look for the name ROSEMMA (requested by anonymous) | simone rocha for jean paul gaultier laced-up lingerie patchwork dress w/ trailing ribbons and tulle crinoline (couture s/s 2o24), junko shimada "floating" high-heeled satin pointe shoes (s/s 2oo9), shushu/tong fluttering ribbon silver metal and rhinestone headband, byredo "la tulipe" eau de parfum (cyclamen, freesia, rhubarb, tulip, blond woods, vetiver), christian dior pink satin lace-up corset handbag w/ metal "dior" logo on strap (c. 2oo4)
emma survives big shell and is obviously traumatised by the experience. at least she's alive to make up with otacon, and he visits her frequently in the hospital, but after she's discharged she says she needs space and disappears again, not ready to face that whole ordeal. she starts finding odd jobs away from ai development but her mental health is all the worse. meanwhile rose, dealing with her pregnancy and raiden's unstable moods, starts to pursue psychology. her and philanthropy keep somewhat in touch through raiden.
otacon, worried for his sister, reaches out with a message along the lines of "hey, i know you don't want to talk to me but i have a friend who might help" and sends her rose's contacts. emma is hesitant and puts it off, but after a while desides on a whim that she has nothing to lose, and sets up a single session over a call.
it's very awkward at first, and emma is dismissive, but after a few questions it's almost too easy to lay your soul out in front of a stranger; emma tells rose all about her family and everything she went through that left her alone, depressed and having no idea where to go from here. she cries and cries, not realising until now just how many things she's been keeping inside herself. rose comforts her, suggests another meeting. emma asks if she's gonna tell about everything to otacon, and rose promises to keep everything they talk about between them. emma agrees.
they start doing it regularly. emma starts sharing the little things with her, things she has no one else to share with. she's quick to latch onto rose, so considerate and nonjudgmental, as a source of comfort. they go from simple calls to video, and emma finds out rose is pregnant. from some awkward interruptions, emma also finds out not only is raiden alive, he's also her husband. emma asks for his number and tries to hit it off with him, but raiden is almost always too busy to reply.
eventually, when rose is approaching her last month of pregnancy, she tells emma they won't be able to talk much and their calls would be off completely. emma is understanding. she tries making friends at work which doesn't really work out — all her talks with coworkers are shallow and uninteresting. she wishes rose would be able to come back soon. still, they keep in touch over text. emma is delighted to hear rose become a mother, but can't shake the feeling she's been abandoned by everyone.
eventually, rose stops texting her too. emma's messages go unanswered for days. she starts wondering — did i do something wrong? was i too much trouble? one day, rose replies to her with an apology, that she's been inconsiderate, wondering about emma's wellbeing. emma, not wanting to sound miserable, only replies with "alright. wish i could speak to you again soon tho". rose promises they'll set up another session soon.
when the day comes, though, it's not a video call. emma is surprised, but doesn't question it. she starts talking again, but notes how quiet rose has been. emma asks what's wrong, and that's when the dam breaks. rose starts sobbing, not unlike emma the first day. emma doesn't know what to do or what to think. she listens to rose's sobs wordlessly.
rose speaks up, eventually, quiet and broken, about how jack's not been himself since their kid came to be. he's been missing for days, weeks at a time, not answering her calls or texts. and when he comes back, he's either too tired to speak, crying some unintelligible apologies as she clutches him to her chest, or yells at her about being a liar and a spy. deep down, she feels guilty and knows she's part of why raiden is like that, that she feels like she deserves the yelling and the punches, but she doesn't tell that to emma. she also doesn't tell her that she's become way too attached, having almost no one to reach out to aside from snake and otacon who she doesn't really like bothering with her mundane stuff. she realises she just needed a friend, and emma did become somewhat of a friend to her.
with rosemary's savior complex she also feels she can't abandon neither jack nor emma, but she's been contemplating if she can help jack at all when his problems are way too big for her to handle, on top of having a kid. and she feels immense guilt after abandoning a clearly still unstable emma for several months.
emma's heart breaks when she realises rose has been struggling so much behind the curtain, and that the person she admired is completely different from what she's been imagining. emma offers to help rosemary with the kid and provide her company. rose is shocked, saying that emma doesn't need to do that, but emma insists. rose clearly need the support more than she does.
after a while, they finally meet in person. emma busies her weekends with helping rose around the house, playing with johnny, and she feels grateful to rose for letting her do that. she feels some sense of purpose, for once, doing something not out of spite, but out of love.
once raiden enters the picture, though, things go off the rails. emma is severely dissapointed with the way he treats rose, argues for her sake, and starts making an enemy out of him. she snaps, asking rose, "why do you let him do this? why keep him around when he makes you miserable?!" emma keeps antagonising him, furthering the wedge between rose and jack that rose has been trying desperately to patch up. she doesn't get the full picture and wants things to go her way — where she and rose are left alone in their quiet little world and rose can be happy and care for her and only for her. "i've done so much for you, more than he ever did, so why do you love him anyway?"
emma becomes way more bitter and unstable, their therapy session completely out of the picture, and her possessive crush on rose that's been festering finally rearing its ugly head. rose and emma start arguing, too, and it's driving emma up the wall. rose can't help but feel bad for her and she keeps apologising and forgiving her, because she's still one of the few people that helped her through this difficult time. the cycle keeps repeating, now two unstable relationships plaguing rose, and she's slowly wilting away. once raiden starts showing up less and less, emma calms down and almost — almost — comes back to her normal, caring self, but rose feels wrong. when she returns emma's first kiss to her, it tastes bitter. still, they go out sometimes. they shop in malls, they go to pools to help emma with her aquaphobia, they eat out and watch movies and emma still helps bringing johnny into the world. rose is happy seeing emma enjoying life, but she can't get over raiden and can't admit it. she knows that would make emma angry.
until one day rose shuts off. at first, it's subtle. she makes excuses about why she can't come out tonight. she stops answering emma's messages. she, eventually, stops letting emma into her house and doesn't let her see johnny.
then comes the call that emma's been dreading, but knew was coming.
rose tells her they can't keep doing this. she can't — she's too exhausted. emma's too much. she knew this would never end well, but kept hoping anyway, because emma was, still, the only one who was there for her. emma says as much. but rose only replies, "sorry. i can't keep helping you anymore," and hangs up.
