Rowena Cabrera

* Headshot
* App (1.2)

## Personality

"Rowen, on the surface, is very hard to read. Generally not very expressive, the only emotion that seems to surface is wrath. Otherwise, she's got a mask of cool and calm, unmoved by most. It doesn't help that she keeps to herself, not giving any opportunity to peek behind the mask. Despite that, though, once she's determined someone, or something, to be worth her time and energy, she is fully devoted to them, fiercely protective of them like a vicious watchdog.

Although she's a woman of few words, the ones she does speak tend to be direct and blunt, not really wasting any time or breath. She makes it very clear when she disapproves of someone's behavior, never mincing her words or actions. Strong-willed and confident, she is quite an intense force to deal with. She won't back down from a confrontation, and is ruthless in seeking justice for perceived wrongs."

## Biography

Born to upper-middle-class parents living on the north side of Norwich in Concordia, Rowen lived rather comfortably with her parents and younger sister, Casey. Her parents were in the spireglass business, and she wanted for nothing. As a youngster, she was rather spoiled and willful, which wasn't too great when her parent's business started failing as she was a young teenager. The spireglass mine they owned was drying up, and it simply wasn't enough to sustain them anymore. Suddenly, if Rowen wanted things, she had to work for them. It was a rude awakening, but-- she was rather used to a style of life, and her willpower and determination to be comfortable made her bite the bullet and learn to earn what she had.

One of the things she had to earn for herself was college. Her parents assisted, but she moved to Blackhill to attend school, and she had to make up the cost of living there somehow. She took up a job working at an upscale restaurant as a waitress, working evenings and attending classes during the day. It was at this same restaurant that she met Jakob. He was a wealthy heir who attended the same college as her. She played hard to get, initially uninterested, but he was charming and persistent. He chipped away at her until she finally agreed to give him a chance. He wasted no time flexing the money he had access to, and if she were honest, it was kind of nice to have a taste of the finer things again. They eventually began to officially date, and after half a year, Rowen moved in with Jakob.

"Once the couple was living together, things continued going well-- Until they weren't. Living with Jakob let Rowen see things she hadn't before. Whether she hadn't noticed them, or Jakob now felt more comfortable showing them, either way, things were not the same as they were before. But, Rowen ignored them, chalking them up to an allotment of allowed flaws. No one was perfect, why should she expect Jakob to continue being so? Every time he did something wrong and she weighed their relationship, he always knew what to say to dismiss her concerns. An offhand comment about her weight would be balanced by a reassurance that he was looking out for her health and confidence. A frown at one of her outfits would be followed by an offer for him to foot the bill for a wardrobe haul for her. Disappointment in how much time she was always at work buoyed by the temptation to have him cover more expenses for her, so they could spend more time together. Before she knew it, he had changed her life so fundamentally. She worked out, conscious of her weight and figure because Jakob wanted to make sure she could fit the clothes he bought her. Clothes that weren't normally her style, but Jakob wanted them to look good together. Together, seemingly all the time to her, rarely a chance for her to be seen in public without him except at work-- At which she had drastically reduced her hours a week.

He had control of her life before she knew it. He convinced her to change her degree to match his, putting her a year behind. She still had friends, but with the degree change, it made it harder to keep in contact with them, not to mention he would try to minimize her time with them, either by occupying it himself or by guilt-tripping her into canceling plans or staying in. If she pushed back, he'd pull away, make himself distant, make her worried she'd lose him. Then she'd try to make things right, pull him back in, and he would be as loving and attentive as ever. It became a vicious cycle, a constant push and pull between them. Their lows were brittle and cold, cruel and harsh. But then they'd swing back and the highs were euphoric, pulling them back from that ever-looming cliff. The highs were enough to forget the lows, or at least enough to forgive them. The damage wasn't permanent, it was never anything they couldn't come back from-- Yet."

"What Rowen and Jakob had couldn't last forever. They had both completed college, and while Jakob was able to piggyback off his parent’s job, Rowen still wanted to work, put her schooling to use. She got an entry-level position at a company, aiming to work her way up the corporate ladder. Things were going pretty well-- Which for Rowen, usually meant that something with Jakob was looming around the corner.

Rowen's friends cornered her about Jakob. It was increasingly harder to see her, and usually, when they did, it was because she and Jakob had fought again. They all voiced the things that Rowen knew but didn't want to accept: Jakob was no good for her. He was controlling and manipulating her, stringing her along an emotional rollercoaster, and to what end? Rowen defended Jakob, and their relationship. They weren't perfect, but they were enough for her, that's all she needed. When she went home that night, Jakob asked about her whereabouts, and she told him, casually mentioning her friends' opinion of him, scoffing at them. When Jakob got angry about it, she didn't understand. She was defending him, what was the issue? They didn't know him, they didn't know their relationship, so it's not like they had a say in it. But that wasn't good enough for Jakob. He accused her of hiding things from him, that she was planning on leaving him. Was it another man? Had she been unfaithful, was that why she always tried so hard to "Hang out with her friends""? She tried to calm him down, assure him that wasn't the case, but when she tried to physically soothe him, he made a mistake. He shoved her away, and the switch flipped. He could twist her, manipulate, gaslight, lie to her all he wanted. Proving he was toying with her mind to herself was always so hard, but she drew the line at physicality. There was no question of what happened. He couldn't slither his way out of that. He tried, saying he didn't mean it, he was just so upset, she understood, right?

No. No, she didn't. She didn't understand why he thought it'd be ok to put his hands on her. Maybe her friends were right. Maybe he wasn't good for her. She decided then and there that she was done-- And she told Jakob as much.

Not taking too kindly to that, Jakob tried to stop her, resorting to physical means when she refused to hear him out. Taking as kindly to that as she had the first shove, it escalated quickly. The second mistake Jakob made was forgetting that in controlling Rowen's looks, he had encouraged her to monitor her weight. She had done that by working out. She wasn't some helpless, incapable damsel in distress.

He gave her a black eye, she gave him a dislocated jaw.

Rowen moved out that night, calling her friends to help her. Jakob was furious, but he was a little too busy getting his jaw wired shut to stop her. She was free from him, finally. No more pulling her back. She expected him to try, but it was rather hard to be silver-tongued when speaking wasn't an option.

Rowen's peace was short-lived. 6 weeks was the bare minimum it took to heal a dislocated jaw, and Jakob didn't wait a minute longer than he had to. At first, he was apologetic, and when that didn't work, he became mean and vicious. Waiting for her outside of classes to harass her, showing up at her workplace to cause problems and embarrass her. He began threatening her with legal action for his jaw, trying anything to coerce her into being back under his thrall. The spell had been broken, however, and all the negative emotions Rowen had shoved down the whole relationship bubbled up to the surface. She was furious at Jakob, for being a piece of shit, furious at herself for being stupid enough to fall for his shit. When one of their interactions nearly turned into another physical confrontation, she made the choice to change her life to remove Jakob from it, permanently. He wasn't the only one who knew how to say the right things. After all, she'd learned from the best, hadn't she? After a very tense conversation, Jakob finally seemed to back off. Rowen took this opportunity to move back home to Norwich, closer to her parents and found work as a bartender at a friend's bar. She waited with bated breath for Jakob to show up at her doorstep at any moment, but he didn't show his face. Finally, approaching a year after their breakup, she began to feel safe. Like she could move on with her life.

"Now entirely free of Jakob, she had a dilemma. After being with him for years, having him control so much of her life, her formative years as an adult, she felt listless, directionless. She felt like a stranger to her family even though she had kept in contact with them the whole time, and she didn't recognize the person in the mirror anymore. She hated the type of work she'd been doing with her business degree, but going back to school for another 3 years didn't seem like a good option either. She needed something that would let her feel like herself again-- Whoever that was.

Before she met Jakob, she had been going to college with the intent of getting her degree to work with spireglass. She already had some prior knowledge from her parents' previous business in the matter, and it still held her interest. Rather than going back to complete her degree, though, she wanted a different path. Something a little more immediate, something that would provide something... Different, for her. A change.

She hadn't initially considered becoming a fisher, but after scouring her options, it called out to her. Instead of a focus on geology, maybe the study of quintology was what she was looking for. Plus, it'd offer the chance to start over as someone new, someone her, without her past looming and lingering over her.

Once she started the process, it started feeling more and more right to her. Researching fishing, talking to long-term fishers, immersing herself in her studies, she finally began to get a sense of fulfillment. This was the right path. It was a lot of work, but finally, it was work that felt like it was worth it.

It felt like no time at all before she received her license. Now, all she needed was a crew to join..."

## Trivia

* A leftie, but can only write cursive and sign her name with her right hand
* Rowen's degree is in business, but it was originally in geology, with a focus in spireglass
* Her MF score is the cube of 11, her lucky number