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Name/Nickname: Michelle Rosedale (AKA Mike)
Gender: Female
Birthdate/"Permanent" Story Age/Astrological Sign: NA; thirties; Scorpio
Birthplace/Current Location: Rugby, North Dakota (often travels to Minot, North Dakota)
Height: 5'6"
Weight/Body Type: Average; slender/fit
Eyes: Light green
Hair: Light/mousy brown; medium length, wavy/curly
Race/Ethnic Background: Caucasian; European-American
Relationship Status: Divorced (Benjamin Manning, ex-husband); in relationship (Alan Kincaid, boyfriend); formerly romantically involved with Jeremy Virtanen
Orientation: Heteroromantic heterosexual
Siblings: Jason Rosedale/Jay Campion (younger brother)
Profession: Police detective, Rugby (ND) Police Department
Distinguishing Characteristics: Very serious and private; impatient, hot tempered, but often remorseful for acting too quickly on her emotions; sometimes obsessive, especially in regards to her work/investigating her missing brother's case; downplays her femininity/sexuality; according to her own admission, isn't very good at reading cues from men (has perceived romantic/sexual interest where there was none, and missed interest when it was present); prone to panic attacks; exaggerated startle response/sometimes violent reactions upon being unexpectedly touched
General Appearance: Almost always dresses in drab, nonfeminine/gender-neutral clothing, avoiding dresses/skirts in particular; doesn't wear heels, makeup, or jewelry; aside from wearing her hair in a ponytail for convenience, eschews any sort of "doing herself up"; tends to look tense and defensively drawn in on herself
First Appeared In: IDentity(?)
Character Summary: Called "Mike" by her younger brother Jason, Michelle always found him to be a mild annoyance yet looked after him the best she could, especially after the babysitter molested both of them; she was unable to save him from being kidnapped as they waited at the school bus stop one day, however, and blamed herself for the incident for years afterward. Her mother blamed her as well, and ended up divorcing Mike's father and leaving them; Mike's father tried hard to convince her that none of this was her fault, but feelings of guilt continued to plague her constantly. She grew even more serious and withdrawn, isolating herself from her peers and refusing to discuss her feelings with her father. She left home more than once to spend time with the one friend she had, Alex Lang, while obsessively collecting news articles and what information she could find about her brother's case, hoping she could someday find a way to locate him.
Although she had no date, Mike decided to attend the high school prom by herself, if only for a change of pace; once there, she realized how out of place she was, and left, embarrassed. On the walk back to her friend's house she was accosted by three men who raped and knocked her unconscious. Upon awakening, she walked to the police department, but hesitated after entering; just as she turned to leave again, someone called out to get her attention. She halted when the officer on duty, Sgt. Jeremy Virtanen, invited her back inside for a cup of coffee. He spent the next hour or so carefully coaxing the story out of her, and convinced her to file a report and have a rape kit done; Mike was skeptical when he told her the slim odds of her attackers actually spending time in prison, but agreed to give a statement as long as her name was kept out of public view until the suspects should be arrested and the case brought to trial. He kept her company throughout the process (Rosedale managed to hold herself together, breaking down only when a nurse handed her a "morning after" pill to take), and then drove her back to Alex's house, briefly explaining the situation to her stunned friend while Mike took a shower. Mike asked both Sgt. Virtanen and Alex not to inform her father about the incident, and said she preferred to tell him in her own time. She stopped wearing dresses and other feminine or revealing clothing, stopped wearing makeup and jewelry, and avoided looking at her body in mirrors; she insisted that others refer to her exclusively as "Mike" rather than "Michelle," and did all she could to appear unapproachable and invisible, avoiding most interactions with men, and any dating and romantic activities in total.
Despite this, her interaction with Sgt. Virtanen, as well as the realization that it might be the best way to discover more information about her brother's case (which Virtanen had himself worked on--then a patrol officer, he'd been the first on the scene and had taken her witness statement before detectives took over), convinced Mike to try out for the police academy; only after she'd graduated did she get back in touch with her father, who was surprised by this turn of events, but supported her in her decision. Sgt. Virtanen was equally surprised when Officer Rosedale showed up to work at his police station; he immediately took her under his wing, instructing her in proper police procedure and how to interact with the public, while keeping a careful eye on her attempts to dig up information on her brother. While he couldn't prevent her from looking into the case while off duty, Virtanen discouraged Rosedale from using work time to investigate, and warned her that if it disrupted her regular duties, she might end up losing her job. Rosedale learned to keep her investigation to herself; while she did her job well, she did continue to obsess somewhat too much over Jason's kidnapping, and this resulted in occasional strained relations between her and Sgt. Virtanen, whom she otherwise looked up to as a mentor.
A lead arose in Rosedale's rape case, and she was able to identify the three men responsible; Virtanen went to collect the rape kit, which hadn't yet been tested, in preparation for getting DNA samples from the suspects. He was stunned and furious to find that not only Rosedale's rape kit, but dozens of others within the statute of limitations, had been mistakenly thrown out to make room for more evidence. Rosedale first lashed out at Virtanen, then suffered a panic attack on receiving this news; once at home, she attempted suicide by downing a bottle of sleeping pills with alcohol, only to come to later that night, groggy and ill, with Virtanen shaking her awake. She'd thrown up most of the pills in her sleep. Virtanen, who'd stopped by her place after his shift to check on her, took her to the hospital to get checked out; he backed up her story of the overdose being an "accident" so she could avoid a mandatory hospital stay, though privately he made her promise not to try such a thing again.
After the two had become close, Rosedale made an attempt at a romantic relationship with Virtanen, realizing that she'd developed feelings for him; although he admitted he had feelings for her as well, Virtanen turned her down, citing the difference in their ages and the fact that he was her boss. He tried to ease Rosedale's embarrassment by suggesting they pretend the awkward incident had never happened; Rosedale was both relieved and disappointed. Some time after Rosedale had been promoted to detective, Virtanen collapsed at work and was rushed to the hospital, where he admitted to Rosedale that he had recently been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer and had been undergoing treatment, though his prospects were very poor; he'd kept his treatment a secret so he could continue working as long as possible and get his affairs in order. He handed over leadership of the Rugby Police Department to newly transferred Captain Bernarda Arraiza. He and Rosedale began a tentative relationship after Rosedale argued the case that he was technically no longer her boss, so there was no longer anything inappropriate. Rosedale helped out Virtanen through his daily life as his health began to fail, until he was finally permanently hospitalized; she continued to visit him daily and spent her spare time at his bedside, though she wasn't present when he died as she'd worked late that day. At Sgt. Virtanen's funeral, his estranged half-sister offered Rosedale the flag that had adorned his casket, saying that she deserved it more.
Rosedale was at first leery of working under Capt. Arraiza, assuming that she would crack down more heavily than Virtanen had on Rosedale's informal investigation of her brother's kidnapping; however, Arraiza put these fears to rest when she told Rosedale she could continue looking into the case, even on duty, as long as it didn't interfere with her assigned cases. Not long after Virtanen's death, two gruesomely mutilated bodies were discovered outside the city, and were ID'ed as two of Rosedale's rapists; as Rosedale's rape kit had been thrown out and no DNA samples had been taken from the men she identified, the connection between the murder victims and Rosedale was never made; yet this news induced another panic attack in Rosedale, as she had no idea who else could have identified the men or been interested in punishing them. (The third suspect was never found, though it was rumored that he'd gone into hiding.)
Rosedale married Rugby resident Benjamin Manning, though the marriage was never a happy one as it had been rushed into and Rosedale had by then become obsessed with resolving her brother's case. Ben requested a divorce after Rosedale forgot their anniversary in favor of awaiting a file about her brother; they separated after just three years, but remained on moderately good terms.
When Rosedale thought she saw similarities between a Rugby missing persons case and one in nearby Minot, she contacted the lead Minot missing persons investigator, Det. Max Kristeva, who had a reputation for being rather eccentric but exceptionally skilled in resolving missing persons cases. Kristeva easily picked up on Rosedale's traumatic past without her needing to tell him, revealing that he had a similar background. Rosedale was stunned to learn that not only was her brother, Jason, still alive, but that he was living in Minot--she and Kristeva had even run into him--and after spending his teen years as a prostitute, was now employed as a hitman by a criminal cult group; Rosedale refused to believe this was true, until Jason--now going by the name Jay Campion--mentioned what had happened with their childhood babysitter, information she'd never revealed to anyone else. Rosedale expressed confusion and disbelief over just how drastically the formerly sweet-natured and shy Jason had changed; Kristeva offered the explanation that, due to their childhood trauma and whatever Jason had experienced following his kidnapping, he had possibly developed alternate personalities, which could account for not only his shift in personality/values but his altered name and appearance, as well. To help illustrate this theory, Kristeva introduced Rosedale to one of his own alters. The theory was a bizarre one, but Rosedale hoped that somewhere within "Jay Campion," her brother Jason still existed. She also eventually learned that Campion was responsible for the gruesome murders of two of her rapists--an odd sign that even this sociopathic personality "empathized" with her in a twisted way.
During her visits to Minot, Rosedale befriended Det. Justin Reichert; the two got drunk and spent the night together, despite Reichert being gay, and Rosedale became pregnant as a result. She opted to terminate the pregnancy, to which Reichert reluctantly agreed. Although they remained on cordial terms, the incident strained their friendship.
Rosedale also met Lt. Alan Kincaid, whom she'd had to convince to give her access to Kristeva's investigation; she was confused when, after she'd unintentionally blurted out the tale of her brother's disappearance, Kincaid handed her an MPD ID tag. Kristeva surmised that Kincaid had identified with Rosedale's story as he was a kidnap victim, himself. On followup visits, Kincaid invited her to share more details of the case, and she found herself talking to him at length about it, while he never complained about her "obsessiveness." When he initiated a relationship, she was caught off guard, but accepted; belatedly she realized (with Alex's input) that the two of them had been "dating" all along and due to her difficulty reading men's intentions, she hadn't even noticed. Kincaid seemed not to mind Rosedale's tendency to occasionally avoid communicating with him for a week or two, and she didn't mind his blunted emotions or lack of traditionally romantic behaviors, so over time they grew quite close and Rosedale even shared her painful personal experiences with him, which she'd done with very few people so far, while Kincaid did the same in return; he even displayed an ability to help her out of her panic attacks. Kincaid, who was still technically a missing person with no memory of his own past, advised her that even if she did find her missing brother, he might not be the person she remembered--a warning that turned out to be true.
Rosedale has grown more comfortable dealing with the Minot detectives, and also warmed to a fellow Rugby detective, Felix Mareno, who occasionally helps her out on cases. She commutes to Minot regularly to stay with Kincaid, and continues trying to find a way to get through to her brother and understand his--and Kincaid's and Kristeva's--roles in Minot's cult-related activities.
[Please report typos!]
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