Sophie DeCosta
Sophie DeCosta
Blindfolded.jpg
Portrayed By Amanda Seyfried
Gender Female
Date of Birth December 4th 1994
Age 16
Zodiac Sign Sagittarius
Aliases Chalice
Place of Birth Madrid
Current Location Xavier Institute
Occupation Student
Known Relatives Mercedes DeCosta (Mother); Natallie DeCosta (Sister). Father unknown.
Significant Other Hosea Ikbuku
Identity Unknown
Known Abilities Absorption and Emission of Wavelength Energy
First Appearance The Emo Blues

History

The life of Sophie DeCosta began in the humblest of places. Her mother gave birth to her in a motel room, in the middle of the night in Madrid. A single midwife attended to the birth, for which she was paid the princely sum of two hundred pesetas. Also present was Sophie's older sister Natallie, who was only five years old herself at the time. Both of the girls were born to different fathers, and their mother did not know the name of either; only that their pesetas were good. The small family would not stay in Madrid for long. By Sophie's first birthday they were on the move, eventually finding their way to a small town called Santa Margarita.

Sophie's Mother supported her family through a life of petty thievery, prostitution, and the occasional and brief bout of honest employment. Ultimately she was arrested; the jail sentence was short, but her children were taken away. Sophie and Natallie became wards of the state. Though not technically orphans, the best solution in the eyes of the authorities at the time was to send the two girls to an orphanage run by a local convent. It was in this environment where Sophie spent most of her childhood, with occasional visits from their mother. School was attended every weekday, plus Sunday school; all of it taught by the nuns. Their curriculum was thorough, even if they had little funding for things like computers, and with the town being so close to Gibraltar English was taught just as soon as she began learning to speak Spanish. Sophie excelled in language, and the convent was an environment that encouraged multilingualism. She learned Spanish, English, Latin, and French, spending extra time out of class to do so. She also developed a love of music, and naturally all of the children there were heavily instructed in theology.

When Sophie was twelve years old, she complained of pain in her chest. At first she was reassured that it was nothing more than growing pains, but after she awoke screaming in the night on more than one occasion, the concerned nuns relented and took her to see a doctor. The doctor sent her to the hospital in Marbella. After a battery of tests, it was discovered that a tumor was growing in her chest, beneath her sternum. The doctors described it as a benign calcified mass; they said it was too close to her heart to risk an operation, and that the pain should diminish when it stopped growing, though they would keep an eye on it with periodic visits. They gave her pills to help her sleep, which she used faithfully for the next two years.

By the time she was thirteen, Sophie's sister Natallie had already left the convent orphanage. While Sophie had picked up the faith and piety of the nuns as readily as a sponge absorbs water, her elder sister would have not a word of it, and refused to take a bible when she left. She took to a life of drinking and gambling, though she would often come back and climb the convent walls to talk to her sister. She would urge Sophie to come away with her, and regale her with stories of her successes at cards and dice when she refused to come.

By now the pain in her chest had stopped, and the doctors confirmed that the mass in her chest had ceased growing. Natallie, however, grew more and more frustrated with her younger sister's insistence on staying in the convent; and so, one night when she had too much to drink, she acted on a plan. Climbing over the wall was easy, even after too much drink; and setting a fire was even simpler. The blaze spread quickly, and threatened the entire abbey. The nuns treated the situation in an orderly fashion, and their first priority was to the children. The nuns who went to evacuate them arranged them carefully, and lead them out of the building with haste. Sophie came last, and it was beneath her that the floor finally gave way. She was fortunate not to land in the flames. She was unfortunate, however, in that she fell in such a way that her face caught a centuries old nail as she fell sideways through the floor.

Sophie remained in hospital afterward for several weeks, while her sister was tried and sent to prison for the fire. When Sophie awoke after several days, she could see nothing. Her eyes had both been cut open by the nail and taken an infection that destroyed her vision. Her deep blue eyes had turned pale and milky, and a scar marked her face from the nail. While the convent was being repaired the nuns moved back in, and brought Sophie with them when she was well enough. She told everyone that it was fine, and that she was fine; though at night everyone heard her cry into her pillow for weeks afterward, once the doctors told her that the blindness would be permanent. Her performance in school faltered, and perhaps understandably so, but the faith her childhood in the presence of nuns had instilled in her never did. She never missed Sunday prayer, and when one of the nuns gave her a silver crucifix to wear she never took it off.

Over the following year, Sophie learned to find her way by tapping around herself with a cane. She learned to speak softly, and listen. She felt her other senses sharpen to compensate for the loss of her eyes. She studied hard to learn braille, first in Spanish and then English, and got used to seeing what things (and people) looked like by touching them with her hands. Her life soon settled back into old routines. Her mother came to visit occasionally, when she was not in prison and the nuns judged her sober enough. She wrote to her sister regularly, with the help of the Nuns, though Natallie rarely answered and her letters were very dark and full of self-loathing when she did. Eventually, the letters stopped coming entirely; Sophie would later learn that her sister had broken out of prison and been declared a public enemy, though the nuns did their best to shield her from the details.

The damage to the convent was soon rebuilt, with an outpouring of help from the surrounding community. Most of the older children pitched in, and Sophie often tried to get involved; but being blind, she was gently encouraged by the nuns to keep to her studies and not risk getting herself hurt. Ultimately, it wasn't her to be hurt; it was a little boy who fell off the climbing bars in the convent playground, and lacerated his arm quite severely. Sophie happened to be there as well, sitting in the next swing over and reading a book in braille, and so she was the first at the boy's side. A couple of the nuns arrived next; just in time to observe as Sophie knelt beside the boy and put her hands on him, to find the wound and put pressure on it. They were present to see a soft glow from Sophie's hands suffuse the wound, and the boy stopped crying as his flesh knit right before their eyes. He would have a scar, but otherwise was healed. They also noticed that a soft glow came from Sophie's chest, just below her throat; right where the doctors had found the calcified lump.

News traveled quickly in Santa Margarita. Of course, it was obvious to some; Sophie was a saint. It was even more obvious to others; Sophie was a mutant. The former brought people to see Sophie, bringing their sick and wounded and even the occasional pet. There were things that Sophie could heal, and some things she could not; it appeared that wounds needed to be fresh, and she found she could do nothing for her eyesight, try as she might. Several of the nuns expressed their sorrow that her gift could not be of any help to herself; but Sophie replied that it was simply not meant to be for her, but for others.

The people who saw Sophie as a mutant refused to see her gift; they saw only the label. Mutant. Dangerous. Threat. They came to shout at the convent, and make trouble outside the gates when the nuns would not let them in. Their mischief increased over time; and eventually, when she was fifteen, word of the girl who could heal with a touch spread beyond Santa Margarita. Her case came to the attention of the Archbishop in Madrid. The Spanish Church has taken an active role in monitoring, policing, and controlling mutants; and the Archbishop has no love for their kind.

One afternoon, Sophie was pulled from class by the Mother Superior, who was unable to hide the worry in her voice from the poor child. She was ushered into a cloister, where she was met by a man with a gruff voice. He had for her many questions of a pointed and personal nature, most of which focused on her ability. What could she do? How did she learn she could do it? What else could she do? Did she know anyone else with abilities? What about her sister? Did she understand the Lord's punishment for falsehoods?

After the man went away, Sophie was sent to the chapel, to pray for her own safekeeping. Confused and with none of her questions answered, she did as she was told. Meanwhile the Mother Superior spent hours making phone calls late into the night, eventually calling places in America.

Two days later, Sophie was brought to meet another man. This one was much more gentle when he spoke; he told her that he was from a place in America, called the Xavier Institute. They specialized in teaching and guiding people like her, he explained; people with gifts. He told her that she would be safe there, and the Mother Superior confirmed her endorsement. She left that afternoon, on a private jet with only a bag packed with a few sets of clothing.

A few hours later, exhausted and still rather confused, Sophie first stepped onto the grounds of the Xavier Mansion.

Timeline

Quotes

  • "I said it!"

Trivia

  • Forgave her sister only a few days after losing her sight.
  • Owns a cane made for her by Magneto.
  • Amazing thing!
  • Amazing thing!

Powers

Sophie's power stems from the extra organ in her chest, beneath her sternum. While doctors initially thought it was merely a calcified lump, it is actually an energy battery. Sophie is able to absorb wavelength energy. (Infrared and ultraviolet rays, gamma radiation, visible light, x-rays, cosmic rays, and even microwaves or radio waves are all examples.) What she absorbs, she stores in the battery organ, which will start to glow as it becomes full. (She does not absorb everything, it should be noted; she does not appear as a shadow or suck heat out of a room.) As long as she has unused capacity in her battery, she will continue to absorb energy as quickly as it is thrown at her. In response to harmful levels of energy, her rate of absorption increases. At present she is perfectly safe from sunburns and can be subjected to as many X-Rays as anyone might like (though her battery needs to be full for the X-Ray to be useful!). She can further withstand radiation that would normally cause minor burns. Against more damaging and potentially lethal forms of radiation, such as going unprotected in a functioning nuclear reactor or handling weapons-grade plutonium, her absorption is not strong enough to fully protect her — though it will eventually grow to the point where it is. Even when she is full she will have a small measure of resistance, though not nearly as much as when she is receptive to absorption. Sophie has also reached a degree of control where she can speed up or slow down the absorption — though she still can't absorb more than is available in low energy environments.

Theme Song

Dante's Prayer — Loreena McKennitt

Gallery

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License