PLAYER INFO:
Name: Courtney
Preferred pronoun: Ladynouns.
Preferred means of contact: nidorina or maid of heart @ AIM
Any other characters currently in-game? Bianca

CHARACTER INFO
Name: Jade Harley
Gender: Female
Source: Homestuck, older!AU
Canon point: At twenty years old, growing up sans Sburb.
Age: 20
Colour: #4ac925
Chumhandle: gardenGnostic

History:
Jade's upbringing was far from what could have been considered normal. No one is exactly sure what happened to her parents, for one thing. Her grandfather was the only one and he spoke nothing about them, only looking sad and distant whenever they were mentioned and moving the conversation along. He was the one who ended up raising her and the two of them lived on an otherwise deserted island in the middle of the Pacific, cut far from most human contact. Just why her grandpa considered this a good idea for living conditions is beyond anyone's understanding. Jade grew up with it unquestioningly because it was the only thing she ever knew, and most of the friends she made online never thought too much of the silly girl's stories, or simply didn't understand the extent of the isolationism.

Most of the time, she was by herself. Her grandfather enjoyed taking his ship out for long explorations and adventures to the mainland, and even after taking Jade in, wouldn't give up this past time. As soon as she had been taught independence his journeys resumed, sporadically and frequently scheduled but always with a specific return date that he always, always stuck to. For long periods of time Jade was left alone with her dog, Becquerel, and so she had to learn how to take care of herself and everything around her. The only human contact she had when her Grandpa was gone was with the internet. Naturally a people kind of person, she met plenty of people over Squiddle message boards and chatrooms for fans of old cartoons, although eventually they would always drift away from her. Many found her to be simply too weird, but she never realized that's why contact was cut off and thought they disappeared or that she'd done something wrong without realizing. There were four, though—John, Rose, and Dave—who never left her and became the very best friends and family she could ever, ever ask for.

Although he left often, Jade's grandpa always came back, and she really did love him dearly in spite of his absence. He taught her the inner workings of the house and every last thing in it, showed her how to hold a rifle and how to shoot so that she never missed her mark, taught her how to Charleston like a pro, gave her tour after tour of the island's topography until she could navigate her way between shores with a blindfold, bought her a bass for her sixth birthday and had her playing it in no time, and raised her as his own when there was no one left to. Whenever he left on another trip he would circle a date on the calendar and tell her that was when he would be back, so she could check off the days until then. Consistently, he met these dates, through rain or shine or wild bear, and so Jade depended on them.

When she was ten years old, he left and marked her coming birthday as his return date, and then never came back.

She didn't told her friends, not wanting them to worry about her and afraid that something would be done to take her off of the island, and she couldn't fathom the idea of leaving. What if he came back, she told herself, only to find that his granddaughter had disappeared without a trace? Something in her gut told her that day that he was gone, though, and as she grew older she came completely to terms with the reality that her grandfather must have been dead, as hard as it was. Still, she refused to even think about leaving her home. This empty island was all that she had ever known. Deliveries still came by planes that may not have even known she was there every other Thursday and the second Sunday of each month. She had dedicated a wing of the tower to become a garden atrium, supplying more food than she would ever know what to do with. For years and years, she lived the only way she knew how, the whole world sans three completely unaware of her existence.

She was eighteen when it finally happened—the second Sunday of April, she wasn't woken up by the noisy planes overhead. The supplies didn't come that day. Nothing came the following Thursday, or any other after that. Slowly, she began to run out of the canned foods and meats she'd stockpiled from the deliveries' surplus. While she knew she could last forever on her own grown things (and her own food would be all she had left, she realized; the same feeling came that Sunday as the one she had on her eleventh birthday), one day something would go wrong. The sink would leak. A light bulb would blow. A pipe would burst. The heat would stop. She would look into all of the storage rooms, tear apart every wooden crate and box she could find, but something would be missing. Something would break, and she would lack what she needed to fix it, and it would never come. There was only so much she could do to keep the tower together, but she ignored the inevitability of it all anyway.

On her nineteenth birthday, she went to light the candles on a birthday cake she'd made for herself and found that her lighter was out of fluid. She tore apart the entire tower, even the rooms she had needed to close off when Grandpa disappeared because there was just too much space for a little girl to keep tidy and healthy all the time, but there was nothing. Not a single book of matches nor any gasoline or lighter fluid. There were a thousand ways to light a fire, sure; she had been taught every survivalist technique her grandpa knew. But that instance finally forced her to say this won't last, and you can't stay here.

A few days thereafter, she successfully flagged down a mail delivery plane flying overhead. She and her dog were brought to the United States and spent a good few weeks traveling between government officials and foster agencies and occasionally countries, none of whom had any idea of what to make of the situation. She didn't exist on any record in the entire world, and while her grandpa's name would have been recognized by some, he wasn't immediately found as a part of anything official, either. The world had no idea how to deal with Jade Harley, and so for the most part, they...didn't. Somehow her grandpa had planned for this and after enough digging, the people working with her found loaded bank accounts in his name and wills and notes that had everything given to and prepared for her. For a short while she was watched to make sure that she integrated into society smoothly, but it turned out that nobody really had to worry about that. Using some of her funds, she bought an apartment in Seattle and enrolled herself into college, deciding to major in nuclear physics and work with plants as well. Quickly, she learned that people who trusted her story were nigh impossible to find and that other dogs weren't quite as extraordinary as Becquerel was, and so she ended up keeping both facets of her life very much a secret from everyone but the three best friends she had made over Pesterchum when she was but a child and never let go of (and she did finally tell them that her grandpa had died, but instead made it out to seem that it happened immediately before her departure from the island).

Things proceeded with something resembling normalcy from there. Jade grew and studied and found herself absolutely adoring the big city and everything in it. Not willing to completely abandon her home, of course, she visited the island for occasional vacations (and while it was something she considered, she was never quite willing to bring her college friends there, and her Pesterchum friends were still too far away to visit), or when she felt the need to be on her own. She was on one of her little excursions back home when a set of game discs appeared at the doorstep, attached to a parachute and apparently having been dropped in by a plane she never noticed...


Personality:
At first, Jade gives the impression of being a little bit ditzy. By nature she is very bright and enthusiastic. She is shamelessly enamored with silly kid's things like cartoons, anthropomorphic animals, and everything about The Squiddles. At times she is forgetful and rather flighty-seeming. Until given a reason to be anything else, she is friendly, almost overtly so, to everyone she meets. Most will notice very quickly that Jade is just a very happy person! Some find the consistently bubbly behavior annoying, while others see it as endearing in the same way they would look at a small child.

Then you find out that she has been studying nuclear physics for funsies since she was twelve, and you realize that Jade Harley is a good deal more than just a silly, peppy girl.

On top of being more intelligent than she's given credit for, Jade is surprisingly tough. In a more obvious sense, there's her admirable skill with rifles—perplexingly, she's a self-declared pacifist, but it's best not to question a girl who has been toting and shooting some pretty decently sized firearms since she could toddle. When she needs to be, she is aggressive, and although this side of Jade doesn't make itself apparent very often, it is scary. She'll involve herself in conflict, physical or otherwise, when it needs to be broken up. Certainly, she'll try being peaceful at first, but once she gets yelling and dragging, it is nothing short of terrifying, proving that messing with Jade Harley is a dangerous task indeed! Fortunately, making Jade angry isn't an easy task. When the time calls for it, she is also brave and resourceful, and when something does need to get done, Jade is ready to do it!

Less immediately apparent, Jade isn't one to let her personal hardships weigh too heavily on her. Regardless of what is thrown at her, she is somehow able to endure it all and force herself to move forward. She has always weathered the harshest of storms with her tell-tale
optimism, consistently proving herself to be one tough cookie. She stays strong for the sake of others more than herself, though; others know her as the chipper one, and she wants her friends to be able to depend on that. Beyond that, she doesn't want anyone to have to worry about her.

On that note, Jade usually doesn't open up about her troubles to her friends. It isn't that she doesn't trust them, but that she believes her problems couldn't begin to measure up to their own. The last thing she would ever want to do would be to bog down her friends with her negativity, especially when they have so much on their plate already, so in some instances, her cheerfulness becomes a kind of shield that she uses to be able function. Often, she's more willing to show when she's upset to strangers and those she doesn't like—and it's usually by being snappy and angry with them, because when she has to face up to the fact that she's scared or upset, she doesn't handle it well.

Truly, though, Jade's friends are the most important thing to her. A friend in her really is a friend for life and she is fiercely loyal to them. No matter the cost, she will stand by and protect those who are important to her. Their needs always take priority over her own and she would not hesitate to do anything for their sake and safety. Basically, anyone who enjoys not being filled with bullets is best off not fucking with the people Jade Harley cares about!


Abilities & physical limitations: Jade is just an ordinary human! However, she does have considerable skill with a rifle.

Her dog, on the other hand, is a little less mundane. The official term is First Guardian, although Jade isn't aware of it, providing him with near-omnipotence and teleportation abilities (that were scaled down upon entering the game as a sprite; these powers only apply to immediate local areas).

Appearance: Pretty much this, but also...
• About 5'8"
• Ambiguously Asian, kind of Filipino-looking
• Green eyes
• Has some pretty nice, perky assets that she is completely oblivious to the niceness of
• Her clothing style mostly revolves around skirts/dresses (pants are dumb!!!) and cute things, but she will sacrifice for practicality when the need comes
Somebody found me some really nice fanart, too, here's this.

Notable AU differences from canon, if applicable: Non-Sburb and, of course those mentioned in her history. That's all, though!

Strife Specibus: rifleKind
Prototyping: Her dog, Becquerel.
Title: Lass of Growth
In-game abilities: Immediately apparent to her, Jade's powers of a hero of Growth manifest in a very literal niche—that being the growing of plants. It's something she has always had a knack for! Her powers go beyond plants, though—she will discover, as time goes on, that she has the ability to alter the size of things! This is definitely not a ripoff of her canon Space powers! The title comes with the challenge of personal growth.

Also if she ever ascends to godtier, flowers will grow where she walks, because I think it would be really cool.

Planet:
The Land of Vines and Spires is filled with decrepit castles that have been completely overtaken by the local flora. Flowered vines completely blanket the ground and coil up the spires, and you're very likely to see some extraordinarily large fruits! Her consorts are blue iguanas who enjoy making "thip" noises. Her denizen is Coyote as he appears in various mythologies, and he has been playing mean pranks on the iguanas! These aren't funny whoopee-cushion style games, but these terrible tricks are getting dangerous and even deadly for the victims. None of them know what to do!