Soprana the Spider (AKA Churro)

IT’S A BODYSUIT: Churro’s favorite role is that of the heavyset Valkyrie, and she enjoys performing with her children. This particular performance was about 22 Neveryears prior, and Cello seemed to be having more fun than her big brother; who felt immense pressure to be best. Even when Churro was too small to be grandiose enough, Celia helped create special costumes to expand her girth.

Full name	Soprana Quintessa “Churro” Spider-Hopper
Occupation	Opera Singer, lounge singer, school teacher
Combinofts	Edmund G. Hopper (first Combinoft; deceased), Jargon Hopper (second Combinoft; former brother-in-law)
Siblings	Dextra the Neverspider-Hopper (elder sister; deceased), Wilhelm Skreem Hopper (brother-in-law; deceased), Deluth the Hopper (brother-in-law)
Children	Stratocaster Hopper (son), Tetrazin Sol-Hopper (daughter-in-law) Celeste Melody “Cello” Hopper-DeScorch (daughter), Laddiebug Descorch (son-in-law), Arthur Peggio Hopper (son), Zimri Timbrella Hopper (infant daughter, via Jargon) Dainty Mousette (honorary daughter), Juniper Squirrel-Caribou (honorary daughter)
Nieces	Celia the Neverspider (via Dextra and Wilhelm; goddaughter), C’Daka the Neverspider (via Dextra and an unknown Earthean spider) 300+ feral nieces and nephews (via Dextra and same spider)
Grandchildren	Petalia and Gloria (adoptive plant-elemental granddaughters, via Cello and Laddie)
Home	Petalia’s Neverzone

Personality and Physical Features

NOW, ABOUT THAT HUG: Juniper Squirrel and her friend Dainty each carry a special place in Churro’s heart as surrogate daughters, merely by the virtue of being Cello’s friends. Juniper proved her worth by embracing Churro after Celia helped conquer her fears. Many Neverbeings know who Cello and Strat are because of their mother; and it is often not a good sign. In Juniper’s case, love won out.

Being a Neverscapian Spider, Churro has humanistic features that are proof of her anthropomorphism: her eight eyes are prismatic; in one angle they are a golden brown color and deep blue in another angle. Like her niece, Soprana’s red hair is frizzly and tied in a bun, and she wears a skintight pink dress. Like her sister and niece, her head is of a caucasion pigment and her legs are a light greenish brown. In public, she is never seen without her special four-lensed lorgnette glasses; a nod to her craft as an opera singer. As imposing as her height and girth are, Churro has a gentle nature and soft touch.

(Before previous pic) Cello knew that others feared poisonous creatures like her mother, but it threw her for a loop when Juniper’s panic attack manifested. Ever the mediator, Churro assured Cello that she would never hold this against Juniper, and that Celia would come through for all of them.

Like Dextra, Churro has always been delicate, quiet, soft-spoken, and reserved, letting her eyes and actions do the talking for her. Losing their parents at a young age shaped both sisters into being very loving and involved mothers, and their similar taste in men is a result of their relocation from SpyD Caverns to Hopper Hills, having grown up as a part of the community. Churro has made mistakes as a mother, but it has never changed how much she genuinely loves them, and how they love her. Following the death of Dextra, Churro did her best to make sure that Celia, her neice, was always given lots of love and care, never thinking of having any kind of family gathering without her.

THE PRODUCER AND THE EXPLORER: Dextra and her combinoft Wilhelm Skreem Hopper (left), Churro and her beloved Edmund Gilbert Hopper before their Combination Ritual.

Churro has a taste for things that are considered to be elite and sophisticated, fancying herself as a gormound of sorts. Even though she has a high appreciation for the upper crust style of life, Churro’s priorities have always been to her children, even when her career and Edmund’s explorations required their attention at times. One of the things that she takes great pride in is her children’s dedication to ToxAnon, the group that Petalia started with Ross the Rattler. Despite being blessed with ineffective poison glands, Churro and Dextra each had to live with the cold, hard stigma of them being as predatory and merciless as those of their species. This was why Churro always kept her eye out for Celia, who was more spider than grasshopper.

History

A CELLO IS BORN: The cute speckled egg that Churro had only given birth to an hour prior (notice her feet are in stirrups) is about to hatch into her second-born hybrid child. Her sister and son await the miracle from outside of the hospital room.

Going by the nickname “Churro”, Soprana is a black widow spider whose poison was always benign; allowing her to interact with other species males without harming them. Churro and her elder sister Dextra were orphaned when they were little, so Churro relied on her sister more than she did with anyone. Hoping for a better life, the two sisters relocated from their hidden community above the Serpent Valley, to the community of Hopper Hills. It took them a long time to assimulate, but once they did, they were treated like honorary grasshoppers. Both sisters eventually found their true loves when they attended the community’s college, the University of Hopperthorpe. Dextra, who was an artist, found her match in a sculptor named Wilhelm the Hopper, while Churro, who was training to be an operetta singer, fell in love with an explorer, who majored in ant-thropology, named Edmund G. Hopper (common last name in the community)

Churro and Edmund witness Baby Cello inadvertantly showing her affection to big brother Strat in her sleep. The couple took great pride in the concourse and bonds that their children had, and were thankful that this was how they had turned out.

Dextra and Wil gave birth to a beautiful hybrid daughter named Celia, who was more spider than grasshopper, and thus was born with a congenital heart defect that made her physically weak. Churro’s combinoft Edmund blessed her with three wonderful hybrid children of her own: Stratocaster, Cello, and Arthur. Like when they were younger, Dextra and Churro’s families were very close with one another, with Celia being like a second mother figure to the children, especially when their father, Edmund, died after Arthur was born. Churro continued her career as a singer so as to earn a living for her children, leaving them in Celia’s care for a while. During this time, she had gotten reacquainted with her brother-in-law, Jargon Hopper, who had become a great source of comfort for the widowed black widow. When they returned to Hopper Hills from a Myriad-wide tour, her three children were shocked to learn that their mother had married their father’s brother, and that she was expecting another child. This turn of events was difficult for Cello and Strat, but Arthur was far too young when Edmund had died, growing to accept his uncle as his stepfather rather quickly.

STAGE COMMITMENTS: Being a spider did not detract from her popularity and fame as a lounge/opera singer. Her melodic harmonies had the same effect on people that Cello’s music had, in that it made people calmer and happy. Churro may find herself in places where booze runs rampant, but she never touches it, but she does have a deep fondness for pink lemonade (as seen above).

Loss of Cello’s Mentor

Years prior, Cello was the protege of two of the most loved figures of their Neverzone: Princess Snow Tiger of the Nevertribe and her combinoft Fyrefox-Sol. During the years that Cello had been without her father and with her mother’s travels, Cello formed a strong bond with her mentors, and flourished under their tutelage. But, like with her father, Cello had to cope with the sudden and unresolved deaths of Snow Tiger and Fyrefox, becoming numb to emotions and withdrawing into herself. The night that Cello almost died in the Great Blizzard, Laddiebug — Strat’s best friend — had come to her aid with blankets and scarves, and helped Cello save a freezing seed — the seed that was born of Fyrefox, Petalia. With the help of the Ant Brigades, Petalia was safely planted, and Cello fell in love with her savior, Laddie.

When Churro returned to their Neverzone, Petalia was in her fifth stage, and Cello and Laddie had taken their vows as combinofts. Churro had mixed emotions about everything that had happened, not the smallest of which was the age difference between her daughter and Laddie, who others have suspected as being even older than Churro herself. Cello saw nothing but hypocrisy in her mother’s objections, as her marriage to Jargon was from out of nowhere, and he was at least ten years younger than Churro. It wasn’t until Petalia was visited by Churro herself that she gained perspective as to how good the couple was with each other. Still buffeted by Laddie’s age gap to Cello, Churro allowed herself to find common ground with Laddie, and she was able to see that what Petalia had told her was true.

BUNDLED JOY: The apple of her parents’ 10 eyes, little Zimri is the daughter of Churro and her second combinoft (her former brother v’combin, Jargon). Not only is she the sister and cousin of Churro’s older children, she is the goddaughter of Strat and Tetra. Her presence brings out so much love in those around her for so many different reasons, even family friend Juniper has found many excuses to come by and hold her in her arms.

Meeting Petalia for the first time had another kind of effect on Churro, as if Petalia meant more to her than what she thought. Unable to sort out what it was, Churro and Jargon would make infrequent visits at every chance they could, and the little Petalia, for no discernable reason at all, greeted the redheaded spider as “Nana”; that’s when it all clicked. Though this was the only time that Petalia had called her that by mistake, Churro began to want to live up to that name, and made every attempt to bond with Petalia, including introducing the comely blossom to her son Arthur, who was still a toddler. This moment of matronly love was what snowballed down into what would be the second impetus for ToxAnon’s creation, Arthur’s friendship with her. Cello had tried to find ways to get Petalia to have more time with her mother, but most of them were unviable. That is, it was until Tetrazin tested out a doppelclone spell on Petalia, creating a hard-light construct of herself that Petalia could control with her mind. Thus, on Mother’s Day of that year, Churro awoke to a potted and gift-ribbon “Petalia”, whom the real one spoke through and guided the actions of. Needless to say, Churro never felt the same about Petalia ever again; whether it was concrete or not, Petalia WAS her granddaguhter in every way that mattered. When Petalia learned about her true connection to Cello, that also made her dream a reality; having a grandmother to call her own.

GIVING OF ONESELF: Even without realizing her true connection to Cello or her mother, Petalia only knew that she loved them and their family, deeply. Using Nevertribian magic, Petalia was able to use a doppelclone, willed remotely by psicon, and show Churro how much she is loved. Unknown to Petalia, this symbollic gesture gave Churro thousands of more reasons to love this little orphan flower as her granddaughter.

FUN FACT: Soprana’s husband is named after a talented voice actor who was an etymologist when not behind a microphone: Edmund Gilbert from Transformers, G.I. Joe, Peter Pan and the Pirates, Gargoyles, and others.

FUN FACT II: For you old-schoolers out there, any guess as to what klutzy, good-natured, skirt-chasing freckled redhead in comic book history whom Jargon the Hopper is modeled after?

Seventh Ocean Media