Sofía Alcabú y Saelices

Sofía Alcabú y Saelices is a thirteen year old girl of obvious Spanish descent with short-cut black hair and intelligent looking brown eyes that don’t stay in one place for very long. The dress she most frequently wears is fairly nice, but it has numerous dried ink smears on it that just don’t seem to fully come out no matter how many times it's washed. It’s actually a gift from her current guardian, Dietrich Lintz, who took her in after her parents, Fabián Alcabú-Esparza and Inmaculada Saelices de Alcabú both died in the sudden, unexpected collapse of the tunnel they were mining ghost rock in together three months ago.

Sofía had expressed an interest in the ins and outs of how the actual process of making the Brimstone Bee worked pretty much since she first came to town with her mother and father, and frequently milled about outside its offices, peeking in through the windows and observing Heston and Lintz at work. They took notice after a little, and with a little prodding Hayward Heston decided to let her do odd jobs around the newspaper office, the girl becoming a fixture eventually. After her parents passed one of the two men was the obvious choice to look after her, and Dietrich volunteered more or less the moment he heard about the tragedy.

Lintz’s ward is a curious girl with a tendency to spot unusual goings ons in town and just so happen to “conveniently” end up near them. Both of the newsmen at the Bee muse that she’s got a natural talent that will help her if she ends up becoming a muckraker. Sofia’s flattered by the joke, though she’s not quite sure whether she actually wants to follow in that career or not. She definitely enjoys what interviewing and snooping she has gotten to do, but the actual mechanics of the printing press and what little tinkering with it she’s been allowed to do also fascinates her. If nothing else she’s got a couple more years to potentially decide.

Sofia used to be cheerful and full of energy, but after her parents' untimely demise she’s become more withdrawn. Time and support from Dietrich have helped stave off the worst of the despair, and she’s still curious as a cat though. Some of the kinder folk around town also try to do their best to help the thirteen year-old out and potentially brighten her mood too, though a good number of Brimstone citizens consider the orphan a pest.

Every once in a while Sofia remembers how her mother mentioned hearing an odd knocking the day before the cave-in, and she wonders if that could have possibly had anything to do with it. The girl doesn’t vocalize it though, since she (probably rightfully) thinks that sort of stuff falls under the kind of “superstitious nonsense” that Heston does his best to discourage her from thinking about. Similarly, if she directly witnesses anything supernatural, which is very much possible given her tendency to snoop, odds are she’ll keep it to herself, though an persuasive cowpoke doing their own investigation could potentially be able to suss it out of her and maybe even make a useful contact.