Rosa is the oldest child (of 5) of Eric and Veronica Rivera, part of a large, extended family living in the inner city of Dewell in Astaria. For the most part, her family live the paycheque to paycheque life, and the kids spend just as much time with their aunts, uncles and grandparents as they do with their parents. It's a nice family, though, one that loves each other, even if each additional sibling places extra strain on the family's finances.

Rosa grows up with that odd peripheral awareness that not all is well in the family, that her parents are trying to make things as normal as possible for her and her siblings. She goes with it, because what else can you do when you're eight years old and don't fully grasp the nuances of finance or have any way to contribute. She helps with her siblings, goes to school, occasionally gets in trouble. Lives a normal and imperfect life, like you'd expect to see in your own city.

Everything's fine, up until she turns 14, when the academic system begins to sort students for their future careers. Having always had an interest in electronics and machines and being a student one would consider above average, Rosa gives serious thought to pursuing an academic line of study, wanting a degree in Engineering. Unfortunately, her parents point blank refuse, unable to assist her financially through the rest of school and into university. Instead, they suggest the trade school for mechanics, because it's "close enough" while also earn money through an apprenticeship scheme, allowing her to help keep the family's heads afloat a bit longer.

She resents it, but does so.

As they say, when it rains, it pours. At 15, settled into somewhat accepting her lot in life, things change again with the discovery of her Inkblood status while getting a blood test at the doctor's. This, in and of itself, might not have been so bad. But, of course, it's never that easy. It's kind of hard to deny that you're an Inkblood when people have seen you get up from a car crash that would have killed most, have seen your blood run decidedly not red in the street. Initially, Rosa doesn't think much of it. It's weird, but there are people like this, even if she didn't expect to be one.

Of course, when someone tries to kidnap you, you start thinking differently of your new blood. Tries being the operative word. She makes it out unscathed and tries to bury the event as far down as it will go, never speaking of it. Her family don't need that trouble weighing on them, and neither do her friends. Instead, she continues life as normal — except for the constant glances over her shoulder and disappearing in the middle of hanging out, which are eventually noticed by her friends. They question her behaviour and it devolves into an argument, Rosa stubbornly refusing to let them in on her Inkblood problems before she storms off and into the arms of yet more would-be kidnappers.

(Dewell has many things, among them a huge amount of people desperate and broke enough to want Inkblood to reverse their aging.) She ducks and dives out of the kidnappers grasp and barrels right into a stranger who immediately backs her up with electricity that shoots from her fingers. A Stormblood who then takes Rosa back towards a youth centre, and to meet the other -bloods in the district, a small group who had heard whispers of a girl with pink hair whose blood ran blue in the streets.

"Looks like you're real, huh?" After introductions, the group offers to help Rosa by supporting her with their more offensive magic when she's in trouble, but she immediately shuts it down ("I can take care of myself, but thanks") and bows out of the place.

In the following months, life settles into something of a routine, at least, as much of a routine as anyone can consider kidnapping attempts on top of the rest of life. Rosa continues to manage to escape people who want her blood and turns sixteen (not that she's sure ages matter much once you're told you'll look like this forever). Life is nowhere close to perfect, but it's good enough, her family can afford everything it needs to and she even gets to save a little of her apprenticeship money for herself.

Like many a weekend, Rosa wanders off to check out a nearby farmer's market and meets a girl with a smile as lovely as a paycheque at the end of a hard week. They stroll the farmer's market together and flirt in that awkward, unsure way teenagers do, neither quite willing to make the first move, and wind their way out of the market and into an alley, where the girl signals to the ambush which has been set up.

Rosa darts, barely escaping the initial jump and hearing a cry of "You don't need to be soft, she can't die!" as she scrambles to put some distance and garbage between herself and her latest kidnappers. Shots ring out just as she rounds a corner and graze the back of her leg, slowing her down enough for the kidnappers to catch her and knock her to the ground before licks of heat and flame and the crackle of electricity overhead send them running, and the thundering fear gives way to realisation and hope as she looks up to see the Youth Centre kids standing a few feet away.