Miku Aveline

## ***BACKSTORY***

Mikulia Aveline, going by ‘Miku’ amongst her friends and family, was born off the coast of England, in a mermaid cave deep under the ocean. As mermaids have little need for permanent homes, she does not remember precisely where, and that suits her fine, for the most part. She left her family in her early teen years, curious about the surface after having looked up at the ships passing overhead for all of her young life. She made it to land, her tail morphing into a pair of unsteady but serviceable legs once she lost contact with the sea, and after exploring for a time, and strengthening her walking skills, she managed to charm herself into passage aboard a merchant vessel with an ease that somewhat alarmed her at first. She came to recognize her power fairly quickly, though, and put it into service to help her travel the world, always eager to earn her keep despite the somewhat insultingly ‘chivalrous’ protestations against her doing so.

In time, she grew to be a capable sailor, remaining in her human form for longer and longer stretches of time, though always needing to revert back to refresh herself in the sea for a few days. She sustained herself in this manner for over a year, maintaining her secret well, until the day someone in her crew spotted her change and brought it to their captain’s attention. When she returned to her ship later that day, it was to the crew surrounding her, with hands on their cutlass hilts, with the captain at the center demanding an explanation for her activities. She told them the honest truth, unwittingly feeding some of her magical allure into her words, and her confession won the captain and her mates over. She was permitted to remain serving on board, and furthermore given sworn assurances that they would all maintain her secret. She was deeply grateful, and was happy to call the ship and crew her new home and family, a set of values she had been cultivating more of in her time among humans.

But it was not to be, sadly. Whether by accidental slip or malicious malfeasance, word of a merchant ship carrying a mermaid crewman made its way back to the Royal Navy, and a hunting vessel and crew were dispatched to find and apprehend Miku. They were tracked down one day, during a rising storm, and the hunters put a few shots across her bow and demanded their surrender. Being merchants and not ruffians, they stood down immediately, the captain certain that he could successfully address whatever concerns His Majesty’s Navy could possibly have with their business. But when the offending Officer made plain his intention to find and arrest the mermaid among them, correctly pointing out Miku as the culprit due to her singular beauty, the spell she had woven over her crew inspired rebellion in their hearts. They drew swords and pistols on the Navy sailors - and were promptly cut down. Miku herself flew into a rage she did not know she had as she watched her mates die by the sword, and tore through the ranks of the Royal Navy as a torrent of vengeance. But still she was driven back, the press of the soldiers simply too great for her to handle on her own. Backed up to the gunwale and nearly subdued, she let out a furious shriek that drove back the kingsmen surrounding her momentarily, just long enough for her to dive over the side and disappear into the depths before they recovered.

Despondent and dejected, she swam aimlessly through the sea for many days, until she spotted an island with a curious amount of activity and noise being raised at all hours. After watching for a while, she decided to give this group of folks a shot, and came ashore, once again shedding her tail for legs and mingling among the oddest assortment of people she had ever seen. Apart from the range of creatures, from a man walking about with what looked like ship cannons strapped to his arms, to a kraken squeezed into human clothes, to a *plural* number of living skeletons walking about in daylight and being greeted and treated warmly by the truly living, she was amazed to find that she needed not explain herself or wield her charms against a single one of them, even the perfectly ordinary folks. She was, of course, brought before the Council, and they were similarly unafraid and welcoming of her to the Isle, and announced themselves as the pirates of Puerto Dorado, inviting her to remain ashore and learn the ways of liberty and luxury among them.

She gratefully accepted, and became proficient in all manner of skallywaggery, but after the loss of her crew, she had begun to pine after the family she had left behind first; in particular her cousin Caspian, to whom she had been closer than the rest. She had made a promise to this cousin before setting out on her sojourn, and her oath began to return to her, demanding satisfaction. Her Captain, Kennedy Laurent, noticed this change in her Master at Arms (a post Miku achieved shortly after being accepted onto the Latebra’s crew), and coaxed out of her the truth of her melancholy. She enlisted Eye to help her receive some word from Miku’s family, and after a search of a few weeks, Eye returned with a letter that had been written for Miku and sealed to her touch. Instantly delighted, and tearfully grateful for the consideration of her fellows on Isla de Oro, she returned to purpose and drive after having read the contents, intimating to her crewmates that a reunion was forthcoming, though she was loath to go into detail about it before its appointed time.

In the meantime, she remains among the pirates of Puerto Dorado, serving with a fervor and joy singular to her species. Serving for a spell as the Master of Arms on the Liberated Latebra, they were eventually selected to take the helm of the Vixen’s Fury, following Victor Storm’s ascension to the Council. She uses her skills and charms to delight her fellows on the Isle, and to subdue their enemies should they dare to show their faces.

## ***PERSONALITY AND ABILITIES***

* Miku's connection with the ocean allows her to manipulate seawater to a moderate degree, with which she is able to harness and move objects, as well as grant a speed boon to her ship by influencing the currents it travels on, though this latter ability is very taxing for her, and she cannot maintain it for long.

* Her swimming skills and magical voice, not to mention her amphibious nature, serve her more readily, enabling her to swim covertly to smaller ships alone and lull their crew into compliance, making their plunder easy pickings for her crewmates.

* Isla de Oro Wiki
* The Island
* The Town
* The Council of Bones
* The Fleet
* The Captains
* The Officers
* The Nightwatch
* NPCs
* The Library
* The Hall of Legends