Discussion about Sophie

Sophie Kremel (David’s Character)

If you hear blaring music down the hallway, it's probably Sophie getting ready to take on the role of a character. Sophie finds herself becoming many different roles, as one should being an actress in theater club. She seems to always land a major role and takes those roles seriously. You can never be quite sure when she practicing her lines or being herself.

Appearance

Black Hair, kept in a pony tail.
Wears a Fleece Jacket (with hoodie) over school uniform, unzipped
Wears bright colors to contrast dark hair
Always has headphones, of varying colors
5” 4’
Not Toned, Average weight, Other stuff...

Personality

She is able to put on this fake face, but in her mind she is still fearing the rejection as the real her would, and over the course of the day she just can't handle that and regresses in on herself
Sophie has two modes of personality, the Fake Sophie which she tries to be at all times and the Real Sophie which she tries to avoid.
As a general trait, she has this underlying fear of Acceptance/Rejection. This is the reason she puts on the “Fake Sophie” act, but it reaches deeper than that.
To make a quick sum up. Boredom = Wandering Mind. And she is bored when alone and without something/anything to focus on.
Protective of her Music, and the equipment required to hear it.
Generally, speaks when spoken to

Fake Sophie
Mostly seen at school, theater club, around her Brother.
She is “In character” during these moments, acting out emotions as that character would
The person she imitates the most is Mai, her best friend until she passed away.
She doesn’t hate the real her; it’s her longing for the past that subconsciously brings her back to the lake every night.
Is annoyed when trying to get her attention while she is listening to music, breaks her focus
Something to focus on is required for this Sophie, if she is not focused on anything she starts to drift off into her real self, which she does not wish to show anyone. (ADHD)

Real Sophie
Much more level headed
Not necessarily has a lack of emotions, but more calm.
Bit of detachment from the real world at these times
This Sophie is brought out while at the lake or alone for too long
Gets annoyed when trying to get her attention while she is listening to music, breaks her train of thought.
She feels unaccepted/rejected when like this, as only one person in her life has accepted her real self, Mai
She has a issue with accepting her real self as well, since she feels unguided and lost. Something the Main Character can relate too


About

Sophie and Taikel were abandoned by their parents, ages 5 and 7
This left Sophie and Taikel in a state of “Where do we go, what do we do”
Lucky for them, their Uncle caught word of what happened.
For a while he looked after them.
Eventually, he had a hard time taking care of them
Various reasons including money, time, effort
He could make more money by moving away, leaving them in a house alone. Ages 10 and 12
He cared enough to send them money from time to time.
For the next 4 years, Sophie began to feel the effects of being abandoned not once, but twice.
She felt alone and unaccepted, this was even reflected at school.
She never manged to make a real friend, only people who knew her but never talked to her.
She took comfort in listening to Music, allowed her create worlds in her head and take her mind off the thoughts of being abandoned and unaccepted.
To avoid the constant shuffling of people around her she tried to find a nice place to sit down and relax to listen to music.
Around this time someone she has not seen around school introduced herself, Mai. Age 14
Unlike other students who didn’t bother hanging out with Sophie, Mai did.
Mai was the first legitimate friend Sophie could call a friend.
Mai shortened her name into Sophie
Mai met Taikel and learned of both Taikel and Sophie’s situation.
After the three hung out more and more, Sophie began to notice that her brother was able to relate better with Mai.
Sophie didn’t resent Mai or her Brother, but always thought she was the problem.
When telling Mai about finding someone to relax, Mai took her to the Lake behind the school.
She can’t swim, but she finds water to be fascinating.
Water can be relaxed, it can be violent, it has no direction shaped by itself, water is guided by other forces.
After a while Mai and Sophie hung at the lake more and more.
While Mai is very nice and helpful, she doesn’t tend to let others know what is wrong with her.
Mai was clinically diagnosed Delusional, she completely thinks she can swim.
When Sophie and her were hanging out by the lake, Sophie dropped her headphones into it on accident.
Mai, being as she is, jumped in after them.
Sophie had no idea Mai could not swim, but when Mai didn’t come up for a while, Sophie panicked and went to find Taikel.
Of course, when Taikel got there, it was far too late.
Both Taikel and Sophie needed some time to recover, both of them changed.
Sophie started to act as Mai did, in the hopes that people would accept her.
She joined theater club in the same attempt to escape her true self and be other people.
She continues to go the lake at night, as it has now become a requirement for her to fall asleep. (Insomnia/Somatoform Disorder)


Habits

Tends to fiddle around with headphones cord.
Looks around a lot/rarely looks at who she is speaking to (Unless in practice/play)
Yawns more frequently, which in turn, she will stretch when yawning
Often has the music too loud to hear others
Taps to the beat of music.


Change and Flow and Story

In Act 1, the MC doesn’t meet Sophie to start.
Meets Tanaka instead.
Through meeting Tanaka the MC see what Theater Club has to offer.
He indirectly meets Sophie on first day of helping Tanaka.
Sophie doesn’t actually talk to him, instead just asking Tanaka a question before leaving.
MC becomes a bit stressed at what is ahead of him, what he is going to with his life.
His Friend (Dorm Mate) suggests to go fishing/swimming/something over at this lake.
A little time passes, a little time passes and he chooses to work on homework
This stresses him out, and even though it is late, he goes to the lake.
At first he just tries to sit and think, relax for a bit, but he can keep it up so instead he goes for a quick swim. Perhaps to relieve some stress with exercise.
He ends up startled when he hears a voice from the lake’s shore.
Sophie talking to him, so he gets out and tries to dry off.
This is the first real conversation Sophie and the MC have.
(Now at this point, we can the Act 1 end there or if we come up with a more thematic approach like an event that everyone attends, then I can add on)
Act 1 Ends

Would you be open to merge certain characteristics of your character with certain pieces of the outline I sent you?

I think it would be cool to have Sophie at first just take on two roles to deal with her fear of rejection, but after being rejected by the MC, realizes that the fake Sophie has become a full personality inhabiting her body and consequently it encourages her to go for the MC again, which this time she succeeds at doing. As I mentioned before, it could turn into an unorthodox love triangle with the real Sophie and the Fake Sophie (with Fake secretly plotting from the beginning of the relationship) both being interested in Michio, gradually ending in one of the personalities taking over the host; Fake being bad, Sophie being good, and Neutral being Sophie regaining control, but Fake remaining as a part of her subconscious.

Anyway, this is just an idea.

It's easier for us to bounce ideas back a forth with some sort of IM, what do you commonly use?

I added you on steam, my name should be "Serious Business".

Yup, I added ya.

Here is my sketch of Sophie. Hope it's to your liking.

Here's my Photoshopped coloured and shaded version of Ben's sketch.