'I refuse to leave this spot,' answered the Cricket, 'until I have told you a great truth.'
Name: Sofia Jacoby.
Nicknames: Sophie, Soph. Her dad called her Fee when she was a kid, but she's since insisted that he knock it off unless they're in private.
Age: 28.
Birth date: March 19, 1980.
Profession: Mild-mannered accountant.
Fairy-Tale Character: The Cricket from Pinocchio.
Ability: Sophie's got the less than lovely task of playing the Voice of Reason. Her singular ability, however, is to get into people's heads and really screw with their convictions. Whether it's playing on their insecurities or giving their subconscious principles a really good shove, Sophie can get under people's skin and make them doubt themselves -- something that is particularly scary for those self-assured rebel types, Sophie's noticed. With that said, it's probably for the best that she would more or less never uses it, unless regular persuasion fails.
Tale Status: Extremely reluctant to admit to being the Cricket. She's not about to lie about it or go out of her way to hide it, but it's definitely not how she's going to introduce herself. As such, it's not a secret around the Atheneum, but it's probably not common knowledge, either.
The Rundown: Strongly believes there's no substitute for hard work. Sometimes a little over-preachy. Doesn't necessarily always live by her own advice regarding that silly thing called "overworking." Seems to think she's infallible, morally or otherwise, but that isn't actually the case. Addicted to designer clothes.
Personality: Sophie is not going to run off and go bungee jumping on a whim, and she definitely won’t be confessing any long guarded secrets either. She has a bad habit of assuming people’s intentions, and won’t do anything if she things the two will conflict. It's her way of predicting disagreements and avoiding it before it can occur. Her way is easiest-God forbid her schedule be disrupted by a discrepancy caused by an offhand remark. Conversation with Jacoby tends to be guarded and hasty, as she tends to cut off the dialogue with a quick excuse and the subsequent escape.
During her off-hours, Sophie prefers to indulge herself by holing up in her room and watching Masterpiece Theatre or the Sci-Fi Channel. She doesn’t make friends of her own easily: not because she doesn’t like people, but the difficulties that lie in trying to turn it the other way around. Jacoby has a preconceived notion that most people are instantly suspicious of her and her motives and the idea of a long-term relationship is rather difficult for her to wrap her head around. She prefers to keep things (friendships, hair stylists) in the short-term-easily detached and with little or no chance of vulnerability. Sophie’s an essentially irresponsible person-she chooses to put the repercussions of her actions behind her and not look back, even if it ends up a huge guilt trip. It makes living in the present tense easier.
Sophie's immensely conservative in her actions, in the purely “That’s against convention, we probably shouldn’t do that” sense. Breaking the societal norm just isn’t Sophie’s style most of the time, so if it involves breaking molds you can count her out. Contrarily enough, she's very interested in alternative medicine-chakras, kombucha, the works. It's almost hypocritical, the way she relies on muscle testing while being simultaneously horrified by the idea of clubbing.
Her social life is on the boring side and she knows it. Mentioning her lack of interest in anything other than yoga and balancing books will ruffle a few feathers, but Sophie doesn't have any delusions about a life of grandeur and adventure. She's a homebody and she'll be the first to admit it.
Sexuality: Heterosexual.
History: Sophie was born in the suburbs of New York, but her mother died a month afterwards due to complications. In a haste to leave the city where his wife had died, Sophie's father relocated the family to Philadelphia. Sophie attended a local Catholic school in the suburbs while her father retired from the police force to raise his daughter, taking odd jobs to pay off the mortgage. Money was tight without a steady source of income, but Sophie would remember the days of trips to the zoo and museum tours for many years to come.
Eventually, she found out about her little "gift" one day in third grade--the class bully had been poking a bird with a broken wing with a stick and was threatening to do worse when Sophie arrived to try and save the day. After first threatening to tell a teacher (and then getting promptly shoved by said bully), Sophie lost her temper and took a slightly more commanding tone. Suffice to say the ten year old third grader never bothered defenseless animals again. An Atheneum official dropped by with a journal and an explanation as to why she was suddenly remembering fragments of some Disney puppet movie and could sway people's decisions with her mind. She's been at reluctant odds with the truth that she's a reincarnated pest ever since.
Sophie graduated and went onto Georgetown to receive her B.A. in Economics. Finally, she decided to go back to the city where she was born, finding a job accounting at a moderately prominent financing company.
Appearance: Mostly everything about Sophie's outward appearance is tailored to the needs of function, not form--dark brown hair is nearly always kept pulled back in a strict librarian's bun or a sleek ponytail, with a fringe cut neatly above her eyes. Sophie's got a long, skinny frame, with admittedly weak shoulders and knobbly knees, but she’s got pretty good posture from incessant practice, since she’s sort of anal like that. She is, however, rather fit, since she’s very much into the whole yoga lifestyle sans no smoking. With Sophie's classic Eastern European features, she's got plenty of "potential," but she usually covers up any semblance of outright attractiveness underneath a few dozen layers of good old conservativism. Though she has been known to drop quite a bit of cash at Saks and Needless Markup Neiman Marcus, every piece is in some way tasteful and professional. Her wardrobe is mostly comprised of crisp tailored suits, all whites or blacks or greys, with a jewel tone thrown in here and there. Occasionally, you might catch her off guard in a tee shirt and a pair of stovepipe jeans, but that’s usually only in the comfort of her own home.
Likes: Order. Yoga. Homeopathic remedies. Jil Sander ready to wear. Work. Her Louboutin collection. Thai takeout.
Dislikes: Things in poor taste. Tardiness. Bad customer service. Immorality. Gucci. Starbucks.
Musical Tastes: Post-Beatles John Lennon. M. Ward. Andrew Bird.
Soundtrack:
"accountancy shanty" monty python
"for no one" azure ray
"while i'm still young" azure ray
"another day" paul mccartney
Random Facts!
→ Has been a daddy's girl as long as she can remember. This devotion, however, has also stirred up some resentment on her part, since her father remarried two years ago to a woman Sophie absolutely detests. She also isn't fond of dealing with her new stepbrothers around the holidays, either.
→ Owns a dog, a husky puppy named Jarvis, who receives more or less all of Sophie's affection in lieu of her father since his remarriage. Pretty much the cutest thing in the world.
→ Is pretty much married to her Blackberry.
→ Hates the taste of kombucha, but drinks it anyways.
→ On and off smoker. Every couple months she'll give them up in a mixture of pompous social principle and health nut ideals, but she'll be lighting up again within the week.
→ Coffee snob. Owns her own French press and wishes every Starbucks in the country would go up in flames.
Obligatory Bit:
As one of the Modern tales, Sophie has a deeper connection personality-wise with her story than some. Wrongdoing sets her on edge, and even before she "awakened" as the Cricket, she always served as the voice of reason amongst her peers and even occasionally in advising her father. She's never really much liked the idea of being a reborn fairy tale, per say, mostly because to her mind, other than the part of her that knows it to be true, refuses to accept it. She's very matter of fact and if she hadn't been the one experiencing random flashbacks from her previous life, she would've told that Atheneum guy he was off his head -- and this at a tender age of eight. For the most part, Sophie tries to convince herself that she isn't entirely crazy, while doing her best to avoid fantastical points of interest like the magical items.
Played By: Irina Lazareanu.
Player: Jen!