Rosaline Annalise Edelstein

personality

[attr="class","profileboxscroll"]On the surface, Rosaline seems cool and aloof. Underneath her oh-so-ladylike exterior, however, lies passion and exuberance. Given her upbringing, she has learned when and where it is – for lack of a better term – “safe” for her to remove her practiced, well-worn mask. Her friends, her twin, and certain of her teachers see her for who she really is; her parents are treated to whom she knows they want her to be, however grudgingly. At home, aside from when alone with her brother Roderich, Rosaline doesn’t stray far from her studies or her piano.

It’s quite the isolating existence, but the fact that she chafes against the loneliness greatly is somewhat mitigated by the letters she and her friends send as often as they possibly can. Given her surprising intellect – organic rather than learned – Rosaline has been working on journals that will allow herself and her brother, and herself and her friends, almost instantaneous communication no matter the distance between them. Though she is unlikely to willingly admit it, everything she does – play the piano, study so hard, pretend for her parents but not her brother and friends, position as Seeker in Quidditch – is all to fight off the feeling that she is truly all alone.

history

[attr="class","profileboxscroll"]Even from her earliest memories, the family’s Social Status and Blood Status meant everything. Even as a girl, and the younger of the twins, Rosaline was still expected to adhere to strict rules, even if they weren’t quite as stringent as those applied to Roderich. Of course, that didn’t mean that she liked following the rules. Truth be told, she was more interested in running around with their cousins and discovering all that the world had to offer, her curiosity always insatiable.

In the end, it was her curiosity that led her to first pick up a violin, to first seat herself at a piano. The fact that both she had her twin fell in love with music, was purely coincidental. Rosaline, however, was never satisfied with simply learning to repeat what others had created. She wanted to create her own music, to try her hand at making her own contribution to one of the things she loved dearly. Perplexed that they could have two such different children, despite the fact that they were twins, her parents allowed it.

It probably helped that she was good at what she did, in retrospect.

Of course, as much as she loved it, music could never sate her notoriously voracious curiosity for long, not even when she was composing her own. So, inevitably, that led her to playing with Roderich and his friends, since they really didn’t have individual friends at that time. This meant that, as school drew near, Rosaline was present for said “friend” of her brother’s to tear into him. Furious that someone could ever even think of hurting her sweet older brother, the young witch proceeded to tear the other party a new one – with her fists and nails.

Apparently, when Roderich begged asked to be sent to a different school, it was a good thing. Rosaline didn’t see it that way, and made sure that everyone knew it, including her parents and grandmother. Phrases like ‘codependent’ and ‘too close for siblings’ were thrown about by their parents. In the end, grandmother made the choice for all of them. Her brother would go to Beauxbatons, and Rosaline would attend Durmstrang, just as had been planned. The fact that she was furious about this never played into it and it didn’t take someone with her intellect and curiosity to realize that they didn’t care.

If Roderich arrived at school changed, then so did Rosaline. Her teachers, and even her peers, were treated to cold, aloof politeness. She wanted to keep everyone away, under the assumption that no-one cared. After all, her own family didn’t, so why should anyone else? However, she was rather harshly disabused by this notion, about six months into the school year. As there were only three girls in her house and year, Rosaline should have expected that they would try to grow close to her, but even despite her intelligence, she was still baffled each and every time. The end of January saw the other girls’ patience snap, and Rosaline found herself on the receiving end of being torn into by someone.

After that, well, school became a very finely tuned act. With her friends, Rosaline was open and warm and protective and loyal. However, around anyone else, she was just as cool and distant as the first day she arrived. Home became the same, though it was less strenuous. Only Roderich ever saw behind her mask, and their parents and grandmother only ever saw what they wanted to see. It may have sounded strange, but it was her way of proving that she could be her own person, while still adhering to her parents’ and grandmother’s wishes.

Perhaps it was amusing, but Rosaline shared her brother’s skill at dueling. However, she pursued it far more viciously than she had a feeling Roderich ever would. She worked at her dueling skills with a viciousness that surprised a few, but shocked none. Dueling, along with composing her music, was her way of letting out her emotions when she could be seen by “unsafe” eyes. It was also her way of rebelling against the Perfect Lady mold that she had let her parents shove her into for far too long. She was a lady, but she was her own person, as well.

In the end, it as her skill with dueling that motivated the choice for her to be part of the group to compete in and witness the Triwizard Tournament. Rosaline even surprised herself with the pleasure she took in it, when she heard the news. But that wasn’t something she wanted to think about just then. If she happened to be selected as the champion for her school, well then, she would think about it and decide what that reaction meant for her. For now, she just waned to enjoy this new experience, and possibly get to know people that wouldn’t be biased against her from the get-go.

rp sample

[attr="class","profileboxscroll"]If Rosaline had expected anything about attending Durmstang, then it would certainly have been the cold. True, certain parts of Austria could get quite cold as well, especially around the Alps, but that was nothing compared to this bone-chilling, soul-freezing clod. What she hadn’t expected, was to welcome it. Back home, the cold always seemed more of annoyance than a welcome thing. But here? Here, in the frigid far north of Scandinavia, the cold was the only constant thing.

It was probably strange, how suddenly her attitude towards the cold had changed, but Rosaline didn’t think too much of it. No, she was too busy to think about something like that. Too busy with classes to think about how comfortable the blood-red robes and fur-lined cloaks were. Too busy with studies to notice or care that the girls in her year were doing everything they could to become closer to her. Too busy with hiding and being furious at her parents to notice that she was heading for a metaphorical cliff and that, once she careened headfirst off of it, nothing would ever be the same again.

Did it matter? Of course it did, but she wasn’t yet ready to see that she herself was the cause of most of her own problems. Rosaline wasn’t yet ready to admit, even to herself, that her head was so far up her ass that it was going to hurt like Hell pulling it out. Some tiny part of herself, however, acknowledged that once she stopped hiding, lying and pretending, she would feel better. That, once she stopped pushing everyone away because she didn’t want to get hurt, she would see that most of her problems evaporated before her eyes.

Until then, she was just going to stay her course, until it stopped working.

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