being Aradia goes through before arrival to Death City. Life, death, and artificial life, or, the time she spent in the soulbot.
Not much is seen of her before the Accident, but we can infer that Aradia led a humble life in her hive outside of the city. The higher a troll is on the hemospectrum, the more fancy things they have! For example, Equius and Vriska's hives were manor-esque, in a sort of "development" of blue bloods' hives. Feferi had an underwater mansion, and Eridan lived inside of a pirate ship crashed at sea. Aradia's hive seemed to be like a homely farm house. She lived a quiet life doing archeology digs pretending to be Troll Indiana Jones, and decided to get involved with FLARP. It was likely Tavros who convinced her, considering they were teammates for the game. She would have wanted to make sure he was safe, like a good friend would.
During her FLARP sessions, the weapon Aradia used was Whipkind. Obviously because of her interest in Troll Indiana Jones. It's likely that she based her FLARP character off of him, instead of her ancestor like Vriska or Eridan.
Occasionally, she and her moirail Sollux Captor (mutual headcanon between myself and Ri) would visit each other. These visits probably occurred when they needed the other most, an example being when the voices of the dead (or imminently deceased in his case) became too much to cope with.
However, these visits stopped (for the most part) once she died. At her death, Aradia lost all interest in everything she once loved, liked, or hated. She didn't blame Sollux for what happened, instead suggesting that she was 0kay with it. It was Vriska's fault anyways. It's implied that she was dead for over one solar sweep, or approximately two to three Earth years.
She spent these years, as she would later call it, brooding. Her main focus was the Great Und0ing, or the ap0calypse. The Voices guided her through her afterlife in order for the apocalypse to happen. She abandoned her destroyed hive for the frog temple ruins because of their significance to the apocalypse. This was an easy task because her lack of emotional attachment. She left her dead lusus to be consumed by other beasts that roamed Alternia.
Because of her concentration on carrying out and executing the great und0ing, all Aradia ever talked about was fate, death and destruction. This caused a lot of her friends to dislike talking to her. She didn't really care for them that much anyway, with her loss of interest in everything. The only person she really talked to was Sollux, and even then that's because she tricked him into creating the game. He was crucial for her mission.
Her attitude of "Because Destiny Says So" made her perfect for the role of the time keeper. She was not one to waste time, often being precise in her actions because they had to occur at that very moment. The prime example this comes into play is when she first tier prototypes the frog head. It was required for the trolls to "win" their session.
Even though she says that their inevitable failure would be masked by victory. She is, of course, referencing Bec Noir coming into their session and preventing them from claiming their reward.
This cryptic nature is something that attracts Equius to her. By Vriska's request, he builds her a soulbot to house her spirit (then prototyped with the frogsprite). He gives her a new shade of blood- the exact same shade as his, actually! He tells her that she has the poise and grace of a blue-blood, and she was obviously born into the wrong place on the spectrum. Upon entering the bot, she discovers that he also installed an emotion chip inside of her new heart. She develops flushed (or maybe caliginous!) feelings for him as a result.
Because of the emotion chip, she now has some liberation from her bored, dead, spooky self. She is still focused on the apocalypse and failing to win the game, but she is focused on this with much more passion. Or maybe rage. She only gains pleasure from breaking things (which may have helped Equius's feelings develop), and that includes breaking Vriska! It's the soulbot which gives her the drive to actually do something about the manipulating spiderbitch.
Of course, Aradia still isn't herself. Karkat complains that she would be a lot closer to her original self if she were properly revived, but her roboself is a lot better than her ghostself.
He doesn't have too long to wait for this to happen, though, because some time after (but not too long after), her soulbot explodes! Her spirit is then reunited with her dreamself, which has ascended to the God Tier because of Bec Noir's actions.
Now that she is alive again, she states that she VERY MUCH INTENDS to stay that way.
After her encounter with Bec Noir, she visits a Dead Dave, and talks about what it means to be a time keeper. She also makes several jokes and admits to not being good at slam poetry.
Her tone is still a little fatalistic, but it's intended to be philosophical. Aradia says that time isn't much of anything at all, at least, to the time keepers, implying that she's come to terms with her role. She tells Dave that people like them need to be prepared to die thousands of times to fulfill their quest, which she has already done, and Dave is in the process of doing.
Character Abilities:
Telekinesis, and the ability to commune the spirits of the dead. The degree of her telekinesis for when she is alive isn't exactly shown, but as a ghost she was able to decapitate the frog temple's head to use it for prototyping. She's seen using it as her roboself in [S] Make Her Pay, where she beats Vriska to a pulp and tosses her into the ground. She controls her so much that Vriska is unable to fight back, a truly amazing feat for such a simple maroon blood. There also might have been enhancements in the soulbot, however, considering Equius put an emotion chip inside of her.
She's also used this ability on the meteors of the Reckoning to weaken and distract the Black King. This is, of course, along with Sollux whose powers are also no laughing matter.
The other natural ability that Aradia has is the ability to commune with the spirits of the dead. She's only used this ability once, however, and that was after Tavros's accident. She normally wouldn't bother them, but because of the context she was using her ability, it was 0k. The simple way this works is that she "borrows" the spirits for whatever she wants/needs them to do. This ability is likely the reason that she became a ghost, instead of just perishing with her body. Unless it works differently on Alternia.
As the Maid of Time, Aradia can control where she is in the timeline. And also, where she is in the universe. She can't go into the future of course, but she can return to any point in the timeline and change occurrences. The only time she's shown doing this is at the end of the Sgrub session, fighting the black King. Each second that went by, Aradia bought her teammates more time to fight. Eventually there ended up being THOUSANDS of copies of her, holding back the monstrous king from emitting the Vast Glub. The Vast Glub being the thing that would kill all of troll kind-- for good. It's safe to say that she's watched them die many, many times.
She can also halt time, and slow it down, as if she were a DVD remote! Although I am quite sure that these abilities are because of her upgrade to Godhood, as one could say.
Character Weaknesses:
Physically, trolls are more fragile than the average human being. And this doesn't count Aradia out. In fact, due to her low standing on the hemospectrum, she is probably weaker than other trolls. But what she lacks in physical ability, she makes up for in lowblood powers.
Mentally though, Aradia is friendly. She has the culling nature and instincts like all trolls do, but she gets caught up in her emotions sometimes. She wouldn't kill anyone unless she had a real reason to. Vriska, for example. After all Vriska had done to both Aradia and her friends, the moment she received the will to actually do something about her, she went off and MADE HER PAY. Big time. This is also an example of how Aradia is impulsive and headstrong. She never thought out her actions, which resulted in Vriska rising to the God Tier.
[ MEISTER ONLY SECTION ]
Why your character should be a Meister:
Aradia has a strong sense of when to aggrieve or agress, now that she has the will to fight. As a part of troll nature, she is willing cull those who are weak (the reason she never culled Tavros was not just because of his higher rank in society, but also that she believed he had the potential to be stronger) if she has to.
In a partnership, Aradia will be a cautious leader, always taking her Weapon's thoughts and opinions into consideration. She's used to combat, having spent so many FLARP sessions defeating whatever Terezi sent after her. Not to mention all of the prototyped monsters she fought in the Incipisphere, and the slaying of the Black King.
Meister Ability: Soul Animate, Soul Sixth Sense, Soul Paralyze
[ SOUL INFORMATION ]
Soul Description: Independent, cryptic, curious, friendly, headstrong, impulsive.
Soul Appearance: Maroon red to represent her blood caste, and shaped somewhat like a clock gear. This will symbolize her position and duty as the keeper of time for the trolls' session. Her expression will be similar to the neutral expression she wears on her alive!sprite.
[ SAMPLES ]
Third Person:
Botsplode. Derse burned as Jack Noir flew about it, searching. For what, none of the residents knew, his prototyped figure alien to all. While the planet of destruction burned, there was one left to wake beneath its surface. The flames scorched the buildings until there was nothing left but one princess in the depths of the moon waiting to die. It was her destiny. It was meant to happen. Her body burned bright green, and only when it perished did she live again in a completely new form.
Wake. It was the biggest headache of Aradia's life. Feeling the concrete pressed against her face, she groaned and pushed herself up into a sitting position. Despite the migraine, her head felt lighter. She blinked into the darkness, grateful that there wasn't much light in the chamber. Where was she? Carefully, Aradia stood up and examined her surroundings. This certainly wasn't the Incipisphere, nor any of the trolls' Lands. All of the carved pillars, the odd symbols, they spoke to her. She wanted to feel the stone, it would be just like the days before the accident!
But she still didn't feel right. Something was missing. In fact, she felt as though half of her being was missing. That was impossible, though, because she was there 100% and then some. Fussing over this emotion, she realized what was wrong. The only voice she could hear in her head was her own. Almost instantly she began testing her powers. She couldn't go back in time, she couldn't slow down the other people in the chamber, she couldn't stop them, she couldn't use telekinesis...
Aradia Megido was free. She didn't think she would like it, but she was free. And it was all thanks to one little cube.
First Person:
hello citizens of death city
my name is aradia megido
i am a meister
and im not really looking for a partner
i wish there was a way to be sent home
brew caught me at a pretty bad time!
its pretty safe to say that the fate of all universes depends on me going back
unless
time stops for the alpha timeline
but i should stop thinking about it
because its not supposed to be a concern of mine for the duration of my stay here
so!
if my assumptions are correct then there is already quite a handful of us here
i must say that im very excited to be with you all again
and im looking forward to hearing about everything youve all done since your arrival :D
in case it wasnt obvious from my previous statements
im no longer deceased
and im sorry for the huge drag i was
[ NOTES ]