Cobalt

## Background Information

**Nina Ann Belomy**, once known as **the Thief of Silverwood** and now known under the alias **Cobalt**, is a Gridmask from the Mist Grove area of Ludus. Originally an unwilling associate of Baxter, she serves as a secret espionage operative for Isles & Quint.

Nina is the first and only child of Pelinne Porthos and an unnamed second parent. She is also the stepdaugter of Tesmarck Porthos after his marriage to her mother. Her father was largely absent from her upbringing to the point of Nina never knowing his name, and her mother's strict and solitary upbringing led her to take joy in petty crimes. Nina became an exceptional thief, only being caught a handful of times, and earned her reputation as the elusive "thief of Silverwood", the only criminal in her town (as far as anyone was concerned).

She became close with her first friend, Wodwick, after attempting to steal some food from his farm. Despite their poor first meeting, Wodwick took an interest to her snappy personality and various talents, while Nina was impressed that he had actually managed to catch her in the act of stealing. While most of Wodwick's responsibilities kept him at Sunrise Farms, the two would visit each other a few times a month.

Nina's career as a thief took off substantially after intercepting a caravan from Baxter's last failed enterprise before Isles & Quint. Knowing that he was accused of causing his parents' disappearances, she wrote a letter to him expressing full belief in his innocence, explaining the disappearance of her own father, and begging for help to locate him. Baxter's response was one that, in essence, gave her full permission to "steal" from his caravans in the future in order to track down her father, which Nina gladly did - though, rather than to do as she claimed, she utilized the technology to get away with grander heists in her town. Eventually becoming "too good" at what she did, she began to intentionally leave clues for her mother to find in order to keep up the excitement.

Tesmarck, upon finding some Quint technology that Nina had failed to put away, was led to the incorrect conclusion that Nina had been spying on him and his own business for years. Evidently wishing to cover something up, he consulted Pelinne about the matter, who ordered that Nina be executed. Nina, on a visit to Sunrise Farms, was assaulted by Tesmarck's employees and taken to the crop circle to be killed, when she was (accidentally) saved by a Monster. She took one of Wodwick's vehicles and drove to New Hub City, where she was found by Baxter and Terry. Here, Terry revealed that Baxter had plans to meet with her and bring her to Steckenberg in just a few days, apparently knowing full well of her identity as the Thief of Silverwood.

### Appearance and Personality

Cobalt is a Gridmask with short and messy cyan hair (permanently dyed from its original gray), blue eyes, a pale gray skin tone, and average height. Her hair is infused with nanomachines which activate when she stretches her arms and snaps her fingers - this produces a coating of metal-reinforced hair of a silvery sheen which is straight and reaches just below shoulder length. Her casual attire usually amounts to a black or light-blue checkered undershirt, a light-blue collared shirt, black cargo pants, and a gray sweater tied around her waist.

Horribly sarcastic and not always willing to speak her mind, Cobalt puts on a very rude, uncaring exterior. She enjoys setting up challenges for herself once she knows the stakes, and may tease others in a competitive sense if it benefits her. She is quick to absorb knowledge and use it to her advantage by any means, including the manipulation of others, though in this "focused" state, she tends to miss obvious details. In her own mind, she spends a lot of time analyzing exit strategies and internally arguing with herself.

### Relationships

Prior to their disconnect, Cobalt's primary healthy relationship was her friendship with Wodwick. Working under Baxter, she has a reluctant acquaintanceship with him and his sister Terry, though distrusts them both.

Cobalt was never on particularly good terms with her mother Pelinne, but seemed to hold some level of respect for her stepfather Tesmarck. Both relationships soured immensely when Pelinne and Tesmarck conspired to kill her.

Cobalt has frequently claimed grief at the unknown whereabouts of her father as the motive behind her thievish ways, though she does not know or care about him.

## Skills and Abilities

* Cobalt has a penchant for thievery, lending itself to a number of crime- and espionage-related disciplines.
* She is rather adept with certain unique technologies - she seems to understand Baxter's nanotechnology and Wodwick's farming devices better than most, for instance, and can often make simple modifications to them to fit her needs, though she struggles with some of the more "hands-on" tech of the current age.
* Despite evident respiratory problems, she is able to accomplish a number of athletic and acrobatic feats with ease.

## Appendix

### Trivia

* Cobalt was originally introduced in the Alpha-Archaic Timeline as the deceased wife of Jast, set to play a key role in a story arc that never took off. She was immensely reworked afterwards.
* Her aura is **Freesia**.

### Gallery

Drawing by Look-a-troopaAnother drawing by A, Mori