Sofia Petrov

Sofia was fully created as a Black Widow ripoff. I can admit that much. She started as a Black Widow herself, then became a deconstruction and reexamining of the Red Room through the lens of the Shadow Corps. The Shadow Corps doesn't have a gender bias and tends to think that they are in the right. They aren't, but they sure think they are.

## Appearance

### Simple Appearance

Sofia is as elegant as she is dangerous. Her eyes are periwinkle blue, almost lilac in some lights, and her hair is barely more than shoulder length. It is black and curly.

### Detailed Appearance

Sofia Petrov is one of those people who's hard to forget. This was not helpful as a spy, but now that she's free of that part of her, she has fun embracing her natural beauty. Her eyes are pale blue, a periwinkle shade. Her gaze is always piercing and somewhat cold unless she's with the Haspels. It gives her an alluring yet intimidating look. Her hair falls a bit below her shoulders, a cascade of black curls. The light eyes and dark hair give her a sophisticated look, one that is only aided by her well-proportioned face. Her nose is straight and she has never really struggled with acne. She tends to dress in an understated way, but does not by any means hide her powerful physique. Sofia could kill a grown man with her bare hands and even the way she moves suggests her calm competence. Each movement has a sense of grace and power behind it, every step deliberate and certain.

Sofia Petrov possesses an unforgettable allure that captivates those who cross her path. Once a covert operative, she now revels in embracing her innate beauty with confidence and charm. At the center of her captivating visage are her piercing periwinkle eyes. They exude an enigmatic, somewhat cold intensity, an ever-present enigma except when she's in the company of the Haspels. This captivating gaze gives her an allure that draws people in, yet also carries an air of intimidation, making her a striking figure in any crowd.

Her luscious black curls frame her face, cascading elegantly just below her shoulders. The contrast between her light eyes and dark hair accentuates her sophisticated appearance, giving her a timeless and mysterious allure. Sofia's facial features are beautifully well-proportioned, with a straight nose that adds to her overall elegance. She's been blessed with a clear complexion, having never struggled with acne, further enhancing her natural beauty.

Though she tends to dress in an understated manner, Sofia doesn't shy away from displaying her powerful physique. Her toned body is a testament to her strength, and there's an undeniable presence about her. It's not just her appearance that hints at her capabilities; it's also the way she carries herself. Sofia could incapacitate a grown man with her bare hands, and her every movement exudes calm competence.

With every step, there's an unmistakable sense of grace and power. Her motions are deliberate and certain, a reflection of her unwavering self-assuredness. Sofia Petrov is a captivating blend of natural beauty, mysterious allure, and undeniable strength, a person who leaves a lasting impression on all who encounter her.

### Breakdown

* Eye Color - Periwinkle Blue
* Hair Color - Black
* Hair Length - Just below shoulder length
* Hair Texture - Curly
* Skin Tone - Pale
* Height - 5'5
* Weight - lbs
* Voice Claim -

#### Design Notes

* Frequently wears a purple sapphire hourglass necklace, a meta reference to her Black Widow inspiration
* Always dresses in several layers so she can change disguises easily

## Personality

### Traits

#### Positive (+)

* Kind
* Sincere

#### Neutral (=)

* Vulnerable
* Emotional
* Flexible
* Romantic

#### Negative (-)

* Closed off
* Evasive

### Detailed Personality

Sofia is kind. She is not always nice, not to people who don't matter. But to the people closest to her, to small children, to animals or plants, Sofia is very loving and takes special care of them. You have to earn this but she will help those she finds deserving. Sofia was trained to be anything but sincere. Concealing the truth at any cost was supposed to be her MO. She defies that when she can. Some things, like the truth of her upbringing, she figures are best to keep quiet for now, but she won't hide most things from Annalita or Paris anymore. She is awkward and bad at Feelings™, but she makes sure that her friends understand what they mean to her.

Sofia very recently learned that she spent two decades of her life working for something that is wrong and evil. Now, fresh off leaving that all behind, she is very vulnerable and liable to have her opinions shaped by the people around her. Though she was taught not to allow her emotions to interfere with her missions or her training, Sofia feels a lot and feels very deeply. She can tuck her emotions away for later but she does feel them. This is mainly a positive trait. Sofia is good at thinking on her feet and is highly adaptable. Unfortunately, this mental flexibility comes with some moral flexibility. Killing is wrong, yes, but is it still wrong if you are preventing future atrocities? Is it okay to steal if they stole first?  Sofia was raised in a way that blurred the lines between good and evil for her. It isn't noticeable at first glance, but Sofia is deeply romantic. Had her life taken a different path, she would have ended up running a coffee shop and writing love poems. This is the woman who, upon being asked what languages she speaks, replied with the words "I love you" in nine different languages. Words that she likely had to research herself - the Shadow Corps weren't going to teach her that.

Sofia struggles with being open and honest. She was trained as a spy and she clings to old habits a bit more than she should. She is really bad at making interpersonal connections because she finds it hard to trust people enough to talk about herself.

## Background

### Childhood

Sofia was born in Belarus in midwinter. Her parents were Anton Petrov and Carlotta Mylen, fugitives from an organization known as the Shadow Corps. They were unmarried to avoid leaving too much of a paper trail, but unfortunately Sofia was born in a hospital which meant that she had a birth certificate. This meant that it wasn't hard for the Shadow Corps to track down the young family. Anton and Carlotta were killed for their betrayal while Sofia was taken back to the Shadow Corps to train in spycraft.

Sofia was never told much about her early life. She was only told that her birth parents were traitors to the Shadow Corps and that she had been born while they were on the run. She was taught several languages as she was growing up, being mostly fluent in French, German, and Russian before most kids would be in preschool. Even before her formal training began, Sofia was kept busy enough that she didn't have much time to wonder about her birthplace, her parents, or her past. There were plenty of other children her age to play with whenever she had downtime.

Sofia was thrown into training when she was about four years old. She was taught basic math, science, and history, alongside many languages. The powers that be of SC liked her voice, so she began music lessons when she was about six. She was trained in acrobatics and when she reached ten years old, she started with combat and stealth training. She rose in her class very quickly and was handed over to the Chessmasters division at twelve.

### Adolescence

She continued with her musical training even as she learned more and more deadly tactics and espionage. She learned to play guitar while studying poisons. She memorized opera while sparring with her classmates. For fourteen years, she studied, she practiced, she learned, and when she was sixteen, she finally got to start applying her skills in the field. She was assigned to be a junior agent on a minor mission. She was used as a distraction, performing a few songs to keep the target busy while her fellow agents took him out. After that, she graduated and, while she continued training, she got to self direct what she worked on. She was given the title of White Queen and started working more closely with the other Chessmasters. She became particularly close with Vanya, the White King. He was like a brother to her, since they were from the same generation and had grown up together.

### Adulthood

Not much changed between sixteen and eighteen. Sofia continued going on missions periodically. She kept training in every aspect she could. The main difference was that becoming a legal adult meant that she got to help train the new recruits now. She became mainly a language and artistic teacher for the youngest kids, the ones who weren’t quite well-developed enough to start physical training. She was surprised by how much she enjoyed it and how much affection she had toward the kiddos. Recognizing this could be a potentially exploitable problem, she resigned from dealing with little kids and started going on more field missions. She tried her best to get away from the young children and for the most part succeeded.

Eventually, when she was twenty years old, something changed. On what could have been the biggest mission of her life, the squad leader betrayed SC. She distributed passports, IDs, and other documents along with plane tickets and told them all to get out. She explained how they were being controlled and how most of them had been controlled all their lives, but she had found a way to disable and remove that control. Sofia found herself sent off to Hallstatt, Austria and floundered around for a bit, trying to figure out how to live a normal life with everything she’s spent her life doing.

Within her first week in Austria, she met one Annalita Haspel, a kind elderly woman who helped Sofia get settled in. She constantly spoke of her dear grandson Paris, a charming and handsome young man living in Greece with his mother, Mrs. Haspel's daughter-in-law. Paris decided to move to a nearby city for school, but stayed with Mrs. Haspel for the summer. Annalita took Sofia with her to pick Paris up from the airport and Sofia was immediately impressed with him. Annalita hadn’t been lying - Paris was quite handsome and very charming. He seemed immediately smitten with Sofia, asking his grandmother where she had picked up the beautiful girl. Over the next week or so, Annalita kept asking Sofia to come over for dinner and Sofia, who didn’t really know how to cook, kept taking her up on it. As such, she was around Paris quite a bit. After about three weeks, Annalita and Paris took a weekend trip into the city. Annalita of course invited Sofia and Sofia took her up on it.

Something about the city messed with Sofia’s head and, though she usually didn’t have any dreams/flashbacks of her past, she had a nightmare the first night. Paris noticed and did his best to comfort her (totally not because he liked her. Nooo, just a good, decent fellow doing what anyone would. Not a crush at all...) Sofia appreciated his help and slept well the rest of the night. She felt bad for waking him up in the middle of the night, but didn’t wake up again. The next morning, Paris did his best to pretend that nothing happened, but Sofia couldn’t stop thinking about it. She didn’t say a word, but she realized that maybe, just maybe, Paris was a good man and that she could trust him.

## Other

### Notes

* Though definitely inspired and influenced by Black Widow and the Red Room, the Shadow Corps is something entirely different. For one, they train all genders. Any kid that looks like they might grow up to be useful is trained. For two, they have different teams with different agendas and levels of training. For example, Sofia was part of the Chessmasters, who run mostly political missions. assassinations, diplomacy, bureaucratic nonsense. There are three teams: White, Black, and Red. Each has a king, a queen, two bishops, two knights, two rooks, and a handful of pawns. These are just codenames, but the ‘higher’ ranked kids tend to be the ones who excelled in training. White Chessmasters tend toward espionage, Black Chessmasters are sabotage, and Red Chessmasters are assassins, mostly. Finally, the Shadow Corps sincerely believe they are doing what is best for the world. They’re wrong and evil, but they are not trying to take advantage of anyone. If you die by their hand, they think they are in the right.
* Sofia was not really aware of how bad the things the Shadow Corps had been doing until she got free. Now that she does know, she feels really bad about it and spends her time trying to forget about it.
* Paris was pretty much immediately into her. Sofia thought he was attractive at first, but did not allow herself to feel at all romantically toward him for quite awhile. While initially Paris's attraction to her was purely physical, he was soon intrigued by her personality and the secrets he was sure she was keeping. Inversely, as Sofia got to know Paris, she allowed herself more and more of a physical attraction to match the emotional connection she couldn't help developing.

### Trivia

* Sofia speaks French, Russian, Italian, Spanish, and German pretty well. She has passing English, Japanese, Mandarin, and Greek.
* Sofia has no idea what her birthday is. She thinks it’s in the winter, but she has no way of accessing her records. The one on her ID is December 12, but she doesn’t know if that’s accurate or not. She’s just going to roll with it for now.
* After moving in together, she and Paris adopt a blue and cream tabby kitten. Sofia named her Libellule (dragonfly in French).
* The first language she learned was French. She learned her best three (French, German, and Russian) around the same time, but she liked French the best.
* When Paris first met her, he thought she might be a movie star. He also thought she might be American. Sofia is neither American nor a movie star.
* She still loves music and refuses to let the Shadow Corps' usage of her taint her love for it. She sings and plays the guitar

### Links

#### Playlist

* Oceans - Seafret
* Toxic - Brittany Spears