Annette
"The Witch"
Jeronimo
Early Life
Annette Jeronimo was born in a strange, human land on an especially stormy night. However, her sensibilities are more KEEN than HUMAN; growing up among them in the mountainous regions of the valleys of Knollen. Although the Keenfolk weren't trusting of humans at all, they made an exception for Admiral Kunkka.
So when the Admiral brought Annette to the island as a little babe, they cast their suspicions on the little one rather than him. Yet, they could never turn away their beloved rum drinker, and so they accepted the child with slight initial hesitation. Although they couldn't bear the sight of humans, Annette was a charmer from the very beginning! Her smiles and cheerful laughs were enough to convince the Keenfolk to warm to her, and eventually, they came to love her. The village collectively took care of her as a child, but when Kunkka visited Knollen (and he did visit so very often), he visited her specially every time and made sure that she was well looked after and cared for. Due to his care, dutiful safeguarding, and near filial attitude toward her, the future boatswain ended up looking up to him as a father figure, though those who knew him outside of this context would laugh at the very notion. He was also the reason she wanted to set out to sea some day, only ... she didn't end up becoming a captain or admiral like him.
Although she is human in stature, looks, and every physical way, Annette was named by the Keenfolk, cared for by them, and therefore she would always consider herself proudly Keen.
JOINING THE SYREN
Although the best of the Knollen scientists, inventors, alchemists, and chymists had trained her extensively from a very, very young age, the Keenfolk were increasingly confident in their knowledge and scientific prowess, almost to the point of extreme complacence. They loved her and usually respected her opinion, yet never fully inducted her into their projects and inventions. This only spurred her on to work on contraptions on her own, and that, the Keenfolk didn't mind. After all, a single chymist and artificer couldn't best them, let alone a human one.
And while Annette was disappointed in their prejudice against her, she preferred her peaceful, lonesome pursuits.
Where it stopped being fun was when their experiment with a venomous explosive went awry. The substance they were dealing with was incredibly volatile and fatal to human AND keen life, and something that Annette had warned about at the very beginning of the development phase. Alas, they found that listening to the advise of a human so technologically inferior to them would set them back in terms of advancement, and thus wrote the last act of their own downfall.
While the girl waited in the bay area of the shores of Knollen awaiting her cherished admiral, what she had feared came to pass. The villages nested in the valleys were all destroyed in the mishap, and Knollen was left a bleeding ruin. If they weren't dead, they had abandoned, and there was none left in the mountainous valley but her.
When she discovered what had happened, Annette felt an incredible amount of guilt and heartbreak, and spent days mourning the deaths of her homeland. Her true homeland, despite their many differences and frictions.
One of her many crestfallen walks led her to the shores again, where she saw a ship had docked. At first, she thought that it was Kunkka's ship, and immediately she felt herself scrambling for an explanation of what exactly happened. It was only when she inspected it further that she realized that it was not Kunkka's ship at all, but a stranger's.
Immediately, she was on guard, not letting much information slip on what had happened. Yet, it was plain to see that she was the only standing within the ruination. Who was she protecting anymore; she didn't know. Moreover, she was concerned as to why her favourite Admiral had not yet turned up. When Captain Sarah Fortune, a pirate and the captain of the Syren, offered her and her inventions a second look, and consequently invited her to join on her crew as a Cannoneer. While she wasn't ever set on becoming a pirate, her heart was set on finding the Admiral, and where else could she find him other than the seas? And so, Annette Jeronimo agreed to go along with her and her crew. With a heavy heart, she said goodbye to Knollen by paying her respects to the dead, and set sail onward to a brighter future.
SKILLS
| Ability | Description |
|---|---|
| KEEN INVENTOR | Mastery in all things alchemical, mechanical, technological, chymical and scientific; at a level that rivals magic. |
| RANGE COMBAT | Annette is an overall long range combat expert. From afar, she can sink ships with her deadly cannons and uses long ranged weapons. Mostly, rifles and guns that she uses for one on one battles are designed for nuking the target from a safe distance. |
| MELEE COMBAT | Due to her human blood and stature, Annette can wield swords, though they are only ever a last resort for the pirate. Albeit she isn't as comfortable with a blade, it still brought great joy to her when people are taken aback by her clinical style of melee, allies and foes alike. |
| THE ARTIFICER | This is her role on the SYREN. Alongwith being the Cannoneer and building better explosives, she can also make new weapons and modify existing weapons of the members of the Syren, swords, switchblades, stilettos, and daggers included. She magnifies the intensity and agility of each hit with this ability, and can craft completely new weapons that improve upon their prototypes and predecessors. |
PERSONALITY
Annette has Keenish personality traits; not quick to trust, instinctive, intelligent, and is snide to anyone but her own loved ones. However, she keeps her mind open, unlike the Keenfolk, and is extremely adaptable and patient. She's quick to take charge when there is lack of any, but will only act so in the interim. Before joining the Syren, she was an introvert and was often insecure with how her works were received. In her first days as a pirate, she was quiet, kept to herself, and decidedly was only there for her own ends and goals. She spoke to none but Miss Fortune, and even then, she was incredibly short and formal, only presenting her with necessary details about whatever contraption she created.
It was only after a few weeks that she truly opened up. It was triggered by Miss Fortune urging her to tell her what exactly happened at Knollen. After unveiling who she really was, the Captain understood her predicament, but encouraged her all the same to truly join the crew. Once she took that advice, her personality slowly took on a more fiercely loyal face and she found herself speaking her mind more often than she ever had before.
RELATIONSHIPS
TBD.