somarium application

[healeveryone]

[Player name] Steph
[Age] 19
[Personal Journal] useantibioticgel
[Other characters currently played] N/A

[Character name] Rosalia "Rose" Rossellini
[Age] Fifteen (upon death, plus two years spent as a ghost; her age isn't directly stated in canon but based on known information the math works out to this - see the timeline linked below for details)
[Canon] Trauma Center (specifically, Trauma Team)
[Point in time taken from canon] Post-canon, after the pandemic's over

[Background] I've got a history write-up here and a timeline here. The Wikipedia article on Trauma Team is over here; there's also a fan wiki for the series, but I don't recommend using it as a source since it's not always very well written and occasionally prone to stating speculation/fan bias as fact (e.g., Rosalia's age is wrong and her bio skips pretty much straight from the orphanage fire to her death).

[Personality]
Rosalia's strongest quality is probably in her optimism. She wants the best for the world, and she'll do everything she can to try and help it. She has a lot of faith in the world, because in many ways she was a very lucky, very happy girl until the end of her life. She was orphaned at an early age and was noted to have been very sad in her time there, likely because of the fact that her parents were gone—until, of course, she found that there were people out there who were kind enough to save her life even in the face of danger. This was a big deal and most likely a turning point for her, soon reinforced when a man decided to take her life into his own and adopt her as his daughter. Despite her misfortunes the world has largely showed goodness to Rosalia, and it's little wonder she wants to do good back.

Her optimism is both the product of and the driving motivation behind the way she grew up: being both her father's daughter and research subject, she was aware from childhood that her blood contained one thing that had the potential to do really bad stuff and another that had the potential to do really good stuff. Rosalia's father worked endlessly to find a way to neutralize the bad and utilize the good, and while Rosalia's love for her father and unconditional belief in his goals help explain how she could happily go through years of isolation and sometimes painful testing to achieve that they're almost certainly not the only factor. Rosalia honestly wanted to be able to help heal people, and it was the vision of a future where every disease could be cured along with her dad's success that gave her the strength to keep going.

In general, Rosalia's a very friendly girl and a loving daughter: she adopts Maria as her big sis just because Maria saved her, she seems to look up to her brother just as much despite their limited time together, and she loves her father unconditionally. Rosalia believes the best of everybody and everything; when her father told her that he'd wronged her brother beyond forgiveness, Rosalia seemed to accept that her father did something wrong but firmly believed that her brother still loved him all the same – everything would turn out all right. She really does adore the people she has in her life, both because she's only had so many and because she's just that kind of person. She's likely to feel the same way about any new friends she's ever able to make.

In terms of maturity and behavior Rosalia is somewhere between a normal teenager and a sheltered daddy's girl, because she really is both of those. She's eager to meet people and make friends, although having spent much of her life confined to her house and the surrounding area she hasn't had much experience in complex social interaction and her education has been pretty spotty since around the age of nine – despite growing up with a doctor and a teenage genius med student and despite being a human lab rat for eight years, Rosalia doesn't seem all that knowledgeable about medicine and science. When she talks about the virus it's mostly in terms of what her father has told her about it, and she seems less interested in the actual science than the idea that they could produce some kind of miracle cure from the virus.

It's worth noting, though, that having watched the virus in her blood cause a nationwide pandemic of extra-delightful things like bloody death and murderous insanity, Rosalia isn't completely naive. She spends most of the game looking sad and scared, trying to warn Maria of danger but barely able to communicate, and when Naomi uncovers the truth of her death she remarks that Rosalia has suffered in the past few years. After all that's happened, Rosalia is very much aware of the dangers of her virus; for this reason, she'll also be more careful about herself while in the game - she'll be very much interested in doing whatever good she can, but she'll also be conscientious about the risks she takes. Although her belief in her virus's potential for healing has been shattered by the events of the game, she still believes strongly in people's (and medicine's) potential to accomplish great things. It's not quite canonical due to the fourth wall, but accomplishing certain challenges in the game earns you praise and commentary from various characters in the game; once you've gotten far enough, Rosalia's implies that she believes you might have the skill to accomplish what she and her father could not.

In daily life, Rosalia has also shown herself to be responsible by necessity - someone had to take care of the house while her father got caught up in his research, after all. For similar reasons she's also strong-minded when she needs to be: the game's introduction to Rosalia in life has her snatching her father's tape recorder mid-log in a loving but forceful attempt to bring him to dinner, and her banter with her father is firm but empty of real resentment. Given the chance to live again, while she'll have some trouble trying to adjust to life alive and among people again she's responsible enough to look after herself once she gets her bearings.

Rosalia does get lonely, but she tries not to let it get her down anymore ever since she was rescued from the fire. She mentioned missing her brother and "big sis" in a recording made just prior to her death and expressed hope that one day she'd be able to go out and make friends after her father's research was done; even after six years of no success, she was always looking to the future. And at the same time, she was also satisfied with where she was too: "I think I'll be okay if I can stay here like this." Reminders of the really bad things in her life may shatter her generally sunny disposition for a while, considering that these include getting murdered by her father and being the cause of a lethal virus outbreak, but overall Rosalia truly appreciates everything she has rather than the things she doesn't and focusing on those is what keeps her strong and happy.

[Abilities]
Rosalia has no special abilities for use beyond housework (her father frequently got too wrapped up in research to notice the time, so homekeeping duties tended to fall on her), but it's definitely worth noting that her blood is very dangerous, as it contains a virus that causes viral hemorrhagic fever in its victims. It's a scientific cousin of ebola except on (non-scientific) steroids, which is a nice way of saying that this virus...kind of eats everything it can get its hands on in a body, may drive the victim insane, and eventually makes them die bleeding out of every facial orifice. It's scary, okay? The good part is that Rosalia also has antibodies so that it won't kill her, and since it's only transferred via mucous membranes the only feasible way to get the virus is via ingestion (and assuming the antibodies don't go with it), i.e., as long as her blood doesn't get into someone else's body by some means then everyone's safe. In-game, assuming that the virus sticks around this should pretty much translate to "it won't be an actual threat unless relevant parties agree to make it one."

[Other important stuff] Nada.

[Sample post]
[First Person]
Someone comes to you to ask for the time. How would you respond?
That's a weird question. I'd just tell them if I knew.
Would you consider yourself a hero or a villain? Why? Neither is an option as well, but still tell why.
...Neither. I've never tried to do anything bad, but I've never gotten to do anything good either.
If you could have any super ability, what would it be and why?
The power to heal everyone...to stop people from being sick, or hurt. That would be the greatest thing ever, wouldn't it?
Murder. What is your opinion?
It's terrible, and scary. I don't like it.
What is more important to you: having friends or living on your own? Why?
Having friends! It's no fun living alone. There's nobody to talk to or play with, so it gets old really fast.
You are suddenly told you are the child of an ancient prophecy to save the world. How do you feel? Will you embark on your journey? Or would you rather shove it onto someone else and run away? Explain.
I...I don't know. It sounds dangerous, doesn't it? If it were dangerous, I'd be really scared to do it. But if I had to save the world, then I wouldn't want to let anyone down – especially not if running away would put everyone in danger. So I guess for everyone else's sake, I'd try my best.
If you could destroy a city, how would you do it?
I wouldn't do it at all! What kind of question is that?
(Note: This is a partial lie/attempt to divert the subject since she'd rather not think about the pandemic here.)
Do you have any future goals or dreams? What are they?
I don't really have any right now. I'd like to make more friends, I guess.
Hey, did you hear about that giant sale going on? Interested? What would you want to get?
Ooh, yes! What's there? I'd love to look at the clothes they have, if they've got any...


[Third Person]
The grocery store shouldn't have made her this nervous.

When she had been little and living with Daddy and her brother eight years ago grocery shopping hadn't felt like anything but normal. If anything it was exciting, because even if Erhard didn't like to get much Daddy liked to indulge both of them and Rosalia remembered that he always bought her favorite snacks, and bought her the clothes she wanted, and...

Rosalia sighed, acutely aware of the fact that her family wasn't there with her. Daddy was dead, and Erhard wasn't here. That was better, since that meant he could go on helping save people as a doctor where he was now, but while Rosalia had been alive she'd never been away from them for longer or further than a sleepover at a friend's house and everything just felt so different now.

Then again, she didn't have much right to complain about being alive at all. Rosalia still didn't know how that had happened, but she could never say that being alive and without her family wasn't preferable to being dead, even if she missed them sorely. That was one good thing about this whole situation.

At least I'm alive, she told herself, and when I try and talk to people they'll be able to talk back. And...oh, why don't I just go in!

A few minutes later she was inside the store, surveying the products on display with apprehension. What did she need in a house again? Food, cleaning supplies, things to do...she certainly couldn't get all of it in one trip. How had Daddy managed this six years ago? She remembered they'd left home really quickly, but that had happened so long ago that she didn't recall much else about the process.

And right now, she had to focus on what she could take in a trip. Food, then, and maybe a few items of clothing. And bandages. Her dress had been nice in the summertime, but the weather was chillier here and besides – while she was alive and in the company of other people, it wouldn’t hurt to get a little more clothing between her and the rest of the world. The circumstances leading up to the pandemic had been unusual, but she wasn’t about to take chances in this new place. (Pants wouldn't protect her from bullets any more than her dress, but she could at least take precautions against scraping her knee and bleeding on things others might touch.)

It took time, but eventually she gathered what she thought she could carry back to the place she was living now and went up to the counters to pay. Was she supposed to get the money out before she paid for everything, or...no, after. That was it. The purchase itself passed uneventfully, save for the pleasantries (was thanking him taking too much time and holding up the other people in line?) until the man wished her a nice day and moved on to the next customer. It was over.

Rosalia breathed a sigh of relief and thought over the past few minutes for a second, wondering if she'd done anything wrong without realizing. The man hadn't said anything, so...maybe not? She sure hoped so. If that was true, then the next order of business was to take this all back and start figuring out how to rebuild a home.

Right. She could do this. Picking up her things, Rosalia exited the store and started the walk back to her quarters.


[Why do you want to play this character in Somarium?] I'd really like to play Rosalia in an RP environment where she has to deal with life outside of her family and her home – by the end of her life she hadn't strayed from either for six years and then she kind of died, so just the act of going about and meeting new people is going to be a very meaningful experience to her. At the same time, the chance to play her trying and getting to be a normal teenage girl is pretty much magical considering what happens to her in the game. (Also, the shallow reason: Trauma Center cast and enabling.)
[Which rule was your favorite and why?] The one about pre-canon applications, if that counts!
[Where did you hear about Somarium?] Originally, no idea because it's been around for a while. For cast, probably your Derek.
[Any questions?] None, except if I'm assuming/hearing wrong and you'd rather nerf the virus (which I'm okay with, as I've played Rosalia with and without it in past games) then please correct me!