Rose Red

[Renn Skye]

Rose Red

Basics

Name: Rose Red


Age: Roughly 300/appears to be in her mid to late teens


Race: Fairy Tale Character/Quasi-immortal creature of pure legend/Fable (but otherwise human)


Gender: Female


Sexual Orientation: She hasn't fully explored her sexuality, so it's unclear. Likely bisexual?


Occupation: Storybook character/none

• Appearance
• Personality
• History
• Original Fairytale

• Appearance
  
  Height: 5'5''
  
  
  Hair: bright red hair that shifts from wavy to straight depending on current story perception.
  
  
  Eyes: Green
  
  
  Body: 'Classically' beautiful, with the caveat that she's never quite as pretty as her sister (who is, of course, the fairest in the land)
  
  
  Attire: Depends on story setting, it shifts with the current perception of her fable.
  
  
  
• Personality
  
  Rose Red has always been described as the more tomboyish of the two sisters, in every version of her story. She's the one that collects the firewood, who talks to beasts without fear - she's the one that let the bear in to their home when her sister was scared to go to the door and she's the first to start trying to help the dwarf no matter how vile he may seem and no matter that Snow is the one to carry scissors in her pocket. Because of this, in half the translations of Schneeweitchen und Rosenrot (Snow White and Rose Red) Rose doesn't get her prince at all, and only Snow White is married to a prince. There are a lot of people who theorise that this is why Snow White goes on to get her own solo story - Snow White and the Seven Wolves, a story in which Snow acted more like a combination of her sister and herself (all the daring of Rose Red with the comely nature of Snow White), but which was later re-written to have her 'purely feminine' side and was renamed Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Long story short... Rose Red was too independent, and as such got written out of main stream fairytales.
  
  
  As such, I play Rose as a very self assured woman - she knows who she is and has no problem taking care of herself. She doesn't fall well into the role of a damsel, even though she's been longing for her fairytale ending for as long as she can remember, but is too self self-sufficient to get herself into a position where she might need rescuing, and is too far from dainty for any of the classic fairytale males to want to sweep her off to be their bride. She wasn't born a princess and when her and her sister met and saved a prince he wanted Snow White to be his wife because she was the more classical female of the two.
  
  
  While Rose Red loves her sister to bits, she cannot help but be a bit jealous of her... and of all the other princesses she's known throughout her life. When you live in a land of fairytales you hear stories of girls meeting their Prince Charming and being swept off their feet every day, and it's hard not to dream about it happening to you. Rose Red has lived her life waiting for her Knight in Shining Armour to ride up on his white horse, or her Charming and Handsome Farmboy Who Is Secretly (and often unbeknownst to him) Heir to a Throne, or that Seemingly Roguish Thief/Pirate/General Rapscallion Who Actually Has A Heart Of Gold, but he's never come to her. She's kissed frogs but they've always stayed frogs, she turned a bear into a prince once and he married her sister and not her, she's had plenty of her own adventures but they've never ended with a "happily ever after" - or at least not one for her anyway. She's certainly helped a few other princes and princesses find one another. After centuries of trying she's finally starting to realise... it doesn't matter if you're a very pretty, even beautiful girl. If your sister is the Fairest of them All no one will ever notice you. And if your sister is the Fairest of them All in a world where almost every other eligible maiden is The Fairest of The Land or As Fair as a Flower and you're just "kinda pretty"? Forget it. You're never going to be a main character, you'll never be a leading lady, and you'll never get a shot at a leading man.
  
  
  And yet... she still has the audacity to dream that she might.
  
  
  
• History
  
  Please refer to the section about Rose Red's original fairytale before continuing below...
  
  
  Spoiler

  As a fairytale woman, Rose Red hasn’t aged a day since then. Her sister got her happily ever after, and she stayed behind, not Princess Rose Red as her sister had become Princess Snow White, but just Rose Red, sister to the princess and daughter of a widow. For decades she lived in the Black Forest in Germany, where the majority of her fairytale compatriots also lived - just as they were written originally. Over the years, however, she's moved out of Germany and has lived in most places in the world. She's taught herself to read and write, and living for a few hundred years can make you somewhat intelligent even if you aren't trying to learn anything, so she's gotten herself a bit of an education over the years. Much more then she was allowed when she was originally written into existence, anyway.
  
  
  Currently she's living in a small town with her sister (Charming went off and married a whole slew of princesses, getting bored after each one as the next challenge arose, and is who knows where doing who knows what - and good riddance, she says) helping run a small café by the name of "Once Upon A Bakery." She works as a barista there and sometimes helps make the pastries, and while still hoping she'll find the man she'll find her Happily Ever After with, she no longer actively seeks it. After all, it's not like she's going to be kidnapped by a dragon and saved any time, soon, right? And if she was, she'd probably do something stupid like escape on her own. After all, she never did have the patience to wait around and be saved before, why would she now?
  
  
  Please note that Rose can be played during any time period after the initial creation of her story and slips into fantasy settings quite easily.
• Original Fairytale
  
  From The Brother's Grimm
  
  ​
  
  
  
  There was once a poor widow who lived in a lonely cottage. In front of the cottage was a garden wherein stood two rose-trees, one of which bore white and the other red roses. She had two children who were like the two rose-trees, and one was called Snow-white, and the other Rose- red. They were as good and happy, as busy and cheerful as ever two children in the world were, only Snow-white was more quiet and gentle than Rose-red. Rose-red liked better to run about in the meadows and fields seeking flowers and catching butterflies; but Snow-white sat at home with her mother, and helped her with her housework, or read to her when there was nothing to do.
  
  
  The two children were so fond of one another that they always held each other by the hand when they went out together, and when Snow- white said: ‘We will not leave each other,’ Rose-red answered: ‘Never so long as we live,’ and their mother would add: ‘What one has she must share with the other.’
  
  
  They often ran about the forest alone and gathered red berries, and no beasts did them any harm, but came close to them trustfully. The little hare would eat a cabbage-leaf out of their hands, the roe grazed by their side, the stag leapt merrily by them, and the birds sat still upon the boughs, and sang whatever they knew.
  
  
  No mishap overtook them; if they had stayed too late in the forest, and night came on, they laid themselves down near one another upon the moss, and slept until morning came, and their mother knew this and did not worry on their account.
  
  
  Once when they had spent the night in the wood and the dawn had roused them, they saw a beautiful child in a shining white dress sitting near their bed. He got up and looked quite kindly at them, but said nothing and went into the forest. And when they looked round they found that they had been sleeping quite close to a precipice, and would certainly have fallen into it in the darkness if they had gone only a few paces further. And their mother told them that it must have been the angel who watches over good children
  
  
  Snow-white and Rose-red kept their mother’s little cottage so neat that it was a pleasure to look inside it. In the summer Rose-red took care of the house, and every morning laid a wreath of flowers by her mother’s bed before she awoke, in which was a rose from each tree. In the winter Snow-white lit the fire and hung the kettle on the hob. The kettle was of brass and shone like gold, so brightly was it polished. In the evening, when the snowflakes fell, the mother said: ‘Go, Snow- white, and bolt the door,’ and then they sat round the hearth, and the mother took her spectacles and read aloud out of a large book, and the two girls listened as they sat and spun. And close by them lay a lamb upon the floor, and behind them upon a perch sat a white dove with its head hidden beneath its wings.
  
  
  One evening, as they were thus sitting comfortably together, someone knocked at the door as if he wished to be let in. The mother said: ‘Quick, Rose-red, open the door, it must be a traveller who is seeking shelter.’ Rose-red went and pushed back the bolt, thinking that it was a poor man, but it was not; it was a bear that stretched his broad, black head within the door.
  
  
  Rose-red screamed and sprang back, the lamb bleated, the dove fluttered, and Snow-white hid herself behind her mother’s bed. But the bear began to speak and said: ‘Do not be afraid, I will do you no harm! I am half-frozen, and only want to warm myself a little beside you.’
  
  
  ‘Poor bear,’ said the mother, ‘lie down by the fire, only take care that you do not burn your coat.’ Then she cried: ‘Snow-white, Rose- red, come out, the bear will do you no harm, he means well.’ So they both came out, and by-and-by the lamb and dove came nearer, and were not afraid of him. The bear said: ‘Here, children, knock the snow out of my coat a little’; so they brought the broom and swept the bear’s hide clean; and he stretched himself by the fire and growled contentedly and comfortably. It was not long before they grew quite at home, and played tricks with their clumsy guest. They tugged his hair with their hands, put their feet upon his back and rolled him about, or they took a hazel-switch and beat him, and when he growled they laughed. But the bear took it all in good part, only when they were too rough he called out: ‘Leave me alive, children, Snow-white, Rose-red, Will you beat your wooer dead?'
  
  
  When it was bed-time, and the others went to bed, the mother said to the bear: ‘You can lie there by the hearth, and then you will be safe from the cold and the bad weather.’ As soon as day dawned the two children let him out, and he trotted across the snow into the forest.
  
  
  Henceforth the bear came every evening at the same time, laid himself down by the hearth, and let the children amuse themselves with him as much as they liked; and they got so used to him that the doors were never fastened until their black friend had arrived.
  
  
  When spring had come and all outside was green, the bear said one morning to Snow-white: ‘Now I must go away, and cannot come back for the whole summer.’ ‘Where are you going, then, dear bear?’ asked Snow- white. ‘I must go into the forest and guard my treasures from the wicked dwarfs. In the winter, when the earth is frozen hard, they are obliged to stay below and cannot work their way through; but now, when the sun has thawed and warmed the earth, they break through it, and come out to pry and steal; and what once gets into their hands, and in their caves, does not easily see daylight again'
  
  
  Snow-white was quite sorry at his departure, and as she unbolted the door for him, and the bear was hurrying out, he caught against the bolt and a piece of his hairy coat was torn off, and it seemed to Snow-white as if she had seen gold shining through it, but she was not sure about it. The bear ran away quickly, and was soon out of sight behind the trees.
  
  
  A short time afterwards the mother sent her children into the forest to get firewood. There they found a big tree which lay felled on the ground, and close by the trunk something was jumping backwards and forwards in the grass, but they could not make out what it was. When they came nearer they saw a dwarf with an old withered face and a snow-white beard a yard long. The end of the beard was caught in a crevice of the tree, and the little fellow was jumping about like a dog tied to a rope, and did not know what to do.
  
  
  He glared at the girls with his fiery red eyes and cried: ‘Why do you stand there? Can you not come here and help me?’ ‘What are you up to, little man?’ asked Rose-red. ‘You stupid, prying goose!’ answered the dwarf: ‘I was going to split the tree to get a little wood for cooking. The little bit of food that we people get is immediately burnt up with heavy logs; we do not swallow so much as you coarse, greedy folk. I had just driven the wedge safely in, and everything was going as I wished; but the cursed wedge was too smooth and suddenly sprang out, and the tree closed so quickly that I could not pull out my beautiful white beard; so now it is tight and I cannot get away, and the silly, sleek, milk-faced things laugh! Ugh! how odious you are!’
  
  
  The children tried very hard, but they could not pull the beard out, it was caught too fast. ‘I will run and fetch someone,’ said Rose-red. ‘You senseless goose!’ snarled the dwarf; ‘why should you fetch someone? You are already two too many for me; can you not think of something better?’ ‘Don’t be impatient,’ said Snow-white, ‘I will help you,’ and she pulled her scissors out of her pocket, and cut off the end of the beard.
  
  
  As soon as the dwarf felt himself free he laid hold of a bag which lay amongst the roots of the tree, and which was full of gold, and lifted it up, grumbling to himself: ‘Uncouth people, to cut off a piece of my fine beard. Bad luck to you!’ and then he swung the bag upon his back, and went off without even once looking at the children.
  
  
  Some time afterwards Snow-white and Rose-red went to catch a dish of fish. As they came near the brook they saw something like a large grasshopper jumping towards the water, as if it were going to leap in. They ran to it and found it was the dwarf. ‘Where are you going?’ said Rose-red; ‘you surely don’t want to go into the water?’ ‘I am not such a fool!’ cried the dwarf; ‘don’t you see that the accursed fish wants to pull me in?’ The little man had been sitting there fishing, and unluckily the wind had tangled up his beard with the fishing-line; a moment later a big fish made a bite and the feeble creature had not strength to pull it out; the fish kept the upper hand and pulled the dwarf towards him. He held on to all the reeds and rushes, but it was of little good, for he was forced to follow the movements of the fish, and was in urgent danger of being dragged into the water.
  
  
  The girls came just in time; they held him fast and tried to free his beard from the line, but all in vain, beard and line were entangled fast together. There was nothing to do but to bring out the scissors and cut the beard, whereby a small part of it was lost. When the dwarf saw that he screamed out: ‘Is that civil, you toadstool, to disfigure a man’s face? Was it not enough to clip off the end of my beard? Now you have cut off the best part of it. I cannot let myself be seen by my people. I wish you had been made to run the soles off your shoes!’ Then he took out a sack of pearls which lay in the rushes, and without another word he dragged it away and disappeared behind a stone.
  
  
  It happened that soon afterwards the mother sent the two children to the town to buy needles and thread, and laces and ribbons. The road led them across a heath upon which huge pieces of rock lay strewn about. There they noticed a large bird hovering in the air, flying slowly round and round above them; it sank lower and lower, and at last settled near a rock not far away. Immediately they heard a loud, piteous cry. They ran up and saw with horror that the eagle had seized their old acquaintance the dwarf, and was going to carry him off.
  
  
  The children, full of pity, at once took tight hold of the little man, and pulled against the eagle so long that at last he let his booty go. As soon as the dwarf had recovered from his first fright he cried with his shrill voice: ‘Could you not have done it more carefully! You dragged at my brown coat so that it is all torn and full of holes, you clumsy creatures!’ Then he took up a sack full of precious stones, and slipped away again under the rock into his hole. The girls, who by this time were used to his ingratitude, went on their way and did their business in town.
  
  
  As they crossed the heath again on their way home they surprised the dwarf, who had emptied out his bag of precious stones in a clean spot, and had not thought that anyone would come there so late. The evening sun shone upon the brilliant stones; they glittered and sparkled with all colours so beautifully that the children stood still and stared at them. ‘Why do you stand gaping there?’ cried the dwarf, and his ashen- grey face became copper-red with rage. He was still cursing when a loud growling was heard, and a black bear came trotting towards them out of the forest. The dwarf sprang up in a fright, but he could not reach his cave, for the bear was already close. Then in the dread of his heart he cried: ‘Dear Mr Bear, spare me, I will give you all my treasures; look, the beautiful jewels lying there! Grant me my life; what do you want with such a slender little fellow as I? you would not feel me between your teeth. Come, take these two wicked girls, they are tender morsels for you, fat as young quails; for mercy’s sake eat them!’ The bear took no heed of his words, but gave the wicked creature a single blow with his paw, and he did not move again.
  
  
  The girls had run away, but the bear called to them: ‘Snow-white and Rose-red, do not be afraid; wait, I will come with you.’ Then they recognized his voice and waited, and when he came up to them suddenly his bearskin fell off, and he stood there a handsome man, clothed all in gold. ‘I am a king’s son,’ he said, ‘and I was bewitched by that wicked dwarf, who had stolen my treasures; I have had to run about the forest as a savage bear until I was freed by his death. Now he has got his well-deserved punishment.
  
  
  Snow-white was married to him, and they divided between them the great treasure which the dwarf had gathered together in his cave. The old mother lived peacefully and happily with her children for many years. She took the two rose-trees with her, and they stood before her window, and every year bore the most beautiful roses, white and red.