DokuWiki

Rose is a hard worker - and known in Ehqaj primarily for this - but ultimately introverted, quiet and fairly shy, even around her own daughter (to detriment of their relationship). That she demand anything is very out of character of her, and forbidding anything is basically unheard of. She is brimming with care for her daughter and all inhabitants of Ehqaj, and treats strangers in the city as if they had lived there all their lives, warm and welcoming.

Conversely, she can and will keep grudges, and is hard to convince that someone has changed if they've badly burnt her or someone close to her before. She's usually still polite to people like that, but she won't go out of her way to make them feel welcome or at home as she might for other people, hoping to keep such interactions short. In way, she can be said to reduce negative relationships to a professional minimum.

Her true passion is for pokémon and their interactions with human beings, however, and it shows in the way she can light up and make energy available for them out of nowhere. This chiefly contrasts with the warmth she reserves for people - rather than register as exaggeratedly enthusiastic, it's “just” the least she feels she can and should do, since while she genuinely enjoys helping people, it is simply not an outright hobby as pokémon would be.

Rose is slightly bitter about the gym circuit setup and distinctly uneasy around Jagdish Tsukinaka, whom she cannot bring herself to trust, but she might understand best just how long he's been in charge of Taqnateh - and how much that implies him to be outright inhuman. She has a deep respect for the legendary Council and pokémon in general, however, and accepts their right to choose Jagdish as their Arbiter.

Nonetheless, she feels like she's a part of a respectful, quasi-symbiotic relationship with the other gym leaders (Jagdish notwithstanding, of course). In her mind's eye, Jagdish is a demon - something that managed to fit into her secular worldview as if it weren't a foreign body: She doesn't think twice about the designation.

Ordered roughly from positive to negative, Rose…

• …loves her daughter very much (though she mostly leaves her to herself, in part because she has enough self-reflection to know that she could easily smother her if she didn't and she genuinely feels freedom is the most important gift a parent can give a child; but also simply because she's busier than she'd ever admit to).
• …adores pokémon of all shapes and sizes and cannot bear to see them mistreated. As such, there's no battling in her gym if she can help it - just general, one-sided target practise, help with accuracy, fitness, and so forth. (In a way, hers is the only one that deserves the term 'gym'.)
• …has a high opinion of mankind as a whole in theory, which is what makes her so friendly to strangers.
• …feels a motherly concern for the people of Ehqaj City, though it's far too large for her to adequately know everyone in person.
• …is ever so slightly wary of people coming to Ehqaj from the rest of Sehto unless she can place their purposes immediately, since they could be circuiters, which is something she doesn't really want to deal with. The initial wariness is quick to evaporate, though.
• …has (without really knowing it) 'adopted' Dakarai N'Sehla and considers herself partially responsible for what he does with his life. She's not happy with what he's done in his past, but given his fate feels like it's a little bit her fault (since she wished it upon him when he was passing through her gym) and he's definitely gotten more than his fair share of punishment for it, she makes up for it by being protective over him. In part, though, this is simply a form of antagonism toward Jagdish.
• …deeply mistrusts Jagdish Tsukinaka, though she recognises his authority and the right of the Council to pick any Arbiter they please.

Rose is very happy with her role as gym leader, protective authority figure for Ehqaj that it allows her to be… were there not the small detail that she has to deal with circuiters. She largely ignores that detail out of existence and simply pours all of her time into her cherished role, on some days spending a lot of time out of the gym itself to supply her help and that of her pokémon to someone who might need it. Her and her friends certainly double as prominent coast guards.

Since Rose doesn't bother with the circuit more than necessary, she doesn't really put much thought into her gym rules and just takes the defaults as they are. One of the only things she's learnt to forbid is death - if someone goes that far with her pokémon, they're disqualified… and forbidden from ever trying again.

Like most people who do the gym circuit, Rose did so in her late teens. For her, it was more about the thrill of adventure and travelling than it was ever about battling pokémon, though by necessity that was a part of the deal. At the time, she didn't think much of it. She never as much as announced her intention to circuit to her father, travelling Sehto with a friend of hers and taking the Ehqaj gym second to last. She'd expected he'd approve, of course, especially since she'd already gotten six badges by the time she got there, but instead he calmly refused her battle without bothering to elaborate.

Rather than be discouraged by this, she took a Haze Badge for herself by convincing her mother to simply pass her one by explaining the situation truthfully (including how hurt she felt by her father's refusal despite the effort she'd put into it so far). Needless to say, in her absence, her family broke apart, with Cyril squarely refusing to have anything to do with her mother any more.

When she did return from Taqnateh (comparatively mild but nonetheless deeply unpleasant as it was for her), she couldn't find an emotional way back to either parent, seeing as her father hadn't bothered to explain the matter and her mother had indirectly helped to make it happen. She tried for a few weeks to get comfortable living with her mother again, but noticed that it just didn't work. Instead, she trailed the circuit again partially, talking to the existing gym leaders - mostly to get into Cyril's head and understand the motivation.

Despite coming to the conclusion that he'd acted in the best way he could given the circumstance, Rose never quite managed to feel that Cyril was her father any more - but in an effort to find a place to feel at home again apprenticed under him, aware that she had the 'right' to replace him even without Jagdish expressly putting her there unless a veto was forthcoming… and perhaps subconsciously wanting to do a better job. Since no veto was ever spoken, she did take Cyril's place. Since Taqnateh, he's been more of a distant mentor to her than a father, but their relationship is at least not icy.

Of average build, something about Rose suggests 'wife' even though she lives separated from her once-husband for several years now and has raised Krystal basically on her own.

She has brown, slightly wavy hair, reaching down just the slightest touch past her shoulders, thick and significantly reflective, though not unnaturally so. Her eyes, to contrast, are a sparkling, clear green, full of life and kindness.

She usually wears a white, long-sleeved blouse and a sleeve-less, dark green jacket above this, along with a necklace with a - probably fake - large, teardrop emerald as a pendant. The colours are in tribute to the lesser-known element of her gym: Grass.

• Camphora (Tangela)
• Redwood (Ivysaur)
• Runnel (Quagsire)
• Torrent (Poliwrath)
• Whitewater (Azumarill)

Collected from Arsaga:

As Nikki opens her eyes, she would see a woman that must be about halfway between her own and her mother's age, with gentle features, and long, brown, wavey hear, clear green eyes, wearing a classically white, buttoned shirt, and a green, sleeveless jacket, with a beautiful green emerald hanging from a thin, silver necklace around her neck. “We weren't expecting anyone, otherwise we would have warned you… the Tyranitars have been a problem for a while now. I'm so sorry.” She looks utterly aghast.

There's a deceptively peaceful sound of rustling clothes, and a moment later, Rose has elegantly abseiled between them, her hands clasped on a pokémon's vine. “Another gym battle?” she asks, fixing Nikki with a scrutinising gaze, head inclined. Interestingly enough, she's not wet, and wearing her formal clothes as usual - it doesn't suit the mountain-climbing pose she has, soles of her feet pushed against the thick glass of the aquarium, nor the light smirk playing on her lips.

Rose lets her gaze travel across Nikki for a moment longer, before she locks her gaze with hers and an analytic expression melts into a benevolent, fond one, without that she lets go of the vine to drop down to their level. “A two on two battle, simultaneous. The arena is the aquarium. Loss by K.O.. Is that acceptable for you?”

Collected from N'Sehla:

Light from the back room becomes a scarce scatter as Rose, dressed in a bathing suit and a mere jacket as she is, reaches the door, seeing the hint of an outline outside. Her keys tinker as she raises them, and a moment later, her fingers push the door aside, revealing a figure of striking energy wrapped in the crinkles of a rain coat, arms wrapped about a rucksack that seems to have been a touch too large to fit under the thin layer of transparent plastic that the coat is made up of. “Mrs. Kaiki, I presume?” The voice is surprisingly driven, touched more by darkness than the landscape surrounding them, almost as if the person contained in that rain coat were oblivious to the rain, the discomfort of carrying a bag like that, and the time of day.

“…that would be me,” she responds, regarding him with slight incredulousness, and a fresh hint of wariness, right foot shifting to take a single step back as if expecting a dagger to leap up and strike her in the gut if she did not, though it's only a fleeting instinct. And then, common sense latching itself back into her mind, a phrase is shaken from her casually: “Why don't you come in?”

Rose's right hand touches the pane of the aquarium, tension settling on the features of her face. Silence. “…I see,” she remarks after a moment of letting the full implications of that request sink in. It's been a while since she last had to deal with the bite of moral quandry - she preferred having no part in all of this. “Well, no, right now is fine, if you just…” She exhales softly, left hand rising to touch her face with those fingertips, hiding, briefly, a grimace. “I'd like just a few minutes, please.”

“How would you want to battle?” she asks, knowing with a touch of guilt lancing through her gut that she should have a specific plan for gym battles. It's just so unusual, having this November morning shaken by this half-extinct practise. “I've got five pokémon,” she adds, informatively, brows furrowing.

Jesus. It didn't matter which pokémon was on the field - with a Parasect and Spore, it was a sacrifice. She'd not even begun to put a dent into his pokémon - ROLLOUT and VINE WHIP both had left barely a scratch on his Magneton, and it hardly seemed like he was using it as a fighter, meaning those were all still unscathed on the playing field.

“Stop,” she barks across the playing field, scrambling for some sense of calm, shock still settled on her bones that he would break her aquarium like that. Anger coursed through her veins. Her 'Stop' had sounded across his ordering Salt to SLASH the sleeping pokémon - the word's sentiment is echoed in a “Hold,” though his eyes narrow as he glances over to her.

Inhale. Exhale. “…it's over, okay? You win.” - 'You drove that point home well enough,' a more vicious part of her mind seeks to sling after those breathless phrases. 'Shaking; I'm shaking,' she tells herself, trying to will herself to stop. - “You still have pokémon standing,” Dakarai informs, voice sceptical. - “Yes… yes, I do, and I'd like to keep it that way,” she calls across, a note of tension in that voice, her gaze fixed on Camphora's shape, seeming more like a modern art sculpture than a living creature.

Slowly, Rose picks herself up, peering down her side - a myriad of shallow cuts litter her right arm. She looks a right mess, her hair in disarray, slight ache spreading across her skin, having been at odd angles repeatedly during this ordeal. Quietly, she straightens, seeing herself through the broken pane carefully, silently, gaze freshly locked on her pokémon, before she sidles over to Redwood, gaze still on Camphora, horrified by that sight, but focussing on his sleep first. “Redwood, hey… wake up,” she says, voice nearly a whisper, crouched.

It took strength not to try and blast Camphora out of there. Their best bet was to wait for her to thaw out by herself, pure and simple. It was psychological torture watching her in that state, but anything else was far more likely to end lethally than letting her recover on her own. A tremble touches Rose's shoulders, though it's nothing like a restrained sob - simply result of a touch of fear, however fleeting. “Well, if you want the Haze badge,” she remarks, voice oddly level, ensnared by rational control and held in line by it. “It's yours.” - 'Maybe you should stop now, rather than later.' Wasn't she obligated to saying something like that, albeit less obviously? Somehow, such words refused to form, her gaze latched on Redwood, stroking across his skin.

“Aside from the Haze badge,” he begins, making Rose set her jaw, suspecting a request of some form; only to be slightly jolted by the actual words. “There's nothing I need. Please keep whatever you usually give trainers.”

Rose twitches, not finding it in herself to see the humanity of that response, not even wanting to begin to use it to begin to counterbalance her impression. Ironically, her shock and fear is not personal as much as it is the result of not having had to deal with this for a time nearing a full year. “I'll get you one later,” she remarks, voice tense, stolidly continuing to pay attention to her Ivysaur.

Dakarai frowns lightly. “If you so wish.” He pauses, watching her for a moment of silence. “You would, though, do me a big favour by giving it to me rather sooner than later. I do need to be on my way.” Perhaps implied by those words was 'the sooner you give me the badge, the sooner I'll be out of your hair'. Rose, seeing Redwood's reaction, closes her arms around the pokémon in a hug. “Fine,” she mutters, still not looking up at him. “Head back to the doors, I'll be with you in a moment.” A name. She didn't even know his name. She'd have to know for the records. Grimacing, she lets the inquiry slide for now, instead whispering a soothing “Shhh,” to her pokémon.