Sarah Sleet
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Some things come in small packages | |
| Sarah Sleet | |
| Player: Doppledragon | |
| Origin: | Natural |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Blaster |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Sarah Maradur |
| Known Aliases: | Sarah Steel |
| Species: | Human presumably |
| Age: | 17 |
| Height: | 5' 0" |
| Weight: | 96 lbs. |
| Eye Color: | ice blue |
| Hair Color: | bluish-white |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | U.S. Citizen |
| Occupation: | Full-time student |
| Place of Birth: | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City, Rhode Island |
| Marital Status: | Single, attached |
| Known Relatives: | Dr. Elizabeth Steel (mother), Michael Maradur (brother), Mary Maradur (twin sister) |
| Known Powers | |
| Ice Blast (Bitter Freeze Ray, Bitter Ice Blast, Blizzard, Freeze Ray, Frost Breath, Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, Ice Storm), Ice Manipulation (Chilblain, Ice Patch, Ice Sword), Concealment (Grant Invisibility, Invisibility), Flight (Hover, Fly), Fitness (Swift, Health, Stamina), Teleportation (Recall Friend, Teleport, Teleport Foe), Cold Mastery (Flash Freeze, Frozen Armor, Hibernate) | |
| Known Abilities | |
| None on file | |
| Equipment | |
| A jump pack (only occassionally works), a Pocket D VIP card (for those quick trips), a mess of "vitamins" called inspirations, few momentos, and her costumes. | |
| No additional information available. | |
Sarah Sleet's a sweet girl who is enthusiastic about being a hero, feels there's too much good to let evil ruin it all, and wants to truly help the world. She might be ice cold, but she's a warm person deep down.
Contents |
Origin
Sarah's story begins with her parents in truth. Dr. Nicholas Maradur and Dr. Elizabeth Steel met as undergraduates at MIT, falling in love and marrying. For many years, the couple loved one another amidst their busy lives pursuing doctoral degrees in their respective fields, in the process producing three children, Michael the oldest and the twins Sarah and Mary.
Being twins, the two shared a bond that made them nearly inseparable as children. They, eerily, always knew what the other was thinking, without any words ever being exchanged between the two. To their parents, this aroused their curiosity but nothing more. Other than their hair color (Mary has golden blonde hair while Sarah possessed a strange blue tint to nearly white hair at birth which has only turned more blue with age), the only other thing the girls differed on was to which parent each preferred. Mary was the ever adoring daddy’s girl, while their mother often found Sarah close by.
The twins didn’t much like to play with others, preferring each other’s company to other girls. Studious, quiet, and thoughtful, they also differed in another important area. Growing up, the girls received the attention of a group of bullies in school, but each approached the problem differently. Sarah the older often ended up standing up to the girls with hard defiance, protecting her sister who was much more timid, becoming the favored target of the bigger girls. The abuse continued for years, with the older twin standing up for the more withdrawn sister.
The family would’ve gone on if not for Nicholas and Mary mysterious disappearance while yachting one day out beyond Paragon Bay. In truth, which only came to light years later, the two were abducted by a group called the Seekers of Shadows, a mix of Japanese mystics and a ninja clan who believed both Nicholas and Mary fulfilled a prophecy.
With Nicholas’ help, the ninja gained access to his particular brand of cybernetic implants, after some “convincing” of their cause. When Mary, who was but 10 at the time, learned of what her father could do, she begged him to help her to “protect” herself. She received many of the same implants as the ninja training her, though never did she learn the purpose of this training.
Back in Paragon City, the distance proved too much on Sarah, who could no longer sense her sister. She continued on as best she could, until the fateful day she was playing with her brother in their mother’s chemistry laboratory. Accidentally bumping into a table with chemicals in beakers, the glassware tipped and exploded. Michael managed to take most of the brunt protecting his little sister, but Sarah didn’t escape the effects completely.
At first, neither one seemed in anyway different, but nor were they injured. It took only a few months before the side effects became apparent. It started one morning when Michael awoke to find himself encased in stone. While he learned that he could encase himself at will, Elizabeth started to monitor her daughter. Rounds of tests showed nothing for weeks.
It took another round with the schoolyard bullies at her school, an all-girls private academy, to bring out what her mother suspected. Instantly, in a matter of seconds, one of the girl’s feet were frozen in place while Sarah beat the girl unconscious. The resulting suspension calmed the newly superpowered girl and caused her to truly consider what she’d done. Her mother knew she needed to teach her children about their unusual powers.
The three siblings, despite being separated, trained in secret. While Elizabeth taught Sarah and Michael control and morality, Mary learned only to use her new “gifts” to seek out injustice and right the problems with the world in any manner necessary, using the Seekers own warped sense of justice. Elizabeth tried to let her children continue to lead normal lives, despite their powers. The Seekers nurtured the desire for a normal life and how to lead such a life, only so their living weapon could more easily hide.
Eventually the time came for Mary to return to Paragon City, where her true destiny awaited her, while her father stayed behind, now quite mad thanks to the brainwashing, to continue his work in secret. The siblings were reunited but they found Mary to be almost exactly as she left, timid and quiet. Sarah, however, persistently knew something was wrong with her twin and tried to warn her mother.
A year passed and the teenage twins were now sophomores, though Elizabeth added her youngest daughter to the training regiment she’d set up once she learned of the changes to Mary and what she’d gone through. Elizabeth never had any intention of letting her children use their powers to become superheroes, but Mary kept going out late at night.
When the Daily Babbler ran a headline reading, “Schoolgirl Serial Killer Identified!” and posted pictures on its front page that looked disturbingly like Mary in the act of murdering a cop, her nightly jaunts roused anger in the city and rage in her mother. In her last act of sisterly love, Sarah, believing her sister’s innocence, helped her sister to try and escape. It took a Freedom Corps team to track down the wayward girl, who instantly threw her into the only place they could, Ziggursky Prison to await trial. It was only when police showed Sarah evidence of her sister’s involvement when she began to understand.
Then Arachnos broke into Ziggursky and freed Mary. Believing she might be able to turn her sister from her misguided ways, Sarah has taken to the streets of Paragon, hoping that someday soon she’ll cross her twin’s path and be able to convince Mary of what she’s really done and doing still.
Becoming
All heroes start somewhere, even the mightiest. No doubt the Freedom Phalanx and its members could recount their own beginnings as heroes.
First Steps
Since first entering Atlas Park, life has been anything but easy for the teenager. In less than a year, Sarah's gone from unskilled hero-wannabe to one of Paragon City's true heroes, though she admits freely a lot of people helped her along the way.
In only a short time after joining the city's heroes in defending justice and righting wrongs, Hour Girl met and invited Sarah to join Statesman’s Watch, still a young and nascent supergroup then. Hour Girl believed the teenage girl to have potential that she herself didn't feel she possessed, but in a short time, she was promoted to a director alongside Hour Girl, though she continued to work alongside many heroes, both inside Statesman’s Watch, their allies, and outside these supergroups.
Eventually, even the ground couldn't hold her desires, giving Sarah wings to fly with, in a sense. Actually, she awoke one morning to find herself sporting a pair of fairy wings, tinted in her favorite colors (light blue and white). These seem to disappear with a little will, but it still didn't sit well with her, not for a long time to come, though by now she's more than become used to them. Still, her flight is not inherently tied to the wings, her mother was quick to point out, as she is capable of "defying the laws of gravity and physics in a mental capacity in defiance of known human mental ability." But, after the appearance of the wings, she's come to think perhaps she is somehow a fairy, especially as she's learned to become invisible over time and is capable of teleporting, neither which have an explanation from her mother.
Statesman’s Watch did go through a slump, but the second Rikti Invasion renewed not only many a hero's resolve, it brought a reinvigoration to the group, with a large influx of new and returning members looking to help the fight, as well as boosting the strength and confidence the leadership. Though Sarah struggled with the sudden numbers looking to her, she did her best to follow Hour Girl's and the other leaders' examples, putting on a mask to try and inspire hope in the dark days following the start of the renewed invasion.
Growing Up
At some point, a girl needs to grow up and become a woman. For a child sheltered by her mother's love from many of the most challenging and tumultuous parts of growing up, the shock brought by the adventures Sarah undertook and the people she encountered offered her many experiences she never went through, some which others went through at a younger age, others some could go a lifetime without knowing.
The biggest challenge, being the quiet, thoughtful girl she had been since childhood, involved feelings she didn't really understand. Though her preferences in gender have left some guessing, most are taken by surprise upon learning she's attracted to both genders equally. Still, she's more comfortable infiltrating a secret Crey facility and rooting out illegal experiments than attempting a date. This proved more difficult when Catholik Demon Slaya of The Paragon Elite asked her to attend a party as his date. The pair were soon dating, as much as any hero in Paragon City can find the time, though soon after, Catholik Demon Slaya left to deal with personal issues of his past, but not before getting Sarah to admit she possessed deep feelings for him.
His departure tortured her to some degree, but for a superhero still in high school, she didn't have much time to stop and think, not that Sarah would. Taking a leave of absence from Statesman’s Watch to concentrate on slipping grades, she returned only to discover that many of the members were completely new to her and most of those she'd known before no longer were part of the group. Though it pained her to do it, she tendered her own resignation and went solo for awhile. The very thought of being a lone hero, for someone used to supporting and being supported by a group, it was a time of testing her resolve to remain a hero and to continue what a hero does, but with nothing to fall back on. In the end, she managed, though perhaps not prospered, as a solo hero.
Still longing for a group, when Catholik Demon Slaya returned for a visit, he suggested to her joining The Paragon Elite, one of the allies of Statesman's Watch, which she had enormous respect for during her time with Statesman’s Watch. Nuclia and her met and Sarah joined the group, feeling very comfortable in the group almost from the start. Her only reservations regarded any fallout from leaving Statesman’s Watch and some weeks later joining The Paragon Elite, though such concerns seem to have been unfounded.
Even as she increased her vigilance, the teenager's powers continued to grow, but it also left Sarah feeling a bit uneasy. Some of her powers seemed to be outside what she should've been capable of, which Dr. Steel studied relentless to understand her daughter's growing potential. Still, she progressed, albiet more slowly than in Statesman’s Watch, being promoted twice until she held the Elite rank, but in this she felt much more comfortable, not being in too high a position but also being someone to be looked up to by the newer members.
The biggest change in her life, though, was also the hardest. Sarah didn't leave Statesman’s Watch alone; her friend Sportie also left, though for differing reasons. After a couple weeks, Sportie suggested the two getting an apartment together on Talos Island, in a building, quite surprisingly, without a single super living in it, in essence becoming the personal guardians to the building's residents. To help pay her bills while still in school, she's taken a job working as a Vanguard operative in a more "devoted" role than most heroes (or villains). While moving out of her mother's home was hard, on both mother and daughter, they both also knew that without the daily commute from the suburbs, she'd spend more time helping people and the city. Perhaps the first two weeks were the hardest, but she mustered on, supported by Sportie.
The biggest achievement recently was also a pivotal one for the young woman. On December 19, 2007, she was issued security level 50 by the Hero Registration Bureau, even though it took nearly three weeks for her to get the new ID card. Still, it capped a particularly exciting and long journey to reach her potential, and for Sarah, she only only hopes she can live up to the faith people put in her.
Unknown Futures
What the future holds, no one can say. Though Sarah's reached for the heavens and now soars with modern gods, she could very well find herself cast down, or perhaps the peak she stands on now will be revealed not to be as tall as a new one yet unrevealed, with new heights to climb in the future. For now, she's made the move to the Paragon Elite Legends branch at Demon Hunter's invitation, though she shows no less zeal with them than with The Paragon Elite as a whole. Still, there are always possibilities, for adventure, for friendship, for just about anything.
Memories
First Flight
She did it! It started as a simple jump her mother taught her. Jump and reach for the sky, the older woman instructed always and suddenly, the platinum blonde teen hovered ten feet overhead. But not over her mom and older brother, but over the street she patrolled.
Unable to repress it, Sarah let out a loud, “Woo hoo!” for everyone to hear. But in a city of supers, one more went unnoticed, just the hum drum of life in Paragon City. Still, it was something for the shy teenager, who even after over five years of learning about her own superpowers and training to control them still felt unsure of herself. And unlike the other teen supers she’d heard of, she didn’t just drop to the ground the moment she noticed. Instead, she continued to float in the air.
But then, in Atlas Park, so many superheroes stood around trading stories or chatting while awaiting another crime to stop. And above her, the great globe held by the granite Atlas, one of the bravest heroes of the second World War. Did she dare to try and fly to the top, to step upon the peak of the Earth as she’d seen the real heroes do? Then the thought hit her. Could she go down or even up, for that matter?
Sudden apprehension filled the 16 year old, caught between wanting to soar like her mother had always told her, or to try and drop to the ground where she at least knew her way around. If she dropped to the ground, could she fly again or was it just a fluke, a one time thing?
Shrugging and deciding safety came first and fun later, she closed her eyes and concentrated hard. Sharp pain in her feet and lower legs broke it, and when her ice blue eyes opened, she sat on the ground, the plaid skirt of her school uniform spread out around her bottom. But she quickly did an inspection of the white tights covering her legs, thankfully no rips in them, just a bit dirty.
“Okay, girl, you did it once, can you do it again?” she asked herself quiet enough as she got to her feet, brushing as much of the dirt as she could. But she needed a better place to practice, not out in the open where, if she fell, she might land on someone and hurt the poor person she landed on. Worse, the person she hurt might not be so nice and attempt a fight with her. Only another super could dare to take her on, as she’d found out in her recent daily patrol of Atlas Park and the surrounding areas. Spying a vacant alley not far, tucked between a large office building and a rather plain brick building holding a store, she quickly dashed into the shadows.
Jumping up didn’t do the trick, as Sarah quickly discovered. Despite the number of times she tried, all she ended up doing was making herself look foolish. “Always remember, control and discipline will help you to unlock your full potential,” her mother’s words floated in her thoughts.
With an exasperated sigh, she let out to know on in particular, “Fine, let’s do it mom’s way.” Thinking on it before proceeding, trying to remember exactly what had gone through her thoughts when she’d first flown, then remembered she’d momentarily been thinking on what her mother said.
Psyching herself up, she made a running leap, thinking only of soaring into the sky, and at first it seemed to work. As dirt-covered cement came up fast to her, eyes snapping shut, both arms reacted and crossed before the angelic face to take the brunt of the impact. Moments later, when she still hadn’t felt any pain, she opened her lids only to stare at the ground…from several inches away! Her entire body remained in the air, suspended on what she realized was an icy cushion of air!
“WOO HOO!” came the even-louder-than-the-first-time cry of success Still, she knew she’d need practice at it, but it was a start, a wonderful start as she let her feet touch the ground after righting herself, the soles clicking gently on the pavement. Now she knew she could do it, but she needed to train herself in flying. Then, and only then, would she try to reach the “top of the world”, that pinnacle of all superheroes in Paragon City, the top of the statue of Atlas.
Secrets of Time
True Origin
Sarah Sleet and her twin sister Mary Marauder were meant to be identical, but for the quirks in their conception. In truth, they are mostly human and possess three parents, unbeknownst to them or their human parents. Dr. Maradur and Dr. Steel, the father and mother of the girls, did conceive normally, but a third parent, a member of an alien race from another universe, very soon after changed everything.
Fwael was a small world on the edge of a dying galaxy in a dying universe. Sometime ago, it too died, the Fwael'in scattering to other dimensions in search of a new home, among them Talisaen'vo'orgoth. In the trisexual species, Talisaen was one of the few of his gender, as there were two forms of males, the utigesti (equivalent to the human male) and the ogagesti (those who "infect" the female or melagesti with their own genes). Physically, Fwael'in are possessed of malleable bodies capable of taking a wide variety of other shapes, but the inherent form is a very attractive humanoid figure of slightly shorter stature than humans, with eyes and hair of any color or shade. The females possess wings, typically like those of a fairy.
Talisaen came upon Earth almost by accident, but at a very difficult time. By their nature, the Fwaen'in have an involuntary mating cycle (though capable of mating any other time on their own), and Talisaen was exploring when the mating cycle hit. Landing upon the ground, he changed his shape to blend in and began looking for an appropriate mate, coming upon Elizabeth Steel, only a day after conceiving a child. He did what any ogagesti did, he simply touched her stomach, passing on his genes, before moving on to look for another mate.
Fwaen'in genes interacting with the human embryo had two unexpected effects. First, it caused the cell to split into two separate embryoes, but not identically. Sarah gained much of Talisaen's ice powers, possessed by only a few of the Fwaen'in. Mary gained natural bone claws, also common to Talisaen but not to much of the Fwaen'in, though the bone was later simply replaced by obstinatium by Dr. Maradur. She also has far better reflexes and senses than her twin. Both can become invisible, though Mary's much more developed in personal invisiblity where Sarah can make others invisible besides herself. Both possess natural flight, but Sarah possesses more control and Mary can actually nullify another flier.
After the mating cycle ended for his people, Talisaen left Earth to continue his search. After another decade, he located a suitable world in the Milky Way. He's well aware of his children on Earth and soon plans to return to learn what's become of them. Aside from Sarah and Mary, he "infected" at least a dozen other women before the cyle ended, though he isn't sure of an exact number. Of all the children, only one mother gave birth to more than one child. However, as the founder of the new Fwaen'in homeworld of Fwaenla, he is now one of the three rulers of the world and finds his time very limited.
Love and the Modern Heroine
As much as she cares for Catholik Demon Slaya, Sarah's not sure if she loves him or not, never having known the feeling before. Complicating this are the feelings she feels for Sportie, which are equally deep. She has admitted the feelings, to herself and to a few others, but right now, she's unsure of what to do, what she wants. For now, she focuses on her job with Vanguard, her schoolwork, and helping others, as she decides what to do. This is all very confusing to her, afterall, as Catholik Demon Slaya was the first boyfriend she ever had (or the first person she ever went on a date with) and she did promise before he left to wait for him. Still, Sportie is there already, wanting only that Sarah be happy, despite her own feelings for Sarah.
Sarah does know that she may want children one day, but she also understands there's ways around it if she chooses to be with Sportie. However, on occassion, she considers what life would be like with Catholik Demon Slaya and despite the differences between them, she thinks she'd be quite happy with him. She also knows that she must soon make a choice, but for now she's delaying, not wanting to hurt one or the other, and desperately wishing she could have both.
The Player Speaks
Creation
Sarah Sleet began in a rather roundabout way and she's evolved in a similar manner. Originally conceived of as simply the twin to Mary Marauder, who was conceived simply as something you really wouldn't expect, a schoolgirl with big claws, Sarah was meant to live in her sister's shadow, the good counterpart to Mary. Now, all of this came about one night after I logged off the game in mid-April 2007, and tried to sleep, so I didn't have access to the game, and I had no access to the game therefore while coming up with Sarah.
A blaster seemed fun, a contrast to the up-close-and-personal style of a melee-type, and for some reason, at that moment, Sarah went from being a blaster to being an ice/ice blaster, through and through. For some reason, it clicked, the whole ice motiff, and never was there a chance to consider any other powersets. Nope, she was from that point my little ice angel, sans the wings (for now).
The name took a bit of work once I got to that point, but then, naming's always the hardest part for me. Originally, the idea was to have some name that began with "M" or rhymed with Mary, but then I knew, this was going to be the older sister and have her own identity. Perhaps I could've given her a code name, like Winter Mistress or something, but I wanted her hero name to also have part of her identity, so I stuck Sarah in there. Now, there's an old comic book convention where you have names that have the same letter for initials, i.e. Lois Lane, Peter Parker, Sue Storm, Reed Richards, etc. Putting a bit of that into this, I went through words with a ice or cold feel, coming up with Sleet (it's still rather surprising the name wasn't taken).
The origin story was written with both characters in mind, but it flowed very easily onto the (virtual) paper, and very shortly after both were created (Mary Marauder was created first, naturally, as Sarah was only meant to be in the shadow). Though the story suggests Sarah's origin should be one thing, there's a reason her origin is Natural instead of Science and not written into the origin.
Evolution
Once Sarah began interacting with others, less than a week after her "birth", certain noticeable aspects of her personality emerged. See, when I play a character, I play the character, not myself, and so it can be easy to see differences. Sarah is noticeably different in many ways from myself, which I won't get into. One of those things, though, was she certainly had an attraction to men and women, almost out of the gate. This has evolved into an interesting love triangle centered on Sarah (more on that as it develops).
As I'm a loner by circumstance most of the time, though mostly capable of working in a team, Sarah is the kind who can work alone but much prefers to work with others, and she's very good at following orders...most of the time, and quick to apologize when she doesn't. Still, it's taken her a lot of mistakes to learn to keep distance between enemies and herself, as she's a ranged combatant and melee hurts, though admittedly, it's not all just her fault. While there is some influence from me, she still has a bit of a stubborn streak and is a bit more energetic and enthusiastic when it comes to putting down bad guys. This tends to carry over, and as she gets played, she is slowly becoming a cheerleader, rallying people to the cause.
But the secrets of the character are also evolving as she's gained new powers. Other than the ice blast and ice manipulation powersets, the only powers I KNEW she'd have were Hover and Fly (all my characters, with the exception of a warshade, have Fly standard). Then Issue 9 came out, and the moment I saw the fairy wings, she was going to have them. So, some secrets were altered to fit the new vision, and with it, what powers I wanted her to possess. Freebird helped lead-in to Invisibility, and the whole fairy concept started coming into play.
Then came the Rikti. Now, recently, it's actually been coming into roleplay, but Sarah has slowly been gaining a phobia of being held. All those Rikti Mesmerists and Mentalists, she hates them with such passion, and it's all character there. However, Sarah has her own "life" and she's developed this phobia. Whether frozen in place (very ironic, she thinks, considering she does the same thing to others), held still by Rikti, or even simply being hugged too long, she hates being held for more than a few seconds.
And she continues to evolve...
An Aside
Sarah Sleet is my first 50, taking the better part of 8 months to reach. There's still so much to the character, something I just adore about her, and for this reason, I'll never let her go. Though eventually I plan to fill all my Virtue character slots with 50s, this one girl will hold a special place among them for a long, long, long time to come.
