Application to capeandcowl
[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Lauren
AGE: 25
JOURNAL: pinikir
IM: lovehorsesandlegolas@hotmail.com
E-MAIL: laurenwhitehouse@gmail.com
RETURNING: n/a
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Sofia Mantega
Former Code Name: Wind Dancer
Current Code Name: Renascence
FANDOM: Marvel 616
CHRONOLOGY: Post New Warriors, when they were disbanded
CLASS: Hero
SUPERHERO NAME: Wind Dancer
ALTER EGO: Sofia Mantega, waitress
BACKGROUND:
Early Life
Sofia was born in Caracas, Venezuela and her family life was happy. She had her mother, her uncle and her cousins. She was shown to be a happy child, playing outside with her cousins in the village. She already had some control over her powers, which enable her to control the wind, and she used them to make her cousin’s kite fly and to listen in on the adults’ conversations.
Things changed for Sofia when her mother was killed by a riot in their home town. Sofia first heard of this tragedy by accident, when the adults’ conversation about it was carried to her by the wind. At this point her life began to fall apart as her uncle refused to take her in, unable to cope with the idea of looking after a mutant child himself. Devastated, Sofia was given little time before she was sent to her other parent in New York - the father she had never known.
Her father, Walter Barrett, was a successful business man who had no interest in a daughter whose existence he had never realised. He insisted on a paternity test to check that she was actually his. Once it was established that she was his daughter he had no option bot to acknowledge her. However, there was no increase in his warmth to her, and he treated her as no more than an irritating business problem. From the beginning he admitted that he had no time for a daughter, and told her that she mustn’t cause him trouble. He told her that she would learn English quickly, perform to a high standard at school and never use her mutant powers, and in return she would lack for nothing.
After the loss of her mother and home, Sofia did her best to please her father, showing a determined resolution to make the best out of the hand she had been dealt. If she hoped that this would produce some affection from her father, she was to be disappointed. However, Barett’s butler Derek felt sorry for her and took an interest in her, providing her with some emotional support. He was shown to reassure her about the less than friendly reception she was receiving in her new school, and Sofia came to see him as someone she could trust.
Sofia was enrolled in school within three weeks of arriving in America, and her first taste of American high school was harsh. Rumours followed her, and she was unused to the teenage American culture she encountered there. Other girls laughed at her and she found it difficult to make friends with anyone, though this did not stop her from trying to become involved. It didn’t take long for Sofia to start using her wind powers to understand what was happening. She used them when she invited people to celebrate her birthday, discovering that the girls who said they were busy were lying, and just didn’t want to spend time with her. She realised that the American girls thought she was strange and resented her attempts at friendliness.
The lies were the final straw for Sofia. All of her grief for the loss of her mother, her confusion at the new culture she was adapting to, and her loneliness caused by her lack of friends, erupted in a storm of anger which she aimed at her father. She appeared in one of her father’s stores and blew a hurricane through the store, making headline news. Sofia was arrested and her father, furious that she would reveal herself to be a mutant in such a public way and thereby bring shame to him, appeared not to bail her but to tell her off. He informs the police and Derek that although he would not press charges for the destruction of the store, he would not post bail and would leave her in jail for forty-eight hours before finding a way to send her back to Venezuela. He also said that a second paternity test would prove she was not really his daughter, indicating that he intended to completely disassociate himself from her.
Her saviour came in the form of Dani Moonstar, a mutant who had seen Sofia on the news, and realised that the girl needed her help. Dani, who had the power to project telepathic illusions of her victims’ worst fears, threatened Barett and arranged for Sofia to be released into her custody and taken to the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. After initially refusing, Barett agreed to this and Dani took Sofia to Xavier’s school where she would be surrounded by other mutants and learn to control her powers.
New X-Men
After arriving at Xavier’s, Sofia became much happier among other people like herself. She quickly made friends, and attracted the interest of a boy - Julian Keller. Julian’s interest in her was immediate from her first day in the school, when he was introduced to her and was asked to give her a tour. He repeatedly offered to take her on dates. It was clear that Sofia reciprocated his interest as she was often shown to be watching him from across the school, or pausing to talk to him. Despite this she continually said no to him, disliking the arrogant attitude he displayed in public, and irritated by the fact that the target of his jokes was often her friends with whom he did not get along. She could not reconcile that with the softer side of him that she saw when they were alone.
When the kids were ordered into training teams with members of the X-Men as their mentors, Sofia was placed in Dani Moonstar’s squad, the New Mutants. The other members of this squad were other kids who, like Sofia, had been encouraged to come to the school by Dani. Sofia had already formed a close bond with her teammates and when David (Prodigy) refused to become team leader, Sofia volunteered. In the beginning she handled the position very badly, relying on Prodigy to make decisions, and not taking full responsibility for the team. Sofia was shown to find it difficult to keep emotions out of her decisions. The other members of her team began to get frustrated with her leadership, turning more naturally to David rather than her. Julian noticed her discomfort and offered her a place on his team, the Hellions, where she wouldn’t have to lead . Sofia was reluctant to leave her friends, but due to the division caused by their frustration towards her, she was shown to waver and consider this offer.
At this point Kevin Ford, a member of the New Mutants, was arrested for the murder of his father. Kevin was indeed responsible for his father’s death but this had been an accident, caused when Kevin’s mutant ability to decay organic material manifested. Believing that mutants had to show that they were subject to the same laws as anyone else, Dani ordered her team not to interfere with what was happening. However, Julian disagreed with what had happened and decided to lead his team in an attempt to rescue Kevin from the authorities. He correctly guessed that Sofia would want to help the rescue attempt, and again offered for her to join the Hellions under him as team leader. Wanting to help Kevin, Sofia accepted and joined in the rescue attempt. Sofia became more relaxed following Julian and letting him make the hard decisions. However the other New Mutants, under David’s leadership, chased after the Hellions and prevented the rescue. When Sofia was confronted with the realisation that they nearly made things worse for Kevin, it made her realise that as much as she’d like to, she couldn’t just lean on other people and that she needed to take responsibility for behaving in the way she believed was right. Sofia agreed to come back to the New Mutants, but only if David became leader. David offered a compromise; that he would lead alongside Sofia, as he considered her emotional responses to be just as important as his logic. This resolved the leadership issue for the New Mutants, making David the brains of the team while Sofia was its heart. This also meant a change of membership; although Kevin, in the end, was absolved of blame for his father’s death, he now saw the Hellions as his real friends and joined their team instead. His place on the New Mutants’ squad was taken by the former Hellion called Icarus.
After this event Julian, for a short time, became colder towards Sofia. When Laurie Collins (Wallflower) implied that it was better for Julian to be leaving her alone, Sofia agreed but looked privately sad at the thought. This estrangement did not last long; Julian quickly forgot his anger and began flirting with Sofia again, and although she still refused his advances she also seemed more responsive to his flirting. Despite this, she still refused to come to the school dance with her. Julian appeared to give up on her at this point and brought all three of the Stepford Cuckoos as his date instead. This made Sofia jealous. Despite having told Kevin that he was focusing on what he could have rather than what he couldn’t, Julian asked Sofia to dance and this time she accepted. She was briefly seen with her head on his shoulder, and later at the prize giving she told him that she liked the way he kept trying.
Although Sofia’s relationship with Julian improved throughout the school year in this way, the friendships between the members of the New Mutants squad were shown to deteriorate. By the end of the year the members of Sofia’s squad were barely speaking to each other, although it was notable that she was personally still friends with all of them. Sofia was shown to be distressed by this, and wanted to fix it though she was not sure if she could. She admitted these concerns to Julian, who told her that if anyone could fix it then she could because she always saw the best in everyone. He then kissed her, surprising her, and they appeared to be a couple from this point on. Resolved to making things better for her team, Sofia took them out camping for a night so that they could air all of their problems and find a resolution. Though it took some time, this plan worked and the New Mutants finished the school year as friends.
At this point, things appeared to be going well for Sofia. Her squad had resolved their differences and she was starting a real relationship with Julian. However, there was little time for either of these things to change or improve further. Sofia’s life was turned upside down once again, this time as a result of what became known as ‘M Day’. Sofia was one of the many mutants who lost their powers on M Day. Like many other students at Xavier’s, Sofia was suddenly no longer considered a mutant. This became clear when Prodigy, who had also lost his powers, was told by Julian that he no longer belonged at Xavier’s. Sofia overheard this and told Julian off, asking him whether the loss of her powers meant that she was no longer beautiful to him. Refusing to listen to either apologies or explanations from him, Sofia secretly left the school without saying goodbye. This departure meant that Sofia was already gone by the time the other depowered mutants (aside from Prodigy, who was allowed to stay on at the school) boarded a bus to be taken home. The bus was destroyed by an anti-mutant group known as the Purifiers, killing many of Sofia’s former classmates. It is assumed that Sofia would attempt to go home to Venezuela, as she was picked up from the school by her father’s butler Derek. However, she was next seen working as a waitress in a cafe in New York, with no hint that she’d had any contact with any mutants since she left the school.
New Warriors
Sofia was tracked down by another former mutant known as Beak, who invited her to join a team of depowered mutants that were using mechanical substitues for their powers so they could still fight. Sofia declined this offer, though she was shown to be having dreams about her former life at Xavier’s. In spite of this, she made no attempt to contact the New Warriors and reverse her decision. She had no contact with them until the New Warriors fought a battle with the Zodiac near her cafe. During this battle, Sofia realised that a number of civilians were in danger in the crossfire. Spotting a young boy in danger, Sofia ran into the fight to save him. During the rescue she was hit by an energy blast and severely injured. Surviving this ordeal, she emerged with shortened hair to join the New Warriors. She took the code name Renesance and received six mechanical arms which she used to fight.
The new team bonded together and despite overwhelming odds went into battles together, giving Sofia back the friendship and sense of belonging that she had been missing. Unfortunately, this would not last. The leader of the New Warriors, Donyell Taylor, revealed that he had been working on a time machine so that he could send the New Warriors back in time to prevent the deaths of the former New Warriors at an explosion in Stamford. This would include saving the life of Donyell’s brother, Dwayne (Night Thrasher). However, the machine went awry and the team were sent into an alternate future, where they discovered that Dwayne, disguised as Tony Stark (Iron Man), had become a dictator and had been removing all superheroes from society. Donyell valued reconnecting with Dwayne above the New Warriors and even helped his brother to capture the team. When Dwyane killed a hero Donyell came to his senses and rescued his team, and returned them to the present. On their return Donyell disbanded the New Warriors, believing that they would never trust him again. To date Sofia has not been seen in the comics since the end of this series, and she will come to the City fresh from the New Warriors disbanding.
PERSONALITY:
Early Life
Living in a small village in Venezuela, Sofia was innocent. She accepted family life for what it was, assuming that love was giving unconditionally in a family. She did not need to be responsible for anything, and was never left to fend for herself as everything was taken care of for her.
Her time spent living with her father took this innocence away. She learned that in order to fit in to a new place, she needed to excel. Despite finding it difficult to connect with others in her new school, she learned English very quickly and consistently achieved the high grades that her father demanded. However, Sofia also learnt that even if she managed to fulfil people’s expectations, they could still be willing to let her down. Though she offered love and friendship freely, it would not always be returned. The experience taught her that wearing her heart on her sleeve could mean that she would get hurt. It also taught her to value those who did return her friendship. In spite of the negative experiences she had with people while living with her father, Sofia always remained sensitive and kind, and would consistently look for the good in other people rather than the bad.
New X-men
When Sofia came to Xavier’s school she was uncertain of herself and was less ready to trust people than she had been previously. The first person she connected with was Julian when he gave her a tour of the school. Julian made it clear that he was interested in her but she was unwilling to accept his advances as she saw that he had both a public and a private face. She saw that he presented two fronts, and did not want to immediately trust him and later discover that the gentler side she saw when they were in private was only an act. Only when time passes, and Sofia continues to see evidence of his softer side through Julian’s interactions with her and with the members of his own training squad, does she allow herself to trust her instinct and show him that she liked him too.
Sofia was also shown to lack confidence in herself at the start. Though her willingness to lead the New Mutants was further evidence of her need to excel at the challenges she was given and to fulfil the expectations of older people whom she wants to impress, Sofia struggled with the role from the start. She appeared much more comfortable when following the lead of someone like David or Julian, and was visibly distressed when her role as leader put a strain on the friendships she had developed with the other members of her team. Just as being unable to make friends at the school her father had sent her to had prompted Sofia to angrily destroy one of his department stores, the arising difficulties with her new friends at Xavier’s caused her to question herself and to be willing to follow Julian’s lead in going against the authorities to try and rescue Kevin.
Once David agreed to lead with her and her relationships with her squadmates improved again, Sofia grew in confidence and her sense of responsibility towards her friends got stronger and stronger. Her friendly personality and wish to help people shone through. She was always keen to help others, and in particular to help her extremely shy room mate Laurie Collins to control her pheromone-based powers. Sofia’s influence helped to draw Laurie into her group of friends, and the previously friendless Laurie quickly becomes Sofia’s closest friend. Sofia’s importance to her team is best evidenced at the end of the year, when she alone is working to keep them together as friends. Now, rather than relying on them or trying to fit in with them, Sofia is working to strengthen the bonds between them. She became their anchor, drawing them back to each other and finally acting as a leader in a way that the logical David never could have. By this stage, Sofia is not only taking control of her own actions but is calling her team out and forcing her friends to face their problems.
Once Sofia stopped shying away from taking responsibility, she began to show that she did have leadership qualities. While she usually exerted it by talking to people and bringing them around to her point of view (such as when she made her team resolve their issues while camping), she had the ability to be forceful when it was needed. At the school dance, she became very angry with Laurie when she saw her using her pheromone powers to make David kiss her. Additionally, she had no problem in calling Julian out for treating her friends badly whenever she saw him doing this.
After House of M
When Sofia lost her powers, history appeared to repeat itself in reverse. She overheard Julian telling David that as a depowered mutant, he no longer belonged at Xavier’s. This made Sofia think that Julian would no longer want any depowered mutant around, including her. Sofia began to withdraw, shouting at Julian in public and then openly crying in Dani Moonstar’s arms when her mentor - also depowered - explained that she was leaving the school. All of the stability and confidence that Sofia had gained had shattered, leaving her raw and vulnerable. She had endured the loss of her mother, the rejection of her father, the insults of her peers, and through all of this her mutant ability had been a constant upon which she could rely. She had always been able to draw strength from her ability, using the wind to destroy her father’s store when everything became too much for her. Her attendance at Xavier’s school itself had been a result of her power, and the sense of belonging she had felt at the school had been linked to the fact that she was surrounded by other mutants. Following the loss of her powers, Sofia became the outsider who was looking in, and the only control she had left was whether or not she would stay at the school.
By the time she decided to leave the school, Sofia had withdrawn into herself. She had been spending long periods of time locked in her room rather than being with her friends, preparing to rely only on herself again. When she reappeared in New York, working as a waitress, she had completed the transformation. Though she still showed friendliness to others, she was no longer willing to accept it in return. When the chef in the cafe made comments suggesting that she let him help her a little, she turned him down with a smile. In spite of this enforced solitude it was clear that she was lonely, dreaming constantly of the friends and the life that she had left behind.
When the New Warriors left messages and came looking for her Sofia at firstreacted angrily, pushing them away without giving them a chance to become her friends and team members. She was scared to be drawn into a cause and be hurt by it again. It wasn’t until she saw a child in danger that her old instincts took over and she realised she had still had something to offer even though she had been depowered. All members of the New Warriors were more jaded than the people Sofia had worked with before, since all of them had lost the mutation that had previously defined them. However, as part of this team Sofia learnt to trust people again, forming a bond with her new team mates. At the point she will enter the City, she has just lost her team again. This means that she has once again found herself alone. Having come through that storm so recently, Sofia wants to find where she belongs and does not want to go back to being alone.
POWER:
Before the House of M event, Sofia had the power to manipulate air molecules. This included using the wind to bring words and conversations to her over distances. Sofia was often shown to use this ability while in the lunch hall at Xavier’s, where she would be able to eavesdrop on conversations taking place at the opposite end of the room.
Sofia also used her ability to manipulate wind to fly. It took some time for her to learn how to control this aspect of her powers; when she first used it she found it difficult to steer and land accurately. Her first attempt at flying in Xavier’s school caused her to crash into a line of other students, which did not please the flight teacher Northstar. However, Sofia later became a proficient flyer, and would often fly during battles since it gave her an advantage over ground-based enemies. She also often used her wind to to blast people back or restrain enemies. Her wind also has a cutting edge to it to use in battle which she used effectively against the Reavers in battle. Sofia’s use of wind was often compared telekinesis such as that used by Julian; they fought in similar ways and Sofia’s control of the air was shown to be just as accurate.
Her control ranges from creating a Tornado when she is angry to using it to putting Julian off balance while she flirting with him by compressing air into his middle ear without causing him any injury.
In the group, I would like to restore Sofia’s wind-based power to her.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE:
VIDEO
[There is only sound for a moment while Sofia fiddles with the controls. Once it’s on, worried brown eyes fill the screen. She is holding the device close to her face.]
Hello? My name is Sofia. I am not sure where I am...
[The picture zooms out and changes as she turns around, trying to get a sense of her surroundings.]
This is nothing like the New York I know, and I can’t see the salsa club I was heading to...maybe I’m back in the future. To anyone who is out there, I’m not here to cause trouble. I’m not a member of the New Warriors. I just need to know where I am.
And a cup of coffee wouldn’t go amiss...
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
The dog tags in her open hand glinted in the sunlight. Sofia had stopped in the middle of the street and stared hard at the inscription on them. ‘WIND DANCER’. From the moment that she had been depowered, and the winds had stopped whispering to her she had tried not to think about that title. It was her former code name and was tied to the life that she could never get back. She shut her eyes, remembering the Assembly when she had stood with her friends and received the name.
“This must be some kind of sick joke,” she said quietly.
Sofia had a strong urge to throw the tags into the first trash can that she saw, but they were one of her few clues as to where she was. Maybe someone could explain them to her without her having to reveal who she was. The best place she knew for gossip was a cafe. There was always gossip in the one she had worked at, right down to knowing details about the regulars’ daily schedules. She set off out of the small side street she was in, looking for the main area of the City.
She felt tense alone. During her time with the New Warriors she had grown used to having someone whom she could easily contact. And before...no, she would not go there. Julian, Nori, David, Laurie...she was not going to see them. It wouldn’t do any good to start daydreaming about them appearing again. If there was danger she needed to be focused.
As she walked her fingers closed around the device she had slid into her pocket. She had ignored it until now in favor of the dog tags, but now she took a closer look at it. It looked like a phone. She frowned to herself and flicked it on. Maybe this was her key to reaching some understanding of where she was. She was torn for a minute between the cafe and the device.
“Well, it’s worth a try,” she said to herself and flicked it on, bringing it up to her face when she saw the video option.
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
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