♈ Application- Witches Reign

[hemocultured]

Name: Nayru
Journal: [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]
Contact: [AIM] HandcuffHabit


OC or AU: AU
Character Name: Aradia Megido
Series: Homestuck
Gender: Female
Age: 6 Sweeps/roughly 13 human years
Requested Sponsor: Diamond
Entry position: Cadet

Appearance: While for the most part Aradia’s appearance will remain the same as her canon counterpart, there are three essential differences. The first is that the symbol on her clothing is indigo instead of deep red/maroon, and the second being the kabuki-style makeup she wears. The third is that their clothes also differ in that this Aradia trends toward long-sleeved shirts, leggings and flats as opposed to t-shirts, long skirts and sneakers like her canon counterpart.

History: Unlike most of troll society, Aradia wasn’t hatched in the brooding caverns that house the Mother Grub as well as possibly hundreds of other troll eggs. She arrived on the planet Alternia via meteor- just like the rest of those that would eventually play The Game with her. Born into the highest class of land-dwelling trolls, Aradia grew up learning the ways of the ranks of the Empress’ High Subjugglators, a group of trolls tasked with keeping control of the rest of the population. She was also brought up being taught Alternia’s caste system and her part as a High Subjugglator was hardly something that was downplayed. Thus, from a very young age, Aradia has always known who she was meant to become and what she was meant to do when she grew up. She took her ‘intended’ role very seriously, and dedicated a lot of time to becoming everything a proper Subjugglator should be- or at least, what she gathered they should be from the information she was given.

Like most trolls, Aradia’s main form of communication with other trolls- and the eleven other trolls she eventually became friends with- was her computer. Not being a very social race, most young trolls tend to keep face to face interactions either very brief or very bloody. Therefore, Trollian (an instant messaging program) has become the main means of communication, though some trolls who are less violent than others (or in a quadrant with another troll), do take to visiting each other for social reasons. A few of her friends were avid FLARPers, which is something like Earth’s LARP… except with very real and very dangerous consequences, and while it’s another form of interaction, it’s not one that is taken up lightly, and certainly not without intent to come out on top. Aradia personally was very fond of the game, and took up more than one ‘character’ to play. She met some of her friends via this particular game, and is relatively good friends with most of those that play. There are some of those in her circle she’s not particularly fond of- mostly Vriska- but even then, that’s more a friendly sort of ribbing (from Aradia’s side, at leasr) than anything else.

Recently, however, things have been picking up with her circle of friends in preparation for a game. The Game, actually- the one that will change their world whether they want it to or not- and they have no choice but to play. They know what will happen to their world once they begin, but they all plan to play regardless. Aradia was in the process of starting up the game when she arrived.

World History: Alternia is a rather large planet with a sun bright enough to blind and two moons- one pink, one green- dominating its night sky. A long time ago, trolls young and adult alike coexisted on the planet, even as the Alternian race- Trolls, to be exact- began conquering and expanding their reach across the universe. Troll society operates on a caste system based on blood color, and from lowest to highest they are in the order of what most humans would call a ‘rainbow’. The lowest is rust red, then above that are orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet- and dozens of shades in between, and the higher your blood color, the longer you live. The highest blood belongs to the Empress, a troll so long-lived, she may very well be immortal.

Eventually, however, some of the lower bloods began to tire of being held as inferior to the high-bloods when they did just as much for the empire- if not more, considering how some were enslaved for their psychic abilities. With each uprising, the Empress grew more and more impatient, and when the Summoner’s rebellion nearly succeeded, she decided it was time to take drastic measures to keep anything like it from happening again. The trolls had already been conquering other planets for a long time- so she made the endeavor an even greater one, removing all the adult trolls from the planet and leaving only the children and adolescents behind. With the adults strewn across the galaxies and the children not strong enough or knowledgeable enough to try and change the way things were, the Empress’ rule, and the hemospectrum, remained intact.

Left on their own, the planet became one of dangerous games and an even more dangerous lifestyle. Children hatched as grubs, then underwent trials, having to fight their way out of the breeding caverns, and were given to creatures who shared their blood color to raise. The relationship was symbiotic- the children were protected from Alternia’s vicious native fauna until they could protect themselves, and then they took on the roles of caring for their custodians until they came of age- at which point they left the planet to help the empire with its campaign. Things remained like this for an undetermined amount of time, and the Empress’ will was left unchallenged… until someone with blood higher than even hers was hatched- someone that could take her place at the head of the empire if he were to challenge her. She sent assassins after him on an almost daily basis, but none ever succeeded, and he managed to survive- and every day, the Empress grew a little more aware that her time might be running short.

But before any of that could happen, a game was happening- one that would wipe out their home planet and by default, trolls throughout the galaxy.

Garden History: N/A

Abilities & Physical Abnormalities: Being a troll, there are three glaring abnormalities to Aradia’s appearance- at least, in comparison to humans; her skin is gray, her sclera are yellow, and she has a pair of relatively large, curving horns in a candy-corn gradient growing out of her head. A little less noticeable but still apparent are her claw-like nails and her mouthful of sharp, fanged teeth.

As far as abilities go, being from a combative species like trolls are, she’s a little more damage resistant than a human, and heals a little faster- not insanely fast, but enough to have her on her feet after a broken bone in say a couple of weeks rather than a couple of months. She’s also unusually fast and strong for a girl of her apparent age and size, though again that’s more troll physiology than anything. She’s very skilled with her weapon of choice- the tonfa. It’s implied- with her playing more than one character for FLARP- that she can use more than one weapon proficiently and may in fact be able to use the ‘jokerkind’ specibus, which would make her capable of using just about any weapon she can get her hands on.

Personality: Aradia as a maroon-blood is diligent and duty-bound and believes very strongly in fate- at least, she does at the beginning of SGRUB. In canon she knew about what would happen with the game from the start- the world ending, the deaths of their lusii, etc.- but chose to follow the directions of the spirits and put the game into motion regardless. She grew frustrated with it in the long run, but still continued because she believed there was nothing she could do to change it. However after her revival, she changed to a more independent outlook, realizing that she has the ability to decide her fate more than she realized. And while she does care deeply for her friends, she isn’t the type to let that get in the way of her doing what she has to. The greater good is more important to her, and she’s the type to put that ahead of her own happiness and safety and, if necessary, ahead of that of her friends as well.

She’s still a lot like that as an indigo-blood, so unlike Gamzee, she is likely more like what a good Subjugglator should be-that is, more dedicated, impartial, and ruthless when it really comes down to it. The stringent belief in fate/what’s meant to be might wind up being more harmful than good in the long run, but that’s something she’ll likely just take in stride and try to overcome if it ends badly. She sticks to the caste system pretty strictly, which causes issues with Karkat, who doesn’t really believe in it. She’s still friends with lowbloods though, despite the fact that they’re a bit wary of her because of her beliefs. Despite her adherence to the hemospectrum, she’d not really all that comfortable with other trolls treating her all that reverently just because of her blood color- she’s more about the order the system brings than any respect/veneration she might get from it. She’s not the type to try and push her beliefs in the caste system overtly though- subtlety is the way Aradia goes about that sort of thing. She does still enjoy FLARPing with some of the others despite whatever hesitations they might have, though she doesn’t (like some of the others) play as a character based off her ancestor, as she thinks that’s just plain boring. She does like a good challenge, and in fact keeps more than one FLARP character simply because she enjoys the way being a lower level than most causes her to push herself.

Despite the powers that inherently come with being a Subjugglator, she isn’t the type to use them to her advantage. She’s honestly more enthusiastic about the roleplaying aspect of FLARP than the competitive one, and enjoys talking about her characters and adventures to anyone who is willing to listen- and even sometimes to those who aren’t. Despite that, she’s quite a good storyteller so other trolls usually don’t mind listening to her, aas she can usually keep them entertained with her stories. She’s more formal as an indigo-blood as well, as shown by the slight shift in her typing quirk, which moves from no capitalization or punctuation save for exclamation points to proper capitalization and the use of apostrophes when necessary- though she still doesn’t use punctuation save for those exclamation points. To be honest, it likely comes off as her attempts to try and seem a little more informal/approachable to lowbloods, but she’s earnestly friendly enough that it probably works.

What are your plans for the character in-game? I’m hoping to have her learn to be a little more flexible about the hemospectrum stuff, especially considering humans don’t really have rainbow blood. I’d also like to have her realize that ‘fate’ isn’t really what it’s cracked up to be.

Anything else? A link to Derpbent itself, and a link to Aradia’s inclusion in AU canon conversation, just in case.



i) IC Questionnaire

What do you prefer to be known as? Aradia works just fine thank you
How old are you? Six solar sweeps though in human terms I’d be about thirteen I think

Do you have any history in combat? Yes I do
If so, have you ever killed? Yes

i) How do you feel when you get involved in some project that calls for immediate and rapid activity? Well if it calls for immediate activity then there’s not really much choice but to get to it is there

ii) Do you organize and initiate leisure activities? If there’s no one else to do it then yes I will

iii) What role do you take when working in a group? That depends on what everyone else is doing although usually I wind up taking charge

iv) How talkative are you around other people? That really depends on the subject
I really like talking about FLARP but other things just really don’t interest me enough to bother talking about
Usually at least

v) What three things would you want to have with you on a desert island? State your reasoning. First a weapon to kill things for food with and keep myself safe if there are hostile animals
Second something to start a fire with for warmth and to signal passing vessels with
Third would probably be a FLARP manual to keep myself from getting too bored while I wait to be rescued

vi) Is it important to be liked by a wide range of people? No not really

vii) When the odds are against you, is it worth taking a chance? If you never challenge yourself how will you ever know what you’re capable of

viii) Do you consider yourself to be an impulsive person? Sometimes I can be!

ix) Would you agree that planning things ahead takes the fun out of life? Not really
If something’s going to happen then it’s going to happen
There’s not really much to be done about it

x) Do you like surprises? The good kind yes

xi) Do you sometimes wonder if there is something wrong with you? No of course not why would I

xii) Do you consider yourself to be smarter than your superiors, and disagree with their decisions? My superiors
I suppose you would mean the Empress or Sollux because I don’t really think of anyone here like that
Even if I did there would be no point in disagreeing
They’re higher than I am

xiii) Lastly, how do you feel about cabbages? What in the world is a cabbage

ii) Prose sample

She isn’t entirely sure at what point she accepts her arrival in this world as a fact and not some sort of irrational dream. When she does, however, she can’t help but worry about what kind of impact this might have no the Game. Granted, she’s heard the theories about how the Time Compression affects the original timelines, and how the displaced are hardly even missed- but she still can’t help but feel a nagging feeling like it isn’t right. Like this isn’t going to turn out like they expect it will. It’s exciting, however- she can’t deny that, and she is just the slightest bit curious about how something like this even happens- not once, but repeatedly, each time bringing people from different places. Different worlds. Even SGRUB only manages to use a select group from one planet, but not the powers at work here.

Regardless, she takes it in stride and listens to the information she’s given- about this world, about its magic, about its monsters- and decides that if worse comes to worse, she can simply think of it as one giant game of FLARP. It won’t really be her here, taking these classes to help teach her what she’ll need to know for combat- it will be one of her characters, embarking on the path to gain the knowledge that will eventually help them succeed in whatever campaigns they undertake, whatever adventures they answer the call of. A bit escapist, all things considered, but if it got that bad, then it would be warranted. It isn’t like she doesn’t think she can handle it- compared to Alternia, this place seemed like a walk across a carefully-frosted confectionary for all intents and purposes.

Honestly she can excel here, if she puts her mind to it- and of course she will- she never did anything halfway, even if excelling doesn’t have any effect on her life outside this world. Her pride certainly won’t let her give anything less than her all, in any case.

So she lets herself be enrolled in the classes she ‘needs’ to be able to graduate and actually get to the good part of the reason she was likely brought here- fighting to change whatever it is that needs to be changed, help whoever needs to be helped. And if in the end they’re wrong, and she isn’t returned home, or she is, but too late, then she will deal with it- but only when it happens, no sooner. For now, the only thing she’s going to worry about is how quickly she can move through these courses and pass the SeeD examination.