Sophia "Echidna" Desdemona

[Kynthia]

Name: Sophia “Echidna” Desdemona

Age: 17 years old

Sex: Female

Occupation: Student

Powers and Descriptions:
Cursed Form
Echidna can turn the lower half of her body, from the waist down, into a nine foot long and two thick long snake tail (more details in Appearance). She can use this tail to slither around at greater speeds, to wrap around people or objects or to slam against something. Though she uses the later rarely (at least when not covered in stone) as she does have many bones in the tail that can break if enough force is put on them, which will directly lead into a breaking of her own legs. The same goes for any other kind of injury her tail receives. This transformation is completely voluntary though high emotions can cause it to happen without her thinking about it.

Cursed Earth
Echidna also has some power over the Earth, that of stone, dirt and soil. She can take these materials and cover her body with it. This includes covering her body with the Earth to give her armor, thought his greatly reduces movement, covering her arms to fashion them into swords or other weapons or, most powerfully, covering her tail to both protect and make give it more power. Echidna can also hid within the ground, though she must remain completely still or else the Earth will push her back out.

Cursed Tongue
Lastly, Echidna can talk to snakes, but that does not mean that she has control over them. They have their own minds, after all, and will make decisions on their own.

Personality:
The first thing anyone will notice about Echidna is that she is shy, very, very shy. She rarely talks and when she does it is only in a one or two word sentence. The girl hates it when people she doesn’t know gets too close to her and will always look for an escape route if the person doesn’t back off a bit. That being said, Echidna doesn’t mind crowds as at least there she can mingle and hide, something she has become very good at. She will also usually follow people with authority, teachers, cops, etc, without question unless they wish to do her or other people harm.

That being said, Echidna does have emotions besides being shy and scared. She can, and does, trust a couple people though getting her to trust you is not an easy task. Regardless, if a person is able to do this they will be hard-pressed to find a more loyal friend. Echidna can also get angry if the right buttons are pushed, such as hurting something she cares deeply about. This can cause her to go into a rage and attack anything on site. She also holds onto grudges for a long time, even if the other party has apologized and she feels that they didn’t mean it, whether this is true or not.

Appearance:
In her human form Echidna stands at a tall 5’10, though her body is very thin and lanky. There is some harden muscles but they are quiet hard to find. Her skin is tanned due to many hours out in the sun and her face shows most clearly her Greek origins. Her hair goes down to about the mid of her back and is a brunette colour that goes well with her light green eyes. When her lower half changes into its snake form, it becomes a dark brown colour that, when the sun it right, can shine like bronze. The undersize of the tail is pale with very light brown on the edges.
She usually doesn’t wear too much for clothing due to being used to the heat. Normally she only wears a simple red tank-top and a beige skirt that goes just above her knees with a blue flower design on the right lower side. This skirt is held together by Velcro so that she can tear it off in a moment’s notice if the need arises. Though she likes to go bare footed to most places, she does wear a pair of flip flops if she has to go somewhere with shoes. The only accessory she has is a necklace with an olive wood pendent on the end of a circle with a vine yard in it.

History:
Sophia was born to Alexander and Doris Argos on the island of Crete on April 31. Both of her parents were simple farmers of wheat and potatoes. Nothing much was expected of her or family but that did not mean they did not love her. They cared for each other deeply, with her two older and one younger brother. Indeed, of the five years she spent with her parents it could even be said that she was spoiled. Her parents dotted on her and her older brothers made sure that she was well protected and taken care of. However, it was only during these five years that Sophia would truly know happiness.

It happened one beautiful summer day as she was having a race with her friends. She was able to get ahead of one and into the lead. Her play mate did not like this, especially since Sophia had lost nearly every time before that and so pulled on her dress and caused her to fall back first against the ground. The little girl became so angry that she lunged at her playmate, but what she didn’t realize was that her legs had turned into a tail like that of a snake, as thick as her and nearly twice her size. She was able to knock the playmate over but before she could do anything she heard screaming and all of the other children ran away screaming. Even the child underneath her looked horrified out of his wits. It was only then that Sophia realized that she couldn’t really feel her legs. It was like they were there, but bound very tightly together and could not be moved separately. Sophia looked down over her and screamed the loudest out of all of the children, for her legs had disappeared in their place was a brown, thick snake’s tail that shined like bronze. She willed for her legs to return and, amazingly, they did. The little girl got up and ran as fast as her little feet could carry her back to her house.

However, the other children told their relatives about what had happened and the adults all grabbed the nearest weapons and marched over to Sophia’s house, cursing out Echidna! and Desdemona, meaning ill-born. Her parents, who didn’t seem as surprised as they should have been upon learning what their daughter can do, quickly put her on a Vespa with a trustworthy friend to go to her rich uncle’s home in Athens.

The two went well away from the village before stopping and Sophia got out of the basket to see smoke rising from where her home and farm lay. She immediately began to cry and that was when the ‘friend’ showed his true face, taking out a knife and rushing at her. Completely terrified, Sophia’s legs once again turned into a snake’s tail and she dived for the ground, finding that it suddenly opened up and embraced her hiding her from the man. However even in the cool dark of the Earth she could feel him moving around which caused her to do the same, making the ground spit her out, though her hands were still a good bit in the Earth. The man once again tried to lunge for her and the dirt swirled around her arms and harden into rock with a sharp point. As he lowered his body to stab Sophia held up her pointed arms to defend herself and felt the points go into something soft. She saw the blood and looked up to see that she had stabbed the man in chest, below the sternum and the stomach. The rock then fell away and she moved out of the way in time to avoid having the heavy body crush her.

Now a murderer, and not knowing where to go for she did not know where or how to get to Athens, Sophia wondered around Crete and the surrounding islands, learning how to use her powers and talking to snakes to learn where the next safe place would be and where she could get food. She did eventually go to a library and used the computers there to figure out how to get to Athens, but even when she arrived so had no idea where her uncle's house was, nor could she recall her uncles name. So, she took to wondering the country side outside of Athens.

It was around this time, when she turned eight that she found herself at vineyard. The workers took pity on her and took her in, though definitely not without making her work for every scrap of food she got. Despite the hardships Echidna, as she had been calling herself now for quite some time to remember her anger at the villagers, loved the life and the people. She knew it could be a lot worse. Even when they found out about her powers, as they did after one of worker’s children took some of her food, they kept it a secret and continued to look after her. In fact, they put her powers to use but turning her hands into stone or rock knives to cut the vines or to try to convince the snakes to eat the mice in the fields. She even spent a good amount of time in her snake form as it was faster and she was able to tell if something was happening within the Earth, like and earthquake, much easier.

Though even this life seemed that it too would come to a crashing end when, after her 16th birthday, the owner of vineyard finally decided to visit it with his assistant. This visit was un-announced and so the two saw Echidna in all of her snake tailed and stone handed glory. While the assistant wanted her dead right there and then, the owner just smiled and said; “I always wondered what happened to that pretty niece of mine”.

So the uncle took Echidna in and, after making sure that she knew her letters fairly well, set up to attend the Solstice Academy. This way she would be able to truly life as herself without fear for what she was and to learn more about herself and others of her kind. Echidna, while very nervous especially after finally obtaining a true home, was more than happy to go if it meant that she could learn what she really was as her uncle and other family members and friends were very tight-lipped about it. Seems she would only truly know what she was but figuring it out for herself.

Code Words: Fantasy Reference

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[Moderator Alo]

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