Overview
Jacaranda Rosenbaum-Josselewicz is a traveler in Scenebux whom Ben Etxina nicknames Robot. She is connected to Max Pacifica, J.P. Makanga, and Syndicate Deutschland, and she becomes Ben’s main companion after Max’s death.
Ben first describes Jacaranda as tall, thin, lanky, pale, big-eyed, and long-necked, with thick brown bangs, long legs, plain brown eyes, and a freckled torso.
Role
Ben finds Jacaranda asleep in his room at Max’s house on Little Saint Demeter. She says she met Max in Argentina and recognizes Ben through Lin Jiao. After Max dies, she helps Ben leave the island and takes him to Amsterdam.
In Amsterdam, Jacaranda hires an East German prostitute and includes Ben in the encounter. She then brings him toward J.P. Makanga and L-Base, the East Berlin base of Syndicate Deutschland.
Jacaranda helps Ben leave the syndicate van when the group heads toward an illegal attack, picks the lock at L-Base so they can collect their belongings, and helps Ben access Cryptographic User Makerspace. In New York, she has sex with Ben while he is ill with COVID in her apartment, then tells him that the sexual part of their relationship cannot continue.
Jacaranda later tells Ben that Max described Monarcha to her and that she may have passed that information to J.P. Makanga. This creates a possible path by which Syndicate Deutschland located and attacked the system. She warns Ben to leave Gabriel Findhom’s Dubai hotel room immediately.
BridgeCon
In Homonoid, Jacaranda attends BridgeCon in Las Vegas as Admiral Rose-Joss, commanding Terran players in a spaceship simulation. She wears riding boots, a short skirt and a pseudo-Napoleonic officer’s coat with medals and planetary insignia. Ben describes her as nearing forty, with the familiar brown bangs, dark eyes and long neck.
Jacaranda brings Ben into the game as a civilian observer and takes command when Divya Khawaja says she is too high to captain Diana. Her determination to defeat Daniela, an opposing player using an alien puppet, draws criticism from her weapons officer. Later, she promotes Hunter Haldeman to captain in a ceremony in her hotel suite.
She knows Jordan Damour, the Homonoid employee Ben is investigating, from their time at L-Base making bots to troll Christian forums. She arranges their meeting over dinner and agrees to conceal Ben’s earlier questions about him in return for a favor. Her suite gathering includes women from Vegas Desert Swingers. She asks Chena’s permission to kiss her, then warns the remaining players that sexual activity may follow. Ben and Kelly Brown use a separate bedroom until Jacaranda interrupts with news of the burglary at Ben’s room.
Jacaranda invites Ben to Mexico City after the convention. He initially declines because of his investigation. Once his new business is established, a further invitation to stay in a wealthy man’s house and attend a football match prompts him to arrange the trip.