Annick Pajot was never officially introduced in the original novellas because she didn't enter the story until ... the fifth novella, I think? And honestly, that's a shame because she truly is an amazing character. She's a magick user and an empath, smart but untested, and, like Ren, a survivor. It's not entirely fair to call her naive, and even sheltered doesn't do it; she definitely is not spoiled, for reasons you will see when I publish the novella in which she first appears, but there is a guarded innocence about her that's difficult to explain.
Annick originally started out as The Legion's version of early (think Season Three, after she'd used Jenny Calender's spell to bring back Angel's soul) Willow Rosenberg from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: an out-of-place, awkward and eventual witch that gradually becomes the strongest of the group. To some degree, it's an accurate correlation: Annick doesn't really understand her own power, and more often than not, she doubts the abilities she does get, sometimes to the point where it's detrimental to others. But as I got deeper into the story, I had to tweak a lot of things. She was meant to be a foil for Ren, choosing to espouse and practice pacifism at any cost, but Ren's interactions with Annick quickly became condescending, and that is not what I wanted to show. Of course, Ren still approaches the world in a relativistic manner, especially as the story progresses, and Annick struggles with her naivete due to her seclusion, but the two were never meant to be antagonistic.
As I'm rewriting the first arc, I know where Annick is going, and it gets me so excited to see her go through this incredible journey. If I had to give senior superlatives* to my characters by the end of the series, I would definitely give Annick "most drastic change," because who she is at the beginning looks nothing like the woman she is at the finale. Her core of love and kindness remains, but she has been through Some Shit, enough that she stands with firm resolve to be the light the world needs to see in order to survive.
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| Via Boston.com |
Annick grew up on the Spiral, a (you guessed it) spiral-shaped archipelago to the southeast of the Continent. The Spiral is considered a lawless land, even more so than the Garunzaht that separates "civilization" from the Amir'Chavi territory and the Far West. There is no centralized government or even major clans or tribes, even in the major port city of Arlay, which has been more positively described as a criminal's den. Each island is inhabited by several different tribes of peoples that have loose and frequently forgotten alliances, and they move even more frequently to follow available resources. Most are able seafarers and are prone to be involved with pirating. In Annick's tribe, a child has a given name, which is then followed by their mother's and father's given name, so her full name is Annick Pajot Simial. When she left her parents, she went simply by Annick Pajot, as the customs were different in the tribe she joined; she was not allowed much contact with her parents, but they did visit on occasion to check on her.
I wish I could write more about her because she is such an inspiring character, but if I did, I would end up a) giving away how she comes into the story and b) how she becomes the badass that she is by the end. But rest assured, she is going to blow you away with how awesome she is. Plus, I'm getting exhausted just typing this. Sigh. I hate being sick.
BACK TO CHALLENGE
* In high school, all the seniors got superlatives in the yearbook in addition to the traditional ones (like "most likely to succeed" or "most artistic," which ugh, those are fucking stupid), and mine was "most likely to marry a man just because he's Japanese." I was a huge fan of anime (and still am), but I've opened my options a bit. Plus, it was racist, so ...
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