Character Base

• Character Name: Rose (deWitt Bukater) Dawson
• Age: 17
• Canon (Date/Year Released)/Canon Point: Titanic, December 1997/after giving her name as Rose Dawson
• Items Coming Along: Cal's overcoat, the Heart of the Ocean
• Content Warnings for Character: suicidal ideation/attempt, mass death event, underage sex, domestic violence

Character Background

• History: here
• Core Relationships: Thomas Andrews, the engineer of the Titanic. Rose spends a great deal of time with him, bonding over their mutual intelligence, Rose coming to see Andrews as a sort of surrogate father. When Rose realizes that there weren't enough lifeboats for everyone aboard, she mentions that to him and he admires how she was able to figure that out and explains how he'd advocated for more but was overridden. Later on, after the iceberg hit, she finds Andrews and tries to convince him to try for a lifeboat, but he refuses, resigned to dying with his ship.

Ruth deWitt Bukater, her mother. Her mother has been applying a great deal of pressure on Rose to marry Cal and save their family since Rose's father had passed on, leaving them with a great deal of debt that they couldn't repay unless Rose married Cal. Her mother sees Rose as being selfish, not wanting to marry a man she didn't love for the sake of money and the preservation of their family.

Cal Hockley, her fiancé. Cal was due to inherit a great deal of money as his father was extremely successful in the area of steel manufacturing in Pittsburgh. Cal is obsessed with status, looking down his nose at those who aren't first class passengers. When Rose explains to Cal that the Titanic didn't have enough lifeboats for all those aboard and that half of the people on board were going to die, he stated that the "better half" (first class passengers) weren't going to die. He looks down his nose at Rose, unable to understand her desire for a life outside of high society expectations and treating things like her interest in art as a waste of time and money. Cal shows every sign of likely becoming abusive such as when he screams at Rose and overturns a table during an argument about Rose going to the steerage passengers' party. Later on, he strikes her after she returns to the room where Cal had found the nude drawing Jack had done.

Jack Dawson, her beloved. Jack first comes into her life when Rose is attempting suicide, climbing over the railing of the ship by the propellers. Jack comes into her life in the most unlikely of circumstances, him watching the stars on the steerage deck and Rose climbing over the railing of the back of the ship, intending to jump. Jack intervenes, talking to her and listening to her, two things she's unused to, and he manages to convince her to give up on her attempt at suicide, climbing back aboard the deck of the Titanic. Due to a misunderstanding when she collapses on him, he's at first condemned until Rose spins a tale of him saving her after she'd leaned too far over the railing. In response, Jack is invited to share dinner with Rose, Cal, and her mother in the first class dining room. Jack handles the experience with aplomb, even after Rose's mother goes out of her way to make sure everyone knows that Jack is a steerage passenger, but he wins over his fellow diners (except Ruth and Cal) with ease, explaining his life philosophy of making each day count. Earlier, Jack and Rose had been walking along the first class deck, him asking her the armor piercing question of whether or not she loved Cal. Rose initially bristles at the question, considering it rude and none of his business, but she notices that he's carrying along a sketchbook and with her taste in art good, she finds herself admiring Jack's art, defusing the earlier argument. Rose expresses that she wished she could live like Jack, having adventures and seeing the world without fear of judgement and he offers to take her to California to ride horses in the surf and ride the roller coaster until they were sick. Rose immediately takes to the idea, even if at the time she considered it impossible. Later on, after dinner Rose is invited to a party in the steerage common room which she finds herself enjoying far more than the staid, boring events required of her by duty of her birth. Afterwards, after being berated by her mother and Cal for attending the party, Rose tries to break her relationship with Jack off, but she finds herself ultimately unable to do so. Then, Rose asks Jack to draw a picture of her wearing nothing but the Heart of the Ocean, but they're very nearly caught after the drawing is complete. Shortly after, Rose states that she planned to leave the ship with him. Then, the iceberg hits. Jack is accused of stealing the Heart of the Ocean, but Rose goes to save him. After many terrifying experiences together as the Titanic sinks out from under them, Rose and Jack are left in the freezing cold waters of the North Atlantic. They find a piece of debris large enough for Rose to fit, but not large enough for both of them, so Jack is left in the water. He reassures her that Rose will survive the Titanic and live a long, happy life and even though Jack dies, he's right. Rose is able to save herself and promises Jack that she'll never let go of his memory. Rose feels that Jack saved her in every possible way, loving her and making her feel brave enough to abandon her upper-crust life and live life on her own terms, living and loving but never forgetting him.

Character Personality Through Key Moments

(2+) Positive Experiences: 1) meeting Jack Dawson. As explained in the relationship portion, Jack manages to convince Rose to give up on her suicide attempt, mostly by taking her seriously which few people had been willing to do. He slowly talks her into a less fraught state of mind and she chooses to climb back over the railing, but she slips and Jack is able to pull her back from the back of the ship, back aboard. Later on, as the Titanic is sinking, they're back at the back railing of the ship and despite the terror of the moment, she finds a moment of joy at realizing she and Jack were back where they first met.

2) the steerage party. After supper with Jack in First Class, he invites her to a real party (unlike the stolid, dreary parties she's used to) down with the steerage passengers. Rose chose to accept the invitation and was greeted with something both far more chaotic and far more fun than she'd ever experienced before. An Irish band was playing music and there was an elevated portion for dancing, which Jack quickly manages to coax Rose onto. She danced closely with him at turns, joining hands in a circle on occasion, and both Jack and Rose take turns solo dancing. This, even though initially Rose didn't think she could do the kind of dancing required. She also has the opportunity to bond with steerage passengers, often times despite the language barrier. At one point, she's handed a large glass of dark beer and drinks nearly the entire thing down at once, much to the amusement and surprise of Jack. Later on, she interrupts two men who have been arm wrestling and goes en pointe to prove that she's strong, too. Apparently, Rose was at the party for a very long time, enjoying herself the entire time, unlike life in First Class.

3) having her picture drawn by Jack. She chooses to wear nothing but the Heart of the Ocean for the picture, meant as a cheeky gesture referring to the picture as Cal being able to keep her in his safe, but it's ultimately far more than that. She refers to it later as the most erotic moment in her life, having Jack do a nude drawing of her. She takes great pleasure in Jack's focus on her while drawing and her own vulnerability being taken care of rather than dismissed or exploited.

4) on the deck of the Carpathia, giving her name as Dawson rather than deWitt Bukater. At that point, Rose had survived the sinking of the Titanic, having been rescued through her own effort by the only lifeboat to go back and look for survivors and had been brought aboard by the only ship close enough to respond to the emergency. Rose chooses to stay among the steerage passengers, feeling greater kinship with them than she did with the first class passengers she'd been born and raised as. When Cal comes looking for her amongst the steerage passengers, Rose purposefully hides herself from him, leading to the conclusion that Rose deWitt Bukater died on the Titanic. And in an odd sense, she had. She'd given up on her old life and chose to embrace the life she'd talked about having with Jack, living each day as an adventure and not taking anything for granted. As a result, she gives her name as Rose Dawson, a tribute to Jack and a symbol of her choosing her own path in life.

(2+) Negative Experiences: 1) Initially being brought aboard the Titanic which she'd initially snubbed as looking no bigger than the Mauritania. Outwardly, she was everything she was supposed to be as a daughter of means (at least that was how her mother presented her as), but inwardly she felt as though she was being brought aboard the ship in bondage to her obligation to marrying Cal and living the kind of life expected by Cal, her mother, and society itself. She described the feeling in her monologue as screaming in a crowded room and no one bothering to look up or acknowledge her. This feeling is so intense, that Rose very nearly kills herself in an attempt to escape.

2) Being berated by Cal for choosing to go to the steerage party and refusing to act like the meek, submissive fiancée expected by Cal. Rose tries to defend herself, but Cal screams at her, getting very close into her personal space and telling her that she was his wife in everything but law and that he expected her to obey him in all things. It's at this moment that Cal shows a deeply ugly side to her, willing to mistreat her in an attempt to get her to do and live as he chose for her. He flips over the table they'd been taking tea at, terrifying Rose with the vehemence of his anger at the way Rose wanted to behave as opposed to how she was expected to behave. Cal's jealousy and capacity for violence is fully expressed later on as he tries to shoot Rose and Jack as they run away from him, Rose having made clear her choice of who to be with could only be Jack.

3) Jack being arrested for supposedly stealing the Heart of the Ocean. At first, Rose expresses shock, but goes meekly along with her mother and Cal. However, she quickly realizes that Jack wouldn't have done such a thing and forces her way along to where Jack was being held. However, the voyage to save Jack is a dangerous, terrifying one, one taking her deep into the sinking ship and really emphasizing how the Titanic was doomed and so was anyone left on her. She's accosted after finding Jack, the man trying to drag her along despite her protests and abandoning her after she screamed at him and hit him. While Rose is ultimately able to save Jack, the trip to doing so was emotionally and physically harrowing.

4) The sinking of the Titanic. It's a chaotic nightmare by the near end, people screaming for help and failing to find any, people falling off of the ship as it tilted higher and higher up, and people who'd given up praying alongside a priest in hope of salvation in the next life. When the Titanic is almost straight up in the air, the hull buckles, half of the ship detaching from the other half and Rose is trapped for a few minutes more until the rest of the ship floods and sinks out from under her and Jack. The aftermath of the sinking of Titanic is a terror in and of itself as she's trying to swim in ice cold waters of the North Atlantic and very nearly being drowned by another passenger until she's able to find Jack.

5) The death of Jack Dawson. While they'd done what they could to try and be as safe as possible, Rose floating on a piece of debris while Jack held her hands while in the ocean, none of the lifeboats return in enough time to save both Rose and Jack. When Rose first sees the returning lifeboat, she tries to rouse Jack from what looks like sleep, urgently telling him that there was a boat over and over again until she realizes that he'd succumbed to hypothermia in the water. Rose ultimately has to let go of Jack's hand and he sinks down into the ocean, losing the love of her life, the man she credited with saving her in every possible way. His death was so painful that she'd kept it to herself for nearly ninety years.

Deer Country Attributes

• Canon Powers: no canon powers, Rose is a baseline human
• Blood Type: Paleblood
• Omen: a canary. canaries were usually kept in birdcages while Rose felt as though she'd earlier been living in a gilded cage.
• Blessed Day: April 14th, the day the Titanic hit the iceberg
• Patron Pthumerian: Argonaut
• Blood Power Manifestation: Rose's empathy for others and concern for their well-being will increase even further than she'd had it in canon. She will also be prone to prophetic visions, usually of terrifying and/or destructive events since in canon, she'd already realized that the Titanic didn't have enough lifeboats for all aboard. She'll also gain telepathy, the ability to cause hallucinations, and dream walking, more powerful as a whole during nighttime. During the day, her skills would require more effort, but wouldn't be impossible to access.

Writing Samples

One: here
Two: here

The Player

• Player Name: argustar
• Player Age: forty-mumble
• Player Contact: PM the character journal or on plurk at argustar
• Permissions: Here.

Other Characters

Tinya Wazzo

Link to Character 1 overall AC: network with Shiro and Lance, network with Uchiha Sasuke, network with Michael, log with Vira-Lorr, log with Ahiru

The link to the AC comment is here

Application for Deer Country