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| Character appeared in the Hollywood Knights. |
| Created by: Entry Created By Halo |
| Maintained by: Halo |
http://www.bubblegumcrisis.org/187Avatar.jpg
Name: Peterson, Sophie
Rank: Major
Nickname: Bluebird
Role/Assignment/Position: UNS Valhalla VF Liason? CAG? Deputy CAG? Hell, I have no clue what her job is, but she's somewhere above Captain William Stevenson and below Wing Commander Justine Hjelms in the Valhalla's chain-of-command.
Current Status: Active
Created By: Crimson Reaver
Date Created: Dec 30, 2002
Date Retired: N/A
Current Player: Crimson Reaver / NPC
Previous Players: N/A
Current Game: Hollywood Knights
Previous Games: Beginhill: Jade Ospreys
Affiliation: UNSpacy
Relationships of Note:
History: Sophie Peterson's story is a strange one, and dates all the way back to Mankind's first encounter with the Zentraedi. Her Father, James Peterson, was a young Valkyrie pilot, a tall, fair, dashing man who exuded style in whatever he did. He was the High School heartthrob, and for good reason. Her mother had an entirely different early life, grown in a Zentraedi Cloning Vat in 1998, she was an experienced combat pilot and used the deadly Q-Rau Power Armour by the time the First Space War came about in 2009.
Although neither parent now remains to clarify the exact date of the battle, UNSpacy and Meltran forces engaged each other in Brazilian airspace, above the Amazonian jungle. Ironically, James' squadron might have been responsible for shooting Avista 127 (as she was then known) down, for she crashed into the jungle and out of the war. Her battered body was found in the shattered wreckage of her Q-Rau suit by non other than James' Father Robert, who lived in a mission in the jungle. He was a research scientist who attempted to uncover native herbal cures for diseases which he could then synthesise and create vaccines from. Taken as one of the UNSpacy's first prisoners of war, she was subjected to micronising treatment and for the duration of the war was confined. Thus she was one of the first of the Zentraedi to interact with humans and she ended up liking what she saw, her warrior hostility quickly fading as she realised that the enemy were honourable enemies and worthy companions.
At the end of the war, she was released from captivity and she requested to be allowed to meet and thank the man who had saved her from a slow and lingering death in the jungle. Upon reaching Robert's house, she was warmly welcomed by Robert and his wife Leona, an educated and liberal couple who were glad of Avista's thanks. They offered to put her up for a month or so and she gladly accepted, seeing this as a chance to meet humans socially and begin her integration into their culture.
However, she hadn't reckoned upon her meeting their son and what it would do to her. James came home on leave soon after and Avista to her surprise found herself becoming fascinated with the young man. They spent a lot of time together initially, mostly conversing about the war and what would become of the two species in the aftermath of the conflict. Avista admitted she had nowhere to go from here and her stay with the Peterson's gradually extended until she saw it as her home. James found himself grow very powerfully attracted to Avista, she was learning human ways fast and had become a very bubbly and open person since her release from captivity. Coupled with that she had quickly picked up on the various ways she could improve her appearance to fit in better with human females.
In 2011, James asked Avista whether she would consent to marry him, and she said yes without a moment's hesitation. They were a pair of young, intelligent and talented idealists, and although they frequently disagreed with each other, it was that very fact which lent longevity to their relationship. James persuaded Avista to join the UNSpacy and put her skills to use to help her adopted planet in the difficult post-war years, and she agreed, although with some reluctance, torn between a desire to protect and a fear of losing everything she had only just discovered.
When they married, James told Avista that she should make a break from her past and change her name. He suggested Avis, an old name originating in Latin which meant bird, as she had fallen to him from the skies. Now with a husband and a new name, Avis spent a happy half decade training and flying with the UNSpacy, coupled with helping to rebuild Rio De Janeiro, which had been levelled by the Zentraedi's orbital bombardment. In 2016 she gave birth to Sophie, a healthy, happy baby and the future looked rosy. Unfortunately, things were not to go well in the years to come.
In 2031, James' health started to slide downhill. He began to lose some of his former lithe mobility, and had several serious falls which left him bedridden for several days at a time. His breathing became visibly laboured and Avis was beside herself with worry. James checked himself into a doctor, who told him he'd begun to display symptoms of Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic disorder which could go so far as to leave him a pale shadow of his former self through the wasting of several crucial muscle groups. The doctor advised James that if he concentrated on the muscles affected that he had a better chance of retaining mobility for longer, but unbeknown to both Avis and Sophie, James went much further than this. He began to take steroids in the misguided hope that this would build up his troublesome muscles. He continued to fly, cushioned by the lack of combat action he was facing at the time. As he felt his condition continue to worsen, he took even more drastic measures, and started taking testosterone boosters. The charming, intellectual man of a few years before, loving husband and model family man, became an obsessive and increasingly violent man as the drugs did their work.
Avis, frightened for the safety of her young daughter, enrolled her in the UNSpacy at an early age, for she exhibited all the grace and poise of her parents, her genetic background stood her in excellent stead. With her daughter safe in training, the last straw for Avis came when James' fragile sanity snapped soon after and he tried to beat her for an imagined slight. She fought him off with consummate ease, but the sight of his broken body lying on the floor was too much for her, and she requested to be transferred to a colony defence force. She ended up being assigned to the planet Hydra, and left soon after
After she had departed, James had little hope left, and the disappearance of his wife a couple of years later during the civil war on Hydra drove him to drink. Now on a potentially fatal combination of drugs, he was clearly unfit for duty, but his degradation was attributed to the loss of his wife, not his physical problems, and he was kept on the duty roster as an act of human kindness by his colleagues. In 2036, the last year of Sophie's training, her Father's squadron was scrambled to intercept and destroy a small rogue fleet of Zentraedi. The mission was routine, the forces of the UNSpacy were far too much for the minimal opposition they were pitched against, but one of the KIA's from the mission was James Peterson. When they recovered his body from his VF-4 they found that he'd suffered a fatal heart attack just before his mech was nearly totalled by a volley of missiles. The combination of strong drugs he'd been taking had coincided with a weakening of the heart muscles brought on by his LGMD. His death was inevitable, but it still didn't make it any easier for his daughter, who was orphaned at the age of 20, shorn of two of the best parents a girl could have ever hoped for.
She graduated with flying colours, but the death of her father and the disappearance of her mother within a year of each other wounded her so deeply the scars were never likely to heal. Although she passed through the grief phase relatively rapidly, she began to suffer from a variety of eating disorders. She never stopped being the fun-loving life and soul of the party, and her flying was as superb as ever, but inside she was hurting. Despite this, she rose through the ranks quickly, and she kept on learning as she rose up the chain of command, becoming a model officer and was hero-worshipped by her new squadron when she was assigned to the Macross 7 colony fleet. It was here she learned that her Mother had been captured by Anti-UN forces, and might possibly still be alive. Now fired with a new passion and desire, she hurled herself into the fray with gusto, taking her VF-11 and using it as a weapon of retribution against the enemies of the UN. After early setbacks her squadron began to score some significant casualties.
It was then that the bombshell hit her. Dr Kimble, the physician who ran her half-yearly check-ups, told her something that she'd been brooding about for the last decade or so. She was also affected by LGMD. He read the medical records on her father and immediately grounded her, permanently. Sophie was devastated; her life had crumbled away from her at the tender age of 29. She couldn't take her revenge on those who had taken her mother from her, nor could she help her friends, who still needed her skills and judgement. It was Catherine who suggested that she enlist as a Beginhill Instructor on another colony fleet, it would put her out of harm's way and she could still be of some good to the UNSpacy.
Already a keen and well learned military tactician, she got to teach her first class in late 2045, the Jade Ospreys. At that stage her condition was not well advanced, but combined with her long standing eating problems she cuts a frail figure, who might break in the lightest breath of wind. Dr Kimble has already told her that she has very little chance of ever becoming a mother, and considering both her slight build and the way the condition destroyed her father all she has to look forward to is a relatively rapid decline which she seems doomed to face alone. At this stage in 2045 she is determined to make the most of her remaining talents. Already a professional quality player of the flute, the flipside of her eating disorders has been to take up cooking, something which she displays real talent for. The rest of her time is spent on her job.
Both in company and on the job she is a well-mannered and pleasant person to be around, though she has lost a bit of the zest that she displayed beforehand. However only her closest friends and colleagues would spot this however. She is warm and approachable and inspired confidence in anyone she has commanded to date. She never brings her personal problems out into the open, she's a very private person at heart and doesn't believe people should waste their time worrying about her.
2048 Update: By this stage Sophie's physical degradation has left her unable to run far and even walking for long distances proves a strain. Her strength levels have fallen well below half of what they used to be and she finds many everyday tasks exhausting. She still goes about the training of her cadets with gusto however, and will keep taking classes even though she may find herself wheelchair bound by the end of the decade. Dr Kimble has told her that she is in no real danger of suffering the same wasting of the heart and lungs that blighted her father, she has a slightly different strain of the disorder, so at least she is no longer uncertain as to exactly what her future holds. With the victory of the UNSpacy forces in the Vatura War, she feels like she can now devote all her time to finding the people who defeated and captured her Mother. She still holds hope in her heart that she will eventually be reunited with her. Sophie has recently been promoted to Major, which gives her another chance to get close to front line action, although as yet no posting has come up. Nowadays her smile isn't as forced, the jokes flow a little more freely and she's even begun to sample a little bit of her own cooking!
2048 Update #2: Currently Sophie finds it very hard to drum up the enthusiasm for much. Her physical and mental degradation has happened very rapidly, and has sucked most of the life out of this once bright, bubbly and highly driven young woman. However, the seeds of hope have been sewn, and even now the signs of her mental recovery are visible.
Personnel File: http://home.triad.rr.com/dbadger/knights/peterson.htm
