Ship Questionnaire: Rosalace Edition!

I wanted to do a deeper dive into Rosalyn and Ace's relationship, so here we go.

1. Introduce your ship. Which characters are involved? What media is the ship from? (if applicable). Is it a canon x canon ship, oc x canon, oc x oc shipping, or self insert x canon?

I'm going to be talking about Rosalace, my oc x canon pairing from the original game High School Story.

2. What is their theme song? If they have more than one, list the songs that correlate with them. Bonus if you want to explain why.

I'd probably go with "Not Another Song About Love" by Hollywood Ending. I feel like it represents their (mostly Ace's) atttempts to push away their feelings for each other after Ace betrayed her but they end up falling back in love with each other. Well honestly...they never stopped loving each other.

3. What draws you to this ship? 

I've loved shipping Rosalyn and Ace together since I was in high school, even writing fics about them that are now wiped from the internet. I was drawn to their dynamic even before his post betrayal and date quests were introduced to the game. To me, Rosalyn and Ace are a lot alike in the sense that they base their worth on what they can do for others. For Rosalyn it's more of a coping mechanism to deal with gettng bullied and ruining her first relationship. In Ace, his parents have instilled this mindset on him since he was young. Together they're growing into people they can feel proud of.

4. Who is more comfortable with public displays of affection

Rosalyn is usually the first to initiate PDA. Ace doesn't mind it too much but he would prefer more subtle acts of affection betweem them when they are in public.

5. Who gets jealous more easily?

Ace but he pretends he doesn't. Rosalyn is almost as jealous as he is and is more open about it. Not that she really has anything to worry about.

6. Who is clingier?

Rosalyn. When they're together she can usually be found on Ace's arm like a koala.

7. How quickly or slowly do the characters get together?

So I estimate that the Ace quest takes place over the course of three months. In the first month, Rosalyn runs for student district representative for two weeks and then she wins. She's on the council for about a month. In that month Ace serves as her senior advisor and general partner in crime. They grew closer in that time, starting to develop feelings for each other. But neither of them acts on their feelings until the night of the gala to announce the winner of the Hamilton Internship gala. And that's when things began to fall apart between because Ace loses to someone at Rosalyn's school and he tries to get revenge on her school. Rosalyn eventually gets Ace to change his mind and he ends up saving her school at the cost of him getting a district wide expulsion. She then saves him from being shipped to a boarding school in Manila by inviting him to enroll at her school. Once Ace is admitted to Lakeside, they discuss their relationship again. While they never officially broke up with each other, they decided they should just be friends for now.

I assume the quest Weekend Warriors takes place a month after Ace's admittance to Lakeside, where Rosalyn invites Ace to hang out with her friends and make up with them for his betrayal. Their weekend ends with a party where Rosalyn dares Ace to kiss her. She then tries to give him an out but he goes through with the dare, blushing a little afterwards. They don't officially start dating again until ANOTHER month later where he asks her out and she accepts. They've been dating since 2016.

So I'd say it's kind of a slow burn? At least for high schoolers it should be.

8. How likely is your ship likely to stay with each other?

They're gonna be together forever

9. What is the general in-universe reception of this ship?

A lot of people do not really "approve" of Rosalyn dating Ace given what he's done against the school and against her. Rosalyn is convinced that Ace is willing to change and has put in the work to become a better person. Her friends are still justifiably wary of Ace when she starts bringing him around to hang out with the rest of them, and even more when they start dating. Payton seems to be the only person happy for Rosalyn finding love again. Her childhood friend Annie, however, continues not to trust him long after they start dating.

Rosalyn's dad is understandably very protective over his daughter, especially since she cried in his arms about her school potentialy being closed down. So he's not to keen on her dating Ace. He eventually comes around to it when they become adults, but gives Ace a warning should he even think of betraying her trust again.

Ace does not bring Rosalyn around his parents if he can help it. His mom is cordial to Rosalyn and often teases her son about his relationship. His dad pretends to be cordial to Rosalyn as a guise to put Ace down and his mom doesn't really do much to intervene, so Rosalyn and Ace often avoid going to his place when his parents are home.

10. What are the top three fondest memories involving this ship?
1. It seems trivial, but Rosalyn distinctly remembers the night she and Ace spent in his office while they went over paperwork for the student district council. She was exhausted and eventually fell asleep, and Ace put his jacket over her to keep her warm. When she woke up the following morning, he greeted her with coffee and some breakfast items from a local donut shop. I'd argue this was when she first started to develop feelings for her.
2. During a Halloween party, Rosalyn and Ace decided to dress as Brandy's version of Cinderella and Prince Charming. They danced the night away and even shared a kiss when they won the costume contest.
3. Their first official date will always be a key milestone in their relationship. They had barely gotten together before Ace had betrayed her, and now that she and Ace were on the same page again, Ace wanted to go all out and make this the most fairytale-esque date Rosalyn would ever have. While things did not completely go according to plan, Rosalyn had a wonderful time with Ace.
11. What are the characters' favorite physical features in each other?

Rosalyn loves Ace's fancy hair, his cute face and how his dimples show up when he genuinely smiles. Ace is a bit embarassed to admit he likes looking at her back as much as her face. He also finds her smile to be the most beautiful thing in the world

12. Where are the characters' favorite place to kiss their significant other(s)?

Rosalyn loves to kiss Ace on his cheeks and his jawline. Ace loves to kiss Rosalyn on the lips, the back of her hand, the nape of her neck, and her shoulders.

13. If you had to assign an animal to each character in the ship, what would it be?

Rosalyn would be a lioness and Ace would be a panther

14. How do the characters complement each other?

I'd say color wise they look good together.

15. How did each character know they had fallen in love with each other?

For Rosalyn, refer to the first point in question 10. For Ace, it was actually during his betrayal arc that he realized he'd fallen hard for Rosalyn and tried to push those feelings away so he'd feel less guilty about enacting revenge on her school. This, of course, doesn't work in the end.

16. What would happen to each character if they had never met each other?

I think Rosalyn would have maybe lost the election for student district representative and gone on as a normal student working for her school. But she'd probably feel really hopeless in terms of her romantic relationships giving her past with Hannah and Aiden. Ace would continue doing what he does, remaining a person with a closed off heart and a single track drive for success. But he'd be miserable.

17. If  (god forbid) your ship were to break up, what would cause them to break up? Who breaks things off?

Again, they don't "break up" when Ace betrays her, but I believe if he were to betray her again in that way, she would break up with him for good.

18. Who initiates physical contact first?

Rosalyn.

19. Who initiates the first kiss?

Rosalyn.

20. Who usually initiates kisses?

I'd say it's a toss-up between those two.

21. Who confesses first? How does it go?

Canonically, Ace does. He asks her out via a pre-recorded intercom message and surprises her in person with flowers.

22. Who is more argumentative?

Rosalyn, especially if she thinks Ace is hiding something from her

23. Who is more likely to bring up the past in an argument?

Shamefully, Rosalyn.

24. Who sacrifices their lover(s) to save the world and who lets the world burn for their lover(s)?

Ace would let the world burn for Rosalyn. Rosalyn would regretfully lose Ace if it meant saving the world because of her dedication to her community.

25. What would prevent your ship from being together? Are the influences involved internal (applies to self) or external (applies to other)?

Rosalyn's desire to make amends with Ace is often warring with her fear of Ace betraying her trust again after she lets him back into her life again.

26. If you were to compare this ship to another ship, which would it be and why?

Aleheather from Total Drama. I've always envisioned Rosalyn as more of an anti-hero rather than a protagonist played straight. The story revolves around her, but she's done questionable, at times selfish things for her goals. While Heather is more of her show's antagonist rather than an anti hero, I feel Rosalyn can relate to her confidence and ability to adapt to her circumstances and turn things into her favor. I feel Ace's comparison with Alejandro is more obvious in the sense that both seduce the people they want to manipulate (in different ways) into doing what they want. They're both notably charismatic and that is often used to get what they want. Aleheather and Rosalace notably also like to play stupid about their feelings for each other until they eventually give in (much to the revulsion of everyone else around them).

27. If one or multiple characters in a ship like to cook, what would be their favorite meal to surprise their partner(s) with?

Ace often packs a little ube dessert with his lunch to share with Rosalyn when they spend nights working together. Other times, she and him spend the time at her house cooking adobo and leche flan. He often indulges in Rosalyn's father's gumbo recipe as well.

28. Do you have AUs for this ship? If applicable, which AU is your favorite?

I have quite a few but only one I've publicly shared. It's called "And Then I Go and Spoil it All By Saying Something Stupid Like I Love You", or ATIGASIABSSSLILY for short. It's an au where Rosalyn and Ace continue to publicly date each other during Ace's betrayal arc to keep up appearances while the two of them are trying to take each other down. All while dancing around the lingering feelings for each other that never left even after Ace betrayed her. I've written a couple chapters about them on my tumblr.

29. Does your ship have any particular symbolism?

Ace is represente by stars because of the badge on his suit. Rosalyn is associated with both roses and apples because of her color scheme.

30. If your ship had a rocky start, how do they overcome their problems?

It took time before Rosalyn was ready to fully become Ace's friend again after he betrayed her, much more to enter a relationship with him. They slowly started spending more time with each other and fell back in love over the course of a few months.