Rozzlyn "Janus" Fletcher
| Rozzlyn "Janus" Fletcher | |
|---|---|
| |
| Homo merseyensis | |
| Age | 20 |
| Gender | Female |
| Born | 1955 |
| Orientation | Lesbian |
| Status | Familiar |
| Occupation | Familiar |
| Height | 5'7 |
| Weight | 200lbs |
| Likes | Cigerettes, dogs, drawing, frankenstein's monster motifs, horror movies, hot chocolate, tattoos, throwing snowballs at cars, tinned meatballs |
| Dislikes | Chauvunism, feeling micromanaged, her job, hunting, the EVS, the police, Woodsgrave |
Rozzlyn is a main character in Dancing with the Dead. She is a troubled human familiar who comes to like Edgar.
History
Rozzlyn was born into Liverpool's foster system, where she was subject to the effects of urban deprivation. Upon turning 18, she aged out of foster care and subsequently became homeless. During this period she was assaulted by an unknown man, whom she stabbed in self-defence. She maintains that the killing was accidental.
She was later discovered and captured by the Liverpool City Branch of the EVS. In their custody, she was assigned to the hamlet of Woodsgrave as a familiar. She was placed briefly under the supervision of August Belfort, Woodsgrave's Livestock Manager, with whom she clashed on several occasions. During this posting she accidentally exorcised a toilet of Will O' the Wisps, and made the acquaintance of Edgar Nightingale.
Personality
Rozzlyn is a sensitive and pensive woman who maintains a markedly tough outward demeanour. She permits herself emotional expression, though largely in private. Anger is the exception; she deploys it openly and with considerable force. Her acute sense of injustice, while a source of considerable strain, provides her with a clear sense of purpose. She exhibits a pronounced antagonism towards male characters, though whether this constitutes misandry or a response to experienced misogyny has not been made explicit.
Her anger is not physical in character, despite what her appearance may suggest. She favours verbal retorts, sharp, direct, and assembled quickly. She demonstrates a consistent desire to level the imbalance of power she finds herself within, and makes a point of signalling to her superiors that their scrutiny is reciprocated. Despite an evident wariness of August, she does not hesitate to challenge him, going so far as to negotiate a pay rise. Though he manoeuvres her into accepting less, she remains persistent and continues to apply pressure to those who would sooner contain her. With strangers, she is curt and guarded, though not without capacity for candour when trust is established.
In private, Rozzlyn is curious and sensory-seeking. Her practice of drawing comics reflects a strong communicative drive expressed through unconventional means. She is literal-minded and blunt in her humour, though imaginative and resourceful in equal measure. She's an affectionate lover and yearns for intimacy, a far-cry from the butch lesbian stereotype. Rozzlyn can thrive, when she's allowed to.
Appearance
Rozzlyn has the appearance of a woman in her early twenties. She wears her hair short and gelled. Her face is characterised by a wide nose, shaved eyebrows, a subtle underbite, and pronounced ears. Her figure is pear-shaped, with pendulous breasts and a subtle belly. In coloured renders, she has black hair, a sickly complexion, and complete heterochromia.
Extras
Trivia- Rozzlyn is strongly implied to be a lesbian. She is sexually active with Nancy, demonstrates no interest in men, and this is recalled to her directly in one of her nightmares.
- Rozzlyn is an artist, and draws a recurring character she has named "Frankenbitch", a Frankenstein's Monster rendered in the likeness of a humanoid dog. Frankenbitch functions as an apparent wish-fulfilment figure, frequently depicted inflicting cartoonish harm upon Simon.
- Rozzlyn is a Catholic. She recites the Hail Mary with complete accuracy in one of her nightmares. Whether she remains a practising Catholic or has lapsed is not confirmed, though the nature of vampire societies makes the latter the more probable.
- Rozzlyn has an evident interest in horror cinema, as reflected by the posters displayed in her quarters. No firm preference has been established, though her forehead tattoo and the design of Frankenbitch suggest a particular affinity for depictions of Frankenstein's Monster.
- Rozzlyn's preferred foods include tinned meatballs and beans on toast. The inexpensive nature of these meals suggests a long familiarity with them, possibly extending to comfort.
- Rozzlyn has complete heterochromia.
- Though never verbally confirmed by Rozzlyn or other characters, it is strongly implied that she survived a sexual assault, or at minimum an attempted one. August, despite his candour on matters of violence, employs notably euphemistic language when referencing the incident, describing it as "what he tried to do to you." He is congratulatory of Rozzlyn for killing her assailant, yet she appears to carry considerable trauma from the act itself. His mention of how profusely the man bled suggests a wound to a major artery, consistent with a stabbing at close quarters.
- Rozzlyn demonstrates an aptitude for haggling, though as shown in Episode 12, August manoeuvres her into accepting less than she negotiated for.
- Rozzlyn is housed in a private room within the familiar lodge, an arrangement that constitutes a notable anomaly given the otherwise communal nature of the lodgings.
- The extent to which the other familiars are aware of Rozzlyn's history is not established. She does not appear close with them, and August, in his capacity as a councillor, is among the few confirmed to know what occurred.
- Rozzlyn regards vampires broadly as nuisances possessed of god-complexes, though she is visibly frightened by August's eclipsed form. His size renders him unable to fit within conventional vehicles, meaning that when the two travel together he is obliged, in a considerably grim irony, to physically surround her with his exposed form.
- Rozzlyn smokes cannabis, likely a consequence of her proximity to Nancy and Walter. She is also in possession of a bong, presumably provided by the latter.
- Rozzlyn makes frequent jokes about killing herself. She bears no visible signs of self-injury, nor is such history referenced in her past, though she meets the criteria for passive suicidal ideation. Nancy, herself no stranger to difficulty, attempts to address this and redirect Rozzlyn's thoughts towards her desire for autonomy rather than death.
- Rozzlyn displays consistent indicators of claustrophobia. She is visibly distressed when confined in a vehicle with August, panics to the point of tears upon accidentally trapping herself within Dawnwatch's concealed passage, and experiences recurring nightmares centred on imprisonment and consumption by Augomet. In her most recent dream, she finds herself with no option but to enter Augomet's mouth and take shelter beneath his tongue, suspended between two equally perilous conditions, with his body offering only the grim certainty of a finite and comprehensible confinement over the vast hellscape beyond. These recurring consumptive metaphors, reinforced by those found in the So, You're a Vampire comic strips, frame the vampire as a consumer of human bodies and labour, dissolving individual identity as a body processes a meal.
- Rozzlyn's recurring encounters with Augomet in her subconscious do not necessarily reflect a view of August as her primary antagonist. To her unconscious mind, he appears to function as a symbol of the EVS and its rigid class hierarchy at their most grotesque. His enthusiasm for hunting, and Augomet's accumulation of human souls, further suggest that he embodies an anxiety around disposability, of being one unremarkable casualty among many in the era's epidemic of poverty.