INFO (& SUMMARY)
May. 22nd, 2018 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
notme_anymoreBecause Ghost Quartet is obscure enough that I should basically make an OC sheet. Includes basic summary/plot of the Ghost Quartet canon (spoilers under the cut).
name: Rose Red
age: “36” (??)
occupation: salt-gatherer/photographer/(...)
appearance: There is nothing especially notable about Rose. She is just as she appears in the icons: a short redheaded woman.
notable: A good thing to know is that she's got a convoluted past of weird reincarnations. Current-Rose remembers the prominent details of the four relevant lives.
personality:
vindictive
Rose gets angry before she gets sad, and anyone to wrong her earns her ill wishes. Revenge is something she believes in.
stubborn
Rose is stone: immovable. She is not easily swayed from her opinion of people by anything but personal experience, which goes doubly so for grudges. She is set on her goals and stubbornly follows them through even if it seems to prove more and more unreasonable or dangerous or doubtful, and is particularly a follower of “the ends justify the means.”
defensive
Or thorny, you could say. Her beliefs are hers and held jealously, and she does not often stand for them to be challenged. Her guilt has also made her paranoid of accusation, and if feeling threatened, Rose will lash out.
quiet/awkward
Rose is not the best with people. In all of her lifetimes she’s spent all her time mostly secluded and sticking to the same other three souls she’s always known. Rose listens more than she speaks, and isn’t the most skilled at holding a conversation of small-talk.
dreamer
Her thoughts and beliefs and visions are poetic. Stargazing in The Telescope, she describes a hyper-giant red star as “fire in the darkness; rage against the void. I see every time man cried out and raised his sword against God.” She sees things as artistry and sees the beauty in all things lovely and horrible. As a photographer and writer, she has an eye for the framing of the world around her.
She has things she believes in that also fall under the category of "dreamer." She believes in the restorative properties of the ocean; in the importance of sharing meals; in never drinking coffee on the go, etc.
cold
Rose, though she is not necessarily unkind, does not get attached to people very quickly. It is easy for her to stop caring about someone after a first meeting or two.
affectionate
It is a slow process, but winning over her favor is winning over Rose. How much she trusts a person with what she tells them is case-by-case, but she certainly regards all she's attached to very kindly. Instances of sitting close, tailing, and prolonged casual contact are abundant.
guilty
Rose's burden plays a large role in the way she acts. Much of her long and convoluted past has been built on mistakes and anger. It is with her guilt that she tries to calm down her convictions and stubbornness and listen to other people; success varies by circumstance. Rose is as resentful as ever by nature but she fears she will repeat all of her mistakes if she trusts her heart (and, sometimes, mind) to act on her anger. She doubts her decisions more, unsure if she should let go or give chase, and if she does, how far she should go.
Rose is hard on herself. She believes she deserves misfortune—after all she has done, it is finally her turn to pay for the things she has done.
prideful
Rose has a strong sense of pride, though it has since been heavily wounded. If she finds herself getting too arrogant (which is generally when angry, and thus on the track to repeating old mistakes) she will try to tamp it down out of the guilt of what it lead to.
Her pride is still protected in small ways, though. She tries not to attempt anything that could make a fool out of her, like doing something for the first time in front of people. White lying for pride and privacy is habitual.
summary:
Ghost Quartet is a song cycle/musical that is reminiscent of telling ghost stories around a fire and the plotline is confusing to work out from the songs alone, especially on first listen.
Rose Red is sister to Pearl White, and they lived by the sea. She fell in love with the Astronomer, and she wrote him a poem about the stars, but he stole her work and published it in a prestigious astronomy journal that he was editor of. Rose grew to hate him, and then Pearl caught his eye. Enraged, Rose ran into the woods and asked a great bear to maul the astronomer and turn her sister into a crow. The bear asked for one pot of honey, one piece of stardust, one secret baptism, and a photo of a ghost in return. To get them, she travels and reincarnates through four generations, in which the four souls of Rose, Pearl, the Bear, and the Astronomer all intertwine. (x)
First, she stole the honey from a soldier she pretended to love. The soldier is an incarnation of Pearl. (x)
Second, she stole the stardust from the ancient Scheherazade, the woman of 1001 Arabian Nights, who is also an incarnation of Pearl. (Scheherazade's long-dead sister Dunyazad is also Rose. Scheherazade is executed by the Shah, who is the Bear.) (x) (x)
Third, she stole the baby from its mother, Roxie Usher. The baby is an incarnation of Rose, as is Roxie; essentially, Rose steals herself from herself. The stolen baby grows up into the Starchild. Roxie's brother (The Fool) is the Bear, her father Edgar Usher is the Astronomer (as is her ex-lover), and her mother Lady Usher is Pearl. (x) (x)
Fourth, she takes the film from the camera of the Photographer (Rose), who had taken a photo "of a ghost." The Victim (Pearl) had been pushed onto the tracks by the Pusher (Bear), and is run over by a subway train driven by the Driver (Astronomer). The photo is of the Victim a moment before the train collides. (x)
When she returned the bear denied to do what she had asked; it just liked honey. Rose Red took things into her own hands and pushed her sister into a river where she drowned. Her corpse was fished out by the Miller (Astronomer), the bones left out to dry; a Fiddler (Bear) came by and made from the breastbone a fiddle that played only the song of Pearl's demise. It later became a fixture in the camera shop of Rose Red's great grand-daughter, an incarnation of Pearl. She tells this whole story to the Photographer, who had come in to buy a new camera after she'd smashed the one that'd taken the photo of a ghost. (x) (x) (x)
It's a circular story.
The generational line goes as follows:
Arabian Nights → Two Sisters → House of Usher → Starchild → Subway
Note that this is very loose.
All that being said, the default Rose I use to play is Rose Red herself, not any incarnation, post-canon. I’m open to flexibility though.
name: Rose Red
age: “36” (??)
occupation: salt-gatherer/photographer/(...)
appearance: There is nothing especially notable about Rose. She is just as she appears in the icons: a short redheaded woman.
notable: A good thing to know is that she's got a convoluted past of weird reincarnations. Current-Rose remembers the prominent details of the four relevant lives.
personality:
vindictive
Rose gets angry before she gets sad, and anyone to wrong her earns her ill wishes. Revenge is something she believes in.
stubborn
Rose is stone: immovable. She is not easily swayed from her opinion of people by anything but personal experience, which goes doubly so for grudges. She is set on her goals and stubbornly follows them through even if it seems to prove more and more unreasonable or dangerous or doubtful, and is particularly a follower of “the ends justify the means.”
defensive
Or thorny, you could say. Her beliefs are hers and held jealously, and she does not often stand for them to be challenged. Her guilt has also made her paranoid of accusation, and if feeling threatened, Rose will lash out.
quiet/awkward
Rose is not the best with people. In all of her lifetimes she’s spent all her time mostly secluded and sticking to the same other three souls she’s always known. Rose listens more than she speaks, and isn’t the most skilled at holding a conversation of small-talk.
dreamer
Her thoughts and beliefs and visions are poetic. Stargazing in The Telescope, she describes a hyper-giant red star as “fire in the darkness; rage against the void. I see every time man cried out and raised his sword against God.” She sees things as artistry and sees the beauty in all things lovely and horrible. As a photographer and writer, she has an eye for the framing of the world around her.
She has things she believes in that also fall under the category of "dreamer." She believes in the restorative properties of the ocean; in the importance of sharing meals; in never drinking coffee on the go, etc.
cold
Rose, though she is not necessarily unkind, does not get attached to people very quickly. It is easy for her to stop caring about someone after a first meeting or two.
affectionate
It is a slow process, but winning over her favor is winning over Rose. How much she trusts a person with what she tells them is case-by-case, but she certainly regards all she's attached to very kindly. Instances of sitting close, tailing, and prolonged casual contact are abundant.
guilty
Rose's burden plays a large role in the way she acts. Much of her long and convoluted past has been built on mistakes and anger. It is with her guilt that she tries to calm down her convictions and stubbornness and listen to other people; success varies by circumstance. Rose is as resentful as ever by nature but she fears she will repeat all of her mistakes if she trusts her heart (and, sometimes, mind) to act on her anger. She doubts her decisions more, unsure if she should let go or give chase, and if she does, how far she should go.
Rose is hard on herself. She believes she deserves misfortune—after all she has done, it is finally her turn to pay for the things she has done.
prideful
Rose has a strong sense of pride, though it has since been heavily wounded. If she finds herself getting too arrogant (which is generally when angry, and thus on the track to repeating old mistakes) she will try to tamp it down out of the guilt of what it lead to.
Her pride is still protected in small ways, though. She tries not to attempt anything that could make a fool out of her, like doing something for the first time in front of people. White lying for pride and privacy is habitual.
summary:
Ghost Quartet is a song cycle/musical that is reminiscent of telling ghost stories around a fire and the plotline is confusing to work out from the songs alone, especially on first listen.
Rose Red is sister to Pearl White, and they lived by the sea. She fell in love with the Astronomer, and she wrote him a poem about the stars, but he stole her work and published it in a prestigious astronomy journal that he was editor of. Rose grew to hate him, and then Pearl caught his eye. Enraged, Rose ran into the woods and asked a great bear to maul the astronomer and turn her sister into a crow. The bear asked for one pot of honey, one piece of stardust, one secret baptism, and a photo of a ghost in return. To get them, she travels and reincarnates through four generations, in which the four souls of Rose, Pearl, the Bear, and the Astronomer all intertwine. (x)
First, she stole the honey from a soldier she pretended to love. The soldier is an incarnation of Pearl. (x)
Second, she stole the stardust from the ancient Scheherazade, the woman of 1001 Arabian Nights, who is also an incarnation of Pearl. (Scheherazade's long-dead sister Dunyazad is also Rose. Scheherazade is executed by the Shah, who is the Bear.) (x) (x)
Third, she stole the baby from its mother, Roxie Usher. The baby is an incarnation of Rose, as is Roxie; essentially, Rose steals herself from herself. The stolen baby grows up into the Starchild. Roxie's brother (The Fool) is the Bear, her father Edgar Usher is the Astronomer (as is her ex-lover), and her mother Lady Usher is Pearl. (x) (x)
Fourth, she takes the film from the camera of the Photographer (Rose), who had taken a photo "of a ghost." The Victim (Pearl) had been pushed onto the tracks by the Pusher (Bear), and is run over by a subway train driven by the Driver (Astronomer). The photo is of the Victim a moment before the train collides. (x)
When she returned the bear denied to do what she had asked; it just liked honey. Rose Red took things into her own hands and pushed her sister into a river where she drowned. Her corpse was fished out by the Miller (Astronomer), the bones left out to dry; a Fiddler (Bear) came by and made from the breastbone a fiddle that played only the song of Pearl's demise. It later became a fixture in the camera shop of Rose Red's great grand-daughter, an incarnation of Pearl. She tells this whole story to the Photographer, who had come in to buy a new camera after she'd smashed the one that'd taken the photo of a ghost. (x) (x) (x)
It's a circular story.
The generational line goes as follows:
Arabian Nights → Two Sisters → House of Usher → Starchild → Subway
Note that this is very loose.
- Soldier & Rose is outside of the family tree and exists somewhere in Sarajevo, so likely in the WWI era.
- The Fool grows up into the Pusher. Learn to ignore the weird timeline blending & squishing.
- The Two Sisters is in a weird fantasy blend of Germany and Japan.
- House of Usher is based off of Edgar Allan Poe's work, Fall of the House of Usher.
- Starchild, technically, is a sort of figure that kind of exists in all times.
- Subway & Camera Shop is in modern NYC.
- There is a mysterious lapse/pause where Rose-Dunyazad hangs out at midnight with Scheherazade, Astronomer's actor, and Bear's actor. She makes a small attempt to make amends with them all after realizing (in the previous song) the terrible things she'd done for revenge, but she is in the wrong timeline, before anything has happened. So no matter how much she wishes she could take everything back, nothing happens, and Rose still kills Pearl, and the story ends the same way it always did.
All that being said, the default Rose I use to play is Rose Red herself, not any incarnation, post-canon. I’m open to flexibility though.
