edges and thunderstorms

Sonia J. Lazare
Sonia J. Lazare Avatar
Şolomanţă
12 posts
29 years old
Assistant to the Supreme Mugwump
Magical Naturalist
Anthropologist

Tituba University Alum
Parselmouth
ICW
played by Steph
"To the one who blooms in the bitter snow, I raise my cup"
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Post by Sonia J. Lazare on Mar 26, 2019 12:18:09 GMT -5

Sonia Jazmyne Lazare
by Steph
29
age
SHE/HER
PRONOUNS
10/11/1989
birthday
blood status
half-blood
sexual orientation
bi/pan
epidemic x status
IMMUNE
occupation
Assistant to Supreme Mugwump
Magical Naturalist
Anthropologist
general appearance
Curly dark hair, warm brown skin, and an eyebrow that’s been twice scarred are the first things usually noticed when meeting Sonia. Of relatively petite height, Sonia rarely wears heels, preferring comfortable (but formal!) shoes. Her suits and robes are usually well-tailored enough, though they’re usually in darker or neutral colors.

She’s usually got pen and pad in hand, ready to take notes at a moment’s notice. Occasionally blots of ink might be visible upon lapels or hands, though Sonia’s usually able to notice the explosions pretty quickly and take care of them. She’s also pretty fond of exercise-- cardio, specifically, and her form reflects that much as it can, since she's admittedly built more on average and curvy lines than tall and slim.

former school
Şolomanţă
former house
Şolomanţă
achievements
🌀WEATHER-MAKER 🌀

🌀RECEIVED THE CSEC (Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate) 🌀 (“My parents assigned me work in every bird I received from them. I passed this when I was able to take it.”)
university
Tituba University
university majorS
MAJORS: Political Science, Magical Naturalism, Anthropology
MINORS: Orphiology, Gender Studies
years attended
2008 - 2013


skills
🌀ANALYTICAL 🌀Able to read through the bullshit people wrap up their papers in.

🌀ANTICIPATING SÉRAPHINE'S NEEDS 🌀A talent developed and honed through the years

🌀DISCRETION 🌀Learned at her family’s knee, polished in Tituba, put in high use as Séraphine’s assistant.

🌀LANGUAGES 🌀English (E), Hindustani (E), Parseltongue (E), Dozhovel (I), French (I), German (I), Romanian (I), Spanish (I), Arabic (B), Bengali (B), Latin (B), Mandarin (B), Punjabi (B), Urdu (B)

🌀MAGICAL NATURALISM AND ANTHROPOLOGY 🌀Look, she wouldn’t have majored in both if she wasn’t.

🌀MULTITASKING 🌀You’ve got to be as Séraphine’s assistant.

🌀NOTE-TASKING 🌀Ditto.

🌀OBSERVANT 🌀Able to read a room and notice what's in it pretty quickly.

🌀READING BODY LANGUAGE 🌀exactly what it says.

🌀SCHEDULING 🌀Dates, times, clock-math. . .it also helps she’s got a great sense of timing.

🌀SELF-MOTIVATED 🌀Very much so. Motivation has never really been a struggle for her.

🌀BEING A SOUNDING BOARD 🌀She’s used to having ideas bouncing off her, discussing them, and giving her honest opinion. That was definitely something picked up at Şolomanţă.

🌀STUBBORN 🌀 on the tin

🌀TACT 🌀 Séraphine can be difficult at times, admittedly. She rolls with it, because her boss is under a lot of stress.
weaknesses
🌀FAMILY 🌀 She’s spent several years without them, and she cannot let them down.

🌀MUSIC
 🌀Try as she might, Sonia really can’t carry a tune or keep to a beat. It’s a great disappointment. It even interferes with her attempting
much of Orisha practice, as she truly can’t drum properly.

🌀PRIDE 🌀She’s a prideful person. Enough said.

🌀REACTIVE 🌀She might have searched for and taken the job because a (very much ex) boyfriend said she needed to have familial connections to make it in politics.

🌀SÉRAPHINE 🌀She really does care about the older woman. Personally, that is, she likes her boss as a person, not simply a boss. It’s the years that have done this, she’s sure. Some exes might have accused her of Stockholm syndrome, and she might have shoved them in a pool after. She’d do almost anything for her, really.

🌀TEMPER 🌀She really doesn’t take kindly to insinuations about herself, her family, or her friends by those she doesn’t care for. Exes might have witnessed this side more than anyone, really, as she takes care to not show it at work. When she attends practice at the IWP Academy, people will realize, even if she doesn't talk about it.

🌀WORK 🌀She’s broken up with two partners because they wanted her to spend more time with them instead of at her job. Admittedly, she was there far more than full-time, but still.
positive traits
🌀ADAPTABLE 🌀AMBITIOUS 🌀 ATHLETIC 🌀 DISCREET 🌀 ETHICAL 🌀FLEXIBLE 🌀 FOCUSED 🌀HARDWORKING 🌀INDEPENDENT 🌀 INTUITIVE 🌀LOYAL 🌀 METICULOUS 🌀OBSERVANT 🌀PATIENT 🌀
negative traits
🌀AMBITIOUS 🌀ARGUMENTATIVE (not on the job, of course not) 🌀 CRITICAL 🌀DOGMATIC 🌀OPINIONATED 🌀 PEDANTIC (unless it's Séraphine) 🌀STUBBORN 🌀 STRONG-WILLED 🌀WORKAHOLIC 🌀
hobbies/interests
🌀Does Séraphine count? 🌀

🌀SNAKES 🌀That really goes without saying

🌀EQUALITY 🌀of course.

She still has a 🌀FONDNESS FOR DEMONOLGY 🌀much as she keeps that to herself.

🌀LEARNING 🌀she’s fond of learning new things and practices.

🌀SELF-DEFENSE 🌀She practices at the IWP Academy when she can. Technically, she probably could take down an intruder or two if security was out. Maybe.
accomplishments
“I’ve survived a good amount of years under the Chief Mugwump, and people will say that’s definitely one of them.”

“I also achieved this position on my own merit, thanks.”

“I apprenticed under Kostini Wolfe while I was in Tituba’s. He liked the way I thought.”

🌀ICW Temp of the Year - 2013 🌀

🌀While she has never actually quite written a paper that's been published in an academic magazine, some of her research and fieldwork has been cited by others in their own papers 🌀

character history
Sonia’s parents had always wanted the best for her. They were proud and well-educated themselves, and Sonia was their only child, which admittedly was some bit of an oddity for some that they hadn’t tried more for a son. Or a presumably healthier child; there were some complications, and she didn't come home until Diwali. She was loved, however, always played with and adored.
The recounts of her abilities were usually gone over in great detail by her parents, making Sonia the hero of several stories that were more embellishment than truth.

It embarrassed Sonia very much, obviously. But what she never could wave away were the reactions to finding out she was a Parselmouth. The true story was that her parents had saved up enough money to go to a resort for a holiday, and Sonia happened to be the only child there at the time. She’d had the run of the place, and would crow about that happily. Admittedly, she was a bit of a terror to the workers, tearing around the gardens and the pool, but she meant well, always. She’d found a snake then, or a snake had found her. There was some uncertainty about what had happened first, and four-year-old Sonia wasn’t giving a coherent answer. The maid had screamed, and Sonia had barely noticed, simply having what seemed to be a conversation with the snake before it decide to leave.

Her parents had been heavily concerned at the time, but chalked the incident up to a child’s heavy imagination. After all, she grew up with magic and myths, so it was not too far of a leap to assume Sonia had mixed the two up. But then a year later, she’d found another. And another. Sonia was always quite insistent that she was truly talking to snakes, and eventually Dayanita came to realize that her daughter had a gift that hadn’t been seen in the family for over a century.

Sonia was then passed around to various aunties and uncles, the family lorists and the historians so they could cobble together a history and teach her what they knew, as her parents would heap praises on her. Always, the line impressed on her, to keep her ability a secret. In their own culture, their own circles, it was a gift to take pride in and no sign of feared magic to communicate with snakes, but for many others it was something to be wary of.

Her parents pushed her, academically. They feared for her, thinking that she might suffer at schools where her gift would be looked down upon by others. Ilvermorny was, of course, out of the question then. Americans were so puritanical about their magics, and Sonia’s gift would be suppressed and feared if she wasn’t learning from Native mages. They wanted a school though, and Castelobruxo or one of India’s many gurukulam were their highest hopes, and then. . .

Someone found out about Şolomanţă. The information was, admittedly, third-hand, but her parents thought it sounded the best. If it was supposed to be a ‘Dark’ school of magic, and it taught some dragon-language, they could surely find someone for Parseltongue. Besides, if it was all international, Sonia would not be looked down upon from coming so far. It would only give her a further leg up, would it not?

The application process was daunting, but Sonia pulled through. She was ambitious, she was intelligent, and her Parseltongue was something she’d decided to reveal during the interview. She considers few things more daunting than the process of aiming for the school, really. When her letter of acceptance arrived, Sonia said goodbye to her family and left. She struggled at the school for the first year, cut off from the sun, cut off from her family and homesick, Sonia nearly decided to leave the school, but she dug in her heels at the last moment. She would make her family proud, she had secured one of the magical world’s more exclusive invitations, and she was good enough.

The years passed by quickly then, Sonia throwing herself into her schoolwork. She excelled in her classes, made friends, and did research. She enjoyed herself, and made sure that she had enough vitamins to not wither into depression from the lack of sun. Magical Naturalism, Demonology, Dovahzul, and weather-witching were the subjects she most enjoyed, for all that Latin and Vila tangled her tongue. Even with copious use of magic, Vila never quite settled in her throat.

She was chosen as Weather-maker for her year, and stayed the next year cut off from everyone else. It was interesting, and her greatest master in patience. Once her year ended, however-- 

Sonia missed the sun, and her family. She applied to Tituba University and chose to attend there instead of continuing her education in the Şolomanţăe. She was a changed woman from the girl she’d been, and she wanted different, wanted more that the university could not give her.

She enjoyed Tituba, though it was certainly a hassle to tone down on what she had sharpened herself into, to remember that Şolomanţă was thought of of a Dark school, and people wary of graduates-- if they even knew the school existed, that was. While Tituba University, like many other schools of knowledge in the Caribbean, opposed the labels of dark and light for many reasons, (preferring useful and harmful, to better suit those rigid labels that they disliked), Şolomanţă was certainly a school that taught and practiced magic of a certain sort. Her university years were mostly comprised of learning how to relate more to humans who had not been taught as she had, who were aghast of the thought of a year in solitary, as well as learning how to use non-magical technology to better fit in. She apprenticed with Shikoba Wolfe’s son Kostini, one of the most famed naturalists and anthropologists in North America during her senior year(s). Tituba University was well-known for their standards in that area, and Kostini had been drawn to the university for that reason.

Upon her graduation from university, Sonia sought work. There was an ad in a paper for an assistant to one of the Trinidadian and Tobagan delegates, and Sonia decided she might as well try. She passed that interview as well, said goodbye to her family again, and swore to write more often. It was a different world than either of those she was used to, though her delegate grew sick after a year or so and retired, and the new delegate already had an assistant. Around that time, someone she’d been dating said that was the way it went: you needed family connections to make it, and if she stayed with him longer, put out more, he would see to it that--

Well, Sonia might have punched him then. It was either that or hexing him with a particularly vicious hex, and the former was easier to get away with. And then decided that she would go further to the center was in Geneva, and that was where she would find the best. So she took a group Portkey over, and there the magic really happened. She got a job as one of the Windward Islands' Seat’s assistants, and she did well there. The Seat, admittedly, though it best she go further on up, and passed on recommendations, and she was mostly passed along in a chain, used as a rotating temp assistant for a fair amount of Seats. Life passed for her that way, and she liked it. She learned and practiced languages, some of which came easier than others.

When she was free, she mostly sat in on some classes in the IWP academy, learning self-defense. It only would polish her skills, after all. She dated around a little, growing familiar with people, and eventually one of her temp assignments was a more highly-ranked Seat. The French Seat poached her for half a year, not quite hiring her but keeping her on. She didn’t mind, as Mélisande Devereux promised to write her a damn good recommendation once their usual assistant came off maternity leave.

Towards the end of her assignment with them, an ad appeared: @seraphine was seeking an assistant. Anyone would give their eyeteeth for the position, and suddenly she was in a position where she could be her assistant. She spoke to a few former assistants, prepped herself, and sent in her resume, complete with recommendations for all the Seats she’d temped for and her old delegates. She was sure that was being handled by another assistant, and she knew what assistants usually looked for, how they skimmed or made decisions, how they usually decided who to pass up on, and who they tossed. So she wrote carefully, and her application was passed up, and. . .

Mélisande was apparently was friends of a sort with Séraphine and spoke with her on Sonia’s behalf. She was sure she was hired on that alone, really, and so her job began. Séraphine was demanding, and Sonia somehow, really, enjoyed that. Séraphine wanted things just so, expected much of her assistants, and the expectations and pressure made Sonia flourish. She wrote glowing letters to her parents that said how she enjoyed her new boss, never quite saying who exactly she worked for. Some dates went well, some failed when they saw how focused she was on her job. One ex didn’t quite understand where her priority was after a year of dating, and she-- it wasn’t one of her finer moments, okay. She flipped her into a pool and left her there.

Now, though? With what's happening? Technically, she had the choice to refuse, and likely be fired or find a new position. It would be understood by some she didn't want to risk her magic when there were others who could do her job almost as well. Assistants like her might not be very common, but Séraphine could be given the other top assistants and the adjustment period would still be difficult. And who knew what it would do to her Parseltongue? She’d kept it quiet while working at the ICW, as there were many who would certainly see it as the mark of a Dark witch. But no, she couldn’t leave Séraphine like that, struggling with a new assistant. This was important, and she couldn't betray her like that. 

The prep for the mission is certainly interesting, she’ll give you that.

parents
🌀Dayanita Persaud - mother, (1953) Magical Naturalist, Castelobruxo (Casa de Tupã) and Tituba University Alum

🌀André Lazare - father, (1958) Anthropologist, Sarah Anba and Tituba University Alum
siblings
🌀None
children
🌀None
partner
🌀Nope
other family
🌀Some ancestors, few relevant
family history
André Lazare is what is popularly known as a No-Mag-born wizard, in that none of his parents or grandparents possessed magical abilities. His parents are douglas, meaning André is of Afro-Trinidadian and Indo-Trinidadian bloodlines. There’s a good amount of rumor that they’ve a not-insubstantial amount of Amerindian blood, but no one’s quite ever wanted to find out for sure. The most recent magical ancestor was from the mid-1700s, and had been a Parselmouth when he still had the ability to speak. Said ancestor’s mother had had the gift of Parseltongue as well, which was why his father (a descendant of Herpo the Foul) had taken interest in her.
André learned about his magic when visitors arrived at his door. As his parents had little money and little knowledge of the wixen world, he stayed somewhat close to home, attending a more local school: underwater Sarah Anba in the Bermuda triangle.

Dayanita Persaud is a half-blood, much like her parents before her. Like a bit more than a third of the island, she’s Indo-Trinidadian, and as thus, her roots can be traced back to India. It’s from that side of the family that Sonia’s known to have inherited her Parselmouth abilities, though she’s an oddity, in that the last Parselmouth in the family was in 1888. The usual thought is that a young child was taken from a family of Parselmouths before they had truly started learning magic. While there have been attempts to find the family they might have belonged to, they’ve been unlucky in doing so. 
Dayanita's parents had known about magic, and had been able to prove her own merits enough that the acceptance from Castelobruxo had not been a surprise.

A kind man, André was usually one of the first to offer up his seat on public transportation, his umbrella on a rainy day, or simply his presence on a walk back to someone else’s home, which was how Dayanita met him. He was a friend of a friend who offered to walk her home from a party they were both at. They continued seeing each other after, and married a few years later.
other
andy should have stayed with miranda in paris especially because her boyfriend wasn't worth SHIT

face claim
vashtie kola
status of application
complete
have you read the rules?
yii
how did you hear about us?
Dropped on my desk with a lot of other paperwork
roleplay sample

Admin Morgan
Admin Morgan Avatar
staff
8,041 posts
26 years old
Administrator
played by Morgan
"Life ain't all blueberries and paper airplanes, you know what I mean."
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Post by Admin Morgan on Apr 11, 2019 20:05:31 GMT -5


Accepted


Remember, the ICW is not in the UK yet. You can post in Pensieve of course, but not in the UK!