Character Information

Gender		Female
Species		Human / Ba'Ku
Age		40

Starfleet Info

Physical Appearance

Height		5'6"
Weight		115 lbs
Build		Slender, Athletic
Hair Color		Auburn
Eye Color		Brown with Green Flecks
Physical Description		As a gymnast and circus performer, hard physical training has been part of her life for as long as she can remember. She’s slender and well-muscled with waist-length, straight auburn hair and brown eyes, with flecks of green, that sparkle with intelligence. Off duty, she is an eclectic dresser, sometimes highly theatrical, sometimes subdued, depending upon her mood and circumstances. Likes being barefoot, sitting curled up on a chair, and is seldom entirely still (always seems like something is moving). Physically, she looks as though she's in her early twenties and is likely to remain that way for a long time given the Ba'Ku side of her heritage.

Family

Spouse		None
Children		None
Father		Leopold (Human)
Mother		Magdalene (Ba'Ku)
Brother(s)		None
Sister(s)		None
Other Family		(Paternal) Uncle - Alex (deceased) Otto (Alex’s son) (Maternal Grandfather) Antyl

Personality & Traits

General Overview		Having grown up as a performer in Circus Breshard, she’s practically immune to the fear and nervousness that comes with being center stage. The focus and discipline she built in her youth have helped her grow into an individual that works extremely well under pressure. She’s loyal and speaks her mind. She’s got a sense of humor and thanks to spending time among the clowns, a better sense of fun. She’s very well suited to life aboard a starship. Being constantly on the move was a huge part of her formative years and to her, feels very natural. And while she no longer misses being a performer, she does miss the close bonds that formed among the performers themselves. Starfleet provides the best of all possible solutions for her -- travel with people she respects and do the work she loves most. She has a wide circle of friends.
Strengths & Weaknesses		Strengths (+) Skilled gymnast and high wire artist; some training on the trapeze (+) Highly focused, excels under pressure (+) Altruistic - works for the common good sometimes to the exclusion of self Weaknesses (-) Recurring bouts of insomnia associated with lingering post-traumatic stress related to the death of his uncle during a performance (-) Bubble Baths by Candlelight - there are not words (-) Tea - Fresh brewed/not replicated
Ambitions		Never gave the matter much thought. When your entire life is mapped out for you at the age of three, you never figure there’s a need to bother with that sort of thing. Guess it became a habit. LIving in the moment. Enjoying the moment. Helping where it's needed.
Hobbies & Interests		(+) Gymnastic training. It's been a part of her life since she was three, she just doesn’t know how to stop even though it's no longer needed. More than that, her mind quiets when she’s working out. (+) Sleight of hand/magic. She’s been known to do ad hoc performances for children when she’s planet-side. (+) Reading. Anything related to puzzles and mysteries. (+) Live performances - especially enjoys the theater. (+) Holodeck programs involving mysteries. She does playthrough/testing of holodeck-mysteries for a friend who writes them and the same for another friend who likes writing fantasy/romance adventures (+) Quiet evenings at home, dinner and wine (+) Good conversation - she has a wide circle of friends and they keep in touch. Some are circus people but not all. Merry tends to keep people in her life.
Likes / Dislikes		Likes + Old movie marathons. What could be better than a themed movie night and a giant bowl of popcorn? Back at the Academy, there had been terrible movie night, guess the killer before the on screen detective does, and more. + Dancing. She loves to dance. + Debugging her friend Zhan's holodeck adventures. You just never know what he's going to think of next. + Laughing - having fun. There should always be more of that in the world. Dislikes - Food that moves under its own power or can stare up at you. She's vegetarian. - Telepaths who think they have the right to prowl through your mind and emotions without permission. Seriously, would you open someone's diary without asking? - Sharing her bed with insects of any kind. More of a mint on the pillow type that a true outdoors-man though campfires are fun. - Sweets of any kind.
Languages Spoken		Federation Standard

Character History / Other

Misc Notes		Nicknames: Merry, Doc
Education		Medical degree and four year psychiatric residency at Starfleet Medical on Earth. While assigned to the USS Jenner, earned her Masters and then her Ph.D.
Personal History		Nickname: Merry 2364: Born on the freighter, Circus Breshard 2367: First performance on the high wire 2378: Alex Annestri dies from an aneurysm; family act disbands 2378: Relocates to Earth and opens a school for circus acts Personal History: My earliest memory? Training. Probably the first words I remember my Papa saying were, “Again!” I started training at three years old. Daily regimen of gymnastics, balance work, and ballet. Ballet taught grace and a sense of movement. It's not enough to excel technically, there’s also a theatrical aspect. You have to draw the crowd in. And while I had potential, Papa and Uncle Alex -- they were brilliant. By the time I was 4, I was already part of the act. The Family Annestri - high wire artists. By the time I was six, I was well on my way to being an accomplished gymnast; for every show, the opening was me walking up the ground wire, set at a 45 degree angle, to the platform. Sixty feet in the air, my father walked the wire with my uncle, Alex, standing on his shoulders, and me sitting on my Uncle’s shoulders. Right about in the middle, Papa would stop and that was my moment. I stood. I climbed up on Alex’s shoulders. Then, while the crowd gasped because we never worked with a net, I balanced on my Uncle’s head. When Papa raised his leg, so did I -- straight up past the top of my head The crowd loved us. And that was my life. Training. Glitter and spandex. Home-schooling. And moving from place to place, world to world. I’ve probably been on more backwater planets than a twenty-year veteran of Starfleet and all before I hit puberty. The clowns taught me a bit about sleight of hand and the basics of slapstick. I learned how to read a crowd and from the barkers, I learned how to read faces and expressions. Like everyone else, I filled in where I was needed. My mother, who wasn’t originally circus people, came from Ba’Ku but she took to circus life like the true zealot she was. And while she loved it, well, she wasn’t the ‘star’ she had hoped to be. For her, disappointment and dissatisfaction became the entwined themes of her life. When you grow up in the life, it's different than marrying in. We were born to the circus and we, all of us, loved the spotlight and the applause. But then again, why would it matter whether I liked it or not? The Family Annestri have been circus people for generations and you don’t let the family down. Ever. Easier for me that I was happy, I guess. I never had much of a choice. When puberty hit, things started to change. Papa wasn’t as young as he used to be. So his brother who was my uncle, Alex, took the base, I was in the middle, and my young cousin, Otto was at the top. I didn’t mind and Alex always had this huge grin on his face once we were done. That made it all worthwhile, you know? When I wasn’t helping sell to the marks, training with the family, performing or home-schooling, I was reading. Never told a soul but what really interested me was exploring -- seeing what was out there. Beyond the glitter and sawdust. Not that secrecy mattered all that much. You could shout some secrets from the rooftops and if the family isn’t ready to hear, it's like you never said a word. Two things the family never wanted to hear about -- leaving the act and not doing your part to bring up the next generation. My mother took it as a personal failure that she could only have one child; bad for her, worse for me. Trust me, you don’t want to live under those kinds of expectations. There was this one glorious summer where we all went to Ba’Ku and met her family there. My mother once had this powerful urge to see what was out there and she, along with several others, left Ba’ku. Course, the others went back after a while but not my mother. She met my father and her life changed. Took me a while to understand (my grandfather Antyl and I would have these long talks). According to grandfather Antyl, when you live long, your attitude towards things is different. They were wonderful people, this new family of mine, who made me feel welcomed. Why had mother never spoken of them before? I marveled at the simplicity of their life. Can you imagine? Tending crops, always living in the same place, hardly ever seeing someone you don’t know? The quiet of it all! At first, it was boring and strange but over time, there was peace to that life that soaked in. Surprised me. We even did a small performance for family and friends. Before I left, they told me that I’d always be welcome there and I’ve gone back, a time or two, on my own but that’s a different story. Life went on. You always hope that nothing will happen but sometimes, no matter how prepared you are, something does. We were performing on yet another backwater world when the accident happened. My Uncle Alex fell sixty feet to the ground; I got lucky and managed to grab the wire with one hand while I held onto my cousin with the other. He climbed up my body and walked the wire back to the platform; I followed after him but I don’t remember much about that part … or how long I sat there. Or much about the days’ after that. It was an aneurysm. That’s what took him. Mercifully, my Uncle was dead before he hit the ground. I was fourteen and suddenly, everything was over and there were all these possibilities that I had dreamed about only now, I felt terrible about even the thought of them. Without Alec, there was no act. My mother, who had wanted a large family of entertainers to carry on the Annestri legacy, only had me … and Otto was in no shape for years after that. If I suffered, my cousin suffered much, much worse. Without Alex, the act folded and my parents made the decision to leave. For the first time in my life, the CIrcus Breshard did not shape my existence. So … my life changed. There was counseling and a house on Earth. There was the opportunity to make friends outside of the circus community. We stayed in one place. So strange. After a little while, my father began teaching the techniques my family had honed over the centuries and I went to school. Bit by bit, others came who, like my father, were no longer able to perform but had much to share. For me that meant, I continued my training (because now the focus was to prepare me for a solo act). I was learning trapeze now and that was fun while helping out at their facility and all the rest. Otto came after a bit and started training again; I hear he’s back on the wire as a solo. He’s married and his wife is expecting again. Legacy saved. Where was I? Oh yes. I helped out and I trained but now, there was time to form friendships with people who had never heard of the circus and a chance to learn the things that interested me (that had nothing to do with the circus). And after a whole lot of therapy, I reached a point where I could feel good about that. Sort of anyway. Joining Starfleet felt like a betrayal of my entire family -- especially when they found out that I wasn’t looking to marry that boy from the right family they’d picked out (or really any boy ever -- and that was another, more difficult conversation because that meant the line ended with me). I enrolled in the Academy. My mother still cries when I get a chance to call home. You’d think that Otto’s kids would lessen the guilt but you don’t know my mother. So here I am, about to join Starfleet and more excited than I can ever remember being because for the first time in my life, the future is mine. Not part of some generational legacy, just mine … and what’s better? It’s crammed with helping people and … seeing what’s out there. Put me in, Coach. I’m ready.
Service Record		2372: Enters Starfleet Medical Academy 2380: Completes Starfleet Medical Academy and four-year psychiatric residency 2380: Assigned to the USS Jenner as Counselor 2384: Earned her Master's Degree 2389: Earned her Ph.D. 2390: Promoted to Chief Counselor 2395: Transferred to the USS Wolffe