Sophia Blood

WHO YOU SEE

Sophia is, first and foremost, an actor on a stage. She plays whatever role she desires, however she desires to. Primarily, that is the role of the actress, ironically enough. She is as talented as she is beautiful, and confidence in her looks has never been something she lacks. She behaves differently depending on the role she is playing, but some characteristics shine through no matter what. She is flirtatious, and makes no real distinction between genders - in a room with a man and a woman who she finds equally attractive, she will probably go for both, but will focus her efforts on the woman. She is proud, sometimes excessively so, and does not always deal well with criticism.

As Sophia Hewitt she is kind, confident and calm. She delights in classical music and poetry. She professes to be a fan of classics like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice, but in truth cannot stand them; it is the tragedy of literature that the determination of schools to make people appreciate it instead ends up driving them away. She is dignified, secure in who she is and well aware of who she wants to be. At least, most of the time. In private, she is much more slovenly, enjoying video games and modern fiction.

Her most prominent alter-ego, the Fox, is immensely confident in her own skin. She gives the impression that not a thing could hurt her, that even attempting to stop her is foolish and pointless. She steals not for profit, but for the fun of it; after all, she is more than wealthy enough already. She is proud not just in the way Sophia Hewitt is - a professional pride - but in carrying on the work of her ancestor, Thomas Blood, a man most known for his attempt to steal the Crown Jewels of Charles II.

The nature of Sophia’s ability has had several negative impacts on her personality, including a lack of regard for the long-term consequences of her actions - due to her never needing to suffer the short-term ones, a determination to never lose an argument, to the point where she will repeat particular parts of a discussion over and over until she finds the right point to convince whoever she is debating with, and an unfortunate weakness to short-term temptations; she will steal something only for the thrill of having it, even for a moment, kiss a person just to see what it feels like and even attack people she dislikes, just for the catharsis of striking them, only to undo all of it with no one any the wiser.

As carefree as her power makes her, however, there is one thing she will never forget. She owes someone a favour, and one day they will come to collect.



(Note: Some historical liberties have been taken. Holcroft Blood had only one son, and no grandchildren.)

Sophia has the fortune, or misfortune, to be the last scion of the line of Blood, an English aristocratic family stretching back hundreds of years to Thomas Blood, famed thief of the crown jewels of Charles II, whose son, Holcroft Blood, was ennobled by Anne, Queen of Great Britain, for his services in the Battle of Ramillies. Unfortunately, Sophia chose the wrong ancestor to idolize; rather than praising the men who made her family great, she chose to focus her admiration on her most infamous family member.

She was raised by her mother and father in a stately home in the English midlands. She was spoiled by her mother, who had suffered a miscarriage previously and viewed Sophia as a gift from God; her father, on the other hand, was far stricter. He had reason to be.

Sophia was not a normal child, just as her father had not been a normal child, and his father, and his, stretching as far back as they had records of. Every child of the Blood family developed an ability at around the same time, and Sophia’s father was, understandably, worried that his daughter would lack the self control necessary to master her ability if he allowed her to become too spoilt, worried that she would be a danger, both to herself and to others.

He was right to be worried.

When Sophia did eventually develop her power, after hitting puberty, she panicked and found herself repeating the same ten seconds for a very long time, her desperation to return to how she was before subconsciously triggering her power over and over again.

She eventually regained enough control of herself to overcome this trial, but the worst was only just beginning. You see, puberty is a great thing for learning important lessons like impulse control, that your actions have consequences, and that certain things should never be done under any circumstances. Unfortunately, when you can do anything and make it as if it never happened less than ten seconds later, it becomes rather hard for such lessons to sink in.

It was as a teen that Sophia first started stealing; not out of need - for her parents had never been particularly stingy, but out of a desire for a thrill. She escalated egged on by her own growing pride and her desire to match the achievements of her ancestor. She made a few mistakes however. Though normal humans only came close to catching her once, her lineage had brought her to the attention of a powerful member of the Families, and they were not so easily fooled.

It is hard to miss an untrained teenage girl stealing from an art gallery, when you know what you’re looking for. They told her they could get her away from the security hunting her, demanding one favour in exchange; it was to be something of their choosing, and could be called in at any time they wished.

Like an idiot, like a teenage girl, Sophia agreed.

She went into acting after attending university, taking the pseudonym Sophia Hewitt, and was lucky enough to pick up a role in a major hit. So began an acting career that would give her an endless supply of excuses to travel around the world and visit impressive art galleries. And steal from impressive art galleries of course, one's collection of art is never so large that it cannot be improved by adding more.

Sophia has control over time and space. Technically. A little bit. Essentially, she has control over ten seconds. She can stop it or rewind it at will, so long as it is only ten seconds.

With skin contact she can freeze an object or person in place for ten seconds, stalling them in time. This not only leaves them unaware of the outside world, but also turns them into an immovable, indestructible object. Something or someone frozen in this manner could withstand a point-blank nuclear explosion.

She can also rewind ten seconds of time. This, essentially, gives her an unlimited number of tries when attempting to go about something, for at the end of every failure she can merely rewind to the beginning and go again. Any injuries she sustains vanish when she rewinds.





Any attempts to freeze or rewind any less or more than ten seconds will be unsuccessful; ten seconds is both the maximum and minimum amount of time that her ability enables her to effect unless there is an outside element, such as a metahuman capable of enhancing the abilities of others.

In order to reuse her power ten seconds must expire normally. This means that she cannot exploit her rewind ability to travel further back in time and nor can she keep herself frozen permanently, as from her perspective no time at all would’ve passed while she was frozen.





If Sophia is killed, or even only knocked unconscious then she is unable to use her rewind ability to remove herself from the situation. The use of it is dependent on her choosing to activate it, and as such anything which would impair her ability to make decisions will similarly affect her ability, and inclination, to use her power.

Yvonne Strahovski as Sophia Blood