Sonya
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| Basic Information | |
|---|---|
| Aliases | Captain Sonya, Captain Steele, Dr. Steele, Dr. Captain Steele, The Silver Toothed Terror, Shark of the Deep, The Blue Razor, The Stellar Scourge |
| Species | Thalassan, Tiburan |
| Pronouns | She/Her |
| Physical Information | |
| Age | 208 |
| Height | 5'5 |
| Birthday | Unknown |
| Date of Death | Unknown |
| Unique Features | Unknown |
| Biographical Information | |
| Homeworld | Pelagia |
| Group Affiliation | Steele Sharks |
| Status | Alive |
| Magic/Abilities | Unknown |
| Relationships | |
| Kin | Marisol Steele(Mother), Heinrich Steele(Father), Arden Steele(Brother), Guinevere Steele, Maria Steele |
| Marital | Married to Guinevere Steele |
| Out-of-Character Information | |
| Minecraft Username | CitrusNik |
| Discord Username | Citrus_nikki |
Sonya Steele is the Captain of the Steele Sharks, a wanted interstellar pirate crew known for their anti-corporation terrorism and scientific endeavors. She is wanted by the High Stellar Council for: High Treason, Terrorism, Murder, Destruction of Property, Grand Larceny, Theft, Extortion, Conspiracy, Reckless Endangerment, and Criminal Mischief.
She is the daughter of ZetaChem executive, Marisol Steele. Marisol Steele refuses to attach relation to the Steele Sharks, claiming that Sonya is disowned and no longer a member of the Steele family despite Sonya's continued use of the family name.
Appearance
- 5 feet and 5 inches tall
- Large blue fins along her head with many silver piercings
- A Illicium on her head that glows blue
- Blue shark scaled skin
- Large right left eye, large cybernetic left eye that is grey and purple
- A steel cybernetic right leg and left arm
- Full body wave tattoos
- A large blue shark-like tail with some fin's replaced with cybernetic prosthetics
History
Early Life
Sonya was raised by her mother Maria and father Heinrich. Her mother is a Senior Executive for ZetaChem, an interstellar chemical company. Her early life was clean and watched, growing up in the cleanest and noble environment. Being raised mainly by her father as her mother was busy with work mostly. He would read her stories of the wide universe and make new toys for little Sonya. It was just her and her father in the pristine submerged towers of their penthouse home in the underwater city of Caelina on Pelagia.
By the time she was 12 her father became extremely sick, completely bedridden and unable to conversate fully. This destroyed Sonya, her mother took care of her for a bit but then her work called her back again. Sonya's life was then cared for by a series of nannies mostly, they taught her formal practices, ballet, and other subjects. Or at least they did when they were able to keep hold of her. She would often run away and sneak into facilities she did not belong in, let that be Zetachem laborites or her fathers own workshop. She loved learning, but hated being forced to learn something she didn't choose. Everything had to be Sonya’s way. So by the time she was of age she left home and sought out knowledge.
She started at the Pelagia University, earning her first PhD in astronautical engineering by 32. But tinkering with other fields along the way, like cybernetics and robotics. She loved making things her own way.
Her mother had given her a “future itinerary”. A pathway for her to follow in order to gain a senior position at Zetachem herself. But that pathway wasn’t Sonya’s way nor did the idea of being pushed and pulled by Zetachem higherups interest her at all. She wanted to research and explore her own way, she wanted to do what she wanted to do.
So, she trashed the itinerary and stole one of the ships they kept in the garage and set off. She had excessive book knowledge but very little actual knowledge of how the universe worked, or how to pilot a ship. So she very quickly flew into open space and crashed herself on Singulon. Her ship was a wreck, her family accounts had been cut off by then, and she knew absolutely no one here. So she did what she had to, she worked. She was able to get an apprenticeship with a ripper doc of the area named Rook. Using her own amateur skills at cybernetic work she made decent money but the open waves of the Celestial stars still called to her. She had to get out of this place. She worked for him as an apprentice for 5 years before he kicked her out. Saying, “You’re getting too comfortable”. The two would stay in contact through ISMail until old age caught up with Rook, Sonya came back to Singulon in the same shop they met, she held his hand as he died. She then opened her own shop, made some patents, and fully borged out a few psychos. She did that for 4 years before she sold her shop and had enough to buy a new ship and hire a few crew members. She was out in the stars again with some help from others to not crash.
Inciting Event/Turning Point
Over the next 150ish years Sonya lived the life of a pirate. She was the Captain of the Steele Sharks, a crew of interstellar pirates who mainly targeted large corporations for wealth and research materials(even crashing a few of her mothers experiments with ZetaChem where Sonya thought she was going “too far”) with the occasional venture out to an unknown region of space or a distress beacon in an interesting area. The Steele Sharks went wherever their Captain's gut told her too. Sonya barely remembers who all were members of her crew, over 150 years it can feel like crew members are cycled through a revolving door. One member joins, 30 years later they're gone. But at this point Sonya got her space-legs, she could run the ship on her own and was able to spot in an hour who could keep up with the crew's needs. So cycling wasn't much of a difficulty, but that wasn’t what bothered her. What bothered her was the fact she had no one that she could say “knew” her, especially with Rook gone now. She had a reputation but did not feel known, she had physical attention but no emotional. She wanted some friends, but didn't really know how to start. Until she met a small up-and-coming crew called the Wayfarers.
The Steele Sharks took smuggling jobs all the time, whether it be through warzones or trade blockades. But it’s normally always a product, and for the first time the cargo was people. The Wayfarers, a small crew of people, asked the Steele Sharks to smuggle them through a Corpo Warzone to get to a planet that was having all import resources blockaded and their skies blackened by shrapnel and ash. They wanted to help them, but they didn't have a lot of money. This crew could barely cover half Sonya’s normal fee, but luckily for them Sonya was smitten. The Wayfarers main two diplomats who came to negotiate were a Canari named Guinevere and a Felari named Maya. Guinevere was incredible, the passion behind her voice about the people they were going to save. How despite the lack of funding they have they can help people, that Sonya could help people. Guinevere’s and Maya’s arguments were great, but that's not what convinced Sonya.
So the Wayfarers boarded The Steele Sharks ship, “The Remora”. The two crews would be together for 3 weeks. Smuggling them past the blockade, then protecting them as they provide aid to the people, and then getting them out back to their ship. Along this way Sonya kept “accidentally” bumping into Guinevere. The two would engage in conversation about science, life, and their past. It was official, Sonya had a crush. The other members of the Wayfarers were great, Sonya was a little jealous of the quality of their crew compared to hers, they had so much skill. Over these 3 weeks Sonya tried her best to impress Guinevere, showing off her technical skill, helping some of the people of the planet by fixing their cybernetics, and making Guinevere laugh whenever she could.
After the end of the mission, after a few close calls on the escape from the blockade. The crews separated, Maya gave Sonya a communication link. Allowing the two to communicate through ISMail.
Sonya had a crush on Guinevere, and it completely altered her focus. Whenever she heard of a crisis, a warzone, or an afflicted planet. She would deadline over there, stealing from corps along the way and “bumping” into the Wayfarers. Where she could see Guinevere again. She would give them some of her “surplus”, trying to so nonchalantly give the Wayfarers gifts of credits and resources.
Slowly over the years Sonya became close with Maya, the Wayfarers Captain, and Guinevere. Eventually asking Guinevere out on a date, taking her down to go surf through Pelagia. The aurora over Pelagia was Guin’s favorite part and watching Guin’s eyes as they looked up in awe was Sonya’s favorite.
Sonya never became a Wayfarer herself, having an interstellar pirate and known terrorist wouldn't look good for the people trying to be interstellar diplomats and heroes. But she was a close associate; helping the crew out financially, in missions, and helping them design and build their official ship.
Sonya had what she wanted, she had people close to her finally. Even making friends with the other Wayfarers. She had a best friend in Maya, a girlfriend and eventually wife in Guinevere, and even a few friends with the other Wayfarers.
So Sonya refocused on her studies, her missions being driven by what she can learn, what she can gain, and develop her on board archive with Guinevere's help.
She felt she conquered normal space and something a little dangerous called to her. The Empty, the great dangerous space surrounding spheres. The ghost stories and curses living out there called to her. She lost a lot of her crew when she announced this, many a sailor was superstitious about what's out there. But those who remained stood steadfast and ready.
The crew felt almost more like scientists during this time. Flying into unknown space. Taking recordings of the fields affecting the ship, taking photos of the region, documenting the symptoms of her crew that either touch something they shouldn't or just get overwhelmed by the sheer energy of this place. The amount of stimuli in the empty could drive you mad, you could spend very little time on deck before the splintering headache was overwhelming. Nose bleeds, headaches, vomiting, hallucinations(hopefully hallucinations), and even heart attack were all symptoms the crew faced when they had to take exposure to the Empty directly. So they hid under deck, where the ship's modified hull could protect them from incomprehensibility itself.
This area of space was anything but empty, it's just that you can’t bring yourself to look. Dodging spheres, driving through storms, and holding your breath when something not on your crew was on deck. Superstition was survival, if an area gave you chills you went around, if the region was red when they woke up they tread carefully, if the storms of the Empty were too calm you got the fuck out of there.
On the way to one of the crew's resupply trips out of the empty, Sonya noticed a strange signal picking up. On the edge of the empty a floating station was discovered. A trashed and abandoned research station, no sign of any life on board except for one chamber. In a large vat floating was the body of a strange looking Thalassan, with a name inscribed into the vat. The name was "Maria".
The crew opened the Vat, Maria was unconscious and unresponsive, but their vital signs were there. They brought her abord the ship, and kept on their way to resupply. She eventually woke up while on the way, she had no memory of where she was or really who she was. Sonya decided to give her a few supplies, money, her ISMail, and got a place for her to stay and figure out what she wanted to do with her life. Sonya felt it would be cruel to bring her into the Empty without the ability to choose to go in, so she left her there while they kept venturing in.
In this time Sonya began practicing something called Goetia she read from a book they picked up on an abandoned vessel sitting out in Empty past a great storm they nick-named The Sleeping. Goetia seemed to be a collection of ritualistic practices to gain favor from beings that dwell out here. The book calls them Desolates, these unknowable entities that thrive out here, the beings that crush ships for unknown goals. This book details some of them in specific, sprawled drawings of what they “look” like, and comments of what they “like”. The author of this book was written as ███████████. Her crew hated this book, they hated the circles that Sonya would draw on the deck, and they hated how it worked. They hated that when they made a specific offering the storm would quiet, that when certain carvings were on deck they wouldn't have to hide from unknowable beings anymore, they hated that it was working cause at some point the bill was gonna hit the table. Sonya disagreed, she knew what she was doing, she needed to learn more and maybe these things could teach her.
The price didn't come all at once, it crept up slowly. Getting lost here, losing power there, things were getting worse. Until eventually a storm came. The Sleeping, the storm that they got past to find the book, crept up and hit them all at once. The thrusters shook, the pressure was immense, it felt like The Remora could pop at any moment, and then they could hear singing. Methodic hums and cries pierced the ears of the Steele Sharks, the whole crew fell except for one. Sonya stood, the singing was for her, it was calling to her, so she made her way towards the door to the deck. When her hand clasped around the handle, she swung it open. On the deck the singing was incredible, the winds of the storm were wild, she could feel the eyes surrounding her, and sitting on the deck was the book. She could run, she could go back down to the deck, lock the door and run. She could save her crew, get them out of here, she can hear their screams of agony. Or, she could open the book. It could teach her more, maybe they wrote something new, maybe it has what she needs. Who cares about the crew, they're gonna die in the next 50 years anyway, and leave her far earlier than that. She might not ever get this chance again. She has to, no, no she MUST.
When she opens the book everything goes quiet. ███ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ █ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ █████ ████ ███████ █████ ███████ █████ █████ █████ █████ ███ █████ █████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ███ ████ ███████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ████ ███ ██ ███ █████████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ██████████ ███ ███ █████ ███ █████ ████ █████ █████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██ ███ ███ █████ What do they want, what is she to do, why, why, why, why did she open this, why, why, why, why are they giving this to her, why, why, why.
Then as soon as it began it was over. She awoke lying on the deck of her ship, everything was so calm. But then the pain crept in, and she puked so much blood. She tried to pick herself up but her left arm was gone. She tried to stand but her right leg was gone. She tried to look around her for help but something was covering her left eye. She felt her face and her fingers caught the hole of her eye socket. She was losing so much blood, too much. She crawled down the stairs of her ship to the med-bay, past the now systematically hung corpses of her crew. She stopped the bleeding best she could, crudely cauterizing the wound, and dragging the body of a crew member who matched her blood type to be used as a transfusion. As the calm overtook her that she’s not going to bleed out, she passed out.
When she came too, only an hour had passed. She woke up to puke blood. Her organs must have been impacted as well, she doesn't have long but the incoming cycle of blood kept her head clear. She scanned her body and took note. She lost her left arm, right leg, left eye, pieces of her tail, sections of her intestines, her liver, and her ovaries. She fastened crude prosthesis to reconnect her intestines, cut out one of her crewmates' prosthetic livers they got from too much drinking, and prepared for surgery. She had enough experience installing cybernetics to where she thought she could handle this, she had to. She started the med-bay’s circular saw and set it to cut her open. Once open she took her intestine fasteners and reconnected them, installed the liver, stopped all the internal bleeding around that and where her ovaries used to be, and then set the auto-stitch bot the med-bay had to seal her up. She took a handful of pain killers, and waited for the cyber-liver to break them down and dull the cutting pain. She was stable.
Crude prostheses were made for her arm and leg, refilled the bloodbank of the med-bay(just in case), dumped the bodies of the crew off into the Empty, repaired the broken propulser and engine, and then set course to the nearest planet. She looked for the book, it was gone.
When she arrived on Elyndra, she got a proper doctor to look at her. They fixed up her stitching and cleaned up her prosthesis installation ports. They also made note after an MRI scan, that her brain was emitting a strange energy that was blocking their readings. She didn't have time, she felt fine, she’ll deal with it later. After a long week of resting. She went to work on developing her own cybernetics, and then installing them. Giving herself a new arm, a new leg, and installing inner body cybernetics to replace the crude and stolen ones. She recovered physically, but she was injured mentally as well. She couldn't recall much from when her brain was overloaded besides small glimpses. But what she did know was that she had to access that knowledge again. That the universe is cruel and chaotic but it will never take anything away from her ever again, she won't allow it. It was around this time that she heard the news.
The Wayfarers went into the Empty, to some sphere, and most of them died. Sonya had no clue which of them lived so she sped her ship over to where they were recovering. Most of them died, but luckily for Sonya, Maya and Guinevere were alive, for the most part. Guinevere got critically injured, and a dormant consequence of Guin’s study woke up. Crystals were overtaking her body and it wasn't slowing. They tried everything but neither Mya, Guin, or Sonya could figure it out. They didn't have time. Guin accepted it. Sonya didn’t.
[REDACTED]
After hearing what had happened to The Wayfarers and the disappearance of the Steele Sharks, Maria contacted Sonya through ISMail and decided to book it to where they were.
A few years later, The Steele Sharks started back up again, with vital assistance of Maria. With Guinevere on the crew, Maria, her younger brother Arden(who she learned existed), and a new member named Astyanax . The crew kept much smaller, no point in keeping those who wont last. The Steele Sharks returned to public view, and Sonya gained a friendship with a man named Iridi. They shared similar views and after working together for a few years the two got tattoos. Sonya waves, reminding her of her home and the sea of stars she travels. Iridi of roses.
As Maria aged, she joined the Steele family. With Sonya and Guinevere basically adopting them, and giving her the Steele last name. The Crew was basically a small family now, rather than a large scale operating crew. However, the Sharks still held the same reputation.
Arriving on Locus Astra
The Sharks would then hear of the High Stellar Council planning a new mission to the sphere that caused this all. A sphere with untapped knowledge and resources. A place she could reunite with Maya, help her wife, and continue her chase towards total freedom. Sonya’s sights were set.
Personality
Sonya is a very blunt individual, she values her ability to speak her mind freely. She values her own personal freedom over all else, and that can make her seem very selfish. She is known to be very eccentric and wild, she refuses to let anything get in the way of freedom and her free dome to understand. She bounces between hyper focused on the task ahead or extremely aloof and free spirited.
Extras
Medical Analysis After Returning From The Empty
After a CAT scan and a MRI, the data revealed vast strings of brain damage in Sonya's mind. The damage is unlike any traditional concussive brain damage ever seen, it is most similar to a structural fracture stemming from the prefrontal cortex, to the temporal lobe, and the amygdala. Damage is only noticeable long term in those areas. The origin of this damage cannot be pin pointed even after extensive interviewing with Sonya, the topic of the incident seems to be difficult for Sonya to discuss. Symptoms include bouts of hyperfocus and inversely hypo-focus, minor difficulty with risk assessment, partially impaired social recognition, minimal hallucinations, and an inactive stress/fear response. Over continuous examinations over the years the cracks in her mind began to seal, however the material or composition of the sealing brain matter results in strange and undocumented results from the CAT and MRI scans. But, certain symptoms have lessened in intensity and Sonya has been seemingly minimally impacted by these symptoms which is the good news.
