The Institute App

[tactlesstactician]

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Snarky
ARE YOU AT LEAST 16 YEARS OLD?: Yes.
CONTACT: plurk = wildzubat ;; AIM = gentlesnarky private plurks from nonfriends and offline IMs are both accepted.
CHARACTERS PLAYED: n/a

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Soren
CANON: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance & Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
CANON REFERENCE: Path of Radiance brief summary
Radiant Dawn slightly less brief summary
wiki page on Soren, giving a summary more specific to him but lacking in any detail about the plots of PoR and RD

Also, I’m going to put up a few important definitions here, because they will come up in his personality section, which I mostly copypasted from my canon app of him, and are mentioned on the history pages.

Beorc: In the world of Tellius, the correct term for what we would regard as ordinary humans is ‘Beorc.’ Anime hair aside, that is really all they are.

Laguz: The other sentient race (for lack of a better term) of Tellius, the laguz are people who not only bear animalistic features (such as tails or wings) but also can transform into animal forms.

Branded: Also known as ‘Parentless’ among the laguz, the Branded are people who are descended from both Laguz and Beorc, shown via a mark or brand somewhere on their skin. Any child that is the direct product of such a union will be Branded. Branded live longer than normal Beorc, though generally not as long as the laguz, and they sometimes have powers that Beorc do not or otherwise have a higher than average aptitude. However, they lack any of the transformative abilities of the Laguz or the animal features.

They are widely persecuted, as they are regarded as an abomination and a crime against the Goddess. (This is actually based on a lie, but well… the damage has been done by now….) The Laguz generally pretend they do not exist - sometimes even pointedly ignoring a Branded right in front of them, though they have also been known to deliberately hunt Branded. Moreover, all laguz can sense something different about Branded, though not all of them recognize what it means. The Beorc, meanwhile, tend to treat them violently and with hatred when discovered, though generally the Branded are able to live among Beorc more easily. Often they either hide their brand or pass it off as the mark of a Spirit Charmer (someone who has made a pact with spirits in order to gain great power; this also results in a mark on the skin symbolizing the pact).

AGE: roughly 16 - he doesn’t know his exact birthdate and hasn’t cared to find out. His exact age isn’t specified in canon, either, but it can be roughly assumed that he is at least 17 or 18 when the first game starts and at least 22ish when the second game ends. Given his AU history and that in canon he always appears to be rather younger than he looks because he ages slower than ordinary humans, I feel it should be acceptable to age him down.
GENDER: male
YEAR IN SCHOOL: Student. 10th grade. Due to a spotty schooling history, he’s behind in some subjects - though doing his best to catch up - but ahead in math and physics.
APPEARANCE: Short and skinny for his age. Pale. Dark hair - looks black in all but bright light/sunlight in particular where it is notably actually a very dark green. His eyes are disconcertingly bright red in a way that doesn’t typically happen even in people with pigment issues. Notably, he has two dragonish wings - still small but growing little by little - and slowly spreading scales on his back, but he keeps these as hidden as he can manage with loose clothing (usually an oversized hoodie or coat) and sometimes even going so far as to keep them squashed beneath a backpack to hide any strange lumps. He is slowly doing this less and less at school, but he still isn’t really comfortable with them.

Here is his canon appearance. Just imagine that but in like... an oversized hoodie that looks oddly lumpy in back, sneakers and baggy shorts or jeans. Also without the mark on his forehead.

PERSONALITY:

On the surface, Soren is cold, cynical, anti-social and often brutally honest, and he usually makes little effort to hide his opinions — unless of course it suits him to do otherwise. If he needs to, Soren is quite capable of being polite or even sweet talking or otherwise being nice — though he certainly does not go out of his way to make any friends. Not that many people have seem interested in being his friend, given the way he keeps people at arms length with his icy demeanor and scathing words. Indeed, in canon there is only really one person who successfully has managed to become friends - and good friends at that - with Soren. And that is a man named Ike.

In canon, Ike is Soren’s most important person. The one person Soren truly considers a friend, and the one person to whom he is devoted and utterly loyal. Indeed, even if Soren and Ike do not end the second game with maximum support relationship, Soren’s solo epilogue ending states that he never puts his strategic talents to use for any other commander. Ever. Soren’s trust in Ike is absolute, and although he is never shy to offer his opinion or disagree with Ike, he will nevertheless always defer to him. Moreover, his care for Ike as a friend, rather than merely a commander, is aptly demonstrated by, among other things, the way he intervenes to help protect Ike from Aimee, one of the merchants who travel with them to sell them supplies and who is enamored with Ike. On multiple occasions during both wars Soren distracts and misdirects Aimee on Ike’s behalf - and even teases Ike a little bit over it. The reason for this singular devotion stems - like Soren’s trust issues and cynicism - from his childhood, which we will get to in a moment. (Though also the interactions with Aimee certainly show that Soren does have a sense of humor, even if he usually does not exercise it because, well, war is serious business.)

First… all that said, it is also important to note that as a tactician in canon, Soren is meticulous and thorough, preferring to plan and act logically without letting emotions clutter things — and survival (particularly survival of those he works with/for) is paramount in his plans. A noted example of this is when the Princess Elincia pleads with the mercenary company he is a member of for aid, Soren’s advice is to turn her over to Daein (the invading country) as this would ensure the company’s optimal chance at survival and continuing to gain a living. He refuses to let sentiment or morality, for that matter, get in the way of thinking and planning clearly. What is Good or Bad will always remain of secondary concern when survival is at stake.

That is not to say that Soren is without any concern or emotion for people besides Ike or for people in general. As the deputy commander of their group Titania observers, Soren is actually surprisingly empathetic. He has seen a great deal of suffering, and he knows what it’s like to experience it. It’s just where some characters who have had miserable lives are left sympathetic and try to reach out to others, Soren by and large is the opposite.

Which brings us to that childhood and its profound impact on Soren. Growing up, Soren never really experienced love. He went from a horribly abusive caretaker to slightly less abusive caretaker interested more in passing on knowledge than in his pupil’s well being to being a homeless child who, although he could read and write quite well, could not talk. He had never had a need to learn. Though at the time he did not realize that the mark on his forehead meant he was a Branded, the people of the country (called Gallia) that he was currently in did. The Beorc generally treated whim with violence and disdain, chasing him out of villages and so on, for Gallia is a Laguz-ruled nation, and the Beorc who lived there were therefore more aware of the signs of a Branded. Besides, they had no desire to risk upsetting the Laguz. And the Laguz, meanwhile, treated him as if he did not exist. Both these experiences burned into Soren a dislike for other livings and a particular resentful hatred for Laguz. He could understand hatred, but to him, to be utterly ignored was worse. To be made to feel as if he should not exist at all…

Soren very nearly starved to death - and would have, if not for a chance encounter with a young Ike, who gave Soren food and invited him back to Ike’s home. Suspicious of trickery, Soren did not follow, but he always remembered that boy’s genuine kindness — the first Soren had ever received. Thereafter he proceeded to search for Ike, wanting to meet him again. And at last in his wanderings and struggles to survive, he left Gallia and entered Crimea. There people were more apt to mistake his mark for that of a spirit charmer, and Soren was able to take refuge for a while in a monastery where at last the priests there taught him how to speak. Unfortunately, whatever kinder treatment he received there was too little too late to really assuage his bleak outlook of humanity - and Ike remained his sole example of a person he considered truly worthwhile, even though when he found Ike again, Ike could not remember Soren. But it didn’t matter - Ike gave Soren a reason for existing, for living, and that was enough and remains enough. … though as a Branded, Soren will far outlive Ike. This is, however, a matter which he seems to be ignoring for now.

He does not, however, ignore what he is. He found it out while researching in a library during the Mad King’s War, and the revelation devastated him. He had long internalized the idea that something was Wrong with him, from his childhood, and his lack of normal aging had not escaped his notice. But to finally have an explanation and have the explanation be that only further cemented his negative self image and amplify his doubts and fears that he was replaceable and that perhaps if Ike knew, Ike would have found him repulsive and turned him away. (... eventually Soren does tell Ike and Ike is totally chill and accepting and comforting and all the things a best friend should be. But that’s pretty irrelevant to the app, given that this would be an early canon point Soren, so to speak.)

So in short, Soren has a cold, brusque exterior hiding a vulnerable, deeply scared self. A brilliant mind for tactics and organization and a strong talent for magic, but not very good at dealing with his own emotions or at social interaction.


That is Soren as he is in canon.

Soren as he is in the AU differs as follows:

Soren doesn’t have an Ike. At best he has the priest who took him in and gave him a name as his tentative example of how not all of humanity is completely terrible. Also he has the school and potentially people there. There are a great many more mutants in this AU world than there were Branded in his canon world, which allows for a greater possibility of finding comfort and acceptance. There are other people with backgrounds as terrible as his, and there are, you know, actual psychologists and whatnot - faculty or other students who might be able to offer real help and coping strategies besides shut everyone else out. So in that sense, he has a greater possibility of opening up than canon Soren does.

Rather than having the mark on his forehead and half the population having a sixth sense of what he is and just ignoring him, Soren has real physical changes in the form of his wings and scales (see mutation section). This gives him a similar sense of isolation and of being different from others in a way that can’t really be bridged as well as thing he has had to hide and lie about besides just his powers.

This is not a feudal state at war. Soren is not a part of a mercenary company. He is not a soldier. He can defend himself and put up a fight, but he isn’t immersed in and trained in the art of war. Although Soren is still a very strategic person and would still be very good at tactics, with his ruthless pragmatism, he... really doesn’t know the first thing about how one would operate a modern military beyond some things he’s read. And he doesn’t have a single person he is devoted to, leaving his interests to be more self-centered. And the thing he loves best is learning - particularly math and science (AU stand ins for tactics and magic), but really he’s content to learn just about anything.

He's got the wide open possibilities of modern science and so on to keep him occupied and interested. And there is a lot to experiment with with his powers anyway. After all, air is used in so many capacities. A carrier for sound, for example. Imagine the music that someone with fine control over air could potentially produce with the right coaching? Not being locked into a career path really leaves things fairly open for him. He is even less certain of his place -- because... what is his place? Where can he find a spot? What can his skills be applied to?

Otherwise, he’s really very similar to how Soren canonically is. Bitter, blunt and cold with trust issues and some deep inner trauma and questions he's probably never going to get answered about his past, but also a nerd at heart.

POWERS/ABILITIES: Physical: Red eyes - not from any lack of pigment or anything like that. Although he is pale, he doesn’t have any pigment deficiencies. His eyes are just bright red.

Hair is actually a very dark green. Not apparent save in sunlight or other bright lights.

Wings & scales - Protruding from Soren’s back are two as of yet still small wings. The bone structure of the wings is similar to that of a bat’s in that they are ‘arms’ with long ‘fingers’ - but the fingers (and the ‘thumb’) have talons on them. Moreover, rather than being covered in any sort of fine hair, the skin (aside from the membranes between the fingers) is covered in small black scales. The membranes themselves have a pale reddish hue. The scales do not end where the ‘shoulders’ of the wings become a part of Soren’s back but rather continue on across his skin. Every year the scales seem to cover more and more of his back... perhaps one day he’ll be covered entirely...?

In any case, the wings are still small enough (and he hasn’t helped things by keeping them wrapped up and otherwise not really exercising them) that Soren can keep them folded against his back and somewhat wrapped around him and keep them more or less hidden with a loose hoodie or coat -- and disguising any odd lumps with the presence of a backpack overtop. It’s uncomfortable, but he endures it for the sake of keeping them hidden.

Learning to be more at ease with them and to be willing to leave them out and make use of them to aid in balance and maybe even flight one day is... well, it’s something he is working on. Or being made to work on, as long as he’s in school.


Reasoning: The hair and eyes are to keep his appearance in line with canon. His eyes and hair are a trait he shares with his mother’s side of the family.

The wings and scales are two-fold reasons. 1. In canon, his mother is a person who can turn into a powerful black dragon that, gee, has scales and wings. And could quite conceivably level a city or at least do some really serious damage to the buildings with her strength and her breath attacks. Or well, she could prior to giving birth to her son. Which brings us to the other reason. -- but also in this AU, his mother is a mutant who could transform into a dragon and spit fireballs, so this provides a bit of a genetic link there. Soren can’t properly transform, but some of whatever genetic material poked her towards shapeshifting into a dragon is still there.

2. In Soren’s canon, there are two main -- races, so to speak. Beorc and Laguz. Beorc are normal humans, and Laguz are capable of turning into a specific animal, such as a tiger or a wolf or a hawk. It’s very rare for them to reproduce together, but when they do, the resulting hybrid child is born with a mark (or a brand) somewhere on their body, giving rise to them being called Branded. They lack the transformative capability of their laguz parent but they have other talents that separate them from normal Beorc. Additionally, they have a very extended lifespan more like Laguz, some of whom can live for a millennium and more. Notably, however, when a Laguz has a Branded child, the Laguz loses his or her transformative capabilities. Because of this, and because the Branded don’t quite fit in with either race, the Branded are regarded as unnatural and crimes against the Goddess. The Laguz are capable of sensing something different about them and instinctively avoid them - and in the worst cases, they have been known to hunt and kill Branded. Beorc, meanwhile, when they discover someone is Branded (either through the brand itself or slow aging or whatever), tend to treat them as pariahs. At best shunning, at worst driving them off, stoning, killing...

tl;dr the whole point is there is this physical manifestation that is capable of being hidden or excused with some care in the form of a brand but which nevertheless is a visible sign that the Branded will never be entirely like anyone else. (. . . so basically Branded are a lot like mutants, all told.)

Soren is a Branded, and his Brand is a red symbol located quite prominently on his forehead. Red eyes and a mark like that could be shrugged off as just being some weird goth thing - and something easily hidden at that. Sunglasses, combing his bangs just right, etc. Even make-up and contacts, with the right resources. But that doesn’t have the same stigma and bitterness and risk as something like wings and scales that are gradually growing in. It doesn’t carry quite the same weight and sense of isolation that things like knowing you will outlive your ‘normal’ friends by centuries gives.

.... also wings mesh nicely with controlling air.

Speaking of that, let’s move on to the other aspect of mutation! Powers...

In canon, Soren is a strong magic user, capable of various elemental manipulation (such as fire and lightning) as well as healing / status effects / teleportation with magic staves. The single thing has the greatest ability to control, however, is wind magic. Notably, the more powerful wind spells in his game also seem to have an element of ice to them.

In this AU, Soren’s core power is nothing more or less than the ability to manipulate air. Specifically, he can innately detect and alter the pressure, volume and temperature on a small scale to varying effects, most notably wind.

Additionally, air isn’t just one element or substance - it is many gaseous elements that permeate our atmosphere (predominantly Nitrogen). Thus technically speaking, his ability could extend to all elements in their gaseous states, in theory. Indeed, there is a great deal Soren could do in theory... but in practice, he is still learning and developing. What he will ultimately be capable of is as of yet an unknown - well, at least to him.

Things Soren can Currently Do:
+ create gusts, whirlwinds, etc. ranging from light breezes to some harsh flatline winds. Unless he’s very angry / adrenaline fueled, he cannot sustain the strong winds for long. Lighter breezes and things like keeping a paper airplane aloft or some gentle air conditioning, so to speak, are much easier and less draining. making an umbrella with air is also possible, but it requires a degree of concentration.

+ change the temperature of air and therefore affect its moisture concentration. in this manner, he can produce an effect like air conditioning. However, it’s much easier for him to cool air down by dissipating its heat into other air than it is for him to warm it up which requires a much greater energy input on his part. Likewise, it’s easier to dry something off with gusts than to get it wet by concentrating enough damp air together and cool it off to force condensation unless he’s in a very damp area already and thus has plenty of damp air to work with. Really how easy anything beyond simple pressure manipulation to produce wind currents is depends an awful lot on his surroundings. If he’s in a desert, there is no adding humidity. If he’s in a muggy swamp, there really isn’t anywhere for the humidity to go, so there’s no real drying it out too much.

+ use his sensitivity to air plus some of his control over it to help his agility immensely. Whether it’s running or climbing something (think parkour if you wish) or trying to dodge something, Soren is able to use the air to his advantage. He can shift it in ways to help him move better or use it to support and boost him in a jump. Of course, he is by no means untouchable, but between this and his small, slight body, he does have an edge on maneuverability over many people.

+ small scale vacuums - by manipulating air pressure and movement, he can create small temporary vacuums. He cannot sustain them terribly long, unless he’s got something like a bell jar to seal it in, but it could be enough to cause a loud clap when matter rushes back in or even potentially suffocate someone if they’re in a relatively confined space.

+ he can make a paper airplane fly so well. you don't even have to fold it specially and put a paperclip on it or anything. hardcore paper airplane flying, ok. (.... spoilers he doesn't have much of a sense of fun, so this probably isn't going to happen that often)

Things He May Be Able to Do in the Future:
+ fly. Particularly if he is able to overcome his hang ups over his wings and just -- embrace them and be comfortable with them. He can use them to glide and manipulate the air currents to help him have sustained flight.

+ manipulate static electricity to an extent and other aspects of making a storm. Right now he’s only really got the hang of things like small whirlwinds / something along the lines of a small waterspout kind of scale, if he’s concentrating (and ate a good breakfast).

+ filter air, so to speak. that is, separate out constituent components. For example, separating out the oxygen from the nitrogen, etc. or separating out a poisonous gas from otherwise breathable air. This is something that will take studying and a lot of practice and concentration. Something not likely to come until he's an adult and has a more full grasp on the physics and chemistry of it.

+ silly little things like using air to help him play instruments or getting really hardcore with something like a pan pipe or something. This probably requires him making friends or a teacher telling him yo you should try this thing.

Things He Straight Up Can’t Do:
- He can’t change temperature, pressure or volume of things that are not gasses. Well, ok he could perhaps influence the temperature of something via convection like an oven or make a vacuum around it maybe, but that’s not a direct change.

- While there isn’t an exact hard limit of how much he can change temperature, pressure, etc., he is never going to be able to heat up air enough for it to become plasma or cool it all the way to absolute zero - or even near that far, really. In absolutely ideal conditions, he could cool air down perhaps as cold as things naturally get on earth and could maybe heat things up to about what a standard kitchen oven could do particularly with some heat source or confined space to aid him. Let's be real, though. How often do things really occur in ideal conditions outside of maybe labs?

- He can't wholesale change the weather like Storm can. He can influence it, as air currents drive a lot of weather patterns, but he can't control it. He can't rapidly affect the ambient moisture and temperature to the degree of summoning fog or generating a storm out of nowhere. While that is stuff he could potentially do by manipulating the right variables (particularly if he has the tools of water or already existing pressure fronts close by), it

- Soren is physically very scrawny. He is short for his age and also very thin and therefore somewhat frail. His light weight makes it easier for him to use air to bolster himself and whatnot, but it also makes him very vulnerable to things like, say, getting sucker punched. Once caught, his lack of physical strength makes it hard for him to get away. Arm and leg movements help get winds started, as does breath, but if he’s immobilized or at least weighed down, it’s harder for him to work his magic, shall we say. Most of it is concentration, but he’s also a bit claustrophobic so ... that also impedes his ability. He can also lose control of wind or cause erratic gusts and whatnot if he’s distracted or upset. Soren needs to be focused to make good use of his abilities. And even if he is focused, if he gets overly ambitious with say a tornado, there is the very real danger that it could spiral (haha) out of control and get away from him.

AU HISTORY:
( note: In canon, Soren is actually the son of royalty from two different kingdoms, not that he knows it. In the AU history I have elected not to go the way of introducing random new made up European countries or something. Instead, well... you'll see. )


Soren is the illegitimate son of a shapeshifter mutant woman (Almedha) and a man who is part of an organized crime syndicate and is extremely ambitious (Ashnard - both the names are the names of his parents in canon; here, they are probably something different and more typical of the world. But Soren doesn’t actually know their names. Therefore in favor of leaving things flexible if he ever gets canonmates who want to integrate or do other things, I’m just gonna refer to them by their canon names). They had a long involved affair, built more on shared passion and excitement and interest in power than any real love. Almedha liked to walk on the wild side, and Ashnard was hoping to manipulate and use Almedha and any other mutants he could find a way to control to further his own agendas and rise in power and rank.

As far as Almedha was concerned, though, they were just playing around until she got unexpectedly pregnant. Not wanting to unduly harm her child by transforming (as her transformation was a reptilian dragon and she had no idea how that would affect anything in her uterus), she foreswore it for a time. But Ashnard took advantage of this apparent weakness, taking her captive and basically holding her prisoner. After a while of letting her stew, he left hints for her family in the form of letting Almedha think she was sneaking past him to send a message, for Almedha had during their honeymoon phase, so to speak, unwisely revealed to him that she wasn’t the only mutant in her family...

For better or worse, her older brother came to try and help her, finally locating her shortly after her son was born - a boy who would later be named Soren. (Perhaps she gave him some other name, but he doesn’t know it.) Using Soren as bait and also a bargaining chip, Ashnard extracted promises of loyalty and willingness to be tagged and otherwise monitored / placed under his power to be his guards and tools from both Almedha and her brother.

With no particular interest in raising his son but still wanting to keep him someplace Known just in case, Ashnard took the boy away from Almedha entirely and left him in the care of a woman who owed him a favor, so to speak. Being suddenly forced to take care of a child is a burden the woman resented, and she consequently took out her resentment on Soren with a mixture of abusive and neglectful treatment. Indeed, she refused to ever even call him by name. He was always ‘boy’ and ‘you’ and so on.

After a few years, when Soren was about five years old, the woman was approached by a rival of Ashnard’s who offered to take the boy off her hands for a sum of money. As Ashnard had not (to her knowledge) come to check on her and his son in a couple years, she thought aha here is her chance to get out of this and get out of here and live her life. So gleefully, she took the man up on his offer, and Soren was sent off with him.

The man was strict and harsh and seemed to have a mind to make Soren useful to him, in addition to potentially being a pawn to use against Ashnard at some point. (Though at least now Soren got food and attention more regularly. Still no name, though.) The man seemed aware that Soren’s mother’s side had a high number of mutants, and he hoped that Soren would turn out to be one, too. However he wasn’t entirely certain when mutant powers emerged and hoped to force them out of the kid with some sort of rigorous training and risky situations. After all, with those eyes, the idea that he might turn out mutant didn’t seem too far fetched. But as Soren had not yet really developed his powers, nothing much came of it. Still, at least Soren started to get something of an education out of it. The man cared enough to teach him practical things like how to read and write.

In any case, for better or worse the man was killed in a spat between rival factions at one point a couple years later, leaving a roughly seven year old Soren alone to fend for himself.

Once the boy had used up whatever food he could scavenge in the man’s home, he left. But life for a child on his own was really tough, and Soren had to learn and learn quickly. He nearly died from starvation or other dangers on multiple occasions, but somehow he survived all the same. He already knew that the world wasn’t a happy, kind place, and his sheer determination to keep living (though he had no idea why - just that he didn’t want to die) kept him going. He had a tendency to skulk in public libraries especially when it was cold out - even if he had no way of getting a library card, the books were free for the reading, and Soren found that he actually really enjoyed it. But he had no home and was wary of other people, and most people weren’t too keen on some dirty homeless child hanging around. It was dangerous and not a particularly happy time.

Eventually when he was around nine, he found refuge for a while in a church with an attached school. The nuns who taught there had a soft spot for wayward children, even strange ones with unnerving eyes. So they took him in and taught him the things he’d never really learned. They were pleased that he seemed to learn quickly and let him sit in on classes. Though quiet and cold and wary, the boy was nonetheless a diligent student, and once they taught him things like how to properly act in society he was generally fairly well behaved. Generally. They couldn’t seem to cure him of his bluntness - but not all of them necessarily thought that was a bad thing. At least the kid was forthright and honest, right?

As he didn’t really have a name (though the sisters didn’t know if this was simply because he didn’t want to give it or if the boy truly didn’t know), the priest of the parish who first found him called him Soren, after the man’s favorite philosopher. And all in all it was the best life Soren had ever known.

That is... until the Fire Nation attacked.

I mean, until after a year and a half, Soren began to change. The change was twofold. On his back, between his shoulder blades his skin began to change. It started to grow itchy and feel strange, and Soren was quite alarmed when one day he scratched, and a small black scale came off. It only grew more worrisome as some sort of growth started to develop there, too.

As if that were not enough, he also developed the ability to control air. At first, this manifested with unexpected blasts of wind during emotional outbursts or sneezing and stuff like that. At first he tried to ignore it (and sometimes it could just be shrugged off as mere coincidence that a draft blew through just then), but between two new growths that were developing on his back and some accidental damage done to one of the classrooms, he quickly realized that it would be a serious problem. And then, when his wings finally sprouted on the same day he did finally accidentally hurt someone, it was just too much. He had already overheard talk about how he was dangerous, how he was one of them and how they should have known it all along with those eyes, and seeing the looks of mingled fear, anger and even some disgust from some of those who had cared for him and taught him, Soren felt he had no choice. Afraid and angry and feeling betrayed, he fled, resuming living on the streets as he struggled to master his abilities and hide his wings.

Although this time he was better prepared to survive than he had been before, it wasn’t really any easier. Having briefly felt the warmth of some acceptance and having a home of sorts, being alone again felt all the colder. And even more so, because as cold and blasé as people could be towards a child on the streets, they would often be downright hostile if they discovered he was a mutant.

In time, he had been able to gain decent good control over his powers all the same, using it to help his agility and help him considerably with things he needed to stay alive - especially with the running away from people part.

But well, eventually the Xavier Institute caught wind of him (haha), and someone located him when he was about fifteen. Found him hiding in a library, actually - still his favorite sort of haunt. At first he was wary and even somewhat hostile. He’d naively given his trust to other people on the streets and nearly gotten himself killed over it. But after the reassurance of seeing they had powers too and the alluring offer of getting to go to school again, he accepted.

Although behind on traditional schooling and not very sociable, Soren is a very smart cookie and a hard worker. He is meticulous to a fault and grateful to have finally found a place that maybe might be some sort of home. Maybe - the jury is still out on that, as far as he is concerned as he’s been here a little less than a year. Soren has been trying to do right with his schooling and otherwise maintain a low profile. He hasn’t made friends to speak of and generally just lurks quietly in the back of his classes, seeming really just interested in learning. Granted, this may also be in part because he has this buried fear of rejection or that this is some elaborate trap...

In any case, this brings us to Soren now. Age 16. He thinks. He isn’t actually sure when his birthday is or anything and hasn’t cared enough to ask if someone could find out. He likes chess and other strategy games he has learned about while here, but he prefers ones played on a computer because then he doesn’t have to play a living opponent. At least not directly.

SAMPLES

NETWORK SAMPLE:
Would the person who borrowed Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics, 7th edition by Munson and Okiishi from the library without actually checking it out return it?

I need it for research.

Bring it to the study room on the southwest corner of the library this afternoon.

Soren

[ Short. To the point. And lacking on niceties like please and thank you. Sure is a Soren email. ]

LOG SAMPLE:

Curled in a cushy armchair in one of the lounges in the dormitory wings, Soren had been attempting to read the next act in Macbeth for his English class. Had been, but between the noise of other students and the headache struggling to decipher the archaic language proved (even with footnotes aplenty), he had largely given up. And now he was staring at the pages out of sheer formality and a stubborn refusal to admit that the play had temporarily beaten him.

But the problem with simply staring at paper without reading what was on it was that it left him quite open to distraction. Indeed, distractions were more than welcome at this point, if only so he could have an excuse to throw the book acro -- ah, well, to set it aside for a while.

Lucky it was, therefore, that the student lounge was aflutter with distractions. The air buzzed with conversations and whirled with activity. Some students were, of course, attempting to get work of their own done, but most eschewed studying in favor of frivolity. Two telekinetic boys in one corner juggled pieces of fruit they’d pinched from the cafeteria - interesting to watch for a while, but the temptation to see if he could disrupt their perfect tumbling pattern with a well place gust of air caused Soren to force his attention on. A game of cards -- no, it’s Go Fish, and that’s boring -- fighting over the TV channel -- ah, now that looked promising. A game of chess was being played on the coffee table closest to him.

Soren gave up all pretense of reading to sit up and watch, and as he studied the board position, he couldn’t help but sigh and shake his head. Black had all the potential to win if only the player stopped ignoring his pawns - losing the Queen wasn’t the end of the game, after all, but the player seemed to think it was. Ah but -- well, that Bishop stood in the way of his best chance...

“Knight to E5 for a Check. That’s your best move right now,” he said -- and then caught himself, shrinking back as black’s player turned to stare at him for a moment, surprised. Soren did not meet his eyes.

But after a moment, the player looked back to the chessboard. And a few seconds later he made the suggested move, drawing a scowl from his opponent who then shot a glare at Soren before moving his King. But black’s player also turned to face Soren again with a bit of a smile. “Thanks.”

Soren blinked and shifted uncomfortably, shrugging in response. But rather than let himself be drawn any further in, he stood up, hunching into his hoodie as he slipped the play book into the pocket. He almost left without a word, but then -- he paused as he passed by the table to look down again. One last tip and then he was gone back to his room to study. To hide.

“... don’t forget about your pawns.”

Comments

Personality Section Revisions

[tactlesstactician]

Generally, when interacting with others, Soren is a cold, harsh person and has been described as somewhat moody and temperamental. Most of the time he is relatively quiet, preferring to keep to himself and avoid smalltalk and the like, but he is not afraid to speak up and give his opinion when he feels it’s warranted. Although he knows how to be polite (and will be, if he deems it necessary to achieve what he wants), Soren almost never bothers with niceties, preferring instead to be blunt and forthright with his (often cynical) opinions. Indeed, Soren’s rudeness has earned him reprimand from both his commander and deputy commander and caused them to apologize for him or at least explain that ‘no, no it’s not you he’s like that with everyone’ on multiple occasions. He never actually stops, though, and the more upset he is with a situation or the more dire the stakes, the harsher he will be.

Reasons for this are two-fold. First, Soren is a very analytical person, quite readily ignoring others’ feelings or the well-being of others in favor of whatever seems the most logical approach to a situation - the one most likely to get the outcome he desires. He has little patience or sympathy for those who do not take the time to think and analyze the situation as well. Second, Soren is a deeply scarred person with a knot of insecurities and trust issues at his core. Having experienced rejection and denial all his life and been hurt by it, he protects himself from any further injury by being cold and refusing to really open up to anyone. It’s safer to keep himself to himself, and there is a subconscious feeling that if people dislike him because of his personality, then they’re disliking him because of his actions and not because of anything inherent to his being. And that sort of dislike is much easier to deal with than being disliked because of something outside of his control. Moreover, his tendency for pessimism and cynicism keeps him from ever getting his hopes up and therefore safe from having them crushed.

Of course, it should be noted that although Soren is usually pretty logical, he certainly isn’t free form his own biases. When he needs to be purely strategic or when he is explaining the facts of a situation to someone, he will put them aside, but they otherwise will color the way he talks to other people and how likely he is to grow irritated with them. In canon, he holds particularly strong hatred and resentment towards the laguz and although he is able to put it aside for the sake of dealing with strategy and other matters, it remains clear that his opinion of the laguz - the cat laguz in particular - is very low, and it causes him to be even more likely to be insulting to them. In the AU, his resentment is a little more general, targeted at non-mutant humans, though he will also have some degree of latent bitterness towards mutants with no physical signs of their mutation.